The acquisition of generic singular and plural structures in Arabic by L1 American English speakers

ضمن الاستغراق في العربية عند الناطقين بالإنجليزية الأمريكية

Abstract

The present paper set out to explore the acquisition of generic singular and plural structures in Arabic by L1 American English learners in light of full transfer/ full access hypothesis (FT/ FA) proposed in Schwartz and Sprouse (1994, 1996) which is based on the universal grammar framework. The rationale for this study is to discover the causes behind the difficulty with the acquisition of the singular and plural structures in the context of genericity in Arabic among the L1 American English speakers. Concerning research methodology, the researcher examines one main question: Will L1 American English learners of Arabic reflect generic structures of L1 grammar? The placement test is used to categorize learners’ levels and the grammatical judgement test is administered to collect data from upper intermediate L1 American English group and L1 Moroccan Arabic control group. The findings revealed that the results support full transfer/ full access perspective as the upper intermediate group used the definite article in the singular and omitted it in the plural in the context of genericity showing influence of their L1 genericity usage on Arabic. This means that the upper intermediate learners depend on the first language as part of initial state along with primary language data. Generally speaking, the upper intermediate group showed good usage of positive evidence more than negative evidence. Finally, the researcher proposes a four-language evidence division depending on the difficulty level and presents linkage backup and latency principles.