1、Task Design in L2 Tense and Aspect Research: What matters?,Nicole Tracy-Ventura Laura DominguezUniversity of Southampton,Contact email: N.Tracy-Venturasoton.ac.uk,Spanish Learner Language Oral Corpus Project,Collaboration between the Universities of Southampton, Newcastle, and Greenwich. Additional
2、Team Members: Rosamond Mitchell, Florence Myles, and Mara Arche Tim Boardman, web design and IT supportPrevious Projects: SPLLOC 1 (www.splloc.soton.ac.uk) FLLOC (www.flloc.soton.ac.uk),SPLLOC 2,Main Goal: to test the validity of the Aspect and the Discourse Hypotheses with reference to the acquisit
3、ion of perfective and imperfective forms in L2 Spanish.Relevant features: Cross-sectional design with native speaker controls A combination of different task types Data available online for use by other researchersAudio files (mp3 & .wav)Transcripts (CHILDES)Tagged files (MOR),Perfective and Imperfe
4、ctive forms in Spanish,Perfective (preterit): bounded Llegu tarde. (I arrived late.) Preparaste el almuerzo. (You prepared lunch.) Ella pint. (She painted).Imperfective (imperfect): unbounded Llegaba tarde. (I would arrive late/was arriving late) Ella preparaba el almuerzo cuando (She was preparing
5、lunch when) Estaban cansados. (They were tired),SPLLOC 2 Research Questions:,Emergence: What is the pattern of Tense-Aspect development of English L2 learners of Spanish? AH VS DH: Can the observed pattern be accounted for by the Aspect Hypothesis, the Discourse Hypothesis, or both? Acquisition of I
6、mperfective Semantic meanings: Which reading is the imperfect associated with in the first place (habitual, continuous, progressive)?,L2 Tense and Aspect Research,Various hypotheses proposed to explain the L2 acquisition of tense-aspect morphology. For example: Aspect Hypothesis (Andersen & Shirai,
7、1994,1996) Discourse Hypothesis (Bardovi-Harlig, 1998) Default Past Tense Hypothesis (Salaberry, 1999, 2008) Distributional Bias Hypothesis (Andersen, 1994) Minimalist Hypothesis (Montrul & Slabakova, 2002)Despite a large body of research, still several issues to be resolved: Inconclusive results wh
8、en comparing competing hypotheses (AH vs. DH). Acquisition of the imperfective has not been adequately addressed (Bardovi-Harlig, 2005).,Aspect Hypothesis (Andersen & Shirai, 1994, 1996),Perfective and Imperfective morphology emerge in a sequence determined by the inherent semantic properties of the
9、 verbal predicate Achievements (recognize, wake up) Accomplishments (build a house, write a letter) Activities (swim, walk, sing) States (be, want, love),Telic,Atelic,Aspect Hypothesis predictions for Spanish,PERFECTIVE: ACH ACC ACT STAtelic atelicIMPERFECTIVE: STA ACT ACC ACHatelic telic,Prototypic
10、al Pairings: acquired first,PERFECTIVE: ACH ACC ACT STAtelic atelicIMPERFECTIVE: STA ACT ACC ACHatelic telic,Non-Prototypical Pairings: acquired later,PERFECTIVE: ACH ACC ACT STAtelic atelicIMPERFECTIVE: STA ACT ACC ACHatelic telic,Discourse Hypothesis (Bardovi-Harlig 1998),L2 learners use of tempor
11、al-aspectual forms is guided by narrative structureFOREGROUND moves time along chronologically PERFECTIVE BACKGROUND supporting information, description, evaluation, prediction IMPERFECTIVE,Studies testing the DH vs. AH,For example: Bardovi-Harlig (1998) Liskin-Gasparro (2000) Lpez-Ortega (2000) Com
12、ajoan & Prez Saldanya (2005) Salaberry (2009)Results complicated because the cases where the hypotheses make opposite predictions have been difficult to elicit using more free and open-ended tasks,Non-Prototypical Pairings,What about the elusive imperfect? (Bardovi-Harlig, 2005),The imperfect has mu
13、ltiple semantic interpretations but research has rarely taken this into consideration.(e.g., habitual, progressive, continuous)Are there meanings of the imperfect acquired before others?,In sum,Various hypotheses have been proposed to explain the acquisition of past tense morphology. How do we make
