The acquisition of English irregular inflections by Yemeni L1 Arabic learners: A Universal Grammar approach

TL;DR

This study investigates how Yemeni L1 Arabic learners acquire English irregular inflections, highlighting the roles of L1 transfer, developmental stages, and UG principles, with evidence of progress and persistent challenges.

Contribution

It applies a Universal Grammar framework to analyze L2 acquisition, emphasizing the interaction of transfer, developmental stages, and input quality in learning irregular inflections.

Findings

Significant improvement in irregular inflection production from stage 1 to 2

Errors stem from both L1 transfer and L2 developmental overgeneralization

Limited input and instruction hinder full UG access in adult learners

Abstract

This study examines the acquisition of English irregular inflections by Yemeni learners of English as a second language (L2), utilizing a Universal Grammar (UG) approach. Within the UG approach, the study considers Feature Reassembly Hypothesis (FRH) (Lardiere, 2008, 2009) part of UG, focusing on the roles of first language (L1) transfer and L2 developmental influence. It analyzes learner errors across two developmental stages. Stage 1 data reveal a dominant influence of L1 transfer, particularly in phonological and structural mismatches, while stage 2 data demonstrate increased learner sensitivity to UG properties and morphological reconfiguration toward the target language. Findings reveal that errors in irregular inflectional morphology are attributed to both interlingual and intralingual sources, with overgeneralization of L2 rules as a common developmental strategy. Statistical analysis, including a one-way ANOVA, indicates significant improvement in the production of well-formed irregular inflections from stage 1 to stage 2, underscoring learners' continued access to UG. However, persistent difficulties with consonant change, zero-morpheme, and -a plural inflections suggest that limited exposure, ineffective input modeling, and insufficient instructional quality constrain full UG access. The study concludes that while L1 transfer and L2 developmental factors influence initial stages of acquisition, appropriate linguistic input and instruction are critical for facilitating UG-driven feature reassembly in adult L2 learners.