Salience and proficiency as determinants in the acquisition of L2 morphology

In a meta-analysis Goldschneider & DeKeyser (2001) showed five specific salience-related factors explain considerable variance in accuracy of L2 English morpheme use. This raises the interesting possibility that the predictive power of salience extends to languages whose morphemes are more salient than their English counterparts. Spanish and French learners of English and English and Spanish learners of Italian were compared for accuracy in use of five verb morphemes on two timed written tests. Only two of five factors, both top down salience factors, proved to be significant predictors of a multiple regression in the two L2s: perceptual salience and frequency. When additional bottom up factors related to salience, namely L1-L2 mismatch, L1 background, and L2 proficiency, were included, the latter was also found to be a good predictor cross-linguistically.*