The use of the progressive in light of the Aspect Hypothesis in EFL-instructed Spanish learners at university level: a longitudinal learner corpus-based SLA study

Abstract

Despite recent interest in the analysis of the progressive in light of the Aspect Hypothesis (AH), little information is available on the use of the progressive by EFL Spanish learners. To gain a better understanding of the use of the progressive in EFL-instructed Spanish learner writing at advanced levels, this longitudinal learner corpus-based SLA study examines the frequency of use of the progressive, as well as two of the associations of the AH: (i) the progressive with dynamic verbs; (ii) and, no overextension of the progressive to stative verbs. The effects derived from factors or variables such as the tense employed, target– and non-target-like uses, students’ academic year and expected higher proficiency level, task type and individual preferences are also discussed as a way to fine-tuning the strong version of the AH to the use of the progressive by this learner group. Keywords: progressive; Aspect Hypothesis; Spanish learner writing; longitudinal corpus-based SLA study