“This” or “one” but not “the” or “a” : article replacement by Chinese students By: January Forsthoefel

Topic Area Second language acquisition lexical transfer

Background/Justification It is well known that the Chinese language does not have functional equivalents of the English definite and indefinite articles. It is well known that the Chinese language does not have functional equivalents of the English definite and indefinite articles. in order to fulfill the article position, many Chinese students choose to use “this” instead of “the”, “one” in stead of “a” before NP in order to fulfill the article position, many Chinese students choose to use “this” instead of “the”, “one” in stead of “a” before NP one part of lexical transfer in L2 acquisition process. one part of lexical transfer in L2 acquisition process.

References Jarvis, S. (2002). Topic continuity in L2 English article use. Studies of Second Language Acquisition, 24, Shi, D. (2000). Topic ad topic-comment constructions in mandarin Chinese. Language, 76(2), Parrish, B. (1987). A new look at methodologies in the study of article acquisition for learners of ESL. Language Learning, 37(3), Robertson, D. (2000). Variability in the used of the English article system by Chinese learners of English. Second Language Research, 16(2), Young, R. (1995). Form-function relations in articles in English interlanguage. In R. Barley & D. Preston (Eds.), Second language acquisition and linguistic variation (pp ). Benjamins: Amsterdam.

Research Questions How often do Chinese students use demonstratives instead of definite article? How often do Chinese use numerals instead of indefinite article? When do they make demonstratives?

METHODOLOGY Participants: 40 Chinese EFL learners. 3 years of English learning 40 Chinese EFL learners. 5 years of English learning

Methodology Procedure: Procedure: give students 40 mins to write the story “the snow white and the seven dwarfs” in English, starts with “once upon a time,…..”. give students 40 mins to write the story “the snow white and the seven dwarfs” in English, starts with “once upon a time,…..”. Collect the writing samples and diagnose the articles errors. Collect the writing samples and diagnose the articles errors. Compare the article omission with using demonstratives and numerals instead of articles. Compare the article omission with using demonstratives and numerals instead of articles. Categorize the use of demonstratives and numerals. Categorize the use of demonstratives and numerals.

Analysis Quantatitive Analysis Table data comparison.

Expected Findings Besides omitting articles, students prefer demonstratives and numerals rather than articles when articles are needed in their L2 production. With higher L2 proficiency, students tend to use more numerals in stead of demonstratives in article error production.

Anticipated Problems/Limitation of Study The topic given to participants is not suitable enough to test their proficiency of article mastery in L2 English Limited written samples, which are not sufficient to account for quantitative data base. Articles are too controversial in English language.