THE VARIANCES BETWEEN TURKISH MONOLINGUAL AND KURDISH/TURKISH BILINGUAL EFL LEARNERS’ ACQUISITION OF ENGLISH ARTICLES
THE VARIANCES BETWEEN TURKISH MONOLINGUAL AND KURDISH/TURKISH BILINGUAL EFL LEARNERS’ ACQUISITION OF ENGLISH ARTICLES

Author : Buket DEMİRBÜKEN
Number of pages : 71-86

Abstract

Though learners differ in acquisition, all languages have some certain linguistic forms that are accepted as complex and simple. Articles might be regarded as complex to understand as even advanced learners may have trouble in correct use of articles. The complexity is possibly higher for learners who have an article-less (henceforth –ART) native language background. This study investigates the use of articles by Turkish monolinguals and Turkish/ Kurdish bilinguals in two different tasks; a fill-in-article task and written- narrative task. Turkish is a (-ART) language while Kurdish is a (+ART) language, so the aim of the study is to examine if there is any variance between Turkish monolinguals (-ART) and Turkish/ Kurdish bilinguals (+ ART) in article use of English (+ART). The findings revealed the superior performance of bilinguals (+ ART) over monolinguals (-ART). The paper also questioned the metalinguistic knowledge of L2 and L3 learners on choice of article in English. The qualitative data was presented with possible explanations and interpretations.

Keywords

definite & indefinite article, bilingualism, monolingual, metalinguistic awareness

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