The influence of L1 typology on the acquisition of the L2 English article

A large-scale corpus study

Datos Bibliográficos

ID11655956
AutoresDoğuş Öksüz (0000-0003-2931-4671, Lancaster University, autor de correspondencia), Theodora Alexopoulou (0000-0002-4236-7906, University of Cambridge), Kateryna Derkach (0000-0001-8421-6623, University of Cambridge), Ianthi-Maria Tsimpli (0000-0001-6015-7526, University of Cambridge), Ianthi Maria Tsimpli (University of Cambridge)
Año2025
Volumen42
Número2
Páginas281-311
Fecha de publicación2025-12-31
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaSecond language Research (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0267-6583 • E-ISSN: 1477-0326
EditorialSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/02676583251395876
OpenAlexW7117731991
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas42

We present a corpus investigation of the influence of first language – second language (L1–L2) typological similarity on the acquisition of the L2 English article. We consider item-level typological similarity in terms of the availability of an article in the L1, but also broader typological similarity in terms of the linguistic distance between L1 and L2 as captured through a variety of lexical, morphosyntactic and phonological measures of linguistic distance. We analyse the accuracy of the use of the definite and indefinite English articles in around 0.5 million writings from learners with 11 typologically diverse L1s. The data are sampled from an open access English as a foreign language (EFL) corpus, EFCAMDAT. Our results indicate that L1 influence arises from a combination of item level L1–L2 differences, that is, the availability of an article in the L1, as well as broader properties of the L1 grammar, as captured by linguistic distance measures. The results indicate that it is the availability of the definite article in the L1 that predicts article omission in L2 English, for both the definite and indefinite articles. This finding supports the generative typological distinction between determiner phrase (DP) and noun phrase (NP) languages, indicating that the availability of a definite article and a DP predicts the use of bare nominals in the L1 and consequently, article omission in L2 English

Corpus linguistics · Determiner · Determiner phrase · Generative grammar · Noun · Noun phrase · Phrase structure rules · Similarity (geometry · Typology · Variety (cybernetics · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning · Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism · Second Language Acquisition and Learning