The Role Of Specificity In Chinese Learners' Acquisition Of The English Article System

The English article system is one of the most difficult structural elements for learners who learn English as a foreign or second language. It is reported that even advanced learners of English make errors when all other elements of the language have been mastered. Moreover, it poses greater difficulty for learners whose native language does not have any equivalents. This thesis investigates how Chinese learners acquire the English article system. Generally speaking, three methods of analyzing or explaining article misuse can be identified. The first method is to associate overuse of the with the feature Specific Referent with scholars such as Huebner and Master as its representatives. The second is to associate overuse of the with the feature Hearer Knowledge. This method is mainly practiced by Thomas. The third is to attribute overuse of the to specificity which refers to speaker intent to refer. This method of explaining article overuse is based on the following assumptions: accessibility of Universal Grammar (UG), learners' optional adherence to parameter-settings and fluctuation hypothesis for L2 English article choice which is proposed by Ionin, Ko and Wexler.Adopting the third method, this thesis proposes that L2 learners have access to the universal semantic features [+definite] and [+specific], but do not know which of these features underlies article choice in English. As a result, they fluctuate between dividing English articles on the basis of definiteness vs. on the basis of specificity, until the input leads them to choose the [+definite] feature. To test the hypotheses, an elicitation test and an English proficiency test were conducted to 55 junior and 41 sophomore English major students. The proficiency test divided the 96 subjects into three groups (30 low, 32 intermediate, 34 advanced level students).The hypothesis that learners have access to two parameter settings (the definiteness setting and the specificity setting) makes the following predictions:1. Learners tend to use the correctly in intentional specific and extensional specific definite contexts.2. Learners tend to overuse the in intentional specific and extensional specific indefinite contexts.3. Learners tend to use a correctly in intentional nonspecific and extensional nonspecific indefinite contexts.4. Learners tend to overuse a in intentional nonspecific and extensional nonspecific definite contexts.The results show that these predictions were well supported by learners from all groups. Moreover, it was found that learners' general English proficiency did not affect their use of articles. Although learners from intermediate and advanced level group did have significantly better performance, the difference between intermediate and advanced group did not reach a statistically significant degree.The theoretical significance of the study is that it provides evidence for L2 learners' access to UG and optional adherence of parameter-settings, and therefore the validity of the Fluctuation Hypothesis for English article choice. Therefore, it may contribute to a more detailed understanding of the nature of the article acquisition by Chinese learners and hence facilitates teaching and learning of English articles.