Acquisition of English Articles by Child and Adult L2-English Learners

学习第二语言的儿童和成人不仅要学习新的语言形式，如单词和句子，还要学习它们含义的微妙之处。例如，英语中的“the”和“a”等冠词虽然形式简单，但却包含了关于说话者和听话者知识状态的复杂含义。不同的语言在它们的冠词系统中有微妙的不同含义。有些语言完全没有冠词，使用其他方式来谈论说话者和听话者的知识。因此，第二语言学习者在学习英语时面临着一项艰巨的任务，即确定“the”和“a "的确切含义，这项任务需要有能力区分意义上的细微差异，以及注意说话者和听话者的知识状态。学习者使用英语冠词所犯的错误类型为二语学习者将复杂意义与新的语言形式配对的能力提供了重要信息，有助于我们理解人类是如何习得新语言的。在国家科学基金会的支持下，Maria-Luisa Zubizarreta博士和Tania Ionin博士将研究第二语言学习者对英语文章的习得，根据最近的语言学理论检查文章使用错误的模式，并调查影响习得过程的不同因素。学习者的第一语言在第二语言的习得中的作用将通过比较母语为西班牙语（其文章系统类似于英语）、萨摩亚语（其文章系统不同于英语）和俄语（没有文章）的学习者之间的英语文章使用来进行研究。本文通过对儿童和成人二语学习者的对比研究，探讨了年龄对成功习得冠词意义的影响。本研究将通过书面测试和语音录音两种方式来研究学习者的冠词使用情况，有助于我们了解学习者的年龄和母语语法等因素是如何影响第二语言习得过程的。该项目在第二语言教学中也有潜在的教学应用。冠词是第二语言学习者最难掌握的语言部分，然而英语作为第二语言的教材中却很少有关于英语冠词系统的讨论。对第二语言学习者习得英语冠词的语言因素的理解应该应用于课堂研究，这反过来又可以为教学材料的设计提供依据。对不同年龄组和不同母语背景的第二语言学习者进行比较，将有助于更好地了解文章选择的哪些方面对哪些学习者来说特别困难。这个项目也为研究生提供了一个从事研究的机会。

Children and adults who learn a second language have to learn not only new linguistic forms, such as words and sentences, but also the subtleties of their meaning. For instance, articles, such as 'the' and 'a' in English, while simple in form, encode complex meanings about the state of speaker and hearer knowledge. Different languages encode subtly different meanings in their article systems. Some languages lack articles altogether and use other means to talk about speaker and hearer knowledge. A second language learner acquiring English is thus faced with the difficult task of establishing exactly what 'the' and 'a' mean, a task which requires an ability to distinguish subtle differences in meaning, as well as to attend to the states of speaker and hearer knowledge. The types of errors that learners make with English articles provide important information about second language learners' ability to pair complex meanings with new linguistic forms, and contribute to our understanding of how human beings acquire new languages. With support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Maria-Luisa Zubizarreta and Dr. Tania Ionin will study the acquisition of English articles by second language learners, examining the patterns of errors of article use in light of recent linguistic theory, and investigating different factors that influence the course of acquisition. The role of the learner's first language in the acquisition of a second language will be examined through a comparison of English article use among learners whose native languages are Spanish (whose article system is similar to English); Samoan (whose article system is different from English); and Russian (which has no articles). The effect of age on successful acquisition of article meanings will be studied through a comparison of child and adult second language learners. Learners' article use will be studied by means of both written tests and recordings of speech samples.This project contributes to our understanding of how such factors as learner's age and the grammar of the learner's native language affect the course of second language acquisition. The project also has potential pedagogical applications in second language teaching. Articles are a notoriously difficult part of language for second language learners to master, yet textbooks of English as a Second Language often devote little space to a discussion of the English article system. An understanding of the linguistic factors which underlie acquisition of English articles by second language learners should have applications for classroom research, which in turn can feed into the design of instructional materials. Comparisons of second language learners from different age groups, and from different native language backgrounds, will allow increased understanding of which aspects of article choice are particularly difficult for which groups of learners. This project also provides an opportunity for a graduate student to engage in research.