Abstract
This paper reports on an experimental study which tested the claims of the Fundamental Difference Hypothesis and the Domain-by-Age-Model by comparing the performances of Arabic- and Chinese-speaking child and adult L2 learners in the acquisition of English reflexives. Whilst English and Arabic allow only local binding of reflexives, Chinese allows local and long-distance binding of reflexives. 60 L2 learners were given a word-based mean length of utterance proficiency test to confirm their proficiency level and, then, they were divided into six groups: Arabic-speaking children (n = 15); Arabic- speaking adults (n = 15); Chinese-speaking children (n = 15); Chinese- speaking adults (n = 15); an L1-English child (mean age 9.60) control group (n = 15); and an L1-English adult control group (n = 15). L2 learners’ interpretation of English reflexives was elicited through a 48-item Simon-Says- game. The results showed significant differences between the performance, of the L2 groups, and that of native speakers; yet, the majority of L2 learners were close to an 83.33% acquisition threshold. Also, by showing no significant difference between the child and adult L2 groups, the results indicated support for the Domain-by-Age-Model. As for the syntactic difference between reflexives and pronouns, L2 learners did not differentiate between them, scoring higher in reflexives.
Highlights
Based on the results of the studies discussed above, this study addressed the following research questions: (12) (a) Will L2 learners apply UG constraints in second language acquisition? (b) Have L2 learners reset their binding parameter to the values of the local binding of English reflexives? (c) Will L2 learners differentiate between the synaptic properties of lexical items? (d) Will there be any difference between child and adult L2 learners in the acquisition of English reflexives? (With respect to 1, 2 and 3)
UG constraints in the acquisition of English reflexives As far as UG constraints were concerned, this study argued that L2 learners obeyed UG constraints if they performed above the acquisition threshold and their performances were native-like in possessive structure 1, possessive structure 2, and long-distance object antecedent sentences
Local binding of English reflexives As far as the local binding of English reflexives was concerned, this study argued that L2 learners acquired the local binding of English reflexives if they performed above the acquisition threshold and their performances were native-like in both biclausal finite reflexive and biclausal non-finite reflexive sentences
Summary
Others (Schachter, 1990; Bley-Vroman, 1990; Tsimpli & Roussou, 1991; Clahsen & Hong, 1995) argued that access to UG was confined in time and that, in their L1 to analyse L2 input, adult L2 learners resorted to insinuations of UG. In this on-going debate, two prominent hypotheses are the Fundamental Difference Hypothesis (Bley-Vroman, 1990/2009) and the Domain-by-Age-Model (Schwartz, 2003).
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