Classroom Learners’ Acquisition of the Spanish Copula With Adjectives

Abstract

Research on the second language (L2) acquisition of the Spanish copulas has been central to our understanding of key concepts and issues in the field of SLA such as stages of development and variability in L2s. However, this research has focused nearly exclusively on native English-speaking learners. The present study examined native Korean-speaking learners’ acquisition and use of the Spanish copulas with adjectives in oral production. Analyses of the range and frequency of copula forms produced across four levels of Spanish language study revealed an increase in ser and estar use and a decrease in developmental omission as learner level increased. Predicate type, resultant state, and Spanish grammar score significantly influenced use of estar over ser. Comparison with native English-speaking learners revealed differences between first language groups in terms of rates of form use, but similar developmental trends and predictors of estar use overall.

Korean Learners’ Acquisition and Use of Variable First-Person Subject Forms in Spanish

“…This could be the case because classroom learners receive explicit instruction on subject forms; however, it may also be related to similarities in the range of possible forms available for subject expression crosslinguistically. To illustrate, Korean-speaking learners of Spanish produce non-target-like copula forms that are not observed for English-speaking learners (Geeslin and Long 2015;Long 2021a), a finding that has been connected to differences in the way attribution is expressed in Korean and Spanish. However, subject expression shares more similarities than differences with respect to the range of possible forms occupying the subject position (e.g., pronouns, nouns and noun phrases, expletives, etc.)…”

“…Learner participants were recruited from Spanish language and content courses across four instructional levels offered at a private Korean university located in Gwangju. Justification for treating these levels as distinct groups representing increasing knowledge of and experience with the Spanish language (starting with the first year and ending with the fourth year) is elaborated in Long (2021a). Additional characteristics of the Korean-speaking learners of this study are provided in Table 3.…”