L1 French learning of L2 Spanish past tenses: L1 transfer versus aspect and interface issues

Abstract

This paper examines the process of acquiring L2s that are closely related to the L1 through data on how adult French speakers learning L2 Spanish in a formal setting develop knowledge and use of past tenses in this L2. We consider the role of transfer and simplification in acquiring mental representations of the L2 grammar, specifically in the area of tense and aspect, and how learners deal with integrating grammatically encoded, lexical and discursive information, including mismatching feature combinations leading to particular inferential effects on interpretation. Data is presented on the Spanish past tenses (simple and compound past, pluperfect, imperfect and progressive forms) from two tasks, an oral production filmretell and a multiple-choice interpretation task, completed by learners at A2, B1, B2 and C1 CEFR levels (N = 20-24 per level). L1 influence is progressively attenuated as proficiency increases. Difficulties were not always due to negative L1 transfer, but related also to grammar-discourse interface issues when integrating linguistic and pragmatic information in the interpretation process. This has clear implications for the teaching of closely related languages: instruction should not only focus on crosslinguistic contrasts, but also prioritize uses requiring complex interface integration, which are harder to process.

Imperfect Spanish Meanings Acquisition by Advanced Russian Learners. Evidence from Acceptability Judgements Data

“…However, the non-prototypical combination of activities in Preterite (20) was by and large rejected by the L2 Spanish groups. This is consistent with previous interpretation and comprehension research showing the effect of frequency on the acquisition of aspectual relations in L2 Spanish (Amenós-Pons et al, 2017;Diaubalick & Guijarro-Fuentes, 2019).…”

“…As for the influence of the L1, the results confirmed previous investigations reporting on an L1 effect even at advanced proficiency levels (Amenós-Pons et al, 2017;McManus, 2015;Diaubalick & Guijarro-Fuentes, 2019;Domínguez et al, 2017, among others). In the present study, the participants' L1 (Russian) entailed a difficulty in continuous aspectual readings, yet it also acted as a facilitating learning strategy in the interpretation of progressive and habitual readings, as illustrated by accuracy scores and, to a lesser extent, by sensitivity scores.…”

“…The analysis of accuracy scores did not yield any significant differences among native and proficient non-native groups in the interpretation of Imperfect in any of the examined imperfective aspectual readings. This suggests that it might be possible to attain a near-native competence in the formation of representations of aspectual relations in the L2, as previous studies pointed out (Amenós-Pons et al, 2017;Rothman & Iverson, 2007;. However, these findings should be taken with caution, specifically when the analysis of the lexical aspect of the verb is considered for the UPINT group.…”

“…In Spanish past tense acquisition, the existing results on the mastery of Imperfect are contradictory. Findings from data production studies do show native-like attainment in advanced proficiency levels (Amenós-Pons, Ahern & Guijarro-Fuentes, 2017;Cadierno, 2000;Domínguez et al, 2013;Salaberry, 2011). Non-native speakers maintain the prototypical associations between grammatical and lexical aspect (i.e., telic verbs appear mostly in Preterite and atelic verbs in Imperfect) also found in the production of native speakers (Tracy-Ventura & Cuesta Medina, 2018).…”

“…This suggests that L2 speakers can reset the way aspectual meanings are mapped from one language onto another. Despite this, other studies reported on differences on the accuracy levels of L2 advanced learners and native speakers that are usually attributed either to the influence of the L1 (Amenós et al, 2017;Diaubalick & Guijarro-Fuentes, 2019;Díaz, Bel & Bekiou, 2008) or to the effect of explicit instruction (Rothman, 2008). Furthermore, when the study focused exclusively on the acquisition of Spanish imperfect meanings, differences among native and non-native groups emerged steadily (Domínguez, Arche & Myles, 2018;Salaberry, 2013;Salaberry & Martins, 2015).…”