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. 292–320

Chapter 10
Variable outcomes abroad

Exploring the role of pre-program proficiency in the development of Spanish future-time expression

| University of Pittsburgh
| Indiana University
Empirical research has reported differential effects of proficiency level on acquisition in the study-abroad (SA) context. We tested whether pre-SA proficiency influences learners’ acquisition of variable structures during SA, analyzing Spanish future-time expression, a structure conveyed through multiple forms with distributions that differ regionally.
We surveyed English-speaking learners of Spanish who participated in 7-week programs in Valencia, Spain and Mérida, Mexico, whom we compared with local native speakers of Spanish. Before and after SA, learners completed a contextualized preference task created to examine variable future forms. Mixed-effects regressions revealed that, although learners generally approximated local targets, development according to proficiency level was not uniform, indicating the complex role of proficiency across grammatical structures and geographic regions.
Keywords: proficiency, study abroad, future-time variation, Spain, Mexico
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Background
    • Expression of futurity in Spanish
    • L2 acquisition of Spanish future
    • Study abroad and the acquisition of sociolinguistic variation
    • Proficiency and its relationship to linguistic outcomes during study abroad
  • Present study
    • Method
      • Participants
      • Tasks
      • Analysis
    • Results
      • Rates of selection
      • Independent variables
      • Present indicative
  • Discussion
    • Answers to Research Questions
    • The role of pre-program proficiency
  • Conclusions and future directions
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 6 June 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.37.10kan
References (53)
References
Aaron, J. E. (2014). A certain future: Epistemicity, prediction, and assertion in Iberian Spanish future expression. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 7, 215–240. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bayley, R., & Tarone, E. (2012). Variationist perspectives. In S. Gass & A. Mackey (Eds.), Handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 41–56). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Blas Arroyo, J. L. (2008). The variable expression of future tense in Peninsular Spanish: The present (and future) of inflectional forms in the Spanish spoken in a bilingual region. Language Variation and Change, 20, 85–126. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Canale, M., & Swain, M. (1980). Theoretical bases of communicative approaches to second language teaching and testing. Applied Linguistics, 1, 1–47. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Collentine, J. (2009). Study abroad research: Findings, implications, and future directions. In M. H. Long & C. J. Doughty (Eds.), The handbook of language teaching (pp. 218–233). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Comrie, B. (1985). Tense. New York: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
DeKeyser, R. (2010). Monitoring processes in Spanish as a second language during a study abroad program. Foreign Language Annals, 43, 80–92. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Díaz-Peralta, M., & Almeida, M. (2000). Sociolinguistic factors in grammatical change: The expression of the future in Canarian Spanish. Studia Neophilogica, 72, 217–228. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Durán Urrea, E., & Gradoville, M. (2007). Variation in the future tense of New Mexican Spanish. Texas Linguistic Forum, 50, 1–11.Google Scholar
Escobar, A. M. (1997). From time to modality in Spanish in contact with Quechua. Hispanic Linguistics, 9, 1–36.Google Scholar
Faretta-Stutenberg, M., & Morgan-Short, K. (2018). Contributions of initial proficiency and language use to second-language development during study abroad: Behavioral and event-related potential evidence. In C. Sanz & A. Morales-Front (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of study abroad research and practice (pp. 421–435). New York: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gavarró, A., & Luca, B. (2002). Les perífrasis temporals, aspectuals i modals. In J. Solà Cortassa, M. R. Lloret, J. Mascaró, & M. Pérez Saldanya (Eds.), Gramática del catalá comtemporani (3rd vol.) (pp. 2263–2726). Barcelona: Edicions de la Abadia de Montserrat.Google Scholar
Geeslin, K. L., 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. E. Blackwell, & M. Lubbers Quesada (Eds.), Selected proceedings of the 15th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium (pp. 205–220). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar
Geeslin, K. L., Gudmestad, A., Kanwit, M., Linford, B., Long, A. Y., Schmidt, L., & Solon, M. (2018). Sociolinguistic competence and the acquisition of speaking. In M. R. Alonso Alonso (Ed.), Speaking in a second language (pp. 1–25). Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grey, S., Cox, J., Serafini, E., & Sanz, C. (2015). The role of individual differences in the study abroad context: Cognitive capacity and language development during short-term intensive language exposure. The Modern Language Journal, 99, 137–157. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gudmestad, A., & Geeslin, K. L. (2011). Assessing the use of multiple forms in variable contexts: The relationship between linguistic factors and future-time reference in Spanish. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 3, 3–34. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2013). Second language development of variable future-time expression in Spanish. In A. M. Carvalho & S. Beaudrie (Eds.), Selected proceedings of the 6th Workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics (pp. 63–75). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar
Gutiérrez, M., & Fairclough, M. (2006). Incorporating linguistic variation into the classroom. In R. Salaberry & B. Lafford (Eds.), The art of teaching Spanish: Second language acquisition, from research to practice (pp. 173–192). Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Hulstijn, J. H. (2015). Language proficiency in native and non-native speakers: Theory and research. Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Issa, B., & Zalbidea, J. (2018). Proficiency levels in study abroad: Is there an optimal time for sojourning? In C. Sanz & A. Morales-Front (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of study abroad research and practice (pp. 453–463). New York: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle 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. (2014). The acquisition of future expression in L2 Spanish. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Indiana University, Bloomington.
(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., Elias, V., & Clay, R. (2018). Acquiring intensifier variation abroad: Exploring muy and bien in Spain and Mexico. Foreign Language Annals, 51, 455–471. 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 Proceedings Project.Google Scholar
(2023). Communicative competence in a second language: Theory, method, and applications. Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kennedy Terry, K. M. (2017). Contact, context, and collocation: The emergence of sociostylistic variation in L2 French learners during study abroad. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 39, 553–578. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Linford, B. G. (2016). The second-language development of dialect-specific morphosyntactic variation in Spanish during study abroad (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Indiana University, Bloomington.
Linford, B., Zahler, S., & Whatley, M. (2018). Acquisition, study abroad and individual differences: The case of subject pronoun variation in L2 Spanish. Study Abroad Research in Second Language Acquisition and International Education, 3, 243–274. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Llanes, A., & Muñoz, C. (2009). A short stay abroad: Does it make a difference? System, 37, 353–365. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Neumann, F., & Kanwit, M. (2020). Acquiring variable commands at home and abroad: Examining optatives and imperatives in L1 and L2 Spanish. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 13, 79–113. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Orozco, R. (2005). Distribution of future time forms in Northern Colombian Spanish. In D. Eddington (Ed.), Selected proceedings of the 7th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium (pp. 56–65). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar
(2015). Castilian in New York City: What can we learn from the future? In S. Sessarego & M. González-Rivera (Eds.), New perspectives on Hispanic contact linguistics in the Americas (pp. 347–372). Madrid: Iberoamericana/Vervuert. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Orozco, R., & Thoms, J. J. (2014). The future tense in Spanish L2 textbooks. Spanish in Context, 11, 27–49. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pérez-Vidal, C. (2014). Language acquisition in study abroad and formal instruction contexts. Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Plonsky, L., & Oswald, F. (2014). How big is “big”? Interpreting effect sizes in L2 research. Language Learning, 64(4), 878–912. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Poplack, S., & Dion, N. (2009). Prescription vs. praxis: The evolution of future temporal reference in French. Language, 85, 558–587.Google Scholar
Poplack, S., & Malvar, E. (2007). Elucidating the transition period in language change: The expression of the future in Brazilian Portuguese. Probus, 19, 121–169. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Regan, V. (2003). Sociolinguistics and language learning in a study abroad context. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, 4(3), 61–90. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Reichenbach, H. (1947). Elements of symbolic logic. New York: MacMillan & Co.Google Scholar
Salgado-Robles, F. (2014). Variación dialectal por aprendices de español en un contexto de inmersión en el extranjero: Un análisis cuantitativo del uso leísta en el discurso oral y escrito. Revista Lenguas Modernas, 43, 97–112.Google Scholar
Sankoff, D., & Thibault, P. (1981). Weak complementarity: Tense and aspect in Montreal French. In B. Strong Johns & D. Strong (Eds.), Syntactic change (pp. 206–216). Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan.Google Scholar
Sanz, C., & Morales-Front, A. (Eds.) (2018). The Routledge handbook of study abroad research and practice. New York: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sedano, M. (1994). El futuro morfológico y la expresión ir a + infinitivo en el español hablado de Venezuela. Verba, 21, 225–240.Google Scholar
Silva-Corvalán, C. (1994). Language contact and change: Spanish in Los Angeles. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Silva-Corvalán, C., & Terrell, T. D. (1989). Notas sobre la expresión de futuridad en el español del Caribe. Hispanic Linguistics, 2, 191–208.Google Scholar
Solon, M., & Kanwit, M. (2014). The emergence of future verbal morphology in Spanish as a foreign language. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 7, 115–148. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tagliamonte, S. (2012). Variationist sociolinguistics: Change, observation, interpretation. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Tarone, E. (2007). Sociolinguistic approaches to second language acquisition research, 1997–2007. Modern Language Journal, 91, 837–848. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Thomas, M. (1994). Assessment of L2 proficiency in second language acquisition research. Language Learning, 44, 307–336. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tremblay, A. (2011). Proficiency assessment standards in second language acquisition research: “Clozing” the gap. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 33, 339–372. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wilson, D. B. (2001). Effect size determination program [Computer software]. College Park, MD: University of Maryland.Google Scholar
Zalbidea, J., Issa, B. I., Faretta-Stutenberg, M., & Sanz, C. (2021). Initial proficiency and L2 grammar development during short-term immersion abroad: Conceptual and methodological insights. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 43, 239–267. DOI logoGoogle Scholar