Abstract—English articles pose a lot of problems even after
years of L2 English exposure and learning. The question is why
it is so difficult to acquire these elements when a learner does
not have them in their native language. This question points to a
deeper reason that involves looking into the structure of L1 and
L2 and understanding their differences. In this paper, we focus
on Chinese learners of English, where Chinese is a language
without articles. In order to find out more about the differences
in the structure of the grammar between the elementary and
advanced learners, we conducted a simple empirical study using
a close test. The results show that there are differences between
article use among elementary and advanced learners, and that
advanced learners were more target-like in their article use
than the elementary learners.
Index Terms—Chinese speakers, English articles, second
language acquisition, UG access.
Lijia Xiong is with Applied Foreign Languages Department, New Sorbo
nne University Paris 3, France (e-mail: lijia.xiong@sorbonne-nouvelle.fr).
[PDF]
Cite:Lijia Xiong, "The Acquisition of English Articles by Chinese Learners," International Journal of Languages, Literature and Linguistics vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 198-203, 2022.