Gender Agreement in L3 Spanish Production among Speakers of Typologically Different Languages

Grammatical gender presents persistent difficulty for adult learners of Spanish in L2 acquisition; however, there is a literature gap L3 acquisition gender, specifically typologically different languages. In this project, we investigate the agreement by Russian (L1)/Mandarin (L1)-English (L2) speakers (L3) and compare findings with English(L1) (L2). Studying these languages particularly interesting because some exhibit an explicit system (Spanish Russian) while others do not (English Mandarin). order to examine effect L1/L2 influence on acquisition, 55 participants completed two tasks: picture identification task grammaticality judgement task. Results indicate that advanced all L1 backgrounds performed at or near ceiling. All beginner better canonically marked masculine nouns than noncanonical feminine nouns, thus corroborating previous findings. Regarding influence, outperformed other groups, especially Task 1 (Picture Identification), thereby indicating they may be transferring degree grammatical their L1. Overall, research provides evidence multiple factors, including structural typology proficiency level, play role acquisition.