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A Cognitive-Functional Approach to L2 Acquisition of the English Progressive Aspect

Explore how cognitive-functional framework influences English progressive aspect learning in second language acquisition through empirical studies and theoretical frameworks. Results reveal constraints imposed by lexical aspect and progressive marker meaning.

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A Cognitive-Functional Approach to L2 Acquisition of the English Progressive Aspect

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  1. A Cognitive-Functional Approach to L2 Acquisition of the English Progressive Aspect Hu Rong Beijing Foreign Studies University May 18, 2007

  2. Outline • 1. Existing research • Why efforts are made in the present study to examine the L2 acquisition of the English progressive aspect? • 2. A cognitive-functional approach: • How the L2 acquisition of the English progressive aspect is investigated within the cognitive-functional framework in the present study? • 3. Results & conclusion • What is established about the L2 acquisition of the English progressive aspect as a result of the present research?

  3. 1.Existing research: The Aspect Hypothesis • L2 tense-aspect acquisition: • A cutting-edge research area • The Aspect Hypothesis: • Verb semantics constrains development of L2 tense-aspect morphology.

  4. Predictions of the Aspect Hypothesis ? combination rarely occurs Predicted order of development of tense-aspect morphology (Li & Shirai 2000: 50)

  5. Empirical findings • Supported: the effect of lexical aspect • Controversies: • Progressive marking • Extension of progressive marking from activity to accomplishment and achievement is rarely observed.

  6. Inadequacy of the Aspect Hypothesis • Theoretical foundation: • Traditional structural analysis of aspect centered on verb semantics • Not interfaced with a theory of language learning • Methodology: • Rarely designed for the progressive aspect in particular

  7. 2. A cognitive-functional approach • A justified theoretical framework for SLA studies: Theoretical Framework Condition &Mechanism Condition • Due to its speaker-centered and symbolic view towards language, the subjectivity and compositionality of aspect is appropriately accommodated. • Due to its usage-based processing tenet, it incorporates an experience-based and input-driven empiricist theory of language learning.

  8. Meaningfulness of grammatical structures • Aspectual morphological markers are meaningful linguistic elements: • Speaker’s conceptualization and construal • The meanings of the English progressive marker: motivated as a result of profiling. • In-progress • Temporariness • Repetitiveness • Preliminary stage

  9. Compositionality of aspectual meaning • Aspectual meaning is compositional: • Expressed by a composition of form-meaning mappings ranging from morphemes, lexical items, to syntactic structures. • At the predicate level, both the lexical verb and the aspectual morphological marker jointly contribute to the aspectual interpretation of a sentence.

  10. A hypothesis about the L2 acquisition of the English progressive aspect • The development of L2 English progressive morphology is jointly constrained by: • (a) semantic aspectual features of the lexical verb; • (b) aspectual meaning of the progressive marker; • and the two factors interact with each other in complex ways.

  11. An empirical study • A multi-level, multi-task cross-sectional study; • Exclusively designed to elicit data of the progressive aspect; • Each task is particularly designed to investigate the effect of lexical aspect, the effect of the aspectual meaning of the progressive marker, and their interactions; • Triangulation among intra-study and intra-subject tasks.

  12. An empirical study • Participants: • Lower-intermediate group (n=30) • Intermediate group (n=30) • Upper-intermediate group (n=30) • Native speaker control group (n=16) • Tasks: • Composition • Preference task • Cloze passages • Sentences • Acceptability judgment test

  13. 3. Beyond the Aspect Hypothesis: Results and conclusion • L2 progressive morphological marking is constrained by: • (a) lexical aspect of the predicate verb, and this effect is constrained by the meaning of the progressive marker; • (b) aspectual meaning of the progressive marker, and this effect is constrained by the lexical aspect of the predicate verb.

  14. Results • Effect of lexical aspect: • Strongly associated with activity verbs at all stages of L2 development • Extended to accomplishment verbs • in-progress and preliminary stage meaning • Not generally extended to achievement verbs • but extended with the preliminary stage meaning • Not generally extended to stative verbs • but extended with individual-level stative verbs • extended with the meaning of temporariness • Higher-level learners more strongly constrained • Developmental order: • ACT – ACC – ACH & STA

  15. Results • Effect of the aspectual meaning of the progressive marker: • Most strongly associated with in-progress meaning at all stages of L2 development • Gradually extended to the meanings of preliminary stage, temporariness, and repetitiveness with the improvement of proficiency • Limited extension to repetitiveness meaning • Incompatibility of progressive aspect with achievement verbs • Development order: • In-progress – preliminary stage – temporariness – repetitiveness (?)

  16. Results • Combining the effect of the two constraining factors: • Progressive marking is initially and most strongly associated with activity verbs with the meaning of in-progress. • Progressive marking is lastly extended to achievement verbs with the meaning of repetitiveness.

  17. Conclusion • Theoretically derived hypothesis supported with empirical data: • The development of progressive morphology in L2 English is jointly constrained by the inherent semantic aspectual features of the predicate verb (lexical aspect) and the progressive meaning evoked by the morphological marker, and the two factors interact with each other in complex ways.

  18. Significance • A supplement to and a step beyond the existing framework of the Aspect Hypothesis by overcoming the theoretical and methodological inadequacies of the Aspect Hypothesis • An enlargement of the understanding of the L2 acquisition of the English progressive aspect in particular and L2 tense-aspect acquisition in general • Establishment of the theoretically unified cognitive-functional approach as a plausible theoretical framework for SLA studies

  19. Implications • To linguistic study: • the cognitive-functional approach to linguistics is a powerful framework in the description and explanation of linguistic structures. • To SLA theory construction: • A unified and consistent theoretical framework for language and for SLA is necessary to yield sound postulations about SLA. • To SLA research methodology: • Hypothesis-testing is an effective methodology promoting substantial progress in SLA research.

  20. Thank you ! hurong05@yahoo.com.cn

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