Volume 43, Issue 3

This descriptive study analyzed the emergence of the imperfect in the written production of 30 beginning learners of Spanish. The analysis focused on the use of the imperfect and the morphological marking of state verbs. The results follow the patterns predicted by the aspect hypothesis (Andersen and Shirai, 1994), and support some refinements of the proposed stages of spread of the imperfect across aspectual classes. A detailed analysis of the category of state verbs showed that these verbs do not behave as a homogeneous category with regard to past tense marking. The possibility of the application of associative mechanisms of learning (Pinker and Prince 1994) was explored based on the past tense marking of irregular and regular verbs in connection to the stages of acquisition proposed by the aspect hypothesis, but not enough evidence was found to strongly support the application of such learning mechanisms.

This article reexamines Critical Period and L1/L2 differences by looking at the development of Spanish morphosyntax by young Anglophone immersion learners, in light of two hypotheses, Full Transfer/Full Access (FTFA) and Failed Functional Features (FFFH). FTFA maintains that syntax and morphology develop separately in L2 acquisition for adults and children, while FFFH holds that syntax is dependent on morphology development and that a post-Critical Period failure of morphosyntactic functional features contributes to an L1A/ adult L2A distinction. We first review L1A and L2A of Spanish morphosyntax and elaborate FFFH and FTFA. Then we describe our data collection, results and discussion in terms of the two hypotheses.We conclude that the child learners are sensitive to the importance of inflectional morphology (L1A-like), but make numerous errors (adult L2A-like). Their syntax develops more quickly and accurately than their morphology, supporting FTFA.

While resumptive pronouns (RPs) are generally not allowed in English relative clauses, Chinese allows the use of RPs in indirect object position and genitive position but not in subject and direct object positions. Arabic languages allow RPs in direct object position as well as in indirect object position and genitive position, although not in subject position of the matrix clause. The different behaviours of RPs in the three languages raise interesting questions in L2 research. An empirical study was conducted, which involved advanced Palestinian-speaking learners of Chinese and intermediate English-speaking learners of Chinese. Given that the Palestinian speakers were more advanced learners of Chinese than the English speakers and that the use of RPs is available in Palestinian but not in English, it was hypothesized that Palestinian speakers would be more accurate in judging Chinese sentences with the use of RPs than English speakers. However, this hypothesis is not confirmed in the study. We will account for the difference between the two groups on the basis of L1 transfer and learnability problems.

Over the past fifteen years or so examiner input in oral proficiency interviews has provided a constant topic of discussion within language assessment quarters. Despite the attention received, the precise nature of such input remains largely elusive, as does its relationship to test-taker performance and its assessment. The aim of this paper is to shed some further light on this matter by focussing on the relationship between examiner support and test-taker vocabulary. An analysis of 30 Spanish oral examinations reveals that test-takers’ lexical richness and diversity, on the one hand, and examiner’s support strategies, on the other, discriminate between grades awarded for vocabulary in these examinations. Qualitative analysis of the transcribed corpus and of examiner retrospective verbal protocols, however, reveals that vocabulary output on its own does not adequately explain some of the grades awarded. Nor does frequency of examiner support entirely explain the relative impact of accommodation strategies and vocabulary on grades. In view of this, an integrative approach that combines statistical and qualitative analysis is suggested as an optimal framework within which to develop current work on oral proficiency interviews.