Spanish Imperfect revisited: Exploring L1 influence in the reassembly of imperfective features onto new L2 forms

Abstract

This study investigates the acquisition of the Spanish Imperfect by 60 English learners of Spanish at three different proficiency levels (beginner, intermediate and advanced). Two oral production tasks and one interpretation task show that although the Imperfect is used from early on, the full array of interpretations associated with this form (habitual, continuous and progressive) is not completely acquired even at advanced levels. Learners accept the Imperfect in imperfective contexts but have problems rejecting the Preterit. This problem persists even at advanced levels in continuous contexts. The continuous is conveyed in English by Past Tense, which is used in both perfective and imperfective contexts, whereas in Spanish only the Imperfect is appropriate. We argue that the incorrect low rejection of the Preterit signals a mapping problem of aspectrelated features present in both English and Spanish onto a new form (the Imperfect). These results support the problematic nature of feature reassembly in the acquisition of the Spanish Imperfect by English speakers.

Aspectual contrasts in the Englishpresent tense revisited

“…However, since its initial conception, many researchers have successfully extended its scope to additionally include semantic features. 1 Numerous experimental studies have provided evidence in support of this proposal (Cho & Slabakova, 2014;Domínguez et al, 2017;Gil & Marsden, 2013;Guijarro-Fuentes, 2012;Hwang & Lardiere, 2013).…”

“…Acquiring grammatical aspect has been shown to be particularly problematic for second language (L2) learners whose first language (L1) does not fully grammaticalize aspectual contrasts (Domínguez, Arche, & Myles, 2017;Montrul & Slabakova, 2003;Slabakova, 2003). However, the vast majority of this research has focused almost exclusively on aspectual contrasts in the past tense, with only a handful of studies exploring aspectual distinctions in the present tense (Ayoun, 2015;Salaberry, Comajoan, & González, 2013).…”

The use of the past tense aspect in Spanish by study At-Home and Study-Abroad Chinese learners in semi-guided writing tasks

“…Current research suggests that these lexical classes and the grounding information in discourse (foreground and background) can affect L2 learners' PIN/PIM usage patterns (Cadierno, 2000;López-Ortega, 2000;Quesada, 2006;Mao, Montrul & Perpiñán, 2011, Salaberry, 2011Domínguez, et al, 2017). Based on the predictions of the LAH and the DH, prototypical associations exist between the lexical class/grounding information and the use of aspectual form: telic events (accomplishments and achievements) are prototypically associated with a perfective form in the foreground and convey the main line information in narration.…”

A ‘mixed methods’ approach for investigating aspect in a second language

“…despite crosslinguistic differences in the expression of aspect, the same semantic interpretations associated with imperfective aspect exist in English and in Spanish. The key difference lies on how the semantic meanings of perfective/ imperfective aspect, which are the same in both languages, are mapped onto the available morphology (Domínguez, Arche, & Myles, 2011, 2017. Aspectual interpretations are also determined by the inherent lexicalsemantic properties of the verbal predicate (i.e.…”

“…I will show how some level of manipulation of so-called open-ended oral tasks can be useful to elicit target forms in key infrequent contexts. Furthermore, the combination of different task types can provide better insights than data elicited by one single task (Domínguez et al, 2009;Domínguez et al, 2013;Domínguez et al, 2017;Mitchell at al., 2008;.…”