Research on tense-aspect phenomena has shown that the type of experimental task can affect the performance of L2 learners. This pilot study on the understudied language combination Dutch-Spanish investigates this issue by focusing on the interaction between known affecting variables (inherent aspect; L1 effects) and different tasks (multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blanks, free production). First findings show that, indeed, both task type and L1 have an influence on the outcome. Generally, Dutch learners seem to prefer the Imperfect over the Preterit. This stands in contrast to previous research but can be explained by the imperfective features of the Dutch Simple Past with which the learners associate the L2 forms. Whereas this L1 effect is not visible in the multiple-choice task where the choice is forced, it manifests itself in tasks where students can choose freely between forms they know. Especially in the free production task, the L1 effect interacts with a high individual variability.
This paper tackles the usefulness of comparing L2 learners against native speakers in empirical SLA studies focusing on grammatical aspect. Adapting the view that interlanguage grammars should be analysed in their own right instead of as a deficient form of the target, we show that expressing perspectivity (fulfilled by grammatical aspect markers) methodologically complicates the analyses of Grammaticality Judgment Tasks in aspect studies. For Spanish past tenses, we show that especially with items constructed as allegedly ungrammatical natives behave heterogeneously. This casts doubt on the question whether these data can be used as a baseline against which learners’ data could be compared. By analysing the interlanguage separately (not only in comparison to the controls), our findings among German learners of L2 Spanish suggest the use of the forms depends essentially on temporal markers which can be related to both their L1 lacking grammatical aspect and the pedagogical input. Crucially, though the interlanguage does not match the target (i.e., past tenses do not necessarily correlate with aspectuality), the systems are not chaotic but follow well-defined rules.
This article presents original evidence for an L1-effect in SLA by comparing empirical studies on German and Dutch learners of L2 Spanish (written production). In Spanish, grammatical aspect plays a far more prominent role (perfectivity is grammaticalized) and thus both learner groups are faced with new linguistic features. In both cases, L1-like performance is not achieved. However, the ways learners deal with this aspectual phenomenon in their written production is completely different: German learners base their decision on temporal markers and trigger words, whereas Dutch learners consider inherent verbal aspect. We explain this contrast by analysing small differences between the involved L1 systems: only Dutch learners depart from a system with basic aspectual notions.Zusammenfassung: Dieser Artikel präsentiert neuartige Evidenzen für einen L1-Effekt im Zweitspracherwerb, indem empirische Studien zu deutschen und niederländischen Lernenden des Spanischen als L2 verglichen werden (schriftliche Produktionsdaten). Im Spanischen spielt grammatischer Aspekt eine prominentere Rolle (Perfektivität ist grammatikalisiert), wodurch beide Lerner-Gruppen mit neuen Merkmalen konfrontiert werden. In beiden Fällen wird keine mutter sprach liche Performanz beobachtet. Jedoch unterscheiden sich die Weisen, in denen mit aspektuellen Phänomenen umgegangen wird: Deutsche Lernende gründen ihre Entscheidungen auf Signalwörter, während niederländische Lernende den inhärenten Verbalaspekt berücksichtigen. Wir erklären diesen Kontrast durch eine Analyse von kleinen Unterschieden in den L1-Systemen: Nur niederländische Lerner starten von einem System mit grundlegenden aspektuellen Konzepten.
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