The Acquisition of Articles in Child Second Language English: Fluctuation, Transfer or Both?

Autor/inn/en	Zdorenko, Tatiana; Paradis, Johanne
Titel	The Acquisition of Articles in Child Second Language English: Fluctuation, Transfer or Both?
Quelle	In: Second Language Research, 24 (2008) 2, S.227-250 (24 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0267-6583
DOI	10.1177/0267658307086302
Schlagwörter	Form Classes (Languages); Second Language Learning; Child Language; English (Second Language); Transfer of Training; Computational Linguistics; Longitudinal Studies; Chinese; Japanese; Korean; Native Speakers; Language Role; Language Acquisition; Adults; Comparative Analysis; Linguistic Theory + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Analytischer Sprachbau; Zweitsprachenerwerb; 'Children''s language'; Kindersprache; English as second language; English; Second Language; Englisch als Zweitsprache; Training; Transfer; Ausbildung; Linguistics; Computerlinguistik; Longitudinal study; Longitudinal method; Longitudinal methods; Längsschnittuntersuchung; China; Chinesen; Japaner; Japanisch; Koreanisch; Muttersprachler; Sprachaneignung; Spracherwerb; Linguistische Theorie
Abstract	The data for this study consisted of a longitudinal corpus of narratives from 17 English second language (L2) children, mean age of 5;4 years at the outset, with first languages (Lls) that do not have definite/indefinite articles (Chinese, Korean and Japanese) and Lls that do have article systems (Spanish, Romanian and Arabic). We examined these children's acquisition of articles in order to determine the role of L1 transfer and, in so doing, test the Fluctuation Hypothesis, and also to compare our findings to those from research on adult L2 learners. Three tendencies were found over two years: (1) All children substituted "the" for "a" in indefinite specific contexts (i.e. showed fluctuation) regardless of L1 background; (2) all children were more accurate with use of "the" in definite contexts than with "a" in indefinite contexts, regardless of L1 background; and (3) children with [-article] Lls had more omitted articles as error forms than children with [+article] L1s, but only at the early stages of acquisition. Overall, L1 influence in the children's developmental patterns and rates of article acquisition was limited. Child L2 learners converged on the target system faster than prior reports have indicated for adult L2 learners, even when their L1s lack articles. Thus, we conclude that fluctuation is a developmental process that overrides transfer in child L2 acquisition of English articles, in contrast to what has been reported for adult L2 learners. (Contains 4 tables.) (Author).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10