1. La variable de la edad no constituye un factor determinante en ninguna de las tareas realizadas.
2. El número de horas de ELE cursadas influye en el número de aciertos en la actividad de expresión escrita inconsciente, pero resulta estadísticamente insignificante en la tarea de comprensión escrita consciente.
3. MCER: el número de aciertos es mayor en alumnos que tienen nivel de la lengua más alto.
4. Los alumnos demuestran menor conocimiento consciente del artículo en comparación con el conocimiento inconsciente.
5. El tipo de error más frecuente en la tarea de expresión escrita inconsciente es el de omisión del artículo determinado; mientras que en la actividad de comprensión consciente prevalecen los errores por adición.

Much of current generative research into non-native language (L2) acquisition of morphosyntax has focused on L 1 transfer and access to Universal Grammar. Subject-Verb agreement has figured more prominently than nominal agreement in this debate, but empirical findings remain inconclusive. For instance, Hawkins & Franceschina (2004) conclude that UG features (e.g. [GENDER]) not realised in the L 1 cannot be acquired, whereas White et al. (2001) argue the opposite.

The present study examines the acquisition of nominal and verbal agreement marking in L2 Spanish through acceptability judgement, comprehension and production tasks carried out amongst adult L2 acquirers matched for at least two levels of proficiency, with L 1s which vary in terms of the realisation of nominal and/or verbal agreement.

I demonstrate that the fact that L2ers can produce or recognise agreeing morphological markers is not sufficient to ascribe to them knowledge of syntactic agreement (and hence of the relevant functional features). The experiments address this issue by examining (non)agreement in non-contiguous ('long' distance) contexts with a complex sentential subject consisting of a head noun and an intervener.

L2ers at lower proficiency level perform significantly better at contexts with matching than opposite gender agreement features, suggesting that they rely more on linear word order and hence general cognitive learning strategies. The most advanced L2ers, however, demonstrate native-like 'long' distance agreement in all contexts, suggesting (hierarchical) structure dependency and hence acquisition that is specific to Language (contra Hawkins & Chan's (1997) Failed Functional Features Hypothesis, but supporting access to UG as defined by Schwartz & Sprouse's (1996) Full Transfer/Full Access Theory).

The data also reveal that not all types of morphosyntactic agre~ment are equally acquirable. For all L2ers regardless of their L 1, nominal and verbal [NUMBER] are less problematic than [PERSON] and [GENDER].

These L2A findings differ from the results of studies into the L 1A of Spanish agreement morphology. L 1 children master gender agreement before they start producing nominal number agreement (Marrero & Aguirre 2003, Hernandez Pina 1984) and produce distinctions between different verbal persons (1 51 and 3rd) before plural verb forms emerge (Bel2002, Grinstead 2000, Lopez Ornat 1997).

The L2ers' L 1 does play a role, however, in the initial stages of L2A, particularly in the field of L2 morphology. Problems with remapping syntactic features onto surface morphology cause difficulties for L2ers whose L1 operates a different morphological system to L2 Spanish. L 1 French speakers, for instance, have fewer problems with the acquisition of separate morphemes for nominal gender and nominal number agreement in L2 Spanish than Dutch and Swedish L2ers whose L 1 uses a portmanteau morpheme to realise both features.

These problems in the field of 'morphological competence' (Lardiere 2005) appear more relevant than issues of syntactic transfer as predicted by Schwartz & Sprouse (1996). Indeed, L 1 English learners of Spanish do not seem to experience more problems building up a morphosyntactic system for nominal agreement from scratch than the Swedish and Dutch L2ers who need to 'remap' (i.e. disentangle and reassemble - Lardiere 2005) syntactic features to agreement morphemes.

The finding that mapping problems between syntactic features and lexical forms prevent some L2ers from producing concording agreement morphology is also confirmed by the discrepancy between L2ers' ability to interpret and judge agreement marking, as reflected in the acceptability judgement and comprehension tasks, and the L2ers' more limited ability to produce agreement marking. Moreover, the least marked features often act as defaults, as demonstrated by the overgeneralization of [+MASC], [+3P] and [+SG] markings

This dissertation investigated the perceptions and experiences of online adult language learners in higher education. This was a qualitative study of thirteen women enrolled in online Spanish courses at two south-central Texas institutions of higher education. Three findings emerged.

Given the participants’ awareness of the social nature of language and their collective appreciation that language must be practiced orally to be acquired, they took responsibility for their learning by creating their own communities of practice with native Spanish speakers at work and at home. They bore the primary responsibility for their learning and shaped their acquisition contexts to include Spanish experts from their offline communities. This allowed the students to contextualize and personalize their new language knowledge and embody multiple learning roles.

Language learning anxiety for these students was not located in the actual online learning tasks, but instead centered on socioculturally constructed understandings about language and their own personal and cultural connections to Spanish. The participants’ revealed the importance they place on demonstrating respect for culture through correct and precise language use. But instead of resulting in a barrier to their learning, the anxiety they experienced may have acted as an impetus in their continued Spanish study.

Their insights into the sociocultural influences on language in formal and informal acquisition practices deepen our current understanding of foreign language affect and language learning anxiety.

Finally, an in-depth analysis was done on the subgroup of participants identified as heritage language learners. Their belief in the cultural metanarrative of the “proper Tejana” led this group of south-central Texas women to reject the Texas-Spanish dialect, Tex-Mex. The need to acquire proper Spanish and to live linguistically and culturally in two distinct worlds of English and Spanish significantly affected their acquisition processes.

The findings offer insights into Spanish learners’ perceptions of online language learning, their affective experiences learning Spanish as an adult, and the sociocultural connections they make to the Spanish language. The implications for future pedagogical design, online and off, are presented.