A Study On English Article Learning by Koreans Han-sook Lee Korea University English articles are words typically divided into three categories: indefinite... A Study On English Article Learning by Koreans Han-sook Lee Korea University English articles are words typically divided into three categories: indefinite a/an, definite the, and zero(Ø). They are very difficult function words for Korean learners whose L1 do not have one to one correspondence with English in article system. This thesis examines the errors that Korean in EFL learners make when using articles, and argues on the basis of production task and the cloze test, that L1 has both a positive and negative effect on the learning of the English language’s article system. Additionally, in article choice concerning UG, Koreans have access to semantic features, that is noun countability, definiteness and genericness, in accordance with their English proficiency. To prove the issue, three research questions were raised: 1) What environments do Koreans depend on while choosing English articles from the beginning to advanced level? 2) In which type and which semantic feature is L1 transferred to, if the elements concerned in SLA are UG-access, L1 transfer, and l2-input? 3) Do Koreans, like English natives, learn English articles in the early stage of their language acquisition? Or do they receive a critical impact from their instruction method and period in the stage of L1 steady state? The English articles in this study are classified into 10 semantic types based on three semantic features: A1-A2, T1-T4, and Z1-Z4 which stand for a/an, the and zero(Ø) respectively. Zero article, in specific, includes four semantic types according to their meanings in differing contexts. This study also suggests a few determiners in the Korean language, such as ku and enu, which play article roles in their particular semantic environments. The article acquisition theories involved with article learning by Koreans are ACP and FH. The pedagogical methods of ‘consciousness raising’ including ‘noticing’ were applied to this study to investigate the impacts of instruction. In the production task of this study, participants included 10 students aged 8-12 years old, along with 58 students aged 15-24 years old. For the cloze test, 107 collegians were assessed, 69 of whom had taken the test for the first time, while the other 38 individuals took the assessment for the second time. Through these two experiments, meaningful results were drawn to conclude the answers to the research questions. The first result from the production task was about the learning aspect. The children group ,at the beginning level, chose the articles on the basis of the noun countability. The intermediate group tended to fluctuate between the countability and definiteness, while the advanced group fluctuated between the definiteness and genericness. The second result from both the production task and cloze test determined the L1 effect on article learning. Zero article in the Korean language widely appears before NP in the place of ‘a/an,’ or ‘the’ as in English. The last result of the experiments includes the appropriate method and time to instruct the English article system to Korean EFL learners Three conclusions are drawn from the research questions and results from the experiments in this thesis. The beginning group is sensitive to the semantic feature of noun countability, the intermediate group focuses more on the definiteness, and the advanced tends to try to understand the genericness to choose and use the English articles. According to these observations, the first conclusion of the thesis is that Korean learners are assimilating the English article system step by step according to their individual English proficiencies. Second, this thesis concludes that the L1- transfer has two-sided effects on Korean learners’ assimilation of English articles. ‘Zero’ article has a negative influence on Korean-speaking students by interfering in their study of English articles, because of the different concepts of noun countability in Korean and English. The Korean determiner ku, on the contrary, has a positive effect on learning the definite article ‘the’ and helps students to assimilate the English article system faster and more accurately. The last conclusion is about the critical method and time to teach the English article system to Korean speaking-students. It is most appropriate to facilitate the instruction of English articles according to the learner’s stage and English proficiency. The beginning level should focus on noun countability, intermediate level on definiteness, and the advanced level on genericness. By corresponding suitable semantic features of articles to their proper level, this study deduces the conclusion that the most effective stage for the instruction of the English article system is at the high intermediate level of English proficiency. Though there is no absolute standard for instruction of the English article system, which is extremely context-dependent, to Korean-speaking students, a target education will lead to the most effective results in English article proficiency. ，韩语论文网站，韩语毕业论文 |
