A Comparative Study on Gender Agreement Errors in the Spoken Spanish of Heritage Speakers and Second Language Learners

This study analyzes grammatical gender errors in the spoken Spanish of three groups of high school students in the United States: first and second generation heritage speakers and second language learners; and compares the findings to previous research in the areas of second language acquisition and language of heritage speakers in a contact situation. Students were presented with a series of drawings with questions related to social settings. The responses were recorded and analyzed for differences in the number of gender assignment and agreement errors between the three different groups and in the error patterns of gender assignment and agreement provided by these groups.