Acquisition of the third person singular allomorphs of the simple present tense in English by Panamanian senior-level learners of English

Abstract

The purpose of this quantitative study with an exploratory and descriptive scope was to apply the concepts of the Markedness Differential Hypothesis (Eckman, 1977) and Similarity Differential Rate Hypothesis (Major & Kim, 1996) in the production of the allomorphs of the third person singular of the English simple present tense by Panamanian Spanish senior-level learners of English. The researchers used a custom-designed book containing images as a research instrument, administering it twice to the sample group. The data collected through this method was subsequently subjected to analysis employing concepts from auditory and acoustic phonetics. The simple descriptive statistics showed that the sample had mastered 64% of the allomorphs of the third-person singular of the English simple present tense. These results could be the base for further research with correlational and explanatory scopes with many participants to confirm or disregard the patterns found in this study.