Tiempo, aspecto y aprendizaje basado en datos: Consideraciones para la enseñanza del pretérito perfecto compuesto en español

In this article, I carry out a detailed analysis of some of the linguistic features of the Spanish pretérito perfecto compuesto (present perfect tense) in order to show its implications within the Spanish Second Language teaching and learning context, where this particular tense is usually explained in a very simplistic way. I will present the results of the analysis of the present perfect tense using a data-driven methodology, analysing data from a Spanish learner’s corpus, the Corpus de aprendices de español (Rojo & Palacios 2014). After having described the unstable sociolinguistic landscape of the present perfect in the Spanish-speaking world nowadays, I will track the effects of grammar variation in the context of Spanish language learning by examining 2,228 sentences that Spanish students have written using the present perfect. With this analysis, I aim to study some morphological features and aspectual representations to explore quantitative and qualitative differences between native and non-native uses of this particular tense and aspect. The results of this analysis will help us understand that the use of the target language by the learners contradicts some beliefs, learning processes and contents that are generally associated to the grammar structures that teachers of Spanish normally deal with in textbooks, language reference curricula and assessments.