Alejandro Cuza

The present study examines the extent to which L2 learners and HS of Spanish acquire target knowledge of subjunctive mood selection in Spanish. Specifically, we analyze obligatory and variable selection in temporal and concessive constructions. Ten HS of Spanish, ten English-speaking L2 learners and fifteen controls from Mexico completed a sentence completion task. Results indicate significant differences between the two experimental groups and the monolingual control group. The HS outperformed the L2 learners in three of the six conditions-tested. No significant differences were found between obligatory and variable subjunctive selection within the epistemic modality. Results suggest that the obligatory nature of mood selection does not play a role in the acquisition of the Spanish subjunctive within the epistemic modality.

This study examines the distribution and use of simple and progressive forms in two groups: English-speaking heritage speakers of Spanish in the U.S. (n = 9) and Brazilian Portuguese-speaking heritage speakers of Spanish in Brazil (n = 15). We hypothesized that the groups would show different crosslinguistic influence from their dominant languages in their choice of verb forms. We collected semi-spontaneous production data via oral narratives and analyzed group differences in verb form, either simple or progressive, in activity and accomplishment verbs (Vendler, 1967). The results show a main effect for group, confirming that English-Spanish bilinguals favor progressive verb forms in such contexts, while Brazilian Portuguese-Spanish bilinguals opt for simple verb forms. We discuss our findings following previous work by Jiang (2000) and Putnam & Sánchez (2013).

Aims and objectives: This study examines the acquisition of Differential Object Marking (DOM) in heritage Spanish children born in the USA and the potential role of structure complexity and chronological age. Design: Bilingual children were compared with monolingual children matched by age and long-term immigrants (children's parents) via an Elicited Production task. We elicited the distribution of personal a in simple and Clitic Left Dislocated (CLLD) structures. Data and analysis: Results were entered into repeated analyses of variance measure with type of structure and group as dependent variables and chronological age as a covariate. Conclusions: Results show decreased production of personal a among the bilingual children, especially in CLLD contexts. We also found strong correlations between target use and type of structure, but no correlations with developmental age among the bilingual children. Parents and monolingual children behaved at ceiling with matrix questions but showed variable behavior with CLLD structures. We argue for incomplete specification of the animacy and specificity features constraining DOM and structure complexity effects affecting child bilingual grammars. Originality: This study highlights that heritage speakers do not necessarily become less native-like with age and increased exposure to English. The comparison of the bilingual children to both monolingual children and their parents was essential to mitigate the effects of dialect and cognitive development. Implications: Given that age was not the determining factor in bilingual children's production of DOM in Spanish, it would seem that exposure to and use of the heritage language play a larger

The present study examines the role of instruction in the development of reading and writing skills in Spanish as a heritage language during childhood. Sixty-six (n=66) Spanish heritage speakers in K-4 th grade participated in an 18-week Spanish intervention. The curriculum included the development of phonological awareness, reading fluency and accuracy as well as vocabulary via cognate instruction. Undergraduate students majoring in Spanish conducted the intervention as part of a service-learning program. Standardized measures given to the students before and after the intervention included phonological awareness, receptive vocabulary knowledge, word reading accuracy, and word reading fluency. The treatment group was compared to a group of twenty-five children (n=25) who did not participate in the program. The two groups were matched by age and non-verbal reasoning. Results from pre and post-tests showed significant gains for the treatment group in vocabulary growth, word reading fluency and word reading accuracy. Phonological awareness developed significantly for both groups, but there was no advantage for the experimental group. Overall, the intervention was effective at promoting both Spanish language and literacy skills (Rhoades, 2009). Contextualized and explicit instruction on word reading and decoding, as well as oral language and vocabulary knowledge in Spanish, helped Spanish heritage learners develop academic language and literacy skills in their first/minority language. Furthermore, the results provide strong evidence supporting the efficacy of a service-learning program aimed at facilitating the development of literacy skills among child heritage language learners.

We examine the acquisition of the semantic values of the Spanish present tense among second language learners and Spanish heritage speakers, an area so far un-derexplored. We predict bilingualism effects evidenced in lower patterns of use, acceptance and preference of the simple present with an ongoing meaning, as well as preference for the progressive in ongoing and habitual contexts. Furthermore, we expect the heritage speakers to outperform the L2 learners, and to behave closer to native speakers. In contrast to our expectations, we found overextension of the simple present to ongoing situations and to contexts where the present progressive is preferred. The heritage speakers behaved closer to the native speakers, suggesting age-related effects in language development. We argue for morphose-mantic convergence towards the less aspectually restrictive configuration.

The current study examines English-speaking learners of Spanish and their pragmatic development of request forms during a six-week immersion program in Madrid, Spain. Elicited production and intuition data were analyzed, focusing on personal deictic orientation, directness evidenced by clause type, and the use of por favor 'please,' and comparing learners to native speakers of Peninsular Spanish. Results indicate pragmatic acquisition over the short-term program, suggested by a change in the learners' produced requests and intuitions regarding requests and also an increase in the pragmatic appropriateness of leaners' requests and intuitions over the program. Importantly, these results demonstrate that pragmatic acquisition can occur during a short-term immersion program, and during one without any pragmatic intervention. The discussion addresses potentially important programmatic variables, developmental patterns, and also an interlanguage perspective of requests, considering grammatical form, speech act, and illocutionary force in Spanish and English as challenges for learners. Keywords: English/inglés, immersion/inmersión, pragmatic acquisition/adquisición pragmática, request/ petición, Spanish/español, speech act/acto de habla, study abroad/estudiar en el extranjero

The present cross-sectional study examines the status of interrogative subject-verb inversion in Spanish among twenty-seven (n = 27) Spanish-English bilingual children born and raised in the United States. Results from an oral elicited production task show significant low levels of target inversion in both matrix and embedded wh-questions, compared with monolingual children. Lack of inversion was more significant with embedded questions, and among the youngest children. It is argued that the differences observed stem from syntactic transfer from English, language dominance and the complexity of the structure. This leads to a process of syntactic optionality in child heritage Spanish similar to what is found in Caribbean varieties of Spanish.

Alejandro Cuza & Lauren Miller Purdue University

This study examines the knowledge of past tense aspectual distinctions in Spanish among 19 Spanish-English bilingual children born and raised in the United States. We compare their results with those of 12 of the children’s parents, who are long-term immigrants of Mexican background. We predicted more difficulties among the bilingual children with increasing age as well as strong correlations between performance and language dominance. As expected, the bilingual children showed low production of the imperfect form in characterizing situations, crucially with eventive predicates, but no deficits with the use of the preterit. In contrast to what was expected, target performance was not correlated with language dominance, and we found no correlation between performance and developmental age. However, at the individual level, the older children outperformed the younger children despite more prolonged contact with
English. This contrasts with previous research claiming L1 attrition throughout the life span of the bilingual child to account for heritage speakers’ difficulties. Regarding the children’s parents, they all behaved at ceiling and showed no signs of attrition.