14、sense of all the results?Ayoun & Salaberry (2005) suggest that its not that one hypothesis is right and another is wrong. Each hypothesis might explain a different stage of development.However, What if our elicitation tasks are to blame? Most studies have not designed tasks considering prototypical
15、and nonprototypical forms and discourse role.,Elicitation Tasks in Tense-Aspect Research,Oral: Personal narratives Impersonal narratives(e.g., Modern Times) Role-plays Interviews and semi-structured interviews Free conversation,Written: Personal narratives Impersonal narratives Essays/compositions M
16、ultiple choice Fill-in-the-blank Appropriateness judgments Sentence conjunction,*Most studies use one or two task types, not a range.,Issues with Tasks,Problems eliciting past tense morphology with prompts such as “What happened in the story”: Learners and NS use historical present Learners and NS f
17、ocus on main events, i.e., foreground and not as much on background.Few nonprototypical pairings occur naturally Lafford (1996) no nonprototypical imperfect pairings,Task type can affect:,1. amount of lexical diversity Film retells much higher percentage of achievement verbs than the three other lex
18、ical aspect classes (Bardovi-Harlig, 2000) 2. amount of foreground and background Impersonal narratives more examples of foreground than background (Liskin-Gasparro, 2000). personal narratives usually less constrained and often include more background (Bardovi-Harlig, 2005).3. rates of appropriate u
19、se Learners most accurate with cloze tests, then written retells, then spoken retells (Bardovi-Harlig, 1998; Camps, 2002),Conclusions,Need tasks that accomplish the following: naturally elicit the past tense elicit a variety of verb types in both prototypical and nonprototypical pairings. are rich i
20、n background (vs. foreground). elicit the imperfect with different meanings (habitual, progressive, continuous).Need to have the same learners (across proficiency levels) do a variety of text and task types: Narratives, description, biographical controlled vs. less controlled production and comprehe
21、nsion,SPLLOC 2 Participants,Post Year Abroad,SPLLOC 2 Tasks,Las Hermanas: controlled impersonal narrative,Main task design issues: How to prompt learners to tell the story in the past How to demonstrate habituality with a picture-based narrative How to find pictures to demonstrate prototypical and n
22、onprototypical pairings,Las Hermanas: controlled impersonal narrative,Written by the research team Drawn by a hired artist SPLLOC 2009 Verb phrases provided (infinitive form) Targeted nonprototypical pairings (where AH & DH make opposite predictions),Las vacaciones de Sarah y Gwen en Espaa,Verano de
23、l 2006,Sarah,Gwen,Prompt to push use of past,(visitar) la ciudad,(comer) tapas (beber) vino,Foreground:,En MADRID,(coger) el tren,(hablar) sobre su niez,Despus decidieron ir a Barcelona,Prompt to push use of past,1996,De pequeas, (ser) muy diferentes,Background begins:,Prompts to push use of past,Gw
24、en de niacada fin de semana,(leer) un libro,(pintar) un cuadro,(escribir) un cuento,Prompt to push use of habitual past,Cat Story: Impersonal narrative,Story adapted from “Missing“ by Jonathan Langley Francais Lincoln 2000 Rich in background information, both habitual actions and progressive. Learne
25、rs were given time to preview the story before starting.Task Design Issues: same as other narrative,Prompt: Start of Background,Todas las maanas eran iguales(Every morning was the same),Prompt to push use of past and to be habitual,Prompt: Start of Foreground,Hasta que un da (Until one day),Intervie
26、w,Task Design Issues: How to elicit personal narratives (vs. impersonal) How to elicit nonprototypical pairings of activities and states in the preterit How to engage learners in the task (especially youngest group),Interview: warm-up, biographical information,Qu sabes de estas personas? Por qu eran
