Article Semantics in L2 English Acquisition by Korean Elementary School Students

Abstract

This research investigates the effects of the universal semantic feature, specificity, in the L2 acquisition of English articles by Korean 6th graders. It reveals that specificity effects the young students' English acquisition, but the marker of specificity is different from the one reported in previous studies (Ionin et. al. 2004, 2009). In a forced multiple-choice written test, the elementary school students used the indefinite article a more in the specific context than in the non-specific context, unlike the subjects of the previous studies who overused the more in the specific context than in the nonspecific context. These findings suggest the developmental stages of specificity: Korean EFL learners use the indefinite article a at the first stage and the definite article the at the next. With the young EFL learners fluctuation between specificity and definiteness settings was not revealed clearly unlike with the children in Zdrenko and Paradis (2008), indicating that UG and L1 both play a role in acquiring L2 English articles.