No abstract

Although claims about explicit and implicit language knowledge are central to many debates in SLA, little research has been dedicated to measuring the two knowledge types (R. Ellis, 2004, 2005). The purpose of this study was to validate the use of the battery of tests reported in Ellis (2005) to measure implicit and explicit language knowledge. Whereas Ellis (2005) tested only second-language (L2) learners (of English), this study tested both L2 and heritage language (HL) learners (of Spanish). Results showed that test scores loaded on a two-factor model, as in Ellis (2005), thereby providing construct validity for the tests, on a population of HL learners who have little explicit knowledge by virtue of the environment in which they acquired Spanish.

The obligatory use of the preposition a with animate, specific direct objects in Spanish (Juan conoce a María "Juan knows Maria") is a well known instance of Differential Object Marking (DOM) (Torrego, 1998; Leonetti, 2004). Recent studies have documented the loss and/or incomplete acquisition of several grammatical features in Spanish heritage speakers (Silva-Corvalán, 1994; Montrul, 2002, 2004), including DOM (Montrul, 2004a). This study assesses the extent of incomplete knowledge of DOM in Spanish heritage speakers raised in the United States by comparing it with knowledge of DOM in fully competent native speakers. Experiment 1 examined whether omission of a affected grammatical competence, as measured by the linguistic behavior of 67 heritage speakers and 22 monolingual speakers in an oral production task and in a written acceptability judgment task. Experiment 2 followed up on the results of the acceptability judgment task with 13 monolingual speakers and 69 heritage speakers, and examined whether problems with DOM generalize to other instances of structural and inherent dative case, including ditransitive verbs and gustar-type psychological verbs. Results of the two experiments confirmed that heritage speakers' recognition and production of DOM is probabilistic, even for speakers with advanced proficiency in Spanish. This suggests that many heritage speakers' grammars may not actually instantiate inherent case. We argue that language loss under reduced input conditions in childhood is, in this case, like "going back to basics": it leads to simplification of the grammar by letting go of the non-core options, while retaining the core functional structure. Sentences included in the Acceptability Judgment Tasks Experiment 1 Without a-marking (*DOM) *Marisa conoce mi hermana. *El estudiante llamó la profesora. *Mi hermano invitó Pedro a la fiesta. *Paulina contrató Rodolfo para el nuevo puesto. *Jorge ama Carolina apasionadamente. Missing a with indirect objects (Ddouble object construction or *DOC) *Armando envió una amiga flores. *Estela devolvió María el libro. *La profesora enseñó el estudiante la lección. *Francisco confió su madre un secreto. *Carlos pidió su novia un favor. Experiment 2 Differential Object Marking animate (with a-marking) Marisa conoce a mi hermana. El estudiante visitó a la profesora. Mi hermano escuchó a Pedro en la fiesta. Jorge ama a Carolina apasionadamente. Mi hermana vio a Carmen ayer. *animate (no a-marking) *Pedro conoce el chef. *El jefe escuchó la secretaria. *Patricia invitó mi madre a su graduación. *Mi abuela ama todos sus nietos. *Mi padre vio mi hermano ayer. *inanimate (with a-marking) *Juan visitó a la biblioteca. *La profesora conoce a libros interesantes. *Mi madre ama a las pinturas de Dalí. *Joaquín vio a la última película de Batman. *Teresa escuchó a la sonata en B menor. inanimate (no a-marking) Patricio visitó el Museo del Prado.

Conversational interaction studies have typically focused either on second language (L2) learners participating in native speaker-nonnative speaker (NS-NNS) dyads or in NNS-NNS dyads. This study analyzes the task-based interactions of 26 naturally occurring learner dyads in an intermediate-level, university Spanish language classroom, 13 of which were matched L2 learner dyads and 13 of which were mixed L2 learner-heritage learner (HL) dyads. Specifically, the study compared the two dyad types to determine whether they differed in their focus on form or in the amount of talk produced during interaction. Results revealed that the two types of dyads were largely similar, although instances of focus on form were more likely to be resolved in a target-like way by mixed L2-HL pairs than by matched L2-L2 pairs, and there was significantly more target language talk in mixed pairs. Interestingly, L2 learners used the target language significantly more with HL learners than they did with other L2 learners, suggesting that different conversational norms may be at play in the two pair types. Furthermore, posttask questionnaire data indicated that L2 and HL learners alike saw the interaction as a greater opportunity for the L2 learner's development than for the HL learner's, calling into question whether classroom contexts like this one meet the needs of HL learners.

The present study addresses the reactivity of two types of verbal protocols in SLA research. It expands on the work of Leow and Morgan-Short (2004), who found nonmetalinguistic verbalization during a second-language reading task to be nonreactive for beginning learners' text comprehension, intake, and production of the targeted morphological form. The present study investigated the reactivity of both metalinguistic and nonmetalinguistic protocols, using a syntactic structure and advanced language learners of Spanish. Results indicated that neither type of verbalization significantly affected text comprehension or written production of old or new exemplars of the targeted structure when compared to a control group, although metalinguistic verbalization appeared to cause a significant decrease in text comprehension over nonmetalinguistic verbalization. Furthermore, both types of verbalization significantly increased the amount of time on task.