Subjunctive in second language Spanish

The subjunctive is important in the pedagogical grammar of Spanish foreign-language (FL) instruction. Nevertheless, Collentine surmises that instructional interventions have not proven particularly effective in promoting subjunctive abilities. He attributes this to the subjunctive's multifarious nature, involving complex inflectional and syntactic considerations. This chapter considers these and other linguistic and developmental factors affecting subjunctive acquisition by speakers of English as a first language (L1), and delineates future research avenues. The study of subjunctive and mood-selection development is starting to bring together these larger issues, and future research could help immensely in the development of a unified theory of second language acquisition (SLA).