Some Factors in the Acquisition of the Present Subjunctive in Spanish
Jeffery D. Stokes · Hispania · 1988
In order to attain the superior level on the ACTFL oral proficiency scale, an individual is allowed to display only occasional (unpatterned) errors in the basic grammatical structures of the language being tested (Omaggio). In Spanish this requires consistent control of the indicative/subjunctive contrast, due to the fact that subjunctive forms are pervasive in the language.1 Many second-language learners become quite fluent in Spanish, but fail to gain control over the subjunctive. This study seeks to shed light on some of the factors which may either facilitate or inhibit acquisition of the Spanish indicative/subjunctive contrast, as well as on the difficulty level of various structures which require a mode selection.