The Emergence of Future Verbal Morphology in Spanish as a Foreign Language

Abstract

Abstract The present study adopts a concept-oriented approach to explore the early stages of acquisition of future-time reference in second language (L2) Spanish. Specifically, it investigates the lexical and grammatical forms employed to express future time and the sequence of emergence of future verbal morphology by beginning and intermediate adult Spanish as a foreign language learners. The participants were 104 native English-speaking learners of Spanish from five levels of course enrollment. Participants completed an oral conversation task and a letter-writing task designed to elicit reference to future time. Contexts of future time were identified and coded for the verbal morphology employed. Additionally, data from speakers who employed either only morphological or only periphrastic future forms in addition to base or present indicative forms were examined more closely in terms of variables such as modality, temporal distance, clause type, (un)certainty of the event, and person and number, in order to investigate initial form-meaning mappings. Results suggest that the periphrastic future appears before the morphological future and that, when it appears, future verbal morphology is used most often in written language and to refer to contexts at a temporal distance greater than one day. These cross-sectional data provide evidence as to the emergence of future-time reference in L2 Spanish, demonstrate differential patterns of use according to proficiency level, indicate modality-based variation, show differences rooted in lexical verb types, and, ultimately, add to our knowledge of early form-meaning mappings in the acquisition of Spanish as a L2.