The L2 acquisition of the discourse properties of second person singular forms of address in Paisa Spanish
Document Type
Paper Presentation
Presenter Language
English
Research Area
second language acquisition, variation and change
Location
MBSC Omaha Room 304
Start Date
18-10-2024 3:30 PM
End Date
18-10-2024 4:00 PM
Abstract
We investigate the lexical and discourse properties used by L2 speakers of Spanish in a study abroad context in Medellin, Colombia and compare them to those of native Spanish-speakers from Medellin. Known as Paisa Spanish, this South American dialect is characterized by a tripartite system of 2PS, including a regional voseo in addition to tuteo and ustedeo. Participants consisted of 22 learners of Spanish living in Medellin and 38 native speakers of Paisa Spanish. Learners consisted of a heterogeneous group from various countries, including U.S. (n=10), Egypt (n=1), Germany (n=3), Turkey (n=1), Japan (n=2), South Korea (n=1), France (n=1), Holland (n=2), and China (n=1). Data was obtained by means of a Discourse Completion Task (DCT) designed to elicit 2PS across different speech act contexts, a social interaction questionnaire, and a contextualized Spanish proficiency test. Data from the DCT was processed to extract the lexical profile in the form of sequences of tokens (e.g., unigrams and bigrams), a lexical sophistication score based on the proficiency level[1], and several syntactic indicators of complexity at the sentence level (e.g., average number of verbs, clauses, and T-Units). The first measure of 2PS use found very few instances of voseo in the DCT responses (n=6), demonstrating the lack of acquisition of this regional form by learners. Overall results show that while learners do acquire specific lexical phrases utilized by native speakers, they do not always produce the same collocations with the discourse of specific 2PS. For example, native speakers tended to use “qué pena contigo” while learners produced “qué pena con usted”. Results also showed that learners who have greater social interaction with native speakers presented patterns of use more similar to that of native speakers in terms of syntactical complexity. The results of this research permit us to describe the developmental stages in L2 learners and the acquisition of dialectal variation of 2PS. Furthermore, findings support the benefit of immersion for the L2 acquisition of dialectal variation.
[1] Author X. Details omitted for double-blind reviewing.
The L2 acquisition of the discourse properties of second person singular forms of address in Paisa Spanish
MBSC Omaha Room 304
We investigate the lexical and discourse properties used by L2 speakers of Spanish in a study abroad context in Medellin, Colombia and compare them to those of native Spanish-speakers from Medellin. Known as Paisa Spanish, this South American dialect is characterized by a tripartite system of 2PS, including a regional voseo in addition to tuteo and ustedeo. Participants consisted of 22 learners of Spanish living in Medellin and 38 native speakers of Paisa Spanish. Learners consisted of a heterogeneous group from various countries, including U.S. (n=10), Egypt (n=1), Germany (n=3), Turkey (n=1), Japan (n=2), South Korea (n=1), France (n=1), Holland (n=2), and China (n=1). Data was obtained by means of a Discourse Completion Task (DCT) designed to elicit 2PS across different speech act contexts, a social interaction questionnaire, and a contextualized Spanish proficiency test. Data from the DCT was processed to extract the lexical profile in the form of sequences of tokens (e.g., unigrams and bigrams), a lexical sophistication score based on the proficiency level[1], and several syntactic indicators of complexity at the sentence level (e.g., average number of verbs, clauses, and T-Units). The first measure of 2PS use found very few instances of voseo in the DCT responses (n=6), demonstrating the lack of acquisition of this regional form by learners. Overall results show that while learners do acquire specific lexical phrases utilized by native speakers, they do not always produce the same collocations with the discourse of specific 2PS. For example, native speakers tended to use “qué pena contigo” while learners produced “qué pena con usted”. Results also showed that learners who have greater social interaction with native speakers presented patterns of use more similar to that of native speakers in terms of syntactical complexity. The results of this research permit us to describe the developmental stages in L2 learners and the acquisition of dialectal variation of 2PS. Furthermore, findings support the benefit of immersion for the L2 acquisition of dialectal variation.
[1] Author X. Details omitted for double-blind reviewing.