Stehle, Megan E.
(2009)
THE INTERLANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT OF ARTICLES IN ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY.
Master's Thesis, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
Speakers of other languages often have trouble learning the article system in English. This study traces the development of six learners, three Arabic speakers whose first language (L1) has articles and three Chinese speakers whose L1 does not. The study follows how learners use articles and maps that usage onto Huebner's (1983) semantic wheel to see their interlanguage form-function relationships with articles. Short spontaneous speeches by two groups of learners over the course of a year were used to see if the learners' L1 affects their development (Master, 1997; Zobl, 1982). Articles are examined in the context of the noun phrase in which they appear (Liu & Gleason, 2002; Huebner, 1983; Parrish, 1987; Robertson, 2000) and the countability of the noun phrase is also considered (Hiki, 1990). It was found that the Arabic speakers were more accurate in their use of the and ¨, but the Chinese were more accurate with a(n). Overall, there are few differences between the target-like use of the two groups and this is hypothesized to be due to neither Arabic nor Chinese having an indefinite article (Kharma, 1981; Thompson-Panos & Thomas-Ruþiã, 1983; Roberston, 2000). However, because Arabic has a definite article while Chinese does not, the Arabic speakers seem to develop a more target-like representation of the earlier than the Chinese speakers. The Chinese speakers confirmed acquisition stages proposed by Thomas (1989), while the Arabic speakers seem to associate a in introductory contexts (I had a friend named Tom) before existential contexts (That is a truck) and this is hypothesized to be a result of L1 transfer. This study concludes by illustrating the development using Huebner's semantic wheel to map out both groups' form-function relationships over time (Butler, 2002; Huebner, 1983) and suggesting that the article acquisition stages proposed are not as universal as previously thought (Master, 1995; Thomas, 1989), but actually differ based on features in the learner's L1.
Share
| Citation/Export: |
|
| Social Networking: |
|
Details
| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
|
| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
|
| ETD Committee: |
|
| Date: |
4 June 2009 |
| Date Type: |
Completion |
| Defense Date: |
15 April 2009 |
| Approval Date: |
4 June 2009 |
| Submission Date: |
20 April 2009 |
| Access Restriction: |
No restriction; Release the ETD for access worldwide immediately. |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences > Linguistics |
| Degree: |
MA - Master of Arts |
| Thesis Type: |
Master's Thesis |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
article acquisition; English as a Second Language; L1 transfer |
| Other ID: |
http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-04202009-101303/, etd-04202009-101303 |
| Date Deposited: |
10 Nov 2011 19:39 |
| Last Modified: |
15 Nov 2016 13:41 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/7368 |
Metrics
Monthly Views for the past 3 years
Plum Analytics
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
![[feed]](/images/feed-icon-32x32.png){kind=icon}