Cover not available
Part of
Study Abroad and the Second Language Acquisition of Sociolinguistic Variation in Spanish
Edited by Sara L. Zahler, Avizia Y. Long and Bret Linford
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 37] 2023
► pp. 229–265

Chapter 8
The role of language attitudes in the L2 acquisition of sociolinguistic variation

The case of pre-verbal subjects in wh-questions

| Minnesota State University, Mankato
Previous studies have examined second language learners’ attitudes toward various Spanish dialects. Nonetheless, few studies have used matched guise to assess implicit language attitudes with respect to morphosyntactic variables. The present study explores the relationship between language attitudes, social interaction, and selection of pre-verbal subjects in wh-questions with Spanish learners studying abroad in the Dominican Republic. Study abroad learners and a group of at-home students completed a written contextualized task examining subject position in wh-questions. Learners studying abroad also completed a matched guise task and a social interaction questionnaire. Findings indicate that learners with an increase in intelligence rating for pre-verbal subjects at Time 2 favored selection of pre-verbal subjects at the end of their study abroad.
Keywords: language attitudes, pre-verbal subjects in wh-questions, Dominican Spanish, matched guise, short-term study abroad
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Review of the literature
    • 2.1Wh-questions in Spanish
    • 2.2Wh-questions in Caribbean Spanish
    • 2.3Social interaction
    • 2.4Language attitudes
  • 3.Research questions
  • 4.Methodology
    • 4.1Participants
    • 4.2Materials and procedure
      • 4.2.1Written Contextualized Task (WCT)
      • 4.2.2Matched guise
      • 4.2.3Study Abroad Social Interaction Questionnaire (SASIQ)
      • 4.2.4Language background questionnaire
    • 4.3Coding
      • 4.3.1Dependent variable
      • 4.3.2Independent variables
        • 4.3.2.1Linguistic variables
        • 4.3.2.2Extralinguistic variables
    • 4.4Analysis
  • 5.Results
    • 5.1Wh-questions
    • 5.2Attitudes
  • 6.Discussion
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 6 June 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.37.08den
References (47)
References
Alfaraz, G. G. (2011). Accusative object marking: A change in progress in Cuban Spanish? Spanish in Context, 8, 213–234. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Alfaraz, G. (2015). Variation of overt and null subject pronouns in the Spanish of Santo Domingo. In A. M. Carvalho, R. Orozco, and N. N. L. Shin (Eds.), Subject pronoun expression in Spanish: A cross-dialectal perspective (pp. 3–17). Washington D.C. Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Baker, W. (2008). Social, experiential and psychological factors affecting L2 dialect acquisition. In M. Bowles, R. Foote, S. Perpinán, & R. Bhatt. Selected proceedings of the 2007 second language research forum (pp. 187–198). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar
Brown, E. L., & Rivas, J. (2011). Subject-verb word order in Spanish interrogatives: A quantitative analysis of Puerto Rican Spanish. Spanish in Context, 8, 23–49. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Davis, J. C. (1971). Tú, ¿qué tú tienes?. Hispania, 54, 331–333. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Denbaum, N. (2020). Role of social interaction abroad in the L2 acquisition of sociolinguistic variation: The case of subject expression in the Dominican Republic. In D. Pascual y Cabo & I. Elola (Eds.), Current theoretical and applied perspectives on Hispanic and Lusophone linguistics (pp. 63–84). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dewey, D. P., Belnap, R. K., & Hillstrom, R. (2013). Social network development, language use, and language acquisition during study abroad: Arabic language learners’ perspectives. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, 22(1), 84–110. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dewey, D. P., Bown, J., & Eggett, D. (2012). Japanese language proficiency, social networking, and language use during study abroad: Learners’ perspectives. Canadian Modern Language Review, 68, 111–137. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Díaz-Campos, M. (2013). Introducción a la sociolingüística hispánica. John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Dörnyei, Z., & Csizér, K. (1998). Ten commandments for motivating language learners: Results of an empirical study. Language Teaching Research, 2, 203–229. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Elliott, A. R. (1995). Foreign language phonology: Field independence, attitude, and the success of formal instruction in Spanish pronunciation. The Modern Language Journal, 79, 530–542. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fasold, R. (1984). The sociolinguistics of society. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Francom, J. (2012). Wh-movement, interrogatives, exclamatives, and relatives. In J. I. Hualde, A. Olarrea, & E. O’Rourke (Eds.), The handbook of Hispanic linguistics (pp. 533–556). Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Freed, B. F., Dewey, D. P., Segalowitz, N., & Halter, R. (2004). The language contact profile. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 26, 349–356. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Geeslin, K., Fafulas, S., & Kanwit, M. (2013). Acquiring geographically-variable norms of use: The case of the present perfect in Mexico and Spain. In C. Howe, S. Blackwell, & M. Quesada (Eds.), Selected proceedings of the 15th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium (pp. 205–220). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar
Geeslin, K. L., García-Amaya, L., Hasler-Barker, M., Henriksen, N., & Killam, J. (2010). The SLA of direct object pronouns in a study abroad immersion environment where use is variable. In C. Borgonovo, M. Español- Echevarría, & P. Prevost, (Eds.), Refereed proceedings from the 12th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium (pp. 246–259). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Geeslin, K., García-Amaya, L. J., Hasler-Barker, M., Henriksen, N. C., & Killam, J. (2012). The L2 acquisition of variable perfective past time reference in Spanish in an overseas immersion setting. In K. Geeslin & M. Díaz-Campos, (Eds.), Selected proceedings of the 14th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium (pp. 197–213). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar
