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Article published In:
Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism
Vol. 12:2 (2022) ► pp.133–162

What transfers (or doesn’t) in the second language acquisition of English articles by learners from article-less native languages?

| University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
| University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
| University of Shanghai for Science and Technology

This paper examines whether adult learners of English whose native languages (Korean and Mandarin Chinese) lack articles are influenced by transfer from demonstratives and numerals in their acquisition of English articles. To this end, the results of two studies are reported. The first study examines native Korean and Mandarin speakers’ preferences for bare vs. non-bare (demonstrative or numeral) forms in different types of definite and indefinite environments. The results of this study give rise to specific predictions for L1-Korean and L1-Mandarin L2-English learners’ sensitivity to article omission errors in different types of definite and indefinite contexts in English. These predictions are tested in the second study, which uses both an offline task (grammaticality judgments) and an online task (self-paced reading) to investigate learners’ sensitivity to errors of article omission. L1-Korean and L1-Mandarin L2-English learners are found to behave very similarly when tested in English, despite different preferences exhibited by native speakers of Korean and Mandarin.  It is concluded that learners of these article-less first languages do not transfer the semantics of demonstratives and numerals onto articles in their second language.

Keywords: articles, L1-transfer, Korean, Mandarin, definiteness
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.(In)definiteness in English, Korean and Mandarin
    • 2.1The expression of (in)definiteness in English
    • 2.2The expression of (in)definiteness in Korean and Mandarin
  • 3.Articles in L-acquisition and the role of L-transfer
  • 4.Study 1: Korean and Mandarin
    • 4.1Methodology
    • 4.2Results
  • 5.Study 2: L-English
    • 5.1Methodology
      • 5.1.1Participants
      • 5.1.2Test materials
      • 5.1.3Test procedure
    • 5.2Predictions
    • 5.3Data analysis
      • 5.3.1Data analysis: GJT
      • 5.3.2Data trimming and data analysis: SPRT
    • 5.4GJT results
    • 5.5SPRT results
  • 6.Discussion
    • 6.1Summary of the findings
    • 6.2Explanation of the findings with indefinites
    • 6.3Explanation of findings with definites
    • 6.4Why no L-transfer?
  • 7.Conclusion and suggestions for further research
  • Abbreviations
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 25 May 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.19057.ion
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