| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立高雄師範大學 === 英語學系 === 97 === The present study investigates the DP use of students in Taiwan learning English as a second or foreign language. 160 subjects categorized as low, intermediate, and advanced levels according to their education level participate in the experiment consisting of a three-part test: a fill-in-the-DP task, an elicited translation task, and a yes-no judgment task. The results of the three parts support each other and have led to several findings. First, in the learning of DP, there is a problem involving the determination of definiteness and countability; learners first learn to detect definiteness distinguishing the N from a N indicating that the ability to successfully detect definiteness is acquired earlier or better performed than countability. Furthermore, thinking processes may affect learners’ judgments about matters of definiteness and countability. Beginning with the consideration of definiteness leads to a better performance on the judgment task. Besides, those who perform well on the judgment test tend also to perform well in DP production. This study also finds that the overuse and Ø overuse are everywhere. By error analyses, it is found that the overuse of Ø results from the fact that learners, affected by L1, associate a bare noun with a generic reading and a self-evident identity of being definite. The failure in handling mass nouns has usually been taken to be the result of a difficulty with countability. However, it is found that the failure implies a difficulty not only in detecting countability but also in detecting definiteness. The insensitivity to countability may have been overestimated since learners show a preference in plurality, a subclass of countability. Moreover, DP type has great effects on performance. The generic context is the most difficult for learners. In addition, the type with feature [+SR], i.e. the definite and the specific types, seems to be easier for L2 learners. Yet, learners are prone to take [+SR] as a sign of being definite.
|
|---|
