Allowable temporal distances for future-time forms

Abstract

Learners may show sensitivity to linguistic factors in more controlled tasks before doing so in production, although advanced learners often demonstrate greater inter-task consistency. Future-time expression in Spanish serves as a good test case for such variability due to the multiple forms speakers use. Although recent research has considered production and contextualized selection of future-time forms, it has not required learners to react to forms they may not otherwise implement. We manipulate four future forms and five lexical types, asking learners to indicate when an action could occur for each item. Learners showed more nuanced temporal restrictions according to these factors as proficiency increased, with advanced learners most approximating native speakers, in addition to overshooting some targets and revealing lexical effects.

Variable Future-Time Expression in Spanish: A Comparison between Heritage and Second Language Learners

“…Nonetheless, unlike other aspects of Spanish morphosyntax where incomplete acquisition (Montrul 2008) or convergent simplification (Silva-Corvalán 1994) was reported in studies on heritage Spanish, our data on future-time expression mostly showed systematic variation comparable to that reported for monolingual NSs in previous literature. Moreover, for the L2 learners, similar to previous literature, there was (i) an attenuated effect of certainty, modulated by proficiency and tending toward a non-targetlike pattern (Gudmestad andGeeslin 2011, 2013), (ii) an effect for the presence of a temporal adverb (Gudmestad and Geeslin 2011;Kanwit and Solon 2013), and (iii) an effect of temporal distance (Gudmestad and Geeslin 2011;Kanwit 2021;Kanwit and Solon 2013). Our data, thus, indicated that the HLLs had an advantage, as compared to the L2 learners, in the acquisition of future-time expression.…”

“…With respect to temporal distance, previous research seemed to converge on the PF as the form that is not marked for temporal distance, the PI as the close future form, and the MF as the distant future form (Blas Arroyo 2008;Claes and Ortiz López 2011;Díaz-Campos and Escalona Torres 2018;Gudmestad and Geeslin 2011;Kanwit 2021;Kanwit and Solon 2013). For both groups in the current study, the results regarding the PF and PI were similar and reflected the trend previously attested in the literature.…”

“…Several studies examined the linguistic and social variables that impact future-time expression in L2 Spanish in classroom settings (Gudmestad andGeeslin 2011, 2013;Kanwit 2021) and study-abroad contexts (Kanwit and Solon 2013). Here we focus on the three linguistic factors that are pertinent to our study (certainty, temporal distance, and presence/absence of a temporal adverbial) and on how L2 learners diverge (or not) from NSs.…”