JanuaryLING 620 Research Methods Final Proposal Guidelines 150pts
FORMAT: Double-spaced, 12pt Times
LENGTH: 2000 words minimum
DUE; Wednesday November 25 by 11:25PM
Put one copy in your folder on Alex
Put one copy in the digital dropbox on Blackboard
Put a hardcopy in my mailbox/box outside of my office
Use these headings in your final submission
Working title:
Acquisition of the English article system by Chinese students and the
Missing Surface Inflection Hypothesis
1.
INTRODUCTION: RESEARCH AREA (5pts)
English articles acquisition has been claimed as one of the most difficult aspects in second language acquisition area, especially for learners whose native language does not contain articles ([-ART] languages). Chinese is one of those [-ART] languages.
This paper aims to seek the answers to the puzzle of the difficulty of English article system acquisition by Chinese EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners. This study is conducted under the framework of syntax and in the light of Missing Surface
Inflection Hypothesis ( Prevost and White, 2000). Missing Surface Inflection
Hypothesis makes the assumption that one of learners’ difficulties in second language acquisitions lies on the mismatching of underlying knowledge with the surfaces form of the grammar.

2.
AIM/JUSTIFICATION (5pts)
This paper will investigate the problems displayed by [-ART] language speakers while learning the English article system, focusing on Chinese learners of English.
This paper aims to justify the Missing Surface Inflection Hypothesis (MSIH) through conducting a research on Chinese learners' English article system acquisition. MSIH claims that the absence of surface forms in L2 production does not necessarily mean that the corresponding underlying knowledge is lacking from the learners grammar
(Prevost & white 2000, Bergeron-Mataba, 2007). As MSIH predicts, I will argue that the real problems for Chinese learners of English is the surface forms of articles themselves rather than the underling knowledge related to English articles, for instance, they can judge the definiteness and count/mass nouns distinctions.
3.
LITERATURE REVIEW (40pts)
It is an undeniable truth that the acquisition of English articles is one of the barriers for learners whose first language (L1) lacks articles, like Chinese.
Considerable attention has been directed to this phenomenon through different research on learners from various L1 background (Prevost & White, 2000; Robertson,
2000;Scott, 2002; Sarko, 2008; Bergeron-Mataba, 2007). Recently Missing Surface
Inflection Hypothesis (MSIH)_which is based on the observation of tense and agreement acquisition by L2 English learners, “proposes that L2 learners have unconscious knowledge of the functional projection and features underling tense and agreement” (White, 2003,p.48), however, they have difficulty in matching the unconscious knowledge with the surface morphology. This hypothesis has been

extended to article acquisition in several studies (Sarko, 2008; Bergeron -Mataba,
2007).
Earlier studies have studied articles from the semantic and syntactic aspect by conducting research based on discourse data (Jarvis, 2002) Jarvis focused on the topic continuity in analyzing written comprehensions by L2 English learners of Finnish
(article missing language) and L2 English learners of Swedish. What he found was that learners tended to use articles to distinguish new, continuous and reintroduced NP. His data were elicited from the description of a silent movie segment “Alone and Hungry” which set an excellent example for discourse data collection.
Syntactic transfer has been applied to article acquisition study as well. Sarko
(2008) tried to make a clear cut of the morphophonological or syntactic transfer in the acquisition of English articles by L1 speakers of Syrian Arabic. In this article Sarko took two languages—Arabic and French and tested the newly promoted Fluctuation hypotheses (Ionin 2003) and the Article Choice Parameter. According to Fluctuation hypotheses,
L2 learners have full access to UG principles and parameter settings.
L2 learners fluctuate between different parameter settings until the input leads them to set the parameter to the appropriate value (Ionin 2003, p.23)
Ionin found that L2 learners of [-article] L1 demonstrated some fluctuation between definiteness and specificity. Eventually they set the appropriate value of the parameter for English: definiteness. In Sarko’s study, both language groups selected the definite article in an almost native –like way with singular nouns, indicating the syntactic transfer of L1 properties from Arabic and French, since both Arabic and
French carry definite articles

This study is based on Bergeron-Mataba’s study (2007), which conducted a study with Japanese learners of English, in the light of Missing Surface Inflection hypothesis.
In this article, the author took Japanese language as the [-ART] language representative and concentrated on the article acquisition by Japanese speakers in the light of definiteness, specific, mass and count noun. Forced choice elicitation test (fill-in-theblank) was recruited in this study. And the result showed that Japanese learners comprehend the English article system fairly well; however, they still show some difficulty in realizing these features in L2, which justified the Missing Surface
Inflection Hypothesis.
However, in Bergeron- Mataba’s study only 8 participants are recruited and he analyzes the data from a more individual perspective than from a holistic aspect. In this study, the author employs 40 participants and an extra descriptive composition task. While decomposing the data, the author opts for a holistic approach instead of an individual. A combination of force-elicitation task and a composition task potentially enhances the generalibility of the study and strengthens the hypothesis posited in this research.
4.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS/HYPOTHESES (5pts)
Three important questions will come along with this research:
1. Do learners aware that singular count nouns in English require an article?
2. Do learners know which uses of nouns belong to count uses and mass uses?
3. Do learners know that definiteness is the determined factor in the choice of articles?

