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Article published In: Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada/Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics
Vol. 37:1 (2024) ► pp.143–171

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Who does it better?

The acquisition of Spanish grammatical gender by L1 English and L1 Russian adults

ORCiD logo with link | Universidad de Valladolid
ORCiD logo with link | Universidade de Santiago de Compostela | Universidade da Coruña
Published online: 1 December 2023
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/resla.21031.gom
Abstract
This study addresses the acquisition of second language (L2) Spanish grammatical gender by native speakers of two typologically different languages: English (n = 39) and Russian (n = 37). We aim to explore if the presence or absence of gender features in the first language (L1) influences the acquisition of Spanish grammatical gender. Participants completed an acceptability judgment task consisting of 40 sentences with grammatical and ungrammatical Spanish Determiner Phrases (DPs). They included masculine and feminine Ns (Nouns) with transparent or opaque endings. Our findings show that (1) both groups are sensitive to gender non-matching structures, although L1 Russian speakers gave the lowest scores to ungrammatical structures in Spanish; (2) higher rating scores to masculine matching DPs point to the use of masculine as default by both L2 groups; (3) Ns with transparent endings act as cues for L2 Spanish learners, since both groups of participants rated the non-matching DPs with transparent Ns more accurately than those with opaque Ns. Therefore, our findings suggest that gender in L2 Spanish can be acquired regardless of the presence or the absence of these grammatical property in the L1, although its presence in the L1 seems to accelerate this process.
Resumen
¿Quién lo hace mejor? La adquisición del género gramatical en español por hablantes adultos L1 inglés y L1 ruso
Este estudio se centra en la adquisición del género gramatical del español como segunda lengua (L2) por parte de hablantes cuyas primeras lenguas (L1) difieren tipológicamente: inglés (n = 39) y ruso (n = 37). Nuestro objetivo es examinar si la presencia o la ausencia de los rasgos de género en la L1 influyen en la adquisición de esta propiedad gramatical en el español como L2. Para ello, los participantes completaron una tarea de juicios de aceptabilidad donde tenían que valorar 40 oraciones con sintagmas determinantes en español. La mitad de estos eran gramaticales y la otra mitad eran agramaticales, y contenían sustantivos masculinos o femeninos con terminaciones opacas o transparentes. Los resultados indican que (1) ambos grupos muestran sensibilidad a los sintagmas determinantes agramaticales de género aunque son los hablantes de ruso los que les dan puntuaciones más bajas; (2) los participantes valoran más positivamente las estructuras gramaticales con sustantivos masculinos indicando el uso del masculino por defecto; y (3) los sustantivos con terminaciones transparentes facilitan el proceso de adquisición del género gramatical en español, ya que ante sintagmas determinantes agramaticales ambos grupos valoran los sustantivos transparentes con mayor precisión. Por lo tanto, nuestros resultados sugieren que el género en español como L2 puede adquirirse independientemente de la presencia o ausencia de esta propiedad gramatical en la L1, aunque su presencia parece acelerar este proceso.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical background
    • 2.1Grammatical gender in Spanish
    • 2.2Grammatical gender in English and Russian
    • 2.3The acquisition of Spanish gender by non-native speakers
  • 3.Research questions
  • 4.The study
    • 4.1Participants
    • 4.2Methodology
  • 5.Results
  • 6.Discussion and conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
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