The Acquisition of Subject-Verb Agreement Among Norwegian (Teenage) Learners of English: Focus on the Subject
Subject-verb agreement in English is a complex area that causes problems for learners. It is important to determine which aspects of this topic are most difficult to learn and automatize so that we can focus on these in the language classroom. The present paper aims to make a contribution by present...
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Prof Thomas Tinnefeld
2019-12-01
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| Series: | Journal of Linguistics and Language Teaching |
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| Online Access: | https://linguisticsandlanguageteaching.blogspot.com/2019/12/blog-post_25.html |
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| author | Kristin Killie |
| author_facet | Kristin Killie |
| author_sort | Kristin Killie |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Subject-verb agreement in English is a complex area that causes problems for learners. It is important to determine which aspects of this topic are most difficult to learn and automatize so that we can focus on these in the language classroom. The present paper aims to make a contribution by presenting data on subject-verb agreement among Norwegian adolescents (12-13 and 15–16 years old). The research question is whether learners make more mistakes with some types of subject than with others. A main finding is that there are more errors with noun subjects than with personal pronoun subjects. It is argued that this is the result of drilling of paradigms as well as high frequencies in the input and output. Another finding is that the error rate is particularly high when the subject consists of two or more conjoined noun phrases. This fact is explained in terms of ‘Agreement Attraction’ (Strang 1966). On the basis of the data, it is suggested that the teaching of subject-verb agreement should focus more on noun subjects, including conjoined subject noun phrases.
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| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-6c2f37d98c6344639df785f9f41cd24c |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2190-4677 |
| language | deu |
| publishDate | 2019-12-01 |
| publisher | Prof Thomas Tinnefeld |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Linguistics and Language Teaching |
| spelling | doaj-art-6c2f37d98c6344639df785f9f41cd24c2025-01-05T13:06:31ZdeuProf Thomas TinnefeldJournal of Linguistics and Language Teaching2190-46772019-12-01102183206The Acquisition of Subject-Verb Agreement Among Norwegian (Teenage) Learners of English: Focus on the Subject Kristin Killie 0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3401-2096The Arctic University of NorwaySubject-verb agreement in English is a complex area that causes problems for learners. It is important to determine which aspects of this topic are most difficult to learn and automatize so that we can focus on these in the language classroom. The present paper aims to make a contribution by presenting data on subject-verb agreement among Norwegian adolescents (12-13 and 15–16 years old). The research question is whether learners make more mistakes with some types of subject than with others. A main finding is that there are more errors with noun subjects than with personal pronoun subjects. It is argued that this is the result of drilling of paradigms as well as high frequencies in the input and output. Another finding is that the error rate is particularly high when the subject consists of two or more conjoined noun phrases. This fact is explained in terms of ‘Agreement Attraction’ (Strang 1966). On the basis of the data, it is suggested that the teaching of subject-verb agreement should focus more on noun subjects, including conjoined subject noun phrases. https://linguisticsandlanguageteaching.blogspot.com/2019/12/blog-post_25.htmlsecond-language acquisitionenglish as a second languagesubject-verb agreementagreement attractionplural markedness effect |
| spellingShingle | Kristin Killie The Acquisition of Subject-Verb Agreement Among Norwegian (Teenage) Learners of English: Focus on the Subject Journal of Linguistics and Language Teaching second-language acquisition english as a second language subject-verb agreement agreement attraction plural markedness effect |
| title | The Acquisition of Subject-Verb Agreement Among Norwegian (Teenage) Learners of English: Focus on the Subject |
| title_full | The Acquisition of Subject-Verb Agreement Among Norwegian (Teenage) Learners of English: Focus on the Subject |
| title_fullStr | The Acquisition of Subject-Verb Agreement Among Norwegian (Teenage) Learners of English: Focus on the Subject |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Acquisition of Subject-Verb Agreement Among Norwegian (Teenage) Learners of English: Focus on the Subject |
| title_short | The Acquisition of Subject-Verb Agreement Among Norwegian (Teenage) Learners of English: Focus on the Subject |
| title_sort | acquisition of subject verb agreement among norwegian teenage learners of english focus on the subject |
| topic | second-language acquisition english as a second language subject-verb agreement agreement attraction plural markedness effect |
| url | https://linguisticsandlanguageteaching.blogspot.com/2019/12/blog-post_25.html |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT kristinkillie theacquisitionofsubjectverbagreementamongnorwegianteenagelearnersofenglishfocusonthesubject AT kristinkillie acquisitionofsubjectverbagreementamongnorwegianteenagelearnersofenglishfocusonthesubject |