Korean EFL Learners’ Indefinite Article Use with Four Types of Abstract Nouns

Abstract

The study investigates Korean-speaking EFL learners’ article use with four different categories of abstract nouns. The categories, which are based on boundedness and countability, are state nouns, continuous-action nouns, non-continuous action nouns, and bounded independent nouns. Fifty Korean intermediate-level learners of English participated in a forced choice task in which they chose an indefinite article (a/n) or null article with these nouns in context. A one-way analysis of variance compared accuracy rates across the four different types of abstract nouns. The results showed that learners’ article use is influenced by noun type. The accuracy rate was highest for the bounded independent and lowest for the non-continuous action nouns. We propose that the heterogeneous nature of the category of abstract nouns should be addressed in research and pedagogy.