The Acquisition of the English Spatial Prepositions

In , on , and at by Saudi EFL Students

Bibliographic Data

ID10879825
AuthorsReham Alhammad (0000-0002-1936-0984, Majmaah University, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume69
Issue2
Pages175-204
Publication date2023-04-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueWORD (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0043-7956 • E-ISSN: 2373-5112
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00437956.2023.2208897
OpenAlexW4382562747
LanguageEN
References cited29

This study investigates the acquisition of the three English spatial prepositions: 'in', 'on', and 'at' by 100 Saudi EFL students within the framework of the Markedness Theory. From the markedness point of view, marked/infrequent structures are more difficult in acquisition compared to their corresponding unmarked/frequent structures. English and Arabic differ in the way they express the semantic relations of these prepositions. This is assumed to pose difficulties in learning for EFL students where learners compare the English prepositional system to that of Arabic and resort to literal translation; thus, L1 transfer takes place. The study aims to provide insight into the challenges that Arab EFL learners encounter when learning English and to fill a gap in the literature of second language acquisition regarding the acquisition of prepositions by Arab EFL learners when semantic asymmetries are attested. Results show that the unmarked preposition 'in' is learned easily because its Arabic equivalent 'fi' covers more functions in the native language. As for the prepositions 'on' and 'at', results show that participants are struggling to learn them because only a few meanings correspond between 'on' and its Arabic equivalent 'ʕala', and that Arabic lacks an equivalent for 'at

Linguistics · Mathematics education · Categorization, perception, and language · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Philosophy · Psychology

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