SAGE Open | |
The Acquisition of English Articles by Second Language Learners: The Sequence, Differences, and Difficulties | |
Ganzhao Sun1  | |
关键词: applied linguistics; English article; language studies; second language acquisition; second language teaching; learning; | |
DOI : 10.1177/2158244016635716 | |
学科分类:社会科学、人文和艺术(综合) | |
来源: Sage Journals | |
【 摘 要 】
Despite the numerous studies on English article acquisition, the acquisition sequence, differences, and difficulties by English-as-a-second language learners (ELLs) remain to be further explored. With a detailed literature review, this study investigated the acquisition sequence, differences, and difficulties of English articles by ELLs with diverse first language backgrounds. Eighteen college ELLs participated in the study. Data were collected through cloze exercises. The results, through the analysis of its database of 6,178 article used, indicated that âzero articleâ was the last to be acquired while article âaâ is the first to be acquired; positive correspondence existed between the growth of the acquisition of article âa/an,â âthe,â and âzeroâ between â+Artâ (with article system) group and ââArtâ (without article system) group. The results also revealed that (a) the most difficult article for participants in both groups to acquire was âzero article,â (b) âtheâ was the most difficult article for participants in â+Artâ group, and (c) âaâ was the easiest one acquired by both groups. These findings, in fact, challenge the commonsense belief that â+Artâ ELLs acquired English articles faster than ââArtâ ELLs and that when two languages were similar, positive transfer would occur.
【 授权许可】
CC BY
【 预 览 】
Files | Size | Format | View |
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RO201902028736713ZK.pdf | 80KB | download |