Abstract
English and Urdu differ in the way they express definiteness. English encodes (in) definiteness through a, the and Ø. Urdu, on the other hand, relies mainly on quasi indefinite article ek to show indefiniteness but definiteness of a noun is expressed in a context in which the noun occurs, through word order and also with the help of thematic roles the noun plays in the argument structure (Sing, 1994). For the reason, the Urdu learners face persistent difficulty in learning English article system. The study provides a detailed analysis of the problems faced by these learners by examining the route of English articles acquisition by Urdu L2ers of English.For this purpose, the data was collected from 41 undergraduates at Department of English in UAJ&K. The same group of participant was tested via Master’s (1994) article diagnostic test with the interval of two years. Apace with, the learners’ improvement in general English proficiency during these years is measured employing different versions of the Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT). Using Huebner’s (1983) noun phrase classification, the data was analyzed quantitatively. Then, the sequence/order of article acquisition is determined with regard to the SOC (Supplied in Obligatory Contexts), TLU (Target Like Use), and UOC (Used in Obligatory Contexts) measures. Findings suggest that learners tend to omit articles and/or produce them in the incorrect semantic context. The results manifest (a > the >Ø) route of article acquisition for Urdu L2ers of English
Qudsia Ishaq, Nadeem Haider Bukhari. (2021) The Acquisition Sequence in Interlanguage Development of English Articles: A Longitudinal Analysis Based on Semantic Categories of Nouns, The ELF Annual Research Journal, Volume 23, Issue 1.
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