Avoidance in Processing English Non-restrictive Relative Clauses in Thai EFL Learners’ Interlanguage

Abstract

This paper examined the acquisition of English non-restrictive relative clauses (NRCs) by L1 Thai learners, focusing on avoidance strategies applied in the learners' interlanguage. The theoretical frameworks of the Noun Phrase Accessibility Hierarchy (NPAH) and the Perceptual Difficulty Hypothesis (PDH) were the main hypotheses predicting avoidance behavior employed by the learners. The research participants were 80 Thai EFL high school students of high and low proficiency levels. The data were elicited through a sentence combination task and a Thai-English translation task. The findings, overall, suggested that Thai EFL learners, by and large, avoided using the more marked NRC types in the NPAH. The learners' avoidance was evident in the tasks from the shifting of more marked types to less marked ones. The findings also showed that the more advanced learners tended to employ more avoidance behavior with regard to the NPAH, which may be attributed to their greater exposure to the L2 rules and more knowledge of the differences between the L1 and L2 structures; this resulted in the use of alternative ways to complete the given tasks more easily. The center-embedded NRCs, more precisely, were found to be problematic for learners, which supports the prediction of the PDH that clauses embedded after the subject positions may interrupt the processing of a complex structure of RCs. The learners, therefore, avoided center embedding and changed it to right embedding with little awareness of the ungrammaticality of the NRC sentences.

The Comprehension of English Relative Clauses by Arabic-Speaking EFL Learners

“…Abdolmanafi & Rahmani, 2012;Rattanasak & Phoocharoensil, 2014;Gao, 2014;Alotaibi, 2016). Furthermore, these subsequent research studies have shed light on solutions to problems encountered by EFL learners when studying English RCs.…”

“…The study was conducted to measure the extent to which the participants avoided using relative clause constructions. Rattanasak and Phoocharoensil (2014) then analyzed the results based on the predictions outlined by the NPAH and Kuno's Perceptual Difficulty Hypothesis (PDH) (1974), which is based on the idea that the fickleness of the human memory system makes centrally embedded relative clauses more difficult to process. The results show a high percentage of avoidance, particularly, when dealing with the 'object of adposition' and 'genitive' clauses.…”

“…However, no explanation was provided as to why this position was the easiest. Rattanasak and Phoocharoensil (2014) explored the acquisition of English non-restrictive relative clauses (henceforth NRCs) by Thai-speaking EFL learners. Using a sentence-combination task in conjunction with a translation task (Thai-English), the researchers carried out the study on 80, grade 11, Thai-speaking EFL learners of mixed proficiency levels.…”

“…English relative clauses (RC) can often be a stumbling block for EFL learners, due to their complex nature (Rattanasak & Phoocharoensil, 2014). Although RCs are ubiquitous to all languages, they are expressed in various ways in each language.…”

Avoidance of the English passive construction by L1 Chinese learners

“…Later researchers working on L2 English avoidance studies found avoidance of L2 structures by learners from several L1 backgrounds, e.g. avoidance of English phrasal verbs by L1 Hebrew, Swedish, Dutch, and Thai learners (Dagut & Laufer, 1985;Hulstijn & Marchena, 1989;Kosolsombat & Pongpairoj, 2017;Laufer & Eliasson, 1993); avoidance of English relative clauses by L1 Thai learners (Rattanasak & Phoocharoensil, 2014;Thiamtawan & Pongpairoj, 2013); avoidance of inversions (Thiamtawan & Pongpairoj, 2019); and avoidance of the English passive construction by L1 Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew, and Thai learners (Chotiros & Pongpairoj, 2012;Kleinmann, 1977;Seliger, 1989). In the context related to L1 Chinese learners, researchers also examined some English structures in their avoidance studies, e.g.…”