<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p> This paper reports on an experimental study that investigates the influence of the disparity between English and Arabic on second language acquisition, namely the phenomenon of the acquisition of the English dative alternation by Arab learners. The disallowance of certain Arabic verbs to occur in the double object dative structure causes difficulty for Arab learners to acquire English as far as the acquisition of the dative alternation is concerned. The experiment is devised to examine whether Arab learners are sensitive to syntactic and semantic properties associated with the English dative alternation. The experiment involved picture tasks with two structures: the prepositional dative structure and the double object dative structure. Overall, the results of the experiment show that the L2 learners failed to acquire the double object dative structure which does not exist in their L1. Based on these results, it is argued that L1 has an important effect on the acquisition of L2.</p></abstract>

This paper reports on an experimental study that investigates the influence of the disparity between English and Arabic on second language acquisition, namely the phenomenon of the acquisition of the English dative alternation by Arab learners. The disallowance of certain Arabic verbs to occur in the double object dative structure causes difficulty for Arab learners to acquire English as far as the acquisition of the dative alternation is concerned. The experiment is devised to examine whether Arab learners are sensitive to syntactic and semantic properties associated with the English dative alternation. The experiment involved picture tasks with two structures: the prepositional dative structure and the double object dative structure. Overall, the results of the experiment show that the L2 learners failed to acquire the double object dative structure which does not exist in their L1. Based on these results, it is argued that L1 has an important effect on the acquisition of L2.

Second Language Acquisition of the English Dative Alternation by Native Speakers of Arabic

Journal of Language and Cultural Education

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

This paper reports on an experimental study that investigates the influence of the disparity between English and Arabic on second language acquisition, namely...

Second Language Acquisition of the English Dative Alternation by Native Speakers of Arabic

Publié en ligne: 18 sept. 2018

Pages: 65 - 88

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jolace-2018-0005

Mots clés
second language acquisition, the dative alternation, the prepositional dative structure, the double object dative structure, the broad range rules, the narrow range rules

© 2018 Anwar S. Aljadani, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Second Language Acquisition of the English Dative Alternation by Native Speakers of Arabic

Publié en ligne: 18 sept. 2018

Pages: 65 - 88

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jolace-2018-0005

Mots cléssecond language acquisition, the dative alternation, the prepositional dative structure, the double object dative structure, the broad range rules, the narrow range rules

© 2018 Anwar S. Aljadani, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Mots clés
second language acquisition, the dative alternation, the prepositional dative structure, the double object dative structure, the broad range rules, the narrow range rules