Associating meaning to form in advanced L2 speakers: An investigation into the acquisition of the English present simple and present progressive

Abstract

This paper investigates the L2 acquisition of the distributional and interpretational properties of the English present simple (e.g., She works at home) and present progressive (e.g., She is working at home). To test whether advanced L2 learners are successful in assigning target-like meanings to these forms, sixteen advanced L1 French-L2 English and thirteen L1 English informants participated in two oral tasks and a written gap-fill task. Results indicate that these L2 speakers use both forms productively, but show optionality in consistently producing the progressive in appropriate environments. The study considers a permanent L2 deficit arising from L1-L2 parametric differences as a potential source of difficulty in acquiring the target-like interpretations associated with the two forms.