Adquisición de formas temporales no homogéneas en niños de cinco años de distintos contextos socioeducativos

Abstract

Este estudio investiga potenciales contrastes en el proceso de adquisición de la lengua materna en grupos de niños/as de cinco años de distintos contextos socioeducativos. En particular, se focaliza en la adquisición de formas temporales no homogéneas, esto es, aquellas que combinan una semántica verbal delimitada con un aspecto gramatical ilimitado o viceversa. Las formas no homogéneas son consideradas más complejas que las homogéneas ya que involucran la unificación de rasgos opuestos en un mismo ítem léxico. Al ser más complejas se presume que se adquieren más tarde que las formas homogéneas y que su dominio exige mayor proficiencia gramatical. Con el objetivo de testear si los niños de estos dos grupos socioeducativos muestran diferentes niveles de dominio de estas formas temporales, se diseñaron dos videos animados para realizar una prueba de producción narrativa. Se analizaron 72 narraciones en dos grupos de niños/as: uno de contexto vulnerable y el otro de contexto no vulnerable. Del análisis de las narraciones con relación al uso de formas temporales, se desprende que el grupo no vulnerable usa más formas temporales no homogéneas que el grupo vulnerable. En síntesis, el estudio muestra que el grupo no vulnerable usa una gramática más compleja que el vulnerable con relación a ciertas categorías del sistema temporal del español: mayor diversidad de usos de tiempos verbales y mayor cantidad de combinaciones no homogéneas.

This study seeks to investigate potential contrasts in the language acquisition process in groups of five-year-old Spanish-native children from different socio-educational contexts. Particularly, the focus of this study is the acquisition of non-homogeneous temporal linguistic combinations, i.e., combinations of limited verbal semantics and unlimited grammatical aspect, or vice versa. Non-homogeneous combinations are considered more complex than homogeneous combinations; therefore, it makes sense that they are acquired later, as the child grows up, and that its proficiency requires more grammatical competence. Thirty-six boys and girls from the Gran Mendoza area, Argentina, took part in this study: 18 came from a vulnerable socio-educational context (marginal urban schools) and 18 came from a non-vulnerable context (urban schools). The children had to watch two one and a half minute videos specifically developed for this test. They showed cartoon characters that interacted with each other without talking. Each child watched each video twice and were requested to narrate each video by the researcher in individual interviews following always the same protocol. Narratives from each child were recorded and then literally transcribed. Seventy-two stories were analyzed following a protocol that started with the segmentation of the text in clauses. Then, It´s analyzed the main verb in each clause in terms of the following linguistic categories: lexical aspect, grammatical aspect, and the combinations. The data were analyzed using nonparametric tests. As for the dependent variables, the number of clauses for each story and the distribution of events were considered according to different independent variables: the lexical aspect, which consists of different classes of events (achievement, activity, accomplishment, states, semelfactive events); the grammatical aspect (perfective, imperfective, progressive); the ranking of temporal forms (present tense of indicative mode and subjunctive mode, simple past and present perfect, imperfect past, past perfect), the type of combination (homogeneous vs. non-homogeneous combination), and the socio-educational level of the participants (vulnerable vs. non-vulnerable context). For the analysis of the number of clauses used in each story, the Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon Test was applied, since the samples did not comply with the assumption of necessary normality to carry out the test for independent samples. For the analysis of the distribution of classes, lexical aspect, type of grammatical aspect, and temporal variations in the ranking of temporal forms, depending on the socio-educational context, the Chi-squared test was used. Analysis of the stories showed that the non-vulnerable group used non-homogeneous temporal combinations to a greater extent when compared to the vulnerable group. In sum, the study shows that the non-vulnerable group used a more complex grammar than the vulnerable group in relation to some categories of the Spanish temporal system: greater ranking of temporal forms and higher number of non-homogeneous combinations.