Linear Distance: A Multi-Tiered Methodology in the Acquisition of Gender Agreement

Abstract

This research investigates the influence of L1 properties and proficiency level on the acquisition of gender agreement addressing linear distance as a possible cause of errors. French and English- speaking learners of Spanish participated in the study. Subjects were divided into four different groups considering their L1 (French and English) and their proficiency level (intermediate and advanced). Subjects completed three different tasks: an untimed grammaticality judgment task (UGJT), an elicited oral imitation test (EOI), and an eye-tracking experiment. As for linear distance, each experimental item was distributed across three distance conditions: distance number 1 corresponds to an adjacent adjective pattern, distance number 2 separates the adjective using a copula, and distance number 3 included between three and four words interceding before the copula. Our results show no linear distance effect for either the explicit task or the implicit task.