What determines the order of acquisition of aspect in a second language (L2)? Previous studies on the L2 acquisition of aspect have revealed universal patterns of development (the Aspect Hypothesis) characterized by the strong association of grammatical aspect (i.e., temporal meaning expressed by aspectual markers, such as English progressive be + Verb-ing) and inherent lexical aspect (i.e., temporal meaning intrinsic to verbs). However, to date, such developmental patterns have not received a full theoretical explanation. Furthermore, unlike cross-linguistic differences observed in grammatical aspect, differences on the part of lexical aspect, and accordingly their influence on the L2 acquisition of aspect, have often been disregarded in previous literature. To what extent is there cross-linguistic variation in lexical aspect? Do L1-L2 discrepancies in lexical aspect cause difficulty for L2 learners? Under the direction of Dr. Yasuhiro Shirai, Ms.Yumiko Nishi will address these issues for her doctoral dissertation.
The cross-linguistic differences in lexical aspect will be investigated by classifying the 100 most frequent verbs in Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and English into four lexical aspect classes (state, activity, accomplishment, and achievement) and then comparing their distribution across languages. A second study investigates the extent to which L1-L2 discrepancy in lexical aspect affects the L2 acquisition of aspect by comparing the L2 acquisition of imperfective aspect teiru in Japanese by multiple L1 groups (Chinese, Korean, and English) with three proficiency levels. A series of experiments involving an interpretation matching task and a picture description task will be carried out in the U.S.A., Taiwan, and Korea, for L1 English, Chinese, and Korean groups, respectively. It is predicted that L2 learners of Japanese will find it more difficult to determine the aspectual meaning of a sentence that involves cross-linguistic discrepancy in lexical aspect than when there is L1-L2 mismatch only in grammatical aspect. The results of this research project will contribute to theoretical studies on aspect, as well as to theoretical issues in second language acquisition, in particular the Aspect Hypothesis and L1 transfer. The findings will contribute to L2 pedagogy.
