Analyzing the English Definite Articles in L1 and L2 Essays by Seven Sub-Pragmatic Types

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study attempted to identify areas of difficulty or need in using the English definite articles (DA) for Korean L2 learners in order to help them grow to the level where they can use them properly. It constructed a mini learner-corpus of twenty-five essays written by students who took an English conversation course at a Korean university; the L2 learners’ DA uses were compared with those of L1 English speakers occurring in a reference corpus extracted from LOCNESS. While the distribution ratio of the sub-pragmatic types were similar in both L1 and L2 texts, the latter showed significantly smaller frequencies overall and by types as well. The underusing tendency remained in basic usages of the DA; the learners seemed to either settle only on the cases that they deemed were safe, such as those confirmed through pre-memorized set-phrases or chunks, or to omit simply. The semantic roles/meanings of the DA need to be explicitly emphasized and evaluated in classrooms. Identifying patterns of DA omission errors is recommended for future studies that will draw far-reaching implications for L2 teaching and learning.

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