Analysing Interlanguage Stages ALEs Pass through in the Acquisition of the Simple Past Tense

Abstract

Building on previous studies of cross-linguistic influence (CLI) on SLA, and principled criteria for confirming its existence in L2 data, an empirical study was run on 74 Arab learners of English (ALEs). A detailed analysis was made of Interlanguage stages of the simple past tense forms in 222 written texts produced by ALEs in the classroom settings.Written texts were collected from each subject at 3 stages in the experiment (after 2 weeks, 2 months and 4 months). The analysis of the non-target-like forms indicated that interlanguage stages do not appear in isolation.Quantitative and qualitative analysis in addition to descriptive analysis indicated seven interlanguage stages that ALEs may go through in the acquisition of the simple past. The stages will be presented and detailed examples will be given of the way in which the non-target-like forms were categorized.

Indonesian Language Transfer of Students of English as a Second Language (ESL)

“…This is to provide evidence in relation to the acquisition of simple past tense forms to prove Mourssi's theory about seven categories in acquiring the simple past in English [10,11].…”

The Inter-Linguistic and the Cross-Linguistic Influence on the Acquisition of L2 (English) Linguistic Items: A Case Study in the Context of ALEs as Postgraduate Learners

“…Another reason is that the part that is visible to us (their spoken or written work) is often a locus of performance error. And, although learners have already acquired the target-like form, there is still a strong tendency that they will slip back to the former but non-target-like ways (Mourssi, 2012a(Mourssi, , 2012d. In the following, I will present variation in interlanguage.…”

“…This is termed as Cross-linguistic Influence of L1 in the Acquisition of L2 linguistic items (Mourssi, 2013c(Mourssi, , 2012a, while it is termed as Inter-linguistic when the transfer comes from the target language or it is termed as contrastive interference from the target language. In this article, I will use Inter-linguistic influence of L2 beside Cross-linguistic of L1.…”

“…While Fuller and Gundel (1987, p. 70) suggest that grammatical rules (patterns that are studied by syntacticians and morphologists) were basically designed to help people get their meaning across clearly and accurately. Mourssi (2012a) ensures that without learning grammar, L2 learners will not be able to produce a single target-like sentence in L2.…”

“…The following seven categories are expected to be found in the ALEs' context in acquiring simple past in English (Mourssi, 2012a):…”