| The English article system consists of definite article the, indefinite article a(an) and zero articleeΦ. Proposed by Ionin et al., the Article Choice Parameter (ACP) is a semantic parameter. Their proposal is that articles cross-linguistically can encode the feature [±definiteness] or [±specificity]. L2 learners whose native language does not have articles will fluctuate between the two features and ultimately set the ACP. This study collected and analyzed the scores on article-focused test from 80 high school students. The data was analyzed by statistical software SPSS (17.0). The findings are as follows: First, the article accuracy of Chinese high school learners is positively correlated with their English proficiency level. The Pearson Correlation coefficient is.584 (p<.01, two-tailed). Second, the two semantic features [±definiteness] and [±specificity] have a statistically significant influence on the article accuracy of Chinese high school students (F=12.372, p=.000<.05). Third, the learners tend to overuse the in [-definite,+specific] context, while overuse a in [+definite,-specific] context. Fourth, the accuracy order in terms of the article type is:the>a, and the difference in accuracy among the two articles also reaches statistical significance (t=2.448, p=.017<.05). Finally, Chinese learners tend to associate the with the semantic feature [+specific], while associate a with the semantic feature [-specific]. They fluctuate between dividing English articles on the basis of definiteness vs. on the basis of specificity.Based on this research, several suggestions are pointed out for teachers as well as learners: First, attention needs to be paid to the systematic and formal instruction and learning of English articles.Second, English culture teaching can be used as an effective input to improve the learners' language sense, which in turn is helpful to promote the learning of articles. Third, it is necessary to increase the awareness of the English article system. |
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