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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. 321–349

Chapter 11
Learning context and the development of second language Spanish

Past-time perfective marking at home and abroad

| University at Albany, SUNY
| School for International Training

This study examines the variation between the preterit and present perfect among 43 learners studying abroad in Chile and Spain. We compared their results to those of 105 Spanish learners in the at-home university context to determine whether our learners approached regional norms or if they followed an acquisitional pathway common to English-speaking learners of Spanish. Twenty-three native speakers from Chile, Spain, and the at-home context also completed the study. Results indicate that both study abroad groups developed similarly to each other and to the at-home learners. These findings suggest that, for variable past-time perfective marking, rather than approaching regional norms, students who participate in study abroad move along a developmental trajectory common to English-speaking learners of Spanish.

Keywords: acquisition, learning context, sociolinguistic variation, perfective
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Background
    • Native Spanish perfective marking
    • Second language Spanish perfective marking
  • The current study
  • Method
    • Participants and learning context
      • Second language learners
      • Native speakers
      • Tasks
      • Analysis
  • Results
    • Distribution of forms
    • Regression analysis
      • Native speakers
      • Study abroad learners
      • At-home learners
  • Discussion
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 6 June 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.37.11zah
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