The L2 Acquisition of Inchoative Structures by L1 Spanish Speakers

Abstract

The present study provides evidence in favor of transfer as a developmentally constrained process in the L2 acquisition of inchoative forms of the causative alternation by L1 Spanish/L2 English learners at different levels of proficiency. Different types of L1 grammatical properties (akin to Full Transfer) seem to be transferred in later rather than in early L2 acquisition. 60 college students in Lima, Peru, were tested using a picture-based acceptability judgment task to elicit learners' responses, and corrections of the sentences that they found unacceptable. The sentence correction analysis revealed that morphological and lexico-syntactic transfer interacted at higher proficiency. It is concluded that L1 transfer is conditioned by development of L2 competency.