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Learning ser and estar in a Spanish speaking country: How can instruction help?
(Escuela Nacional de Lenguas, Lingüística y Traducción, UNAM, 2010) Canossa Armijo, Lilia María; Martínez Arbelaiz, Asunción
This article investigates the development of grammatical accuracy in the study abroad context by analyzing the written output of 20 learners of Spanish as a second language in Costa Rica. Following Ryan & Lafford’s (1992) initial research design, data were collected at three different time intervals, coding the total number of correct uses of two copula verbs, ser and estar, as well as the total number of obligatory contexts targeted. In accordance with the mentioned investigation, location proved to be more prone to error than condition, although the progressive estar did not present any difficulty for the learners. A U-shape pattern of development was found where estar was overused after one month of study abroad, and nearly the end of the semester abroad, a trend not documented before. A close analysis of the lexical combination of adjectives or nouns and estar partially explains the results obtained, as well as the variety of Spanish the learners were exposed to.