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Processability and Language Acquisition in the Asia-Pacific Region
Edited by Satomi Kawaguchi, Bruno Di Biase and Yumiko Yamaguchi
[Processability Approaches to Language Acquisition Research & Teaching 9] 2023
► pp. 260–281

Chapter 10
The acquisition of polar questions in Chinese learners of English as a foreign language

A processability approach

| The Australian National University
| The Australian National University
This chapter investigates the acquisition of English polar questions in a cross-sectional study of nine Chinese junior high school learners acquiring English as a Foreign Language in Inner Mongolia (China). Conducted within a Processability Theory framework, in particular the recently proposed Prominence Hypothesis, the study focuses on analytical issues, presenting a descriptive account of the structures learners produce when asking polar questions. These include intonation questions with canonical word order, the use of single and multi-word question markers, prefabricated patterns, and questions with non-canonical word order. Results are consistent, overall, with the predictive schedule for ESL/EFL as formulated in the Prominence Hypothesis. However, the data also contains questions consisting of a prefabricated pattern followed by a noun phrase, which do not fit either with the Lemma access stage or the Canonical word order stage. The authors argue that this type of question represents a separate stage between these two early stages.
Article outline
  • 1.Issues in researching the SLA of polar questions
  • 2.Methodology
    • 2.1Learners
    • 2.2Data collection and transcription
  • 3.Analysis and results
    • 3.1Polar questions with canonical word order and rising intonation
    • 3.2Polar questions starting with a non-aux-like question marker
    • 3.3Polar questions starting with a prefabricated pattern
    • 3.4Polar questions potentially with non-canonical word order
      • 3.4.1Potential auxiliary ‘DO’
      • 3.4.2Potential auxiliary ‘BE’
      • 3.4.3Polar questions apparently starting with a modal verb
    • 3.5Summary of structures
  • 4.Discussion
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 2 February 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/palart.9.10li
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