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The study focuses on the interaction between length of exposure and instruction in the L2 English acquisition process of L1 Spanish school children. Two target structures involving noun premodification are targeted: noun–noun (NN) compounds and adjective–noun (AN) strings. Four groups of participants have been studied for 3 years: a group that has been exposed to a specifically designed teaching program targeting NN compounds and a group that has received the regular English instruction program which does not address this structure as part of the curriculum. Two age subgroups appear in each case. The longitudinal judgment data elicited show that performance improves in the cooperation between length of exposure and the exposure to the NN instruction program. Furthermore, it is this last issue that actually takes the lead in that the NN instruction program directly impacts on not only NN compounds but also AN strings. This points to instruction being determinant in the L2 learning process; that is, a consciously and carefully directed instruction is proven to be more effective than length of exposure itself. This study on longitudinal experimental data contributes to shed light on the factors involved in instructed L2 acquisition.

The relative order of constituents within determiner phrases (DP) in which the noun is modified by an adjective (AN) has traditionally been taught in English as an L2 subject in the Spanish context. This is not the case for the same type of phrase in which the N-head is modified by another N (NN). This study aims to assess the impact of direct instruction in English NNs as part of the school curriculum. Acceptability judgement data and production have been elicited from two groups of L1 Spanish-L2 English children living in Spain, one receiving explicit NN instruction and the other following the regular only-AN instruction. Results show an advancement of the instruction group not only in NNs but also in ANs. This has a double implication: that NNs and ANs might share a common morphosyntactic underlying structure and that explicit teaching of grammatical properties that are shared by different structures might result in better attainment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates mode of production effects on narrative discourse configuration and referring expression (RE) selection in contexts of reference maintenance in syntactic coordination. It looks at 3rd person singular grammatical subjects across intermediate and advanced L1 Spanish-L2 English, in contrast with L1 English. The data are written and spoken narratives from the COREFL corpus produced by the same participant and under the same task conditions. The study reveals an effect of the mode of production in L2 English (referential) cohesion, while no such an effect has been found in L1 English performance. In general, in L2 English deficits in spoken production seem to persist while those in written production disappear by advanced level. In particular, referential cohesion seems more challenging for L2 English learners than the discourse-syntactic configuration of their narrative texts. By advanced level, the learner's discourse configuration is comparable to that of native speakers' both in their written and in their spoken narratives. However, the spoken productions by advanced learners still show a higher amount of fuller REs, in comparison to the spoken productions by the native participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]