Acquisition of Spanish Gender Agreement in Two Learning Contexts: Study Abroad and At Home

Abstract: The goal of this study is to describe the acquisition rate for gender acquisition in Spanish and to show whether individual variability and language contact may affect this rate. The participants were intermediate second language Spanish (first language English) learners in the study abroad and at-home contexts over a 4-month period. The participants received grammaticality judgment tests coded for morphological class of the modified noun as well as attributive and predicative adjectives. Data were also collected on social behavior and language contact in Spanish and English in order to explain data outcome. The findings suggest that no difference exists between the two learning contexts and that social behavior and language contact abroad have minimal influence on acquisition rate. Key words: Spanish, individual variability, language contact profile, second language acquisition, Spanish gender agreement, study abroad Introduction Second language (L2) learners who study abroad in an immersion context may or may not show linguistic development. Research has shown that immersion in the target culture is of great value to learners, especially in improving oral production ability (Brecht, Davidson, & Ginsberg, 1993; Collentine, 2004; Freed, Segalowitz, & Dewey, 2004; Isabelli-Garcia, 2003; Kaplan, 1989; Lennon, 1990; Liskin- Gasparro & Urdaneta, 1995; Milleret, 1990; Polanyi, 1995; Segalowitz & Freed, 2004). There are, however, inconsistencies in study abroad research because claims are made based on different acquisition aspects and distinct amounts of time spent abroad. Frequently, claims also lack a comparison to performance in a non-studyabroad context to ensure that the context of learning accounts for linguistic gains or lack of such gains. The present study of learners' linguistic development in the study abroad context provides information about what can be expected from students' performance during one semester and compares the results to those of learners who study in the traditional, at-home context. The scope focuses on gender-agreement development in the interlanguage of Spanish L2 learners that have a first language (L1) of English, a language lacking grammatical gender. Gender-agreement acquisition by these learners can be irregular and not as easily acquired as number agreement. Because number agreement is acquired more easily than gender (Bruhn de Garavito & White, 2002; Dewaele & Veronique, 2001), this study focuses on the more difficult aspect, gender. Examples of gender agreement are listed in (1a) and (1b). FS denotes Feminine Singular, and MP denotes Masculine Plural. (1a) la biblioteca famosa the-FS library-FS famous-FS [the famous library] (1b) los sombreros negros the-MP hat-MP black-MP [the black hats] In (1a), in Spanish, because "library" is feminine, the definite article "the" and adjective "famous" must also be feminine. This is not the case in English, as articles or adjectives possess no gender. In (1b), because the noun sombreros is plural, the definite article los and modifying adjective negros are also plural. Noun form and meaning also affect gender-agreement acquisition. This influence can be seen in example (2) with nouns that are gender-marked by the endings -a and -o. (2a) nouns gender-marked by the -a profesora-FS [professor] (2b) nouns gender-marked by the -o nino-MS [boy] These examples show that the Spanish nouns that are gender-marked by the endings -a and -o are morphologically marked for gender and can serve as a cue for agreement (Finneman, 1992). When L2 learners are unsure of the appropriate morphological marker, they tend to "resort to default gender marking [masculine]" (Bruhn de Garavito& White, 2002, p. 172; see also Harris, 1991) and they tend to overgeneralize the masculine forms more often than they do the feminine ones (Alarcon, 2006; Bartning, 1999; Bruhn de Garavito & White, 2002; Cain, Weber-Olsen, & Smith, 1987; Finneman, 1992; Franceschina, 2001, 2005). …