Acquisition of Third Person Singular -s: A Primary State School (Sixth Graders) Case in Turkey

Abstract

Second language learners have the most difficulty in acquiring the third person –s morpheme. Ironically, however, this morpheme continued to occupy the beginning stages of language learning until very recently. Our interest in studying the third person –s morpheme is not only because it creates complexity for learners but also as much of the prior research is descriptive. In this research we wished to unearth whether or not this difficulty also applied to Turkish language learners of English, and if so, we would make an attempt to explain why it was so. We additionally wanted to see what factors, if any, cause this intricacy for Turkish learners of English. Another significance of this study lies in the fact that although the related literature abounds in research on the acquisition of 3rd person singular morpheme, there is little research particularly focusing on Turkish EFL learners. The existing few research on this issue taps on Turkish learners’ acquisition of inflectional morphemes in general, not specifically the third person –s.