The present tense in English, again

We report on an experimental study examining what aspectual tense forms we use to convey aspectual meanings when talking about present events in English. We test the effect of structural priming on the use of aspectual tense morphosyntax in the English present tense by native speakers, upper-intermediate and advanced L2 learners of English with French as their native language. Comparative production data from a video retell task is used. Aspectual choices from Liszka’s (2009, 2015) studies are compared with our partial replication. While Liszka primes participants to use the progressive tense, our instructions are neutral in this respect. Findings for native speakers point to a high level of individual variation in the use of present progressive and present simple to denote events simultaneous with the speech moment. Not only are choices variable, but they are also influenced by priming. We argue that this variability creates difficulties for learners of English that teachers should know about

Spanish Imperfect revisited: exploring L1 influence in the reassembly of imperfective features onto new L2 forms

This study investigates the acquisition of the Spanish Imperfect by sixty English learners of Spanish at three different proficiency levels (beginner, intermediate and advanced). Two oral production tasks and one interpretation task show that although the Imperfect is used from early on, the full array of interpretations associated with this form (habitual, continuous and progressive) is not completely acquired even at advanced levels. Learners accept the Imperfect in imperfective contexts but have problems rejecting the Preterit. This problem persists even at advanced levels in continuous contexts. The continuous is conveyed in English by Past Tense, which is used in both perfective and imperfective contexts, whereas in Spanish only the Imperfect is appropriate. We argue that the incorrect low rejection of the Preterit signals a mapping problem of aspect-related features present in both English and Spanish onto a new form (the Imperfect). These results support the problematic nature of feature reassembly in the acquisition of the Spanish Imperfect by English speakers