Vivo en un ciudad pequeño: Nominal Agreement in the Acquisition of Spanish as a Second Language

An interesting topic of research in second language acquisition is whether learners can achieve a native-like language, even though certain features do not occur in their native language. There are numerous studies on native English speakers learning Spanish as a second language. However, there are not many researchers who investigated the Spanish interlanguage of native Dutch speakers. Therefore, this study investigates the Spanish acquisition of Dutch students from Leiden University. The feature that is being analysed is nominal agreement, the agreement between a noun and its linked elements, such as determiners and adjectives. The information of the gender and number of the noun is displayed in these elements (la ciudad pequeña, “the small city” and el pueblo pequeño, “the small town”). The participants were divided into three different proficiency groups: beginner, intermediate and advanced. They all had to answer three essay questions, which were analysed on the correct use of...Show moreAn interesting topic of research in second language acquisition is whether learners can achieve a native-like language, even though certain features do not occur in their native language. There are numerous studies on native English speakers learning Spanish as a second language. However, there are not many researchers who investigated the Spanish interlanguage of native Dutch speakers. Therefore, this study investigates the Spanish acquisition of Dutch students from Leiden University. The feature that is being analysed is nominal agreement, the agreement between a noun and its linked elements, such as determiners and adjectives. The information of the gender and number of the noun is displayed in these elements (la ciudad pequeña, “the small city” and el pueblo pequeño, “the small town”). The participants were divided into three different proficiency groups: beginner, intermediate and advanced. They all had to answer three essay questions, which were analysed on the correct use of nominal agreement. Results showed that how higher the proficiency level of the speaker, how more native-like the language becomes. Participants made more errors with plural and feminine nouns than with singular and masculine nouns, which demonstrates that singular and masculine are used as default. Whether speakers find the determiner-noun agreement easier than the noun-adjective agreement will still be a subject to further discuss.Show less

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Vivo en un ciudad pequeño: Nominal Agreement in the Acquisition of Spanish as a Second Language