The acquisition of the English determiner system: Sequence, order and transfer

This study is a descriptive study of the interlanguage structures involved in the acquisition of the English determiner system. The data for the study were elicited from thirty native Korean and twenty native Spanish speaking university level second language learners of English who made up four proficiency levels. The instruments used to elicit the data were a bilingual syntax measure and a jigsaw map task. Each subject's performance was audio-recorded and transcribed. All obligatory occasions, nominal expressions, from these data were identified, and all determiners—articles, demonstratives, possessives and quantifiers—were examined. These data were examined to identify first whether there were any regularities in the interlanguage structures that represented a sequence of acquisition. They were examined secondly to determine the order of acquisition of the target language forms. Finally, the data from the native Korean and the native Spanish speakers were compared to ascertain whether the first language influenced the acquisition of the determiners. Four general patterns were found in the interlanguage data and identified as sequences of acquisition. The lowest proficiency learners simplify noun phrases by omitting any determiner. That is followed by a period of indeterminacy as determiners are supplied in inappropriate contexts. Then ‘the’ is overgeneralized in all environments. Finally, as ‘the’ is withdrawn from inappropriate contexts, ‘a’ is used appropriately in specific, referential, indefinite contexts. An order of acquisition was proposed based on the mean accuracy order. WH-determiners and demonstratives are acquired first followed by possessives and then by quantifiers and grammatically bare common nouns. The null article with proper nouns and then cardinal noun combinations follow these. Finally, the definite article is acquired followed by the indefinite article. Language transfer effects were found for the definite, indefinite, and null article as well as for cardinal noun combinations. In each of these areas the Koreans performed markedly worse than the Spanish speakers. The performance of the Korean speakers was attributed to the lack of articles as well as the lack of a count-mass distinction in Korean. The complexity of the Korean classifier system was also cited as a contributing factor.