The Acquisition of the English Article System by Turkish L2 Learners

1. The Acquisition of the English Article System by Turkish L2 Learners Ercan Yılmaz

2. The problem • Articles are one of the most difficult structural elements for EFL learners (Master 2002) • Acquisition of the article system in English is very demanding for L2 learners. Butler (2002)

3. The purpose • 1. to understand whether different types of articles are acquired by different proficiency level learners with different proficiency • 2. to determine whether there is a hierarchy in the acquisition of definite and indefinite articles

4. TheEnglish article system -the indefinite article a/an, -the definite article the -and the zero (null Ǿ)article .

5. Master (2002) The difficulty comes from three principle facts about the article system. 1.The continuous rule application effort put by the learners there are more than one alternatives for the same category

6. 2. The article system puts multiple functions on one single morpheme, a considerable burden for the learner, who generally seeks for a one-form-one function correspondencein navigatingthe language until the advanced stages of acquisition.

7. 3. Function words are normally unstressed and consequently are very difficult for non-native speaker of English to discern, thus affecting the availability of input in the spoken mode.

8. Huebner (1983) Opened a new avenue of research on L2 article acquisition . Not only did he look at the presence or absence of articles in obligatory contexts, but he also analyzed various types of NPs and the articles used with each semantic type.

9. Huebner divided the articles into 4 types + Thomas’s idiomatic & other conventional uses (type 5): Type :1 [- SR, +HK] a, the , 0 These are generic nouns Ǿ Lions are big wild cats The Lion is a big wild cat A lion is a big wild cat

10. Type 2 [+SR, +HK] This refers to the article the Pass me the salt I found a book. The book was….. The first person to walk on the moon….. The idea of coming to the US was…

11. Type 3 [+SR, -HK] referential indefinites & first – mention nouns (a , Ǿ) -I saw adog in Ahmet’s garden. -Susan kept on sending Ǿmessages to her boyfriend after they broke up.

12. Type 4 [-SR, -HK] Non-referential nouns, attributive indefinites & nonspecific indefinites ( a, Ǿ) -Alice is an actor . -I think , I should find abetter job. - ǾForeigners would come up with a better solution.

13. Type 5 Idioms & Other conventional uses a the Ǿ • All of a sudden, he woke up • In the 1950s, there weren’t many cars. • His family is now living Ǿ hand to mouth

14. According to (Celce-Murcia &Larsen-Freeman, 1999; Chesterman, 1991; Master, 1997) The zero article is divided into two types: zero and null. • The zero article occurs with nonspecific or generic noncount and plural nouns: • Water is essential to live . • Cats aren’t as loyal as dogs. • The null article occurs with certain singular count and proper nouns • İzmir is a very beautiful city. • I think that breakfast is the most important meal.

15. Article Acquisition by L2 Learners • Research on the L2 acquisition of articles has been rather made, focusing on isolated features of the English article system. • Only Master studied the acquisition of articles exclusively

16. Master (1987, as cited in Master,1997) • how the English article system develops in the interlanguage of speakers of +Art and –Art languages. • The acquisition order of articles differed depending on the L1s of subjects. • The zero article dominated the others . • For – Art learners the acquisition of a was delayed compared with the.

17. Thomas (1989) • Differences-similarities btw.L1 and L2 patterns in article acquisition • Do L2 learners Associate definite article more with +SR rather than +HK if so • Overuse of the in first mention. • 30 participants 7 +ART 23-ART • Story telling task • No accurate control of a in –SR –HK and the in +SR +HK • Overproduction of zero article is present in –ART • Overgeneralization of the [+SR –HK] contexts.

18. Atay 2010 • 120 students • 40 elementary, 40 intermediate and 40 upper –intermediate students • Data collection instrument, a forced-choice elicitation task is used. • 40 short and contextualized dialogues. • each dialogue is missing an article • a/an, the or Ø • four different contexts; i.e. definite/specific, • definite/non-specific, • indefinite/specific • indefinite/non-specific. • Each context has 10 dialogues with four different contexts that are randomized

19. A sample question in the tool • Mother’s calling up to her daughter who is upstairs • Mother: Ann! Could you please close ____ (Ø / a/ an / the) windows up there? It’s getting cold outside! • Ann: Ok mum!

20. Atay 2010 • intermediate level learners exhibited fluctuation between definiteness and specificity to a great extent in (+definite/-specific) and (-definite/+specific) contexts. • Elementary level learners were more accurate in these contexts exhibiting article omission errors in definite contexts. • upper intermediate level students were quite successful in article assignment in defined contexts. This revealed that there is a positive correlation between article system acquisition and proficiency.

