A Fossilized Language Pattern for the Singular First Person Subject Pronoun in the Saudi Context: I vs. I am

Abstract

<p><em>The drive that motivated this study was an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher’s observation of a fossilized grammar pattern produced by students over an extended period of time. The fossilized pattern “I am go” frequently emerges in the EFL context of Saudi Arabia, for which a number of factors could be accountable,</em><em> including overgeneralization of a grammar pattern, inadequate instruction, lack of negative and corrective feedback, being frequently exposed to peers’ production of the fossilized pattern, and so forth. 155 undergraduate students from a Saudi university responded to a multiple-choice question with three options. The findings revealed that only one third of the participants identified the correct singular first person subject pronoun in English “I”, which corresponded to (</em>انا<em>) in Arabic. Based on the results, pedagogical and methodological recommendations are made as to how the possibility of the emergence of the incorrect pattern</em><em> in question can be reduced or minimized.</em></p><p> </p>