Acquisition of the English Definite Article by Korean Speakers

Acquisition of the English Definite Article by Korean Speakers

The usage of the definite article the in English sentences is divided into four major categories: cultural. situational. structural and textual. The purpose of this study is to determine whether these uses present different levels of difficulty for Korean high school students, and also to show how they are acquired. The instrument consisted of 87 sentences containing 58 deleted obligatory uses of the (13 cultural, 13 textual, 16 situational, and 16 structural) and 36 null articles. The participants (40 low-, 40 intermediate-, and 33 advanced-level students) were instructed to read the sentences and insert the article the wherever they believed necessary. Statistical analyses of the participants' performance indicate the following: (a) The four nongeneric uses present different levels of difficulty, which suggests that Korean high school students' acquisition of the definite article follows a different natural order in comparison with previous studies; (b) Korean students' performance in obligatory use varies according to proficiency level, and (c) Korean students' performance in overuse of the article also varies with proficiency level. Pedagogical implications and suggestions are discussed in the final section.