27、 famosos?,Interview, autobiographical information,Mi primer recuerdo,3-6 aos,7-11 aos,12 aos - ahora,El fin de semana pasado,Cuntame cosas de tu vida,Simultaneous Actions,Task Design Issues: How to make sure we had opportunities for learners to use the imperfect for past progressive actions How to d
28、emonstrate progressivity with pictures How to prompt learners to describe the pictures in the past How to find pictures to demonstrate prototypical and nonprototypical pairingsAll pictures drawn by a hired artist, SPLLOC 2009,Javier and Silvia are cousins who travelled together to Mexico for holiday
29、. They just arrived today and have already done a couple of things:Butall day yesterday they were very busy getting ready for their trip. What were they doing?,BILLETES,Prompt: Mientras Javier, Silvia,leer una carta,levantarse,preparar caf,escuchar msica,9.00,9.00,10.00,10.00,Comprehension Task,Task
30、 Design Issues: Need to include all lexical aspect classes in both preterit and imperfect contexts. Need to include items testing the various imperfect interpretations Need to include a context that adequately settings the scene.,Comprehension Task,Learners were given the prompt in English,Data Anal
31、ysis Oral Tasks,All audio recordings transcribed according to CHAT conventions (CHILDES) Transcriptions checked and anonymised Transcriptions morpho-syntactically tagged (MOR) Transcriptions coded with specific aspectual and discursive features (VCX),Participants Utterance,*H26: de pequeas eran muy
32、diferentes . %mor: prep|de=of adj|pequeo-FEM-PL=small vpas|se-3P&PAS=be adv|muy=very adj|diferente-PL=different . %vcx: verb_STA|se-3P&PAS=be IMPF CORR TARGET 6| BACK continuous *H26: Gwen de nia lea un libro . %mor: n:prop|Gwen prep|de=of n|nio-FEM=child vpas|lee-13S&PAS=read det:art|un&MASC=one n|
33、libro&MASC=book . %vcx: verb_ACC|lee-13S&PAS=read IMPF CORR TARGET 7| BACK habitual *H26: pintaba un cuadro . %mor: vpas|pinta-13S&PAS=paint det:art|un&MASC=one n|cuadro&MASC=square . %vcx: verb_ACC|pinta-13S&PAS=paint IMPF CORR TARGET 8| BACK habitual,MOR tagged line,*H26: de pequeas eran muy difer
34、entes .%vcx: verb_STA|se-3P&PAS=be IMPF CORR TARGET 6| BACK continuous *H26: Gwen de nia lea un libro .%vcx: verb_ACC|lee-13S&PAS=read IMPF CORR TARGET 7| BACK habitual *H26: pintaba un cuadro .%vcx: verb_ACC|pinta-13S&PAS=paint IMPF CORR TARGET 8| BACK habitual,%mor: prep|de=of adj|pequeo-FEM-PL=sm
35、all vpas|se-3P&PAS=be adv|muy=very adj|diferente-PL=different .,%mor: n:prop|Gwen prep|de=of n|nio-FEM=child vpas|lee-13S&PAS=read det:art|un&MASC=one n|libro&MASC=book,%mor: vpas|pinta-13S&PAS=paint det:art|un&MASC=one n|cuadro&MASC=square .,VCX tagged line,*H26: de pequeas eran muy diferentes . %m
36、or: prep|de=of adj|pequeo-FEM-PL=small vpas|se-3P&PAS=be adv|muy=very adj|diferente-PL=different . *H26: Gwen de nia lea un libro . %mor: n:prop|Gwen prep|de=of n|nio-FEM=child vpas|lee-13S&PAS=read det:art|un&MASC=one n|libro&MASC=book .*H26: pintaba un cuadro . %mor: vpas|pinta-13S&PAS=paint det:a
37、rt|un&MASC=one n|cuadro&MASC=square .,%vcx: verb_STA|se-3P&PAS=be IMPF CORR TARGET 6| BACK continuous,%vcx: verb_ACC|lee-13S&PAS=read IMPF CORR TARGET 7| BACK habitual,%vcx: verb_ACC|pinta-13S&PAS=paint IMPF CORR TARGET 8| BACK habitual,Preliminary Results,Tasks were successful at eliciting past. Pi
38、ctures worked well for eliciting different lexical aspect classes and habitual/progressive events. More equal amounts of foreground/background elicited in the narratives.,Controlled Impersonal Narrative: Las Hermanas,2220 predicates were coded:Y10 = 497Y13 = 516UG = 587NS = 620,Foreground = 47% Back
39、ground = 53%Achievements = 20%, Accomplishments = 26%Activities = 25%, States = 29%,Percentage of production within lexical aspect classes, Controlled narrative,Cat Story Native Speakers only,818 predicates coded35% preterit48% imperfect 7% past progressive5% present,40% Foreground60% BackgroundAchi
