L2 acquisition of Mandarin zai and -le

The Aspect Hypothesis (AH) has been well attested in research on L1 and L2 acquisition of Indo-European languages such as English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish (e.g., Li & Shirai, 2000). However, studies to test the AH in the L2 acquisition of Chinese have been scarce (Jin & Hendriks, 2005). Among the studies done of L2 acquisition of Mandarin Chinese, previous research (e.g., Duff & Li, 2002; Jin & Hendriks, 2005) has confirmed the AH (Andersen & Shirai, 1994) in L2 acquisition of the aspects, including -zhe, -le, zai, -guo. Almost all previous studies used free production of the learners. The use of strictly controlled production is rare. The present study fills the gap. The present study investigates the acquisition of Mandarin aspect markers zai and -le by L2 learners of Mandarin Chinese. In two judgment tests, participants judged the use of progressive zai and perfective -le in three contexts (obligatory, incorrect, and optional). Both of the two predictions of the AH were tested: 1) Association Prediction (AP): for L2 learners, the association between progressive aspect marker zai with activity verbs is stronger than that between zai with accomplishment verbs, which in turn is stronger than that between zai and achievement verbs; the association between perfective aspect marker -le with accomplishment verbs and achievement verbs is stronger than that between -le and activity verbs, which in turn is stronger than that between -le and stative verbs. 2) Developmental Prediction (DP): learners of lower proficiency level would use progressive zai and perfective -le in a more prototypical way than learners of higher proficiency level, i.e. lower proficiency learners use progressive zai with activity verbs more than higher proficiency learners, and lower proficiency learners use perfective -le with accomplishment and achievement verbs more than higher proficiency learners. Meanwhile, higher-level students extend the use of progressive zai to accomplishment and achievement verbs, and extend the use of perfective -le to activity verbs. Although previous research has shown that L2 acquisition of Mandarin aspect markers confirm the two predictions of the Aspect Hypothesis, none of the conclusions were based on a controlled production.