I hypothesize that the data will provide two strongly positive answers to question
1 and 3 and a little bit weak positive answer to question 2. The reason is the concept of singular noun is easy for learners to accept since in Chinese language we have quantifies and classifiers to modify nouns. Therefore number is not a new concept for students. For question 3, from the very beginning of English learning, teachers have been emphasizing this grammar part, which may imply that students should master this grammar part at a comparatively high level. For question 2, the concept is too trivial and student cannot find similar counterpart in native language, therefore the difficulty can be predicted.
5.
METHODOLOGY (35pts) a.
SUBJECTS/SOURCES
In this research, 40 Chinese students from a secondary school in China will be recruited as the participants, 20 female students and 20 male students. These students are all from an 8 th
grade class in that school and. All the participants are around 14 years old with the range from 13 years old to 15 years old. Therefore, age difference will not play a significant role in this study. English course is compulsory for all students at that school. The 40 participants will have been exposed to English learning for about 15 months when this study will be conducted. b.
MATERIALS/INSTRUMENTS
Two types of material will be employed for this study. The 8 minutes “Alone and Hungry” segment of the silent movie by Charlie Chaplin will be selected as the composition material. In this segment, a poor and hungry young girl attempts to steal a

loaf of bread, is arrested by the police, escapes under the help of Charlie, and eventually makes friends with Charlie. The film is silent, but it contains nine intermittent titles to help the audience comprehend the movie.
For the forced choice elicitation task part, 30 fill- in-the-blank items with five types of article contexts will be designed. The five contexts are listed as 1) anaphoric uses 2) encyclopedic uses; 3) large situation uses; 4)[-def+sp] context; 5)[-def -sp] context. The first three types of contexts are all definite specific, thus target at the elicitation of the , while the last two types aims to elicit a, an or X (means no article is needed). The students will be required to fill in the blank with one out of four possible answers Each item is designed with context and four choices (a /an/ the/ X) will be provided at the beginning of exercise description. X indicates no article is required.
Example item is like below:
[-def + sp]
A: Excuse me.
B: How may I help you?
A: I am looking for __ dress with five stars.
A couple of students from the 8 th grade will be chosen to pilot the fill-in the -blank
-task, insuring there will be no vocabulary barrier to impede the performance of any participant. What's more, the precise amount of time given to the completion of the task will be decided after the pilot of the task. c.
PROCEDURE
Firstly, participants will be shown the movie segment “Alone and Hungry” and then asked to write a descriptive composition based on what they will see on a sheet of

paper. 30 minutes will be given to all the participants. Concerning their limited vocabulary, 10 native language words will be allowed in their composition.
The next day, the fill-in-the-blank task will be provided to the participants and 15 minutes will be given to complete the task. d.
TYPE OF DATA
The compositions will be typed into word file with original wording, which can facilitate the error correction on proper article production in each composition.
Quantitative errors data will be categorized as article omitting, misuse indefinite article for definite situation, and overuse article in front of plural countable nouns.
Correct use of articles will also be categorized as above to do the comparison.
The fill- in- the-blank task can be categorized in similar types as the composition task.
6.
ANALYSIS (5pts)
Since this is research only involves some simple descriptive statistics, I will use
PSPP to assist my data analysis. For instance, how much percent errors participants made with regard to the singular countable nouns.
7.
ANTICIPATED PROBLEMS/LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY (10pts)
The limitations of this study can be various. Firstly, participants are at low level of English proficiency, their limited vocabulary will directly affect the quality of their descriptive compositions. Secondly only 30 items will be designed for the fill-in-theblank task. This generalizability of the research result is restricted due to the small size of task and small amount of participants. The last but not the least, how seriously the participants will treat the tasks will also affect the quality of the research itself.

WHAT DO YOU EXPECT TO FIND?/ OR RESEARCH FINDINGS SO FAR (10pts.) 8.
What I expect to find is participants make few errors, which reflects their underlying knowledge of definiteness and count/mass distinctions, which are necessary for the acquisition of the English article system. Therefore, the problem must line in the mapping of the knowledge onto the surface forms of the articles in spontaneous English production, which justify the Missing Surface Inflection Hypothesis.
9.
CONCLUSION (10pts)
This paper will examine the English article system acquisition by Chinese students of L2 English learners. This study is from the syntactic perspective to study article acquisition. To be more specific, this study is conducted in the light of the
Missing Surface Inflection Hypothesis (Prevost and White 2000). I have argued that
Chinese students are able to make a distinction of definiteness and count/mass nouns based on their unconscious knowledge of English grammar; the problem of Chinese students learning English article system lies on the mismapping of the surface form with underlying knowledge. The experimental data will confirm the hypothesis by demonstrating that learners have definiteness and count/mass distinctions in their underlying knowledge, although they cannot be displayed in more spontaneous L2 productions (Robertson, 2000).
In spite of some limitations of this study, for instance, the limited number of participants and restricted number of task items. This study will shed some light on the uncovery of the veil of article acquisition barrier by learners whose native language lacks articles.