21. The -ART language Turkish • Definiteness • Specifity

22. Turkish does not have an article system to mark definiteness or specificity. It encodes these semantic universals by some other alternative ways such as • case morphology • word order, stress • tense aspect-modality.

23. “Bir” in Turkish can be interpreted both as the indefinite determiner or numeral “one”. Eg: Sınıf – ta güzel bir kız var. class –LOC beautiful one girl there is (There is a beautiful girl in the class.) Eg: Sınıf – ta bir güzel kız var. class-LOC onebeautiful girl there is. • (There is one beautiful girl in the class.)

24. Bir adam gel – di. One man come –PAST ( A man came ) • Bir adam gel – di One man come-PAST (One man came)

25. In Turkish the minimal requirements for a noun phrase to be interpreted as DEFINITE • the absence of an indefinite determiner □Garsontabak – lar - ı temizle - di. Waiterplate -PL-ACC clean – PAST (The waiter cleaned the plates.) • accusative case marking where the NP is functioning as direct object □Müdüraraba -y - ı iste- di. presidentcar -ACC ask for –PAST (The president asked for the car.)

26. Müdür araba iste - di. president car ask for –PAST (The president asked for a car.)

27. Alternative Ways of Definiteness Marking in Turkish • Word Order Preverbal position □ Bura –dan hırsız gir - miş. here – ABL burglar get in – PAST (A burglar got in through here. ) • Hırsızbura – dan gir - miş. burglar here- ABL enter – PAST (The burglar got in through here.)

28. 2.Sentence Stress • RaporLAR yaz –ıl- dı. Report-PLURAL write-Passive- PAST (Reports were written.) • Raporlar yaz – ıl - DI. Report-PLURAL write-Passive- PAST (The reports were written.)

29. 3.Tense-Aspect-Modality • Çocuk - lar çabuk yorul- du. child -PL fast get tired –PAST (The children got tired fast.) • Çocuk - lar çabuk yorul- ur. Child –PL fast get tired –AOR (Children get tired fast.)

30. Specifity Enç (1991) asserts that in Turkish definite NPs are always specific • Hasan dekan- ı arı- yor. Hasan dean-ACC look for- PR.PROG. (Hasan is looking for the dean.) • But there is one exception: • Hasan dekan –ı arı- yor, dekan kim ol-ur- sa ol-sun. Hasan dean-ACC look for-PR.PROG who be-AOR-COND be-OPT (Hasan is looking for the dean- whoever the Dean may be.)

31. An indefinite NP can perform two referential functions: • First time mention: • Dün yol -da bir araba gör -dü -m Yesterdaystreet-LOC one car see –PAST-1SG (Yesterday, I sawa car in the street) (indefinite/specific) 2.non-specific entity which is unknown and unidentifiable also for the hearer. • Daha geniş bir araba almayı düşün -üyor -uz. More large one car to buy think –PROG- 1PL (We are thinking of buying a larger car.) (indefinite/nonspecific)

32. The presence or absence of accusative case in indefinite NPs • Ali bir piyano-yu kiralamak ist - i- yor. Ali one piano-ACC to rent want-PROG-3SG (Ali wants to rent a (certain) piano.) (indefinite /specific) • Ali bir piyano kiralamak ist- i- yor. Ali one piano to rent want-PROG-3SG (Ali wants to rent a (any) piano.) (indefinite/nonspecific)

33. Study • Ekiert(2004)’s test instrument • Elementary Pre-int Upper-int • 42 sentences 75 items • All types of Huebner’s & Thomas’s models are used. • 15 of each type

34. Fred bought a car on Monday. On Wednesday, he crashed the car. [Type 3] [Type 2] • A/the Cat likes 0 mice. [Type 1] [Type 4] • All of a sudden, he woke up from his coma. [Type 5] • My computer has a new sound card. [Type 3] • Sally Ride was the first American woman in 0 space. [Type 2] [Type 5]

35. elementary • T4>T3>T2>T1>T5

36. Pre int -T3>T4>T2>T1>T5

37. upper - T3>T4>T2>T1>T5

38. Alllevels -T3>T4>T2>T1>T5

39. Comparison (Ekiert-Own Study)

40. conclusion • Students lack the usage of articles with generic nouns and in idiomatic context • Elementary= t4 t3 t2 t1 t5 • Pre-int and Upper- int= t3 t4 t2 t1 t5 • all levels: a/an >the >T1 > T5 • Acquisition of the is delayed compared with a/an • No overproduction of Ǿ andno THE flooding

41. Thanks for listening =)