The acquisition of articles in child second language English: fluctuation, transfer or both?  

Oleh:

Zdorenko, Tatiana ; Paradis, Johanne

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: Second Language Research (Full Text & ada di PROQUEST) vol. 24 no. 2 (Apr. 2008), page 227-250.
Topik: child L2; English articles; fluctuation hypothesis; L1 transfer; second language acquisition
Fulltext: Tatiana Zdorenko and Johanne Paradis.pdf (265.96KB)

Isi artikel

The data for this study consisted of a longitudinal corpus of narratives from 17 English second language (L2) children, mean age of 5;4 years at the outset, with first languages (L1s) that do not have definite/indefinite articles (Chinese, Korean and Japanese) and L1s that do have article systems (Spanish, Romanian and Arabic). We examined these children’s acquisition of articles in order to determine the role of L1 transfer and, in so doing, test the Fluctuation Hypothesis, and also to compare our findings to those from research on adult L2 learners. Three tendencies were found over two years: (1) All children substituted the for a in indefinite specific contexts (i.e. showed fluctuation) regardless of L1 background; (2) all children were more accurate with use of the in definite contexts than with a in indefinite contexts, regardless of L1 background; and (3) children with [—article] L1s had more omitted articles as error forms than children with [ +article] L1s, but only at the early stages of acquisition. Overall, L1 influence in the children’s developmental patterns and rates of article acquisition was limited. Child L2 learners converged on the target system faster than prior reports have indicated for adult L2 learners, even when their L1s lack articles. Thus, we conclude that fluctuation is a developmental process that overrides transfer in child L2 acquisition of English articles, in contrast to what has been reported for adult L2 learners.

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