40、evements = 36%Accomplishments = 15%Activities = 27%States = 22%,Within Lexical Aspect Class Analysis, Cat Story NS,Next steps in analysis,Finish coding all tasks Consider across-group and within-group results for evidence of developmental stages Compare learners use of imperfect morphology on produc
41、tion tasks with the results of the comprehension task Compare learners performance across production tasks,TBLT Implications,Past tense morphology is a developmental feature.When designing tasks: pay attention to the verb phrases used Are there both prototypical and nonprototypical pairings? conside
42、r the amount of foreground and background. Try to include equal amounts think about how useful prompts are use various text and task types,Spanish Learner Language Oral Corpus (SPLLOC),Thank you!www.splloc.soton.ac.ukFunded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (award RES-062-23-1075),Refer
43、ences,Andersen, R. (1994). The insiders advantage. In A. Giacalone-Ramat & M. Vedovelli (Eds.), Italiano lingua seconda/lingua straniera (pp. 1-26). Rome: Bulzoni.Andersen, R. & Shirai, Y. (1994). Discourse motivations for some cognitive acquisition principles. Studies in Second Language Acquisition
44、, 16, 133-156Andersen, R. W., & Shirai, Y. (1996). Primacy of aspect in first and second language acquisition: The pidgin/Creole connection. In W.C. Ritchie & T.K. Bhatia (Eds.), Handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 527-570). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.Ayoun, D. & Salaberry, R. (2005). To
45、wards a comprehensive model of the acquisition of L2 tense-aspect in the Romance languages. In Ayoun, D. & R. Salaberry (Eds.), Tense and aspect in Romance languages (pp.253-281). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Bardovi-Harlig, K. (1998). Narrative structure and lexical aspect: Conspiring factors in seco
46、nd language acquisition of tense-aspect morphology. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 20, 471-508.Bardovi-Harlig, K. (2000). Tense and aspect in second language acquisition: Form, meaning, and use. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, Inc.Bardovi-Harlig, K. (2005). Tracking the elusive imperfect
47、in adult second language acquisition: Refining the hunt. In P. Kempchinsky & R. Slabakova (Eds.), Aspectual inquiries (pp. 397-419). Dordrecht: Kluwer.Camps, J. (2002). Aspectual distinctions in Spanish as a foreign language: The early stages of oral production. IRAL, 40, 179-210.,Comajoan, L. & Pre
48、z Saldanya, M. (2005). Grammaticalization and language acquisition: Interaction of lexical aspect and discourse. In D. Eddington (ed.), Selected Proceedings of the 6th Conference on the Acquisition of Spanish and Portuguese as First and Second Languages (pp.44-55). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceed
49、ings Project. Lafford, B. (1996). The development of tense/aspect relations in L2 Spanish narratives: evidence to test competing theories. Paper read at SLRF 96, at Tucson, AZ.Liskin-Gasparro, J. (2000). The use of tense-aspect morphology in Spanish oral narratives: Exploring the perceptions of adva
50、nced learners. Hispania, 83, 830-844. Lopez-Ortega, N. R. (2000). Tense, aspect, and narrative structure in Spanish as a second language. Hispania, 83, 488-502.Montrul, S., & Slabakova, R. (2002). The L2 acquisition of morphosyntactic and semantic properties of the aspectual tenses preterite and imp
51、erfect. In A. T. Prez-Leroux & J. Muoz Liceras (Eds.), The acquisition of Spanish morphosyntax (pp. 115-151). Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer. Salaberry, R. (1999). The development of past tense verbal morphology in classroom L2 Spanish. Applied Linguistics, 20, 151-178.Salaberry, R. (2008). Marking past tense in second language acquisition: A theoretical Model. London: Continuum.Salaberry, R. (forthcoming). Assessing the effect of lexical aspect and grounding on the acquisition of L2 Spanish past tense morphology among L1 English speakers. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition.,