10.
REFERENCES (5pts)
Jarvis, S. (2002). Topic continuity in L2 English article use. Studies of Second Language Acquisition, 24, 387-418.
Prevost, P. D. & White, L. (2000). Missing surface inflection or impairment in second language acquisition? Evidence from tense and agreement. Second Language
Research, 16, 103-133.
Robertson, D. (2000). Variability in the used of the English article system by
Chinese learners of English. Second Language Research, 16(2), 135-159
White, L. (2003). Fossilization in steady state L2 grammars: Persistent problems with inflectional morphology. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 6, 129-141.
Sarko, G. (2008). Accounting for indefinite article a drop in the oral L2 English of L1 Syrian Arab speakers. Essex Graduate student Papers in Language & Linguistics,
10, 97-115.
Ionin T & Wexler K (2003). The certain use of the in L2-English’s in J M
Liceras et al (eds.) The 6 th
Generative Approaches to Second language acquisition conference Cascadilla Somerville, MA pp 150-160
Bergeron-Mataba, J. (2007). Acquisition of the English article system in SLA and the Missing Surface Inflection Hypothesis. The PaxSLRF 2006 Brisbane and UQ
Linguistics Seminar
11.
INSTRUMENTS (5pts)
While I am doing the experiment, I will mix these six types of contexts together, which makes it more natural to participants’ classroom exercise.
Article exercise

Fill in the blank with a, an, the, or X (means nothing), each blank only needs one choice.
Anaphoric use
1.
A: Do you like my new blouse?
B: I like ___ green buttons on it.
2.
A: What happened to Tim’s wedding?
B:__bride was late.
3.
A: How is this book?
B: ___ pictures inside are interesting.
4.
A: Is the chicken delicious?
B: Only__ breast is delicious.
5.
A: Do you have a bicycle?
B: Yes, I do, but ___ wheel is broken.
6.
A: What’s ___color of your English book?
B: It is red.
Encyclopedic use

1.
A: I went to Beijing last summer.
B: Did you see anything interesting?
A: Yes. I saw ___Great Wall
2.
A: Miss Yang went to Egypt last month.
B: Really?
A: She saw___ Pyramids.
3.
A: Do you have a river near to your house?
B: Yes. ___Yellow River is not far from my house.
4.
A: Where is ___ statue of Liberty?
B: I think it is in New York City.
5.
A: Americans went to ___ moon in 1969.
B: Chinese people will go there pretty soon.
6.
A: Where is Yao Ming?
B: He is in ___U.S.A.
Larger situation use
1.
A: When you make cakes you should mix them well.

B: Why is that?
A: To stop___ flour going into lumps.
2.
A: Don’t go inside that house.
B: Why?
A:__dog will bite you.
3.
A: Who is that gentleman?
B: He is ___principal.
4.
A: Who is Mao Zedoing?
B: He is __first Chairman in China.
5.
A: ___Queen of Britain died last month.
B: Really? She is a very kind lady.
6.
A: Did you go to the swimming pool last night?
B: Yes, but __water was very cold so I did not stay very long.
[-def + sp]
1.
A: Excuse me.
B: How may I help you?

A: I would like to buy __CD that I have trying to find for ages.
2.
A: My daughter has dry skin
B: How is she dealing with it?
A: She is using ___coconut oil, but I don’t know if it will work.
3.
A: Good morning, Madam. May I help you?
B: Good morning. I am looking for __dress with five stars.
4.
A: What do you use for cooking?
B: I use __ginger and it is my favorite flavor.
5.
A: What do you see in the picture?
B: I see __apples and one girl is eating one.
6.
A: Do you like ___tea with sugar?
B: Yes, I do.
[-def - sp]
1.
A: Wang Li is happy.
B: Why?
A: She got __car for her birthday. I wonder what it looks like.

2.
A: What did you do yesterday?
B: I bought___ apples for my grandma.
3.
A: Do you want to go swimming this afternoon?
B: I want to, but I don’t have __ swimming suit.
4.
A: What did you have for lunch?
B: I had__ rice, one egg and three carrots.
5.
A: How many colors are there in the rainbow?
B: There are ___seven colors.
6.
A: What’s inside the bowl?
B:__ soup.
12.
FORMAT (10pts)

Is your paper 2000 words or more?

Have you edited/proofread your paper?

Is it free of typos, wrong spellings, etc?

Correct and Standardized Referencing according to APA
13.
IRB (5pts)

I have shown it to you already.
Include a copy of your IRB or evidence that you have submitted