PRIMING DATIVE CLITICS IN SPOKEN SPANISH AS A SECOND AND HERITAGE LANGUAGE

Spanish monolingual speakers often produce recipient (Pedro le da un lapiz a Maria) and nonrecipient constructions (Antonio le lava la camiseta a Carmen) doubled by a dative clitic. Second language speakers and heritage speakers usually avoid clitics. This study examined whether structural priming could effectively increase the production of clitics in monolingual speakers (N = 23), L2 speakers (N = 28), and heritage speakers (N = 24). Participants completed a baseline study that measured the use of clitics in a picture description task, followed by a priming treatment, an immediate posttest, and a posttest a week later. Results showed that priming increased clitic production for all groups, and that the increase was still significant a week later in L2 speakers and heritage speakers. These findings support the view that structural priming may implicate implicit language learning and considers its pedagogical implications.

Automated summary

The study showed that structural priming can effectively increase the use of clitics in Spanish monolingual speakers, L2 speakers, and heritage speakers, with the increase still significant a week later in L2 speakers and heritage speakers. This may imply the presence of implicit language learning and has pedagogical implications for language education.