Gender Agreement in L3 Spanish Production among Speakers of Typologically Different Languages

Abstract

Grammatical gender presents persistent difficulty for adult learners of Spanish in L2 acquisition; however, there is a literature gap in L3 acquisition of gender, specifically of typologically different languages. In this project, we investigate the acquisition of Spanish gender agreement by Russian (L1)/Mandarin (L1)-English (L2) speakers of Spanish (L3) and compare the findings with English(L1) speakers of Spanish (L2). Studying these languages is particularly interesting because some exhibit an explicit gender system (Spanish and Russian) while others do not (English and Mandarin). In order to examine the effect of L1/L2 influence of these languages on L3 Spanish acquisition, 55 participants completed two tasks: a picture identification task and a grammaticality judgement task. Results indicate that advanced learners of Spanish of all L1 backgrounds performed at or near ceiling. All beginner learners performed better with canonically marked masculine nouns than noncanonical feminine nouns, thus corroborating previous findings. Regarding L1 influence, Russian participants outperformed the other two groups, especially in Task 1 (Picture Identification), thereby indicating that they may be transferring to some degree the grammatical gender system of their L1. Overall, this research provides evidence that multiple factors, including structural typology and L3 proficiency level, play a role in L3 acquisition.