THE ACQUISITION OF SECOND LANGUAGE GRAMMAR: A CONTRASTIVE STUDY OF PERSIAN AND ENGLISH ARTICLES

Abstract

INTRODUCTION:When it comes to language with different patterns of definiteness and indefiniteness making, EFL learners would have hard time to make distinction between them. The present research tries to depict these variations in article systems of both English and Persian languages; then by comparing and marking these differences, it will be demonstrated whether Persian students can make correct choice between English definite and indefinite articles regarding fact that they have already acquired their native language article marking system.Learning L2 article system, EFL learners would most probably benefit from their mother tongue article system; that is to say L1 features could be transferred to context of L2. Having encountered these intricacies among Persian learners encouraged me to dig out and scrutinize potential problems of Persian learners of English in using English article system.In terms of English articles, large number of L2 learners normally come across rather difficult barriers and it takes them quite while to be proficient at making correct choice between articles. What is more, no matter learners' L1 lacks or includes using articles, it would be equally intricate for them to specify definite article (Won Ho Yoo, 2009).As whole, with respect to concept of definiteness, several definitions and tenets have been proposed (Hawkins, 1978). As Halliday and Hasan (1976: 71) put: not only does definite article lack content, but it also accounts for particular as well as determinable entity about which there is usually available information so as to identify it.In addition, Geranpayeh asserts that Persian EFL learners usually fail to determine English definite article since Persian and English are of two diverse and separate definiteness mechanisms (2000: 47).Ionin (2003) states that L2 learners are not able to decide on accurate English articles due to their permanent entanglement with two language article systems which implies that English learners cannot help making errors about articles because of either overuse of a or overuse of the with specific indefinite nouns.According to (Dabaghi & Tavakoli, 2009), among 20 million English words, most frequent word is definite article the, while indefinite articles are in fifth place. Definite and indefinite articles (the, a, an) in English have different applications. While former takes into account previous knowledge and familiarity of word by reader or hearer, latter shows unfamiliarity of reader or hearer with given word or topic (Power & Martello, 1986). For instance, Power and Martello (2008) explain that when speaker or writer talks about referent such as rabbit, he/she has to take into consideration whether to use definite or indefinite articles, therefore if listener or reader is confronted with this word for first time, they use indefinite articles, and when listeners or readers are familiar with this word, definite article the is used in text.Having realized that Persian and English possess rather exclusive article systems, we come up with notion that it is substantial to know how Persian EFL learners utilize and translate articles mutually across two languages. Moreover, Faghih (1997) investigated 105 Persian substantives with their English equivalents. Besides, he stated that definiteness in Persian is not as transparent and tangible as it is in English; consequently, Persian learners of English encounter some difficulties with regard to learning and application of English definite article. However, main problem in distinguishing and applying definite and indefinite articles in Persian and English seems to be focused on lack of appropriate equivalences for definite and indefinite articles in Persian (Ansarin, 2004). Recognition of definite article the is problematic for Iranian EFL learners (Mobini & Tahririan, 2007), although they may learn it before indefinite articles. …