The acquisition of English articles among L1 Dagbani L2 English learners

Abukari Kwame,Marit Westergaard

doi:10.1017/cnj.2020.20

Abstract

AbstractThis study investigates the acquisition of articles in L2 English by L1 speakers of Dagbani, a Gur language spoken in Ghana. Dagbani differs from English in that it has two definite articles, no indefinite article, and a zero-article which may express definiteness, indefiniteness as well as genericity. The study consisted of a Forced-choice task (FCT) and an Acceptability judgement task (AJT) which were administered to Dagbani teenagers with an intermediate proficiency in English (n = 45) and a group of native English speakers as controls (n = 8). The results showed that the learners’ article choice was based on definiteness, not specificity (i.e., no fluctuation between the two) and that they had slightly more problems with indefinite than definite contexts, while generic contexts were the most problematic. Except for a certain task effect as well as a possible interference of instruction (in the FCT), the results can be argued to generally be due to influence from the L1 and to the difficulty of feature reassembly.

Highlights

This study investigates the acquisition of English articles among native Dagbani (L1) speakers
Using insights from Lardiere (2004, 2008, 2009) and Hawkins et al.’s (2006) concerning feature reassembly and feature expression on the English articles, as well as insights from Cho and Slabakova (2014), Shimanskaya and Slabakova (2014), and Slabakova’s (2009b, 2009c, 2016) concerning notions of covert vs. overt and direct vs. indirect form-meaning expressions of functional morphemes, we argue that the article use patterns exhibited by the intermediate L2 English learners were due to L1 transfer and its interaction with the L2 input data
Our goal in this study was to investigate L2 English article acquisition among L1 Dagbani speakers to determine whether their acquisition patterns reflect L1 transfer effects or fluctuation, as argued in previous studies among different L1 speakers (Ionin et al 2003, 2004; Ionin et al 2009; Mayo 2009; Sarko 2009, among others)

Summary

Introduction

This study investigates the acquisition of English articles among native Dagbani (L1) speakers. Studies have shown that L2 learners both from article-having and article-less language backgrounds display variation in their acquisition patterns of the English article system (Ionin et al 2003, 2004; Park 2005; Hawkins et al 2006; Avery and Radišić 2007; Ionin et al 2008; Park and Song 2008; Trenkic 2009; Chung 2011, among others). It has been observed that L2 learners from languages that have articles transfer the article semantics of their L1 onto the L2 grammar, while learners from article-less languages supposedly fluctuate between using definiteness or specificity to regulate article use This has been proposed to be due to an Article Choice Parameter (ACP) (Ionin 2003; Ionin et al 2003, 2004; Ionin et al 2008; Ionin et al 2009)

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion