Term
Fall 2017
Capstone
Thesis
Degree Name
MAESL
Primary Advisor/Dissertation Chair
Andreas Schramm
Secondary Advisor/Reader One
Jonna Meidal
Peer-Reviewer/Reader Two
Natalie Ehalt
Abstract
Aspect is fundamental to expressing time and sequence of events in narratives. In second language acquisition literature little is known about how English aspect is comprehended. This study manipulates aspect in narratives and compares comprehension of Spanish speakers to English and Arabic speakers. English and Spanish have morphosyntactic aspect, Arabic does not. This study examines aspect comprehension in 18 native Spanish speakers, using 16 narratives to capture moment-to-moment and off-line processing. Results show that Spanish speakers comprehend aspect more like English speakers in the moment-to-moment processing, where Arabic speakers do not. Spanish speakers did not comprehend aspect like English speakers when it came to off-line processing. Implications for teachers of adult learners of English are discussed.
Research Methodology
Descriptive Staistics
Keywords
Adult Education, ESL/ ELLs, Cognitive Processing, Applied Linguistics
Recommended Citation
Riddle, Hannah, "Aspect Comprehension And Processing In Narratives By Native Spanish Speakers" (2017). School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations. 4386.
https://digitalcommons.hamline.edu/hse_all/4386