The Acquisition of Aspect in L2 English by Greek speakers: A Feature Reassembly Approach

Abstract

Abstract

Aims and objectives: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate factors influencing the acquisition of aspect, the internal temporal conceptualization of events in predicates, in second language acquisition. The main objective is to examine which and to what extent the following linguistic components influence the Feature Reassembly Hypothesis; the learners’ age thus their linguistic maturity, their English proficiency level, their linguistic background, or the complexity of feature bundling and reassembly. Methodology: Two groups of young Cypriot-Greek speakers, learners of English L2 are compared; Group A has mean age of 12.8 years old and group B has mean age of 15.8 years old, and Group C native adult speakers of English with mean age of 34.1 years old. The participants were tested through a 5-point Likert scale acceptability judgment task and a two alternative forced-choice task. The test examined the Anterior aspect which bundles four features; continual, experiential, resultative and reportative (found in the formal tense form Present Perfect), and the Performative aspect which bundles two features; completeness and habitual (found in the formal tense form Past Simple). Data: A total of 73 participants were tested; Group A= 31 and Group B= 32 (young Cypriot-Greek learners of English L2) , and group C= 10 (native adult speakers of English). Findings: The complexity of feature bundling and the proficiency level of learners appear to have a significant effect on feature reassembly. In particular, the continual feature which is bundled with Anterior aspect in combination with the Performative aspect in non-past tense appear to be puzzling for young Cypriot-Greek speakers, learners of English L2. Moreover, the completeness feature and habitual feature which are bundled with the Performative aspect in past tense is an unorthodox combination for MG speakers of perfective and imperfective aspect; the results of this study indicate that further research is required to obtain a significant results. In any case, as proficiency level increases, feature reassembly becomes more target-like. Keywords: Aspect, Second Language Acquisition, Feature Reassembly Hypothesis, feature complexity, aspectual asymmetries