The Acquisition of the Passive Alternation by Kuwaiti EFL Learners

Alotaibi, Abdullah M.; Al-Ajmi, Hashan

doi:10.5539/ijel.v5n1p44

Cited by 6 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Several researchers (e.g. Mazurkerwich, 1984;Choi & Lakshmanan, 2002;Kirby, 2010;Alotaibi & Alajmi, 2015) investigated certain types of the four alternations discussed in the previous section. For example, Joo (2003) investigated the acquisition of the locative alternation by Korean EFL learners, examining whether language-universal vs. language-specific factors affected the acquisition process.…”

Section: Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In another recent study, Alotaibi & Alajmi (2015) examined the acquisition of the passive alternation by fifty advanced Kuwaiti EFL learners. Using a GJT, the researchers investigated the participants' ability to distinguish between verbs that alternate and those that do not.…”

Section: Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This age group was selected because it is assumed that the participants at this stage would have acquired the English locative alternation (cf. Alotaibi & Alajmi, 2015).…”

Section: The Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This research tool was utilised by several other researchers (e.g. Mazurkerwich, 1984;Choi & Lakshmanan, 2002;Alotaibi & Alajmi, 2015) to examine other types of alternation e.g. the passive and the dative alternation.…”

Section: The Toolmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Acquisition of the English Locative Alternation by Kuwaiti EFL Learners

Alotaibi

2015

IJALEL

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This study attempts to test whether 100 advanced Kuwaiti EFL learners have acquired the English locative alternation. A Grammaticality Judgment Task (GJT) was used to examine whether the participants have the ability to make a distinction between verbs that alternate between the figure-object frame and the ground-object frame and those verbs that do not. The researcher selected the verbs on the basis of Pinker's (1989) classification of alternating vs. nonalternating English locative verbs. The results show that the participants' performance on the alternating verbs was better than that on the non-alternating ones. They also reveal that negative transfer of the argument structure of the verbs from the participants' first language into English contributed to their erroneous answers on the test. Additionally, it has been argued that positive transfer from L1 also played a major role in the participants' correct answers on the test. The study concludes with some recommendations for further research.

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Section: Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This age group was selected because it is assumed that the participants at this stage would have acquired the English locative alternation (cf. Alotaibi & Alajmi, 2015).…”

Section: The Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Toolmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Acquisition of the English Locative Alternation by Kuwaiti EFL Learners

Alotaibi

2015

IJALEL

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“…The sentence can be changed into passive voice as follows (Sara was seen by John), in which the verb has been affected by adding the auxiliary be (was). In addition, the verb has been changed into a participle (seen) affecting its morph-syntactic category (Alotaibi & Alajmi, 2015). The subject of the sentence now becomes Sara rather than John.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

English Passive Alternation by Saudi EFL Students

Alotaibi¹

2018

IJEL

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This study examines Saudi Arabian EFL students in relation to alternating, and non-alternating passive verbs. This study also considers factors related to the mastering of alternating / non-alternating verbs by (40) Saudi student participants related to correct/incorrect usage of alternating / non-alternating verbs by Saudi Arabian EFL student participants in a Grammaticality Judgment Task (GJT). The results of this study demonstrate that participants scored a satisfactory mean score of correct answers in the usage of alternating verbs (79%). On the other hand, this study demonstrates that the (40) Saudi EFL student participants achieved a total mean score of (48%) for non-alternation verbs. This study then considers possible causes for correct usage of alternating verbs and proposes to identify elements which relate to correct transfer by the (40) Saudi EFL student participants. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that the over-generalizing of the passivisation rule for verbs that do not alternate resulted in improper usage. Lastly, this study indicates that a similarity between the construction of the non-causative and passive construction gives rise to improper understanding of English Passive Alternation by Saudi EFL student participants.

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A corpus-based investigation of semantic and syntactic differences between the two major future tense constructions

Yeh

2021

ConSL

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English has two major future tense constructions, will and be going to. Additionally, English can also use the present tense with a future-marking adverbial to express futurity. However, the distributions of these future markers are not free but limited. Instead of discriminating the differences among these distributions through direct comparison to etymological meanings or intuitive examples, this study offers an account for the semantic and syntactic differences between the two major English future tense constructions by analyzing data retrieved from the British National Corpus (BNC). The focus of attention is chiefly on the semantic and syntactic differences that lead to the choices British English native speakers make when expressing futurity. Based on the empirical analysis of data from the BNC, this study demonstrates that distribution of the future tense constructions seems sensitive to the following factors: (1) event-time orientation (temporal posteriority) or present-time orientation (prospective aspect), (2) the levels of verbal dynamicity in the whole sentence, (3) contexts of subordination, and (4) different text categories. The analysis suggests that the futurity constructions are not in the same distribution but are semantically and syntactically different. Utilizing its findings, this study aims to enhance second language learners’ expression of futurity by providing pedagogical suggestions.

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The Acquisition of the Passive Alternation by Kuwaiti EFL Learners

Cited by 6 publications

References 6 publications

The Acquisition of the English Locative Alternation by Kuwaiti EFL Learners

The Acquisition of the English Locative Alternation by Kuwaiti EFL Learners

English Passive Alternation by Saudi EFL Students

A corpus-based investigation of semantic and syntactic differences between the two major future tense constructions

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