Geeslin, K. L., & Schmidt, L. B. (2018). Study abroad and L2 learner attitudes. In C. Sanz & A. Morales-Front (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of study abroad research and practice (pp. 387–405). New York, NY: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heap, D. (1990). Questions with preverbal subject in Dominican Spanish: Morphological variation and syntactic restructuring. Papers from the annual meetings of the Atlantic Provinces Linguistic Association (PAMAPLA), 14, 59–67.Google Scholar
Johnson, D. E. (2009). Getting off the GoldVarb standard: Introducing Rbrul for mixed-effects variable rule analysis. Language and Linguistics Compass, 3, 359–383. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kanwit, M. (2017). What we gain by combining variationist and concept-oriented approaches: The case of acquiring Spanish future-time expression. Language Learning, 67, 461–498. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kanwit, M., Geeslin, K. L., & Fafulas, S. (2015). Study abroad and the SLA of variable structures: A look at the present perfect, the copula contrast, and the present progressive in Mexico and Spain. Probus, 27, 307–348. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kanwit, M., & Solon, M. (2013). Acquiring variation in future-time expression abroad in Valencia, Spain and Mérida, Mexico. In J. Cabrelli Amaro, G. Lord, A. de Prada Pérez, & J. E. Aaron (Eds.), Selected proceedings of the 16th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium (pp. 206–221). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Kennedy Terry, K. M. (2017). Contact, context, and collocation. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 39, 553–578. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Knouse, S. M. (2012). The acquisition of dialectal phonemes in a study abroad context: The case of the Castilian theta. Foreign Language Annals, 45, 512–542. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lafford, B. A. (2006). The effects of study abroad vs. classroom contexts on Spanish SLA: Old assumptions, new insights and future research directions. In C. Klee & T. Face (Eds.), Selected proceedings of the 7th Conference on the Acquisition of Spanish and Portuguese as First and Second Languages (pp. 1–25). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar
Lambert, W. E., Hodgson, R. C., Gardner, R. C., & Fillenbaum, S. (1960). Evaluational reactions to spoken languages. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 60, 44–51. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Linford, B. G. (2016). The second-language development of dialect-specific morpho-syntactic variation in Spanish during study abroad (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations Publishing. (Publication No. 10130845).
Linford, B., Zahler, S., & Whatley, M. (2018). Acquisition, study abroad and individual differences: the case of subject pronoun variation in L2 Spanish. Study Abroad in Second Language Acquisition and International Education, 3, 243–274. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lipski, J. M. (1977). Preposed subjects in questions: Some considerations. Hispania, 60, 61–67. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lipski, J. (1994). Latin American Spanish. London and New York: Longman.Google Scholar
Lizardi, C. M. (1993). Subject position in Puerto Rican wh-questions: Syntactic, sociolinguistic, and discourse factors (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations Publishing. (Publication No. 9401844)
Martínez-Sanz, C. (2011). Null and overt subjects in a variable system: The case of Dominican Spanish (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations Publishing. (Publication No. NR98031)
Morales, A. (1989). Hacia un universal sintáctico del español del Caribe: el orden SVO. Anuario de Lingüística Hispánica, 5, 139–152.Google Scholar
Ordóñez, F., & Olarrea, A. (2006). Microvariation in Caribbean/non Caribbean Spanish interrogatives. Probus, 18, 59–96. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ringer-Hilfinger, K. (2012). Learner acquisition of dialect variation in a study abroad context: The case of the Spanish [θ]. Foreign Language Annals, 45, 430–446. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Salgado-Robles, F. (2018). Desarrollo de la competencia sociolingüística por aprendices de español en un contexto de inmersión en el extranjero. Bern: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Schmidt, L. (2009). The effect of dialect familiarity via a study abroad experience on L2 comprehension of Spanish. In J. Collentine, M. García, B. Lafford, & F. Marcos Marín (Eds.), Selected proceedings of the 11th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium (pp. 143–154). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar
Schmidt, R. (1983). Interaction, acculturation, and the acquisition of communicative competence: a case study of an adult. In D. Preston (Ed.), Sociolinguistics and language acquisition (pp. 137–174). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Schoonmaker-Gates, E. (2018). Dialect comprehension and identification in L2 Spanish: Familiarity and type of exposure. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 11, 193–214. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schumann, J. H. (1978). The pidginization process: A model for second language acquisition. Rowley, MA: Newbury House Publishers.Google Scholar
Segalowitz, N., Freed, B., Collentine, J., Lafford, B., Lazar, N., & Díaz-Campos, M. (2004). A comparison of Spanish second language acquisition in two different learning contexts: Study abroad and the domestic classroom. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, 10, 1–18. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Suñer, M. (1986). Lexical subjects of infinitives in Caribbean Spanish. In O. Jaeggli & C. Silva-Corvalán (Eds.), Studies in Romance linguistics (pp. 189–203). Dordrecht: Foris. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Toribio, A. J. (1993). Lexical subjects in finite and non-finite clauses. Cornell Working Papers in Linguistics, 11, 149–178.Google Scholar
(2000). Setting parametric limits on dialectal variation in Spanish. Lingua, 110, 315–341. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wilkinson, S. (1998). Study abroad from the participants’ perspective: A challenge to common beliefs. Foreign Language Annals, 31, 23–39. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Willis, E., Geeslin, K. L., & Henriksen, N. (2009, Oct.). The acquisition of /θ/ by study abroad learners in León, Spain [Paper presentation]. 2009 Hispanic Linguistics Symposium, San Juan, Puerto Rico.