The acquisition of present perfect aspectual values in heritage and L2 Spanish
Document Type
Paper Presentation
Presenter Language
English
Research Area
Syntax
Location
MBSC Dodge Room 302A
Start Date
18-10-2024 9:00 AM
End Date
18-10-2024 9:30 AM
Abstract
The acquisition of present perfect aspectual values in heritage and L2 Spanish
Past tense aspectual features in Spanish are difficult to acquire among L2 learners and heritage speakers (HS), who often overextend the preterit to contexts where the imperfect is preferred (Montrul, 2002; Montrul & Slabakova, 2003; Miller & Cuza, 2013). Despite this extensive research, previous work is limited in relation to the acquisition of present perfect aspectual distinctions, as in Todavía no he llegado a casa “I have not arrived home yet.” The extent to which HSs and L2 learners diverge in their use and intuition of the expected verbal agreement in the Aux (Yo *ha cantado vs. Yo he cantado (Giancaspro et. al., 2021) is also unexplored. Are Spanish HSs and L2 learners sensitive to the use and intuition of this aspectual contrast? If difficulties are identified, what is the role of proficiency and language usage?
29 HS, 18 L2 learners, and 28 Spanish-dominant speakers (SD) participated in the study via an elicited production task (EPT) and an acceptability judgment task (AJT). All the test items were controlled for person (1st and 3rd PS) and adverb type (aún and todavía, “yet”). Regarding the EPT, results showed low use of the present perfect among the HSs and the L2 learners, compared to SD speakers (Figure 1). The HSs and the L2 learners overextended the preterite form and showed high proportion of simple present use. There was no effect of adverb type or person. The SD speakers also showed high use of the present tense.
Regarding the AJT, all groups accepted grammatical sentences, and rejected ungrammaticality with the wrong auxiliary use. Additionally, the L2 learners rejected the preterite in contexts where the present perfect was preferred (Figure 2). However, HSs and SD accepted this form more.
We also found a strong association between expected aspectual use and proficiency in the EPT (Table 1) and judgment in the AJT (Table 2); the higher their proficiency in Spanish, the higher the expected response. Results are discussed along the lines of previous work claiming proficiency effects in heritage speakers and L2 learners.
The acquisition of present perfect aspectual values in heritage and L2 Spanish
MBSC Dodge Room 302A
The acquisition of present perfect aspectual values in heritage and L2 Spanish
Past tense aspectual features in Spanish are difficult to acquire among L2 learners and heritage speakers (HS), who often overextend the preterit to contexts where the imperfect is preferred (Montrul, 2002; Montrul & Slabakova, 2003; Miller & Cuza, 2013). Despite this extensive research, previous work is limited in relation to the acquisition of present perfect aspectual distinctions, as in Todavía no he llegado a casa “I have not arrived home yet.” The extent to which HSs and L2 learners diverge in their use and intuition of the expected verbal agreement in the Aux (Yo *ha cantado vs. Yo he cantado (Giancaspro et. al., 2021) is also unexplored. Are Spanish HSs and L2 learners sensitive to the use and intuition of this aspectual contrast? If difficulties are identified, what is the role of proficiency and language usage?
29 HS, 18 L2 learners, and 28 Spanish-dominant speakers (SD) participated in the study via an elicited production task (EPT) and an acceptability judgment task (AJT). All the test items were controlled for person (1st and 3rd PS) and adverb type (aún and todavía, “yet”). Regarding the EPT, results showed low use of the present perfect among the HSs and the L2 learners, compared to SD speakers (Figure 1). The HSs and the L2 learners overextended the preterite form and showed high proportion of simple present use. There was no effect of adverb type or person. The SD speakers also showed high use of the present tense.
Regarding the AJT, all groups accepted grammatical sentences, and rejected ungrammaticality with the wrong auxiliary use. Additionally, the L2 learners rejected the preterite in contexts where the present perfect was preferred (Figure 2). However, HSs and SD accepted this form more.
We also found a strong association between expected aspectual use and proficiency in the EPT (Table 1) and judgment in the AJT (Table 2); the higher their proficiency in Spanish, the higher the expected response. Results are discussed along the lines of previous work claiming proficiency effects in heritage speakers and L2 learners.