미명세화 모형 기반 한국 초등 영어학습자의 동사 오류 해석

Interpreting Verb Errors in Korean Elementary EFL Learners within the Underspecification Model

This study investigates verb-related errors produced by Korean elementary school learners of English, focusing on the omission and overuse of the copular and auxiliary be, subject–verb agreement errors, and tense mismatches. While some of these errors can be explained by the same developmental mechanisms observed in English-speaking children’s early grammar, the analysis, grounded in the Underspecification Model (Wexler, 1998, 2003), reveals both shared and divergent patterns. The model assumes that functional category T is present in early grammar, but that the associated tense and φ-features of T are not yet fully specified in early grammar. The results show that English-speaking children frequently produce null subjects and default Case subjects, whereas Korean elementary learners rarely do so. In contrast, Korean learners systematically overuse or misplace auxiliary be, a pattern largely absent in L1 child data. The results suggest that these asymmetries reflect asymmetric feature re-specification shaped by prior L1 acquisition. Korean learners enter L2 English learning with tense features already established, while English-style φ-feature agreement must be newly specified.