The Acquisition of English Articles by Second Language Learners

Abstract

Despite the numerous studies on English article acquisition, the acquisition sequence, differences, and difficulties by English-as-a-second language learners (ELLs) remain to be further explored. With a detailed literature review, this study investigated the acquisition sequence, differences, and difficulties of English articles by ELLs with diverse first language backgrounds. Eighteen college ELLs participated in the study. Data were collected through cloze exercises. The results, through the analysis of its database of 6,178 article used, indicated that “zero article” was the last to be acquired while article “a” is the first to be acquired; positive correspondence existed between the growth of the acquisition of article “a/an,” “the,” and “zero” between “+Art” (with article system) group and “−Art” (without article system) group. The results also revealed that (a) the most difficult article for participants in both groups to acquire was “zero article,” (b) “the” was the most difficult article for participants in “+Art” group, and (c) “a” was the easiest one acquired by both groups. These findings, in fact, challenge the commonsense belief that “+Art” ELLs acquired English articles faster than “−Art” ELLs and that when two languages were similar, positive transfer would occur.