The acquisition of aspect in a second language

Abstract

The acquisition of the aspect is a central area in Second Language Acquisition research, the subject of hundreds of papers and dozens of edited volumes, monographs and special issues. This introduction provides the reader not only with a concise and plain presentation of the main hypotheses advanced in the past, but also with an overview of contemporary research. Stefano Rastelli shows how comparison of behavioural (production-comprehension), processing and statistical data is improving - and partially changing - our understanding of how learners acquire the aspectual distinctions of the target-language.

The relation of second language acquisition, instructed second language acquisition, and language teaching from the lens of second language tense-aspect

“…In the case of L2 tense-aspect, research in the last 20 years and even earlier (cf. Bardovi-Harlig & Comajoan-Colomé, 2020; Rastelli, 2020) has agreed on several aspects of L2 acquisition that may impact on L2 classroom teaching, such as the findings we outlined at the beginning of this article. Furthermore, the seminal works by Blyth (2005) and Ayoun (2013) have thoroughly examined the SLA of tense-aspect and its relevance for classroom teaching; however, they are not widely cited in the instructional literature.…”

“…The investigation of the development of L2 tense-aspect systems has yielded a number of findings that we believe are potentially relevant to instruction on tense-aspect. Here, we highlight five main findings: the major stages of the acquisition of temporality, the development of morphology, the polysemy of the imperfective, discourse structure, and text type (see Bardovi-Harlig, 2000; Bardovi-Harlig & Comajoan-Colomé, 2020; Comajoan-Colomé, 2014; Rastelli, 2020; and Salaberry, 2008 for reviews).…”

An SLA-Informed and Cognitive Linguistic Approach to the Teaching of L2 Catalan Tense-Aspect

“…On the other hand, the differences between the traditional and cognitive groups tended not to be significant. The reasons for this have been related to several issues, such as the complexity (in terminology and notions) of the cognitive approach, the impossibility of the prototype framework to account for important exceptions and non-prototypical matchings between stative and activity verbs with perfective markings (Rastelli, 2020), the level of learners, the novelty of the approach, and motivational issues (i.e., lack of interest in the cognitive approach; Bielak & Pawlak, 2013;Kermer, 2016).…”

Telic for whom? The Lexical Underspecification Hypothesis

“…There is another logical possibility: L2 learners at early stages of acquisition may not be able to distinguish between telic and atelic verbs. This claim was put forth in the Lexical Underspecification Hypothesis (LUH) (Rastelli 2008(Rastelli , 2009(Rastelli , 2019(Rastelli , 2020a(Rastelli , 2020b(Rastelli , 2021Rastelli and Vernice 2013). The LUH states that there could be a developmental pattern which constrains the ways learners can represent the lexical aspect of TL verbs over time.…”