L3 acquisition of aspect: the influence of structural similarity, analytic L2 and general L3 proficiency

Abstract

Research has shown that many factors influence the transfer process in L3 acquisition (e.g., language distance, L2-status, proficiency in the L2/L3). Regarding the L2/L3 acquisition of aspect, a lot of research on the influence of the L1 has been conducted; however, to date, only a very limited amount of studies has analysed the influence an L2 exerts on the acquisition of aspect in an L3. The present study, therefore, focuses on L3 acquisition of perfective/imperfective aspect. We investigated 109 German-speaking learners of L3 Spanish with previous linguistic L2 knowledge in English. Data were elicited by means of a language background questionnaire, a c-test for overall proficiency measures in the L3, an oral retelling of two picture-based narratives, and two semantic interpretation tasks to measure the participants’ knowledge of aspect in the L2 and the L3 (i.e., analytic proficiency). The findings provide empirical evidence that L2 English positively influences the acquisition of aspect in L3 Spanish if structural similarities between the L2 and the L3 exist. However, positive L2 transfer seems to depend on L2 and L3 proficiency levels.

Always trust your gut?

“…In that study, the non-prototypical combination of perfective past tense and states was negatively constrained by the L1 English, despite generally positive L2 transfer effects. Salaberry's (2005) research paved the way for other studies which corroborated the difficulty of overcoming L1 representational constraints in the case of nonprototypical associations (Diaubalick et al, 2020;Eibensteiner, 2019Eibensteiner, , 2022Foote, 2009;Vallerossa, 2021;Vallerossa et al, 2021).…”

“…Recently, several studies have attested to influences from other learned languages (e.g. Diaubalick et al, 2020;Eibensteiner, 2019Eibensteiner, , 2022Vallerossa, 2021Vallerossa, , 2022Vallerossa et al, 2021), but the field still lacks a comprehensive account of how different languages (L1s and L2s) and different types of transfer (linguistic or conceptual) are applicable to tense-aspect research. It is beyond the scope of this article to provide such a complex account, theoretically and empirically.…”

“…Beneficial effects of typological proximity on linguistic transfer are also traceable from languages acquired later in life. Structures that are similar across languages are most likely to be transferred, both from a Romance L2 language into a Romance L3 (Comajoan-Colomé, 2019;Eibensteiner, 2021Eibensteiner, , 2022Eibensteiner, , 2023Vallerossa, 2021Vallerossa, , 2022 and from L2 English to a Romance L3 (Eibensteiner, 2019). Transfer of meanings originating in L2 English has also been found in a study by Vallerossa et al (2021), where learners with high aspectual knowledge in English (operationalized as knowledge of the contrast perfective/progressive) outperformed learners with low aspectual knowledge in English when it came to the progressive meaning expressed by the Italian Imperfect.…”

“…They also took three interpretation tests which examined the participants' knowledge of aspectual contrasts in French, Italian, and English. Following Eibensteiner (2022), based in turn on an argument by Sánchez (2020), we differentiate general proficiency, measured by the C-tests, and analytic proficiency, indicating specific knowledge of aspectual contrasts, and measured by the interpretation tests. While for French and Italian we gathered data for general and analytic proficiency, we only measured analytic proficiency in English.…”

Análisis de la correlación del rendimiento de aprendizaje entre segunda lengua (L2) y tercera lengua (L3): el caso de estudiantes chinos

“…Por un lado, los profesores pueden recurrir a las explicaciones interlingüísticas y basarlas sobre el conocimiento ya existente de sus alumnos, aumentar la conciencia metalingüística de los alumnos (Eibensteiner, 2022), y animar a los alumnos a aprender una nueva lengua aprovechando las similitudes entre las lenguas que han adquirido previamente, no sólo porque hará el aprendizaje más fácil, sino también porque cuantas más conexiones de memoria se hagan, mejor se retienen los conocimientos (Marx & Hufeisen, 2003).…”