The Choice of English Articles Patternized in Korean Adult EFL Learners

This paper explores the choice of articles by two groups of Korean adult EFL learners divided according to their proficiency of the English language. On the basis of the experimental studies, it is postulated that Korean adult EFL learners systematically access to universal semantic features such as definiteness, specificity, and speaker's knowledge under the context which is known or unknown to speakers (Chaudron & Parker 1990). The results of the experiments demonstrate that Korean adult learners misuse a with [+definite, -specific] features under no knowledge between the speakers, which results in patternized errors. The results also show that they make overuse of a with [+definite] and [+specific] features within no scope of the context. In particular, advanced learners prefer to make use of the with [-definite] and [+specific] features within no scope of the context. Besides, unlike female learners, male learners are inclined to choose no-article with [-specific] feature under no scope of the context. The findings of this study show further evidence that their choice of the English article is not instantiated in L1 or L2, but is guided by UG.