Cover not available
Part of
New Perspectives on the Study of Ser and Estar
Edited by Isabel Pérez-Jiménez, Manuel Leonetti and Silvia Gumiel-Molina
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 5] 2015
► pp. 293–324

The development and use of the Spanish copula with adjectives by Korean-speaking learners

| Indiana University
ORCID logo | Indiana University

The current investigation explores the development and use of the Spanish copulas with adjectives by Korean-speaking learners. Twenty-three adult university-level Korean-speaking learners of Spanish in South Korea completed a sociolinguistic interview task, a background questionnaire, and a grammarbased proficiency test. A variationist analysis identified the range of forms produced in the [copula + adjective] (i.e., attributive) context, the frequency of use of each form, and the relationship between frequency and other factors, both linguistic and individual. Our findings show common patterns between Koreanspeaking learners and the English-speaking learners in previous research but also attest to distinct frequencies of use at earlier proficiency levels.

Keywords: cross-linguistic influence, developmental omission, Korean learners, L2 Spanish, sociolinguistic competence, Spanish copula, variationist approach
Published online: 28 October 2015
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.5.11gee
References
Adamson, H.D., & Regan, V.M
(1991) The acquisition of community speech norms by Asian immigrants learning English as a second language. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 13(1), 1–22. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Andersen, R.W
(1984) The one to one principle of interlanguage construction. Language Learning, 34(4), 77–95. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Beebe, L., & Zuengler, J
(1983) Accommodation theory: An explanation for style shifting in second language dialects. In N. Wolfson & E. Judd (Eds.), Sociolinguistics and language acquisition (pp. 195–213). Rowley, MA: Newbury House.Google Scholar
Briscoe, G
(1995)  The acquisition of ser and estar by non-native speakers of Spanish . Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Bruhn de Garavito, J., & Valenzuela, E
(2008) Eventive and stative passives in Spanish L2 acquisition: A matter of aspect. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 11(3), 323–336. 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
Cheng, A.C., Lu, H.-C., & Giannakouros, P
(2008) The uses of Spanish copulas by Chinese-speaking learners in a free writing task. Bilingualism, Language and Cognition, 11, 301–318. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cho, B.-E
(2004) Issues concerning Korean learners of English: English education in Korea and some common difficulties of Korean students. The East Asian Learner, 1(2), 31–36.Google Scholar
Cho, Y.-M., Lee, H.S., Schulz, C., Sohn, H.-M., & Sohn, S.-O
(2010) Integrated Korean: Beginning 1 (2nd ed.). Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai’i Press.Google Scholar
Collentine, J., & Asención-Delaney, Y
(2010) A corpus-based analysis of the discourse functions of ser/estar+adjective in three levels of Spanish as FL learners. Language Learning, 60, 409–445. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dorado, D
(2011) Second language variation of ser and estar: A comparative analysis of advanced second language learners (Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation). Gainesville, FL: University of Florida.Google Scholar
Dussias, P., Contemori, C., & Román, P
(2014) Processing ser and estar to locate objects and events: An ERP study with L2 speakers of Spanish. Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada, 27(1), 54–86. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gatbonton, E
(1978) Patterned phonetic variability in second language speech: A gradual diffusion model. Canadian Modern Language Review, 34(3), 335–47.Google Scholar
Geeslin, K.L
(Ed.) (2014) The handbook of Spanish second language acquisition. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
(2006) Task design, discourse context and variation in second language data elicitation. In C.A. Klee & T.L. Face (Eds.), Selected Proceedings of the 7th Conference on the Acquisition of Spanish and Portuguese as First and Second Languages (pp. 74–85). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar
Geeslin, K
(2003) A comparison of copula choice in advanced and native Spanish. Language Learning, 53, 703–764. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Geeslin, K.L
(2002) Semantic transparency as a predictor of copula choice in second language acquisition. Linguistics: An Interdisciplinary Journal of the Language Sciences, 40(2), 439–446.Google Scholar
Geeslin, K
(2000) A new approach to the second language acquisition of copula choice in Spanish. In R. Leow & C. Sanz (Eds.), Spanish Applied Linguistics at the Turn of the Millennium: Papers from the 1999 Conference on the L1 & L2 Acquisition of Spanish and Portuguese (pp. 50–66). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Geeslin, K., & Fafulas, S
(2012) Variation of the simple present and present progressive forms: A comparison of native and non-native speakers. In K. Geeslin & M. Díaz-Campos (Eds.), Selected Proceedings of the 14th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium (pp. 179–196). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar
Geeslin, K.L., & Gudmestad, A
(2010) An exploration of the range and frequency of occurrence of forms in potentially variable structures in second-language Spanish. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 32(3), 433–463. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Geeslin, K., & Guijarro-Fuentes, P
(2006) Second language acquisition of variable structures in Spanish by Portuguese speakers. Language Learning, 56, 53–107. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2005) The acquisition of copula choice in instructed Spanish: The role of individual characteristics. In D. Eddington (Ed.), Studies in the Acquisition of the Hispanic Languages: Papers from the 6th Conference on the Acquisition of Spanish and Portuguese as First and Second Languages (pp. 66–77). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar
Gudmestad, A
(2014) Variationist approaches to second language Spanish. In K. Geeslin (Ed.), The handbook of Spanish second language acquisition (pp. 80–95). Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Gudmestad, A., House, L., & Geeslin, K.L
(2013) What a bayesian analysis can do for SLA: New tools for the sociolinguistic study of subject expression in L2 Spanish. Language Learning, 63(3), 371–399. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Guijarro-Fuentes, P., & Geeslin, K
(2006) Interpretation of Spanish copula choice by Portuguese near-native speakers. In C. Abello-Contesse, R. Chacón-Beltrán, M.D. López-Jiménez & M.M. Torreblanca-López (Eds.), Age in L2 acquisition and teaching (pp. 193–209). Pieterlen, Switzerland: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Guntermann, G
(1992) An analysis of interlanguage development over time: Part II, ser and estar . Hispania, 75, 1294–1303. 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
Martin, S.E., & Lee Y-S.C
(1969) Beginning Korean. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Ramírez-Gelpi, A.S
(1995) The acquisition of ser and estar among adult native English speakers learning Spanish as a L2 (Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation). Los Angeles, CA: University of Southern California.Google Scholar
Regan, V., Howard, M., & Lemée, I
(2009) The acquisition of sociolinguistic competence in a study abroad context. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Ryan, J., & Lafford, B
(1992) Acquisition of lexical meaning in a study abroad environment: Ser and estar and the Granada experience. Hispania, 75, 714–722. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tarone, E.E
(1985) Variability in interlanguage use: A study of style‐shifting in morphology and syntax. Language learning, 35(3), 373–403. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
VanPatten, B
(1987) Classroom learners’ acquisition of ser and estar: Accounting for developmental patterns. In B. VanPatten, T. Dvorak & J. Lee (Eds.), Foreign language learning: A research perspective (pp. 61–75). Rowley, MA: Newbury House.Google Scholar
(1985) The acquisition of ser and estar in adult second language learners: A preliminary investigation of transitional stages of competence. Hispania, 68, 399–406. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Woolsey, D
(2008) From theory to research: Contextual predictors of estar+adjective and the study of the SLA of Spanish copula choice. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 11, 277–296. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 3 other publications

Geeslin, Kimberly L. & Travis Evans-Sago
2020. Chapter 2. Bilingualism, second language acquisition, and language contact. In Amazonian Spanish [Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 23], ► pp. 36 ff. DOI logo
Gurzynski-Weiss, Laura & YouJin Kim
2022. Chapter 1. Getting started. In Instructed Second Language Acquisition Research Methods [Research Methods in Applied Linguistics, 3], ► pp. 3 ff. DOI logo
KANWIT, MATTHEW
2019. Beyond the Present Indicative: Lexical Futures as Indicators of Development in L2 Spanish . The Modern Language Journal 103:2 ► pp. 481 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 19 march 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.