ABSTRACT
The study of the acquisition of future expression investigates learners’ expression of both time and temporality and their relation to tense, on the one hand, and modality on the other (since future events are not reported events, and thus fall into the domain of irrealis). This chapter discusses the duality of future meaning by reviewing semantic accounts of the future as temporal (what we call tense) and the opposing account of future as possibility (or what we call modal). It then explores methodological approaches to research on future expression in L2 tense-mood-aspect systems, reports on how future expression has been investigated in child language acquisition and development and on the findings reported by those investigations, and reviews research on the development of L2 future expression from both functional (concept-oriented) and variationist approaches. The chapter ends by considering new avenues for the continuing exploration of the acquisition of future expression in L2 tense-mood-aspect systems.
