Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports 2008 The use of English Determiners in Dialogue Journals by Japanese Second Language Learners Adriana Rodrigues Bridger Follow this and additional works at: https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd Part of the First and Second Language Acquisition Commons, Language Description and Documentation Commons, Other Linguistics Commons, and the Reading and Language Commons Recommended Citation Bridger, Adriana Rodrigues, "The use of English Determiners in Dialogue Journals by Japanese Second Language Learners" (2008). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 7989. https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/7989 This Thesis is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by the The Research Repository @ WVU with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Thesis in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you must obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself. This Thesis has been accepted for inclusion in WVU Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports collection by an authorized administrator of The Research Repository @ WVU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The use of English Determiners in Dialogue Journals by Japanese Second Language Learners Adriana Rodrisues Bridser Thesis submitted to the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences at West Virginia University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Foreign Languages Susan M. Braidi. Ph.D.. Chair Sandra Stjepanovic. Ph.D. Mar fa Am ores. Ph.D. Department of Foreign Languages Morgantown. West Virginia 200S Keywords: English Determiners. Japanese Second Language Learners. 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Eisenhower Parkway PO Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 ABSTRACT The Use of English Determiners in Dialogue Journals by Japanese Second Language Learners Adriana Rodrigues Bridger West Virginia University The purpose of this study was to describe the use of English determiners in dialogue journals by Japanese second language learners. The entries of the journals of six Japanese students in an ESL class collected over an eight-week period served as the main source of data for this research project. Three analyses were performed: the accuracy order of the articles (the. a/an. and 0). possessives. and other determiners: the accuracy order of predeterminers, central determiners, and postdetermtners: and an error analysis of the articles a/an. the. and the 0 article. The following major findings emerged: the accuracy order of the English determiners was from most accurate to the least accurate: 0. possessive, other determiner, the. and a/an: high percentages of errors of underextension of a/an and the as well as the low percentages of substitution and overextension errors: and problems with a/an in Type 4 [-SR. - HKj and the in Type 2 [+SR. +HK] contexts. These results contribute to research on ESL learners' use of English articles in a natural written discourse. Dedication To Marc, my parents, my sister, and my grandmothers IV Ackn o wledgm en ts First and foremost. I would like to praise God for this amazing victory. Once again the Lord has been faithful and good to me. Second. I would like to thank my husband Marc for supporting me in everyway throughout this thesis process. Meu amor, your love, prayers, words of encouragement, patience, and professional computer skills not only have helped me finish this Master's degree, but also they have made me a better person. I also would like to thank my family in Brazil. My parents. Tiao and Madalena. my sister Fernanda, and my loving grandmothers Biata and Judith, thank you for your prayers and thank you for always encouraging me to pursue my dreams. Also, a special thanks to my in-laws Kay and Ron. Your love and prayers have comforted me during this thesis project. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my committee members. Thank you for investing so much time and work on this thesis project. Dr. Braidi. thank you for your patience, valuable guidance and suggestions, and for never giving up on me. Dr. Stjepanovic. thanks for your helpful comments and special attention. Thank you Dr. Amores. for your words of encouragement, and precious feedback. I would like my committee members to know that I am very grateful for everything they did for me during this time and for working hard to help me get this done, especially after I moved to Florida. Finally. I would like to thank the students for participating in this study and for enjoying the dialogue journal process with me. V Table of Con tents Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Chapter 2: Review of Literature 6 The Articles and Other Determiners in Standard English 7 Acquisition of the English Articles by L2 Learners... 17 English Article Acquisition by Japanese Students 18 A Brief History of Dialogue Journals 40 Benefits of Dialogue J ournals 42 Studies on Dialogue Journals with ESL Students 43 Chapter 3: Research Design and Methodology 46 Setting 47 Participants 47 Research Method 4S Procedures 49 Data Collection 50 Description of the Coding System 51 Data Entry and Organization 54 Chapter 4: Findings 55 Analysis I 56 Total number of NP occurrences per student 56 Types of determiners used „ 5S Correctness of the determiners used 60 Analysis 2 62 Correctness of predeterminers, central determiners, and posteterminers used 66 Correct individual student usase of the determiners 6S vi Analysis 3 69 Discussion 75 Limitations SO Chapter 5: Conclusion SI Review of the Present Study and Findings . 81 Implications for the ESLClassroom S2 Recommendations for Future Research S3 Conclusion S3 vii List of Figures Figure 4-1: Total Noun Phrases per Student 57 Figure 4-2: Noun Phrase Breakdown per Student 59 Figure 4-3: Noun Phrase Correctness.. 6 i Figure 4-4: Percentage of Correct Determiner Usage 62 Figure 4-5: Percentage Correct of Predeterminers. Central Determiners, and Postdeterminers 67 V111 List of Tables Table 2-1: System for Count and Noncount Nouns 9 Table 2-2: English Determiners as in Master (1993) 16 Table 2-3: Studies on Article Acquisition by Japanese Students 25 Table 2-4: Studies on the Acquisition of the Articles by L2 Learners Based on Natural Production ....36 Table 3-1: Student Information - Final List of Participants 48 Table 4-1: NP Occurrence per Entry 58 Table 4-2: Noun Phrase Breakdown per Student 59 Table 4-3: Overall Correct Determiner Use 60 Table 4-4: Determiner Classification 63 Table 4-5: List of Different Types of Other Determiners 64 Table 4-6: Number of Occurrences for Other Determiners 65 Table 4-7: Number of Occurrences According to English Determiner Classification 66 Table 4-8: Correct Determiner Usage 68 Table 4-9: Types of Errors per Student 71 Table 4-10: Distribution of Errors across NP Types 73 Table 4-11: Number of Occurrences of Underextension Errors across NP Types 73 Table 4-12: Number of Occurrences of Substitution Errors across NP Types 74 Table 4-13: Number of Occurrences of Overextension Errors across NP Types 75 1 Chapter 1 Introduction It is a well known fact that, for many different reasons, second language (L2) learners often have difficulties related to the use of certain grammatical items. Master (1997) states, "What language learners seem to find particularly difficult in acquiring English, generally is grammatical items that are comprised of multiple elements" (p. 220). One such example is the usage of the English articles (a/an, the, and 0).The articles belong to a class of grammatical items called determiners (Greenbaum and Quirk, 1990), and the determiners, in general, comprise a grammatical area with •••'!"< ii L2 learners have a lot of problems (Master, 1993). In the case of the English article system, Master (1997) claims that, in order for L2 learners to select the correct choice of the article, notions such as countability, number, and definiteness must be considered. For that reason, even though the articles are among the smallest and the most common words in English, their usage seems to be very complex (Butler, 2002). In addition. Master (1997) argues that the articles are acquired differently depending on whether or not the learner's first language (LI) contains an article system and that the acquisition of articles is delayed for those learners whose LI does not contain an article system, such as Japanese. Several studies have examined the use of the article system by English as a Second Language (ESL) learners from a variety of approaches (e.g., Butler, 2002; Yamada & Matsuura, 1992); these studies have examined learners' abilities to supply the articles in grammar tests and cloze passages as well as learners* production of the articles in spoken and written discourse. The results of these studies suggest that articles are problematic for all levels of learners (Yamada &Matsuura. 1982) and that native language is a factor (Master, 1987).