Genericity in third language English: Acquisition pattern and transfer in ultimate attainment

Abstract

This study investigates the acquisition of genericity in advanced third language (L3) English. The learners are first language (L1) Moroccan Arabic–second language (L2) French adults. They completed an acceptability judgment task testing the interpretation of five count nominal types in noun phrase (NP)-level and sentence-level genericity: definite, indefinite and bare singulars, definite and bare plurals. The study defines the generic or non-generic status of every NP form in the learners’ L3 interlanguage. The results show that the L3 learners are target-like on the generic interpretation of bare plurals, although these are strictly existential in their native language and illicit in L2 French. Definite and bare singulars do not pose any difficulty either. In contrast, non-facilitative L1 transfer induces the generic interpretation of definite plurals and restricts indefinite singulars to the existential interpretation. The results show that the L3 learners do not distinguish NP-level from sentence-level genericity, reflecting L1 Arabic grammar where the two merge. They use the same pattern of NP types for the two types. Thus, knowledge of genericity in L3 English is a patchwork of target-like and non-target-like exponents.

The role of first language transfer in the acquisition of definiteness in specific and generic contexts by Saudi-Arabic learners of English

“…The results showed that the L1 Moroccan Arabic learners of L3 English showed high accuracy with the definite singular with the NP generic and the bare plural with the NP generic and sentence generic, but low accuracy with indefinite articles, tending to use the definite plural despite the fact that this is not allowed in English. The results indicated that the Moroccan Arabic learners faced difficulties distinguishing between the NP generic and sentence generic as they did not demonstrate target-like performance (Hermas, 2020a). The results with L1 Moroccan Arabic learners of L2…”

“…Neither language group showed any L1 effect as both performed similarly with indefinite specific and generic references. The results of Alzamil's (2015) study can be contrasted with those of Hermas (2020aHermas ( , 2020b, who found that L1 Moroccan Arabic learners struggled with generic references with L2 French and L3 English due to L1 transfer. Crompton (2011) explored the types of errors made by Arabic learners of English in a corpus obtained from argumentative essays written by undergraduate students in their first and second years.…”

“…As explained in Section 2.5, Arabic only employs the definite article with generic references, so the use of the indefinite article in L2 English is likely to prove problematic for Arabic speakers. Recent studies by Hermas (2020aHermas ( , 2020b have found that L1 Moroccan Arabic learners face difficulty with the indefinite article with generic references in L2 French and L3 English due to L1 transfer. The first study (Hermas, 2020a) investigated the acquisition of genericity with L1 Moroccan Arabic learners of L3 English, and the second (Hermas, 2020b)…”

“…Recent studies by Hermas (2020aHermas ( , 2020b have found that L1 Moroccan Arabic learners face difficulty with the indefinite article with generic references in L2 French and L3 English due to L1 transfer. The first study (Hermas, 2020a) investigated the acquisition of genericity with L1 Moroccan Arabic learners of L3 English, and the second (Hermas, 2020b)…”

“…These studies have focused on the errors that learners make when employing definite and indefinite articles. Fewer have focused on specificity (Al-Zahrani, 2011) or genericity (Crompton, 2011;Sabir, 2015;Abumlhah, 2016;Hermas, 2020aHermas, , 2020b. It would therefore be valuable to investigate both specificity and genericity with Saudi-Arabic learners as much uncertainty remains about how accuracy with the different features of definiteness might present with Saudi-Arabic learners.…”