The acquisition of the English inflectional -s Morphemes by Young L1 Chinese Speakers

This paper examines the acquisition of the inflectional –s morphemes (the plural marker, genitive marker and third person singular present tense marker) in English by eighteen young ESL learners from two Chinese primary schools. Learners were shown pictures as stimuli, and they were asked to describ...

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Main Authors: Chan, Swee Heng, Wong, Bee Eng, Teo, Hwa Ling@Pauline
Format: Article
Language:en
Published: Penerbit UKM 2004
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/740/1/GemaVol4.2.2004No1.pdf
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/740/
http://www.ukm.my/ppbl/Gema/gemahome.html
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author Chan, Swee Heng
Wong, Bee Eng
Teo, Hwa Ling@Pauline
author_facet Chan, Swee Heng
Wong, Bee Eng
Teo, Hwa Ling@Pauline
author_sort Chan, Swee Heng
building Tun Sri Lanang Library
collection Institutional Repository
content_provider Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
content_source UKM Journal Article Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
description This paper examines the acquisition of the inflectional –s morphemes (the plural marker, genitive marker and third person singular present tense marker) in English by eighteen young ESL learners from two Chinese primary schools. Learners were shown pictures as stimuli, and they were asked to describe the pictures in English. During these sessions, the descriptions by the learners and the conversations between the researcher and the learners were taped and later transcribed. The results of the study indicated that learners exhibited a distinct accuracy order for the morphemes. The learners also exhibited variability and produced overgeneralizations in their L2 utterances. The findings in fact suggested that the acquisition of the –s morpheme was systematic and staged. A discussion on the reasons for the phenomenon then followed and some implications were drawn for the teaching of these forms to young L1 Chinese speakers of L2 English.
format Article
id my-ukm.journal-740
institution Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
language en
publishDate 2004
publisher Penerbit UKM
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spelling my-ukm.journal-7402016-12-14T06:28:02Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/740/ The acquisition of the English inflectional -s Morphemes by Young L1 Chinese Speakers Chan, Swee Heng Wong, Bee Eng Teo, Hwa Ling@Pauline This paper examines the acquisition of the inflectional –s morphemes (the plural marker, genitive marker and third person singular present tense marker) in English by eighteen young ESL learners from two Chinese primary schools. Learners were shown pictures as stimuli, and they were asked to describe the pictures in English. During these sessions, the descriptions by the learners and the conversations between the researcher and the learners were taped and later transcribed. The results of the study indicated that learners exhibited a distinct accuracy order for the morphemes. The learners also exhibited variability and produced overgeneralizations in their L2 utterances. The findings in fact suggested that the acquisition of the –s morpheme was systematic and staged. A discussion on the reasons for the phenomenon then followed and some implications were drawn for the teaching of these forms to young L1 Chinese speakers of L2 English. Penerbit UKM 2004 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/740/1/GemaVol4.2.2004No1.pdf Chan, Swee Heng and Wong, Bee Eng and Teo, Hwa Ling@Pauline (2004) The acquisition of the English inflectional -s Morphemes by Young L1 Chinese Speakers. GEMA: Online Journal of Language Studies, 4 (2). ISSN 1675-8021 http://www.ukm.my/ppbl/Gema/gemahome.html
spellingShingle Chan, Swee Heng
Wong, Bee Eng
Teo, Hwa Ling@Pauline
The acquisition of the English inflectional -s Morphemes by Young L1 Chinese Speakers
title The acquisition of the English inflectional -s Morphemes by Young L1 Chinese Speakers
title_full The acquisition of the English inflectional -s Morphemes by Young L1 Chinese Speakers
title_fullStr The acquisition of the English inflectional -s Morphemes by Young L1 Chinese Speakers
title_full_unstemmed The acquisition of the English inflectional -s Morphemes by Young L1 Chinese Speakers
title_short The acquisition of the English inflectional -s Morphemes by Young L1 Chinese Speakers
title_sort acquisition of the english inflectional -s morphemes by young l1 chinese speakers
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/740/1/GemaVol4.2.2004No1.pdf
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/740/
http://www.ukm.my/ppbl/Gema/gemahome.html
url_provider http://journalarticle.ukm.my/