Abigail Smith

Ms. Abigail Smith, HISP/HONS Student, College of Charleston

Abstract: “Native English speakers often struggle to acquire the subjunctive mood in Spanish, and its acquisition is seen as a benchmark of success in the study of the Spanish language (Collentine, 1995).  Acquisition of verbal mood can be difficult for L1 English learners of L2 Spanish for several reasons.  The subjunctive is used far less frequently in English than in Spanish. Additionally, the subjunctive is much less apparent in English and often is identical to other verb forms.  Furthermore, many contexts that require the subjunctive in Spanish elicit different verb forms (e.g., the infinitive) in English. For these reasons, L2 learners of Spanish often struggle with subjunctive, even at later stages of acquisition. This study examines the acquisition of the Spanish subjunctive in three types of clauses (nominal, adjectival, and adverbial) by adult, native English-speaking L2 learners at two different stages of acquisition. Participants enrolled in a fifth-semester Spanish course (N=17) or a more advanced Spanish linguistics course (N=11) completed two tasks, one open-ended and one multiple choice. In both tasks, learners completed sentences containing nominal, adjectival, or adverbial clauses with the correct verbal mood (indicative, subjunctive, or infinitive). This information was used to examine 1) whether L2 Spanish learners improve in acquisition of mood as they progress to more advanced courses, 2) which usages of subjunctive are most difficult for learners at each level, and 3) whether learners differ in their production on open-ended versus closed-ended tasks. Preliminary findings demonstrate that although learners do show some improvements at a later stage of acquisition, accurate mood selection is still difficult.  Adverbial clauses proved most difficult for participants at both levels. In addition, more errors were found in open-ended questions than closed-ended questions for participants at both levels, suggesting that while learners might have learned the rules for when to select and use each verbal mood, they have not yet automatized it in open-ended production. These findings contribute to a more complete understanding of acquisition of subjunctive in L2 learners of Spanish.”

Bio: Abigail Smith is a senior in the Honors College at the College of Charleston from Rome, Georgia.  She is completing a double major in Spanish and Political Science, and a minor in Linguistics.  In addition to completing a capstone in Political Science, Abigail is working on her Bachelor’s Essay in Linguistics and Spanish with Dr. Colleen Moorman.  Outside of her classes, Abigail is a member of the Sigma Delta Pi, ​​the National Collegiate Hispanic Honor Society, as well as a volunteer mentor with the Cusabo Scholars program in the local Charleston community.  After graduating from College of Charleston, Abigail plans to attend law school in the fall and combine her interests in Spanish and the law to better help serve the Spanish-speaking community.

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