The role of perceptual salience in the L2 acquisition sequence of the Arabic construct state

Azaz, Mahmoud; Frank, J. Howard

doi:10.1111/ijal.12165

Cited by 6 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 37 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…rigid) left-headedness in Arabic construct phrases contributed to its perceptual salience that minimized transfer of the right-headed s -genitives from English to Standard Arabic. Results of the present study, when seen in light of the results of Azaz and Frank (2017), show that once the conditions of the structural overlap are met, crosslinguistic transfer is most likely to occur from the rigid to the optional language, and less likely from the optional to the rigid. This suggests that input conditions, whether ambiguous or transparent, are crucial.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 50%

Structural surface overlap and derivational complexity in crosslinguistic transfer: Acquisition of English genitive alternation by Egyptian Arabic-speaking learners

Azaz

2019

Second Language Research

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article adopts the surface overlap and derivational complexity hypotheses to study crosslinguistic transfer in the adult second language (L2) acquisition of English genitive alternation (between the s-genitives and the of genitives) by intermediate and advanced Egyptian Arabic-speaking learners. While the s-genitive (e.g. the boy’s shirt) and the of-genitive (e.g. the shirt of the boy) are allowed in principle to denote possession, the s-genitive is the native option when the possessor is human and the possessum is nonhuman. In standard syntactic analyses, the s-genitive is held to be more complex than the of-genitive, since it involves raising the possessor in the determiner phrase (DP). Egyptian Arabic is also known for its genitive alternation; it uses the synthetic genitive (the construct state), and the analytic genitive (the free state) that both overlap partially or significantly with the of-genitive. The results of an elicited production task showed that the intermediate group tended to produce the of-genitives in contexts in which the s-genitives were the target construction. The advanced group, on the other hand, produced the more complex s-genitives. These findings suggest that the surface overlap involved between the of-genitives and the corresponding genitive constructions in Egyptian Arabic conspired to trigger this crosslinguistic transfer. Also, resorting to the overlapping of-genitive option can be viewed as a strategy to avoid the more complex s-genitive option. The results of the advanced group imply that the acquisition of English genitive alternation undergoes two developmental stages. In the first, learners favor the less complex and overlapping of-genitives. In the second, they acquire the syntactic derivation in the s-genitives that raises the possessor in the DP.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 50%

Structural surface overlap and derivational complexity in crosslinguistic transfer: Acquisition of English genitive alternation by Egyptian Arabic-speaking learners

Azaz

2019

Second Language Research

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…According to Azaz and Frank (2017), i d aafa, or the CS, can be defined as a relationship between two nouns annexed together. The first noun is the head whereas the second noun is the complement.…”

Section: General Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

The acquisition of the Arabic construct state (CS) constructions by Arabic-speaking children with ASD

Altakhaineh

Alkhatib

2019

AIA

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether age plays a role in the acquisition of construct state (CS) constructions in Arabic by 14 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It also examined the challenges faced by children with ASD in producing different types of CS constructions. Finally, the study analysed the sources of difficulties children with ASD encounter during the learning process of the CS. Design/methodology/approach For the purposes of this study, the participants were asked to orally complete short sentences with the help of illustrative pictures. Findings Results revealed that the age of the 14 children with ASD plays a role in the acquisition of CS constructions. Children of age 12–15 performed better than those of age 8 and 10. Results also showed that children with ASD performed better in producing phrases rather than compounds. Moreover, the participants performed better on endocentric compounds as opposed to exocentric ones. Finally, analysing the errors produced on the text revealed that the acquisition of head direction precedes definiteness. Originality/value The topic of the study has not been investigated yet and the study concluded with some important findings concerning teaching Arabic CS to children with ADS.

show abstract

“…The analysis of the study revealed that while the participants showed metalinguistic knowledge of head-direction, they did not demonstrate the same comparable knowledge for definiteness. Azaz and Frank (2017) also examined the role of perceptual salience in the acquisition sequence of the Arabic construct state. They specifically studied whether salience regulates the early L2 acquisition sequence of the definite Arabic construct state.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another factor to consider is the importance of linguistic salience in the development of L2 knowledge of grammatical properties/features (Azaz, 2017; Azaz & Frank, 2017; Nassif, 2019; Xu & Lyster, 2014). As Azaz (2017) stated, in the course of the acquisition of salient features which are easy to notice in the input, metalinguistic knowledge plays an important role, suggesting the relevance of explicit instruction in the development of the features which are of low salience.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Targeting accuracy in foreign language teaching: The role of practice type in learning unsalient grammatical aspects

Mahmoudi‐Gahrouei

Youhanaee

Nejadanasari

2020

Int J App Linguistics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The present study investigated the effectiveness of inputbased vs. output-based practice in learning an unsalient grammatical aspect (obligatory null objects) in English complex infinitival structures. The participants were 57 Persian learners who were divided into three groups (input-based, output-based and control), received instruction for three weeks and took two types of grammar tests (comprehension and production) immediately after treatment and two weeks later. Results of the immediate post-tests indicated similar effects for both types of practice on improving learners' receptive knowledge while only the output group showed significant gains on the production test. Furthermore, gain maintenance was observed in the performance of the output group on both measures of delayed post-test. The pedagogical implications arising from these findings are also discussed.

show abstract

The role of perceptual salience in the L2 acquisition sequence of the Arabic construct state

Cited by 6 publications

References 37 publications

Structural surface overlap and derivational complexity in crosslinguistic transfer: Acquisition of English genitive alternation by Egyptian Arabic-speaking learners

Structural surface overlap and derivational complexity in crosslinguistic transfer: Acquisition of English genitive alternation by Egyptian Arabic-speaking learners

The acquisition of the Arabic construct state (CS) constructions by Arabic-speaking children with ASD

Targeting accuracy in foreign language teaching: The role of practice type in learning unsalient grammatical aspects

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About