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Acquiring variable commands at home and abroad: Examining optatives and imperatives in L1 and L2 Spanish

  • Farrah Neumann EMAIL logo and Matthew Kanwit

Abstract

Since many linguistic structures are variable (i. e. conveyed by multiple forms), building a second-language grammar critically involves developing sociolinguistic competence (Canale and Swain. 1980. Theoretical bases of communicative approaches to second language teaching and testing. Applied Linguistics 1(1). 1–47), including knowledge of contexts in which to use one form over another (Bayley and Langman. 2004. Variation in the group and the individual: Evidence from second language acquisition. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching 42(4). 303–318). Consequently, researchers interested in such competence have increasingly analyzed the study-abroad context to gauge learners’ ability to approximate local norms following a stay abroad, due to the quality and quantity of input to which learners may gain access (Lafford. 2006. The effects of study abroad vs. classroom contexts on Spanish SLA: Old assumptions, new insights and future research directions. In Carol Klee & Timothy Face (eds.), Selected proceedings of the 7th conference on the acquisition of Spanish and Portuguese as first and second languages, 1–25. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project). Nevertheless, the present study is the first to examine native or learner variation between imperative (e. g. ven ‘come’) and optative Spanish commands (e. g. que vengas ‘come’). We first performed a corpus analysis to determine the linguistic factors to manipulate in a contextualized task, which elicited commands from learners before and after four weeks abroad in Alcalá de Henares, Spain. Their overall rates of selection and predictive factors were compared to local native speakers (NSs) and a control group of at-home learners.

Results revealed that the abroad learners more closely approached NS rates of selection following the stay abroad. Nonetheless, for both learner groups conditioning by independent variables only partially approximated the NS system, which was more complex than previously suggested.

Appendix A

Sample items from WCT with English translations and coding

The following story consists of a series of related events.

Read each context and select the response that you prefer.

  1. María y su abuela están haciendo planes para la Navidad. La abuela de María no sabe qué regalarle al niño de María. María le dice:

    1. Compre un libro.

    2. Que compre un libro.

    3. Las dos son posibles.

  2. La abuela tiene dificultades para oír. María le dice, “Compre unos libros nuevos.” La abuela sigue sin poder oír. María dice:

    1. Que compre un libro.

    2. Compre un libro.

    3. Las dos son posibles.

  3. La abuela no quiere comprar un libro. Le dice a María:

    1. Dame otra idea.

    2. Que me des otra idea.

    3. Las dos son posibles.

  1. Maria and her grandmother are making plans for Christmas. Maria’s grandmother doesn’t know what to give to Maria’s son. Maria tells her:

    1. Buy a book (imperative).

    2. Buy a book (optative).

    3. Both are possible.

      (noun phrase, usted, no previous command)

  2. The grandmother has difficulty hearing. Maria says to her, “Buy some new books.” The grandmother still doesn’t hear. Maria says:

    1. Buy a book (optative).

    2. Buy a book (imperative).

    3. Both are possible.

    (noun phrase, usted, imperative same verb)

  3. The grandmother doesn’t want to buy a book. She says to Maria:

    1. Give me another idea (imperative).

    2. Give me another idea (optative).

    3. Both are possible.

      (noun phrase, tú, no previous command)

Appendix B

Overall rates of selection for all groups prior to collapsing optative and ‘both’

NSs

SA Time 1

SA Time 2

AH Time 1

AH Time 2

#

%

#

%

#

%

#

%

#

%

Optative

221

14.6

99

22.0

100

22.2

55

18.3

79

26.4

Imperative

1074

70.9

206

45.9

230

51.1

186

62.0

164

54.8

Both

220

14.5

144

32.1

120

26.7

59

19.7

56

18.7

Total

1515

100

449

100

450

100

300

100

299

100

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Published Online: 2020-04-22
Published in Print: 2020-05-27

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