Learnability and Starting Age of English Article Acquisition: Evidence from CPH

Abstract

Based on Song (2006), this study investigated the relationship between learnability and starting age of English article acquisition. As a preliminary research question, it examined whether there is a difference in the ultimate level of English article proficiency between the early arrivals (AOA ≤ 12) and the late arrivals (AOA > 12). Then, this study compared the two AOA groups in their article test performance on 5 major types and 22 subtypes of the English article in order to find out what types and subtypes late-starting Korean learners can and cant learn well. Lastly, this study investigated which types or subtypes are sensitive to the starting age. The participants of the present study were 34 native speakers of Korean who differed only in the age of arrival, but were similar in the mean length of residence, years of education in the United States, and daily use of English. Knowledge of English articles was tested using a 102-item article cloze test. The analyses of the data showed that the two AOA groups did not differ in the ultimate level of overall article proficiency. However, among the 5 types and 22 subtypes of the English articles, the early AOA group excelled the late AOA group in type 3 and two subtypes of conventional use. It was also found that among the 5 types, type 3 was the most sensitive to the starting age, followed by type 4 and conventional use type. These findings suggest that starting age differently affects the learnability of each type and subtype of the English article.