English Abstract
ABSTRACT:
This study investigates the L2 acquisition order of five English Grammatical morphemes, Articles and the Past -ed, Plural-s, Progressive -Ing, by Saudi female grade one learners. The investigation is conducted within the feature-reassembly approach, which claims that difficulties in acquiring a second language result from the failure to reassemble the features from the way they are assembled in Ll into new organizations in the L2. The main goal of the study is to shed light on the similarities and differences in the feature composition of the L2 morphemes and their L1 equivalents, and to explore the possibility that the order of acquisition of the L2 morphemes may be caused by the ease/difficulty of the reassembly task.
The study includes 50 first graders who study English as a second language in Rowed AL Khaleej International School in Dammam. Two data collection methods, namely, a grammaticality judgment test and a sentence completion test are used. The results of the tests are then analyzed statistically and shown to conform with the predictions of the Feature Reassembly Approach.
Keywords:
Arabic (Saudi); Articles; English; Features; Order of acquisition; Past -ed; Plural -s; Progressive - Ing; Reassembly.
