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The acquisition order of English grammatical morphemes by Filipino university freshman multilinguals
Authors: Eric E. Lebeco
Number of views: 151
Anchored on the Natural Order Hypothesis (NOH) (Krashen, 1981), this paper examines the accuracy/acquisition order of English grammatical morphemes by Filipino university freshman multilinguals and the influences of the ease (or difficulty) in acquisition. The participants were determined through purposive sampling, and their language samples, which were produced through prompts, were analyzed. Brown’s (1973) 90% norm for accuracy and Suppliance in Obligatory Contexts (SOC) procedure, following Ellis and Barkhuizen’s (2005), were employed in analyzing 585 sentences. For the overuse of morphemes, the Target-like Use Analysis (Pica, 1984) was used. Based on the Group Method Score (GMS), the following acquisition order was drawn: (1) Auxiliary ‘be’ (is); (2) Article ‘the’; (3) Progressive (-ing); (4) Plural (-s); (5) Copula ‘be’ (is); