Purpose: Children with hearing loss (CHL) who use hearing devices (cochlear implants or hearing aids) and communicate orally have trouble comprehending sentences with noncanonical order. This study explores sentence comprehension strategies in Spanish-speaking CHL, focusing on their ability to integrate morphosyntactic cues (word order,…

The current study investigates the expression of progressive and habitual aspect in second language Spanish, integrating theoretical insights from usage-based and concept-oriented approaches to second language acquisition, along with quantitative sociolinguistic methods. To address the full breadth of forms involved, the study examines variation…

The primary goal of this dissertation is to contribute to a predictive model of Spanish heritage grammars by applying recent advancements in machine learning to ferret out factors and covariates that give rise to the Spanish subjunctive. Given that "[p]redictive models would entail that we have a far better understanding of the various…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to find morphological markers with good diagnostic accuracy to identify developmental language disorders (DLD) in Spanish-English bilingual children. Method: The participants in this study included 66 Spanish-English bilingual children between the ages of 4;0 and 6;11 (years; months) with (n = 33) and without…

Purpose: This longitudinal study investigated the emergence of English tense marking in young (Spanish-English) dual language learners (DLLs) over 4 consecutive academic semesters, addressing the need for longitudinal data on typical acquisition trajectories of English in DLL preschoolers. Method: Language sample analysis was conducted on 139…

This study contributes to current trends of heritage speaker (HS) acquisition research by examining the syntax of psych-predicates in HS Spanish. Broadly defined, psych-predicates communicate states of emotions (e.g., to love) and have traditionally been categorized as belonging to one of three classes: class I--"temere" "to…

Extensive studies have been conducted regarding mother tongue (L1) interference and developing English writing skills. This study, however, aims to investigate the influence of the Spanish language on second language (L2) writing skills at several Ecuadorian senior high schools in Loja. To achieve this, 351 students and 42 teachers from second…

Spanish-speaking (SS) children with language impairment (LI) present with deficits in morphology and verb argument structure. These language areas may be useful for clinical identification of affected children. This study aimed to evaluate the discrimination accuracy of spontaneous language measures with SS preschoolers to tease out what…

Grammatical measures that distinguish language differences from language disorders in bilingual children are scarce. This study examined English past tense morphology in sequential bilingual Spanish/English-speaking children, age 7;0-9;0 (years;months). Twelve bilingual children with language impairment (LI) or history of LI and 15 typically…

This study analyzes and compares the Spanish utterances of children between 2.0 and 4.6 years of age. The focus is on two aspects of children's speech: the production of verb tenses and the use of temporal expressions, such as adverbs of time. Four Spanish-speaking children, two male and two female, were interviewed for a total of two hours…

Results of a study of linguistic structure acquisition by children aged 18 to 24 months whose first language is Spanish include inventories of verbs and nouns used by the children and show which tenses appear first and in which order and the appearance of noun plurals and articles with nouns. (SB)

Twenty-two Spanish-speaking children ages 3 to 6 years participated in an elicited production study designed to test whether children's ability to produce subjunctive relative clauses related to their ability to pass a false-belief task. Results indicated a strong correlation between children's ability to use the subjunctive mood in relative…

Revealed that the lexical aspect hypothesis may not offer a complete account of the development of past tense marking in second language English during the beginning stages of development among adult classroom learners. (Author/VWL)

This work examines the developing second language (L2) grammar of a 4-year-old girl who was a native speaker of Spanish and who acquired English as an L2. The evidence suggests that, in contrast to some recent proposals for child first-language acquisition, in the case of child L2 acquisition, nonthematic properties such as Case and INFL systems…