Variability in Article Use Among Chinese EFL Learners: Effects of Semantic Contexts, Proficiency and Discourse-Mode

Abstract

The aim of this study is to shed light on the learnability regarding usages of three English articles (a, the and zero) among Chinese EFL learners. To this end, three tasks were administered in a pool of 107 participants to examine the extent to which learners can accurately use articles across different semantic contexts as well as the effects of varying proficiency level and discourse mode on learners' article decisions. The results showed that both groups (Group Low and Medium) in this study were likely to commit few errors with respect to article usages that target definiteness and specificity than those in zero-licensing contexts. In addition, inconsistent findings were observed regarding the effect of proficiency level on the variability in learners' article choices. Though significant differences were observed between two discourse modes (exposition and argumentation), it is claimed that NP-licensing contexts rather than shift of discourse mode play a major role in explaining the variances in the accurate use of articles. Furthermore, the findings in the present study will also inspire pedagogical implications.

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“…The reason may be because the was emphasized more in the language classrooms, especially when the native languages of the learners do not have any article system. Although Ekiert (2004) claimed that difficulty might vary according to the level of the learners, and for the pre-intermediate level learners, similar to the intermediate students, the use of the definite article was not that challenging, which is in line with the findings of Qian, et. al.…”

“…The findings revealed that over-extension, a superfluous use of article, and under-extension, the omission of an article, occur the most while almost no co-occurrence errors, the occurrence of an article with another determiner, were detected. Qian, Li and Cheng (2021) examined the accurate use of articles (a, the and Ø) two different levels (Low and Medium) of Chinese EFL learners via three tasks. Both groups demonstrated accurate usages in definiteness and specificity contexts rather than zerolicensing contexts.…”

Nunation and the L2 acquisition of English indefinite articles by L1 Najdi and Hijazi speakers

“…The study adopted the semantic criterion proposed by Ionin et al [ 9 ], which is one of the most influential semantic analyses of articles [ 25 ] and has been adopted by many researchers in the SLA literature [ [25] , [26] , [27] ]. Ionin et al [ 9 ]: 5] proposed that article use is sensitive to two semantic features: definiteness and specificity.…”