No abstract

Previous research in immersion settings has shown that an early age of onset of second language (L2) learning, together with long-term exposure to the L2, are determinant factors for perceiving and producing L2 sounds accurately [e.g., Flege, MacKay, & Meador (1999)]. However, research in formal learning contexts has resulted in negative evidence for an early age of learning advantage [e.g., Garcia-Lecumberri & Gallardo (2003)] or in divergent experience effects (Cebrian, 2003, 2006). This study aimed to further examine the contribution of the factors of age of onset of L2 learning (AOL) and experience in a foreign language learning environment. Catalan/Spanish bilinguals studying English at university, with AOLs of 4 to 14 years and a minimum of 7 years of formal instruction, performed an AXB discrimination task, a picture narrative, and a delayed sentence repetition task. Results revealed that Catalan/Spanish bilinguals with somewhat longer exposure to English and an earlier AOL tended to discern English sounds at higher correct rates. By contrast, a great degree of variability was found across the bilinguals' extemporaneous and prompted production of English segments. Findings are discussed in terms of current models of L2 speech acquisition and their application to formal learning settings. [Work supported by postdoctoral fellowship from the Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia and the FECYT (Spain).]

This study explores the difficulties on grammatical representation descriptions of Spanish Imperfect meanings by 54 first language Russian learners of Spanish with advanced proficiency levels and a control group of 18 Spanish native speakers. The results from the on-line acceptability judgments task the participants carried out indicated that interpretations of aspectual meanings typical of the Spanish Imperfect had been formed in the non-native speaker’s grammar. Moreover, a general tendency to over-accept non-adequate Preterite sentences was observed in non-native Spanish speaker groups. Furthermore, the findings revealed that progressive meaning represented a greater challenge for Russian learners of Spanish with upper-intermediate proficiency level, whereas at more advanced levels the perceptions of this meaning became closer to that of Spanish native speakers. However, the accuracy and sensitivity scores on lexical aspectual classes evidenced a persistent difficulty for non-native speakers in non-prototypical lexical-grammatical aspect combinations, which suggested a possible remaining effect of L1 transfer