The Role of Experience in the Acquisition and Production of Diminutives and Gender in Spanish: Evidence from L2 Learners and Heritage Speakers

Autor/inn/en	Montrul, Silvina; de la Fuente, Israel; Davidson, Justin; Foote, Rebecca
Titel	The Role of Experience in the Acquisition and Production of Diminutives and Gender in Spanish: Evidence from L2 Learners and Heritage Speakers
Quelle	In: Second Language Research, 29 (2013) 1, S.87-118 (32 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0267-6583
DOI	10.1177/0267658312458268
Schlagwörter	Native Speakers; Learning Experience; Nouns; Spanish; Second Language Learning; Morphology (Languages); Heritage Education; Form Classes (Languages); Language Proficiency; Task Analysis; Pictorial Stimuli; Language Research; Oral Language; Error Patterns; Graduate Students; Advanced Courses + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Muttersprachler; Lernerfahrung; Spanisch; Zweitsprachenerwerb; Morphology; Morphologie; Analytischer Sprachbau; Language skill; Language skills; Sprachkompetenz; Aufgabenanalyse; Fantasieanregung; Sprachforschung; Oral interpretation; Mündlicher Sprachgebrauch; Fehlertyp; Graduate Study; Student; Students; Aufbaustudium; Graduiertenstudium; Hauptstudium; Studentin; Fortgeschrittenenunterricht
Abstract	This study examined whether type of early language experience provides advantages to heritage speakers over second language (L2) learners with morphology, and investigated knowledge of gender agreement and its interaction with diminutive formation. Diminutives are a hallmark of Child Directed Speech in early language development and a highly productive morphological mechanism that facilitates the acquisition of declensional noun endings in many languages (Savickiene and Dressler, 2007). In Spanish, diminutives regularize gender marking in nouns with a non-canonical ending. Twenty-four Spanish native speakers, 29 heritage speakers and 37 L2 learners with intermediate to advanced proficiency completed two picture-naming tasks and an elicited production task. Results showed that the heritage speakers were more accurate than the L2 learners with gender agreement in general, and with non-canonical ending nouns in particular. This study confirms that early language experience and the type of input received confer some advantages to heritage speakers over L2 learners with early-acquired aspects of language, especially in oral production. (Contains 8 tables, 5 figures and 7 notes.) (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: http://sagepub.com
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10