LINGUIST List 13.2094

Thu Aug 15 2002

Diss: Applied Ling: Hamdan "Language transfer..."

Editor for this issue: Karolina Owczarzak <karolinalinguistlist.org>

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1. jihadan, Applied Ling: Hamdan "Language transfer..."

New Dissertation Abstract

Institution: University of Reading
Program: Department of Linguistic Science
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 1994

Author: Jihad Mohammad Hamdan 

Dissertation Title: 
Language transfer and the acquisition of the English dative
alternation by native speakers of Arabic

Linguistic Subfield: 
Psycholinguistics, Applied Linguistics 

Subject Language: English, Arabic, Standard

Dissertation Director 1: Paul Fletcher


Dissertation Abstract: 

This study investigates the role of L1 in the acquisition the English
dative alternation by native speakers of Arabic. The subjects are 100
learners of English belonging to two different proficiency levels. All
of them are native speakers of Jordanian spoken Arabic (JSA) who also
know modern standars Arabic.

The results of the study suggest that the subjects acquire the English
dative alternation through successive modification of an initial
lexical redundancy rule that applies to JSA. The modification of the
initial lexical rule takes the form of adjusting constraints as more
L2 input becomes available to the learners until it becomes similar to
the adult L2 grammar one. This is basically done through positive
evidence and may be enhanced through negative evidence and
explanations provided by competent teachers.