This volume focuses on the acquisition of the two Spanish copular verbs, ser 'to be' and estar 'to be', by English-speaking adult learners. It outlines a cross-disciplinary approach in which syntactic, semantic and pragmatic features are assessed as predictors of copula choice.

This new model of analysis, which uses several variables that are simultaneously present in the discourse context, provides a description of learner language while focusing on language use. This research has implications for theoretical and sociolinguistic approaches to copula choice, and is generalizable to other areas of interest within the field of second language acquisition.

The first section of this book critically examines studies in theoretical and sociolinguistics.

The second section includes an in-depth review of previous research on the second language acquisition of copula choice, followed by the presentation and application of a new model of analysis to data from novice, intermediate and advanced learners, and native Spanish speakers. The final section addresses pedagogical and theoretical implications, and outlines future research goals.

Kimberly L. Geeslin is an Assistant Professor of Hispanic Linguistics at Indiana University. Her work on the second language acquisition of Spanish has appeared in Studies in Second Language Acquisition, Linguistics, Language Learning and Hispania.