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SECOND- AND FOREIGN-LANGUAGE VARIATION IN TENSE BACKSHIFTING IN INDIRECT REPORTED SPEECH

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 February 2011

Krassimira D. Charkova  and
Laura J. Halliday
Krassimira D. Charkova*
Affiliation:
Southern Illinois University at Carbondale
Laura J. Halliday*
Affiliation:
Southern Illinois University at Carbondale
*
*Address correspondence to: Krassimira Charkova, Department of Linguistics, Southern Illinois University, 1000 Faner Ave., Carbondale, IL 62901; e-mail: [email protected]; or Laura Halliday, Department of Linguistics, Southern Illinois University, 1000 Faner Ave., Carbondale, IL 62901; e-mail: [email protected].
*Address correspondence to: Krassimira Charkova, Department of Linguistics, Southern Illinois University, 1000 Faner Ave., Carbondale, IL 62901; e-mail: [email protected]; or Laura Halliday, Department of Linguistics, Southern Illinois University, 1000 Faner Ave., Carbondale, IL 62901; e-mail: [email protected].
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Abstract

This study examined how English learners in second-language (SL) and foreign-language (FL) contexts employ tense backshifting in indirect reported speech. Participants included 35 international students in the United States, 37 Bulgarian speakers of English, 38 Bosnian speakers of English, and 41 native English speakers. The instrument involved speech scenarios in two time settings—immediate and delayed report—and questions about the participants’ reasons for backshifting tenses or not. The results revealed that FL environments foster the acquisition of backshifting as an automatically applicable grammatical rule, whereas SL contexts facilitate awareness of pragmatic and semantic aspects of tense backshifting.

Type
Research Articles
Information
Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , March 2011 , pp. 1 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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