Acquisition of the English passive by L1 Malay ESL adult learners
The English passive is one of the problematic structures to be acquired by L2 learners from different L1 backgrounds. Second language acquisition studies have shown that L1 Malay ESL adult learners face difficulties in acquiring the English passive. This could be due to the varying competency...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2020
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/99567/1/FBMK%202022%206%20UPMIR.pdf http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/99567/ |
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| Summary: | The English passive is one of the problematic structures to be acquired by
L2 learners from different L1 backgrounds. Second language acquisition
studies have shown that L1 Malay ESL adult learners face difficulties in
acquiring the English passive. This could be due to the varying competency
levels among the L2 learners as well as cross-linguistic interferences from
the learners’ L1, which is Malay language. The Interlanguage Hypothesis
postulated that the L2 learner’s interlanguage (IL) system is characterised by
systematicity, variability and permeability. L2 learners’ interlanguage
grammar undergoes developmental stages in the acquisition process,
influenced by their L1 and L2, particularly learners at the initial stages of
acquisition. Hence, this study aims to study the acquisition of the English
passive by L1 Malay ESL adult learners in Malaysia by investigating the IL
representations of the English passive at four different levels of proficiency:
Elementary, Lower Intermediate, Upper Intermediate and Advanced. 499 L1
Malay ESL adult learners from randomly selected higher learning institutions
in Malaysia participated in the study. Firstly, the respondents completed a
background questionnaire (BQ) and a placement test (Oxford Placement
Test). The results of the OPT determines the respondents’ proficiency
groups. Subsequently, a Grammaticality Judgement Task (GJT) and a
Picture Description Task (PDT) were administered to examine the
respondents’ underlying knowledge and production of the English passive.
The data were tabulated and described using frequency distribution and
analysed using paired T-tests and one-way ANOVA.
The results indicated that most of the L1 Malay ESL adult learners have
acquired the English passive. However, their competency level was non-native like, even for the Advanced group. Their judgements on the grammaticality of the test items were indeterminate, particularly those at the
lower proficiency levels. In terms of unaccusativity, it was observed that the
learners were inclined to overgeneralise the passive morphology the English
intransitive verbs; the unaccusative verbs (UAV) and unergative verbs
(UEV). The overgeneralisation was higher with the UAV than the UEV and
this might be due to the similar underlying representations of the UAV and
the passive verb. It seems like the learners were sensitive to the distinction
between UAV and UEV, as indicated by the significantly higher
overpassivisation errors with the UAV. Besides, the results also indicated
that the main errors committed by the L1 Malay ESL adult learners are
related to omission of the be verb, incorrect past participle forms and
incorrect SVA. It is suggested that these errors could be due to the absence
of the be verb, and the [+/-tense] and [+/-agreement] features in the Malay
language. This study concludes that the L1 Malay ESL adult learners have
not fully acquired the English passive and there is a significant difference
among the proficiency groups in their performance on the English passive.
The L1 Malay ESL adult learners also tend to overpassivise the UAV more
than the UEV. Furthermore, these learners produced interlingual and
intralingual errors in their acquisition of the English passive. The findings of
this study sheds light into the IL representations of the English passive in the
language acquisition/learning process of the L1 Malay ESL adult learners.
This contributes insights to the SLA literature, particularly the Interlanguage
and Unaccusative Hypotheses. In addition, the findings would have
pedagogical implications for the English as a second language (ESL) classroom. |
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