Writing proper English sentences poses a significant challenge for Arabic-speaking postsecondary students studying English as a Foreign Language (EFL) due to substantial differences between Arabic and English syntactic structures. This basic qualitative study explored the perceptions of Arabic-speaking EFL learners at an Arabian university…

The present paper attempts to provide a critical evaluation of the most prominent pedagogical models that have dealt with the language of the second language (L2) learner starting from the second half of the 20th century. The three most influential approaches in the domain are investigated in this study: contrastive analysis (CA), error analysis…

This study uses both offline and online tasks in order to investigate whether second language learners of English from an article-less first-language (Mandarin) are able to integrate the indefinite article into their grammar despite the lack of articles in their first language. This article reports on two studies, one on learners' sensitivity to…

The paper discusses the infinitive errors made by Chinese college students. From the CLEC, all infinitive errors tagged as [vp5] are collected, and then the general distribution of the errors among 4 groups of college students is shown. Moreover, these errors are classified into 12 categories according to the characteristics of the usage. After…

Han's (2009, 2013) selective fossilization hypothesis (SFH) claims that L1 markedness and L2 input robustness determine the fossilizability (and learnability) of an L2 feature. To test the validity of the model, a pseudo-longitudinal study was designed in which the errors in the argumentative essays of 52 Iranian EFL learners were identified and…

Analyzing errors committed by second language learners during their first year of study at the University of Taif, can offer insights and knowledge of the learners' difficulties in acquiring technical English communication. With reference to the errors analyzed, the researcher found that the learners' failure to understand basic English grammar…

Chinese Students' English has its own characteristics. It is of significance to analyze and study these characteristics. The paper uses the corpus approach to study the misuse of tenses in Chinese College students' CET-4 compositions of the sub-corpus of "Non-major College Students" in the Chinese Learner English Corpus (CLEC). Nine…

The major portion of this paper is devoted to delineate the types of errors made by Arab learners of English in the area of the article system. By so doing, the paper classifies learners' errors according to the Surface Structure Taxonomies of errors, and illustrates the possible sources of these errors. In order to overcome learners' difficulties…

Heritage speakers (HSs) of Russian in the United States form a very complex and diverse group of learners. Research in heritage linguistics has examined key parameters of the HSs' oral production. Important work has been done in heritage language (HL) pragmatics, morphology, and lexicon. However, very few studies have been conducted to…

In the tradition of work by Shaughnessy (1977) and Bartholomae (1980) applying concepts from second language acquisition research to developing writing, we explore the commonalities of L1 and L2 writers on the specific level of linguistic choices needed to order information within and across sentence boundaries. We propose that many of the kinds…

This article examines common lexicogrammatical problems found in Cantonese English as a second language (ESL) learners' written English output. A study was conducted with 387 student participants, who were asked to do two untutored and unaided free-writing tasks of about 200-300 words each. A range of lexicogrammatical error types commonly found…

Describes the design of the International Corpus of Learner English, outlining the learner and task variables in the corpus of texts written by English-as-a-Foreign-Language university undergraduates. The design of the corpus and sampling of students with different native languages make contrastive interlanguage analyses and error analyses…

A study of certain aspects of second language learning among three university students, all in an advanced ESL class at UCLA. An error analysis of written verb forms was undertaken. An examination of correction revealed that it was neither systematic nor enlightened enough to actually influence error production. (Author/RM)

Discusses the amount of influence that a learner's native language has on the acquisition of a second language. Suggests that some important properties of a learner's interlanguage (IL) can be predicted, as shown by the different IL rules that Cantonese and Japanese use in dealing with English word-final voice contrasts. (Author/MES)

Examines the role played by voiced stop spirantization in the acquisition of English "b, d, g," and "d" by native Spanish speakers. Results reveal that accuracy in English pronunciation is hindered by native language transfer, including the transfer of spirantization and native language syllable structure constraints, and that…