A Study On The Stages Of Acquisition Of English Syntactic Structures By Chinese Speaking ESL Learners--A Replicated Study Of And Comparison With Carol Chomsky

My supervisor, Prof. Zou Weicheng, introduced in his lecture of Educational Linguistics a well-known study on linguistic development in native children conducted by Carol Chomsky in 1971 (see Chomsky,1971).Based on the findings of her study, he speculated that the ESL learners'syntactic knowledge might be measured with the use of the same instruments so as to discover the similar patterns of syntactic development during the course of second language learning. Supposing this speculation was confirmed, the syntactic structures were not only a sort of systematic knowledge, but also a kind of mental structures which is in turn reflected in the grammatical structures. From this perspective, the study on syntactic development can provide positive evidence for the mentalist account of language acquisition. Therefore, with the help of my tutor and on the basis C. Chomsky's study, we designed and conducted a replicated study on the Chinese ESL learners'syntactic development.This study on the stages of acquisition of English syntactic structures by Chinese students of English as a second language (ESL) attempts to discover whether there exists a predictable "natural sequence" in adult second language learning, just like what C. Chomsky found out for the native speaking learners of English. Twenty-nine adult learners are observed, by employing techniques of psycholinguistic experiments, to elicit the information of their implicit language competence.5 out 8 relatively complex syntactic structures tested in this study can be ordered in a Guttman Scale according to their linguistic complexity, indicating developmental stages through which the Chinese speaking ESL learners pass.We then compare the findings of this study with that of Chomsky's original study, and finally obtain the quite similar developmental patterns with slight variation for both native speaking children and Chinese adult learners of English.Adopting the distinction between "sequence" and "order" in language acquisition, it can be argued that all learners, native and foreign, follow a similar sequence, an overall developmental route. This conclusion can provide strong evidence for the modified L1=L2 acquisition hypothesis which claims that the sequence of L2 acquisition resembles that of L1, while the order of acquisition may differ. Obviously, the proved L1=L2 acquisition hypothesis must contribute further to the mentalist account of language acquisition as a universal process.