Grammatical proficiency and access to extended projections in Iranian learners of English as a second language

• Main Authors: Fariba Khorvash, Ahmad Reza Lotfi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2019-01-01
• Series: Cogent Education
• Subjects: extended projections; functional categories; grammatical proficiency; lexical categories; second language acquisition
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2019.1592275

Linguistically and cognitively speaking, functional (extended) projections are more abstract and structurally more complicated than lexical projections. Acquiring functional projections could be problematic for second language learners and thus a crucial issue to be considered by language instructors and curriculum developers. The present study investigates the learners’ level of grammatical proficiency relationship with their access to extended projections. A sample of 270 Iranian female students learning English as a foreign language took part in this correlational study. Oxford Placement Test was conducted to obtain a grammatical proficiency score for each learner. To assess the amount of access to extended projections, two tests were administered with a 10-day interval. A Grammaticality Judgment Task was administered 10 days after the test of proficiency to assess the learners’ recognition of extended projections. After 10 days, a Picture Description Task was administered to evaluate the learners’ production of extended projections. The data then were analyzed using Pearson Correlation-Coefficient Test. Results revealed that there was a significant though a moderate relationship between the learners’ level of grammatical proficiency and their Recognition of extended projections and a significant but weak relationship in their Production of extended projections. Our findings suggest that learners may avoid using certain functional categories despite having the knowledge of those functional categories. Thus, it might be concluded that learners may not have complete access to extended projection and they are still in the process of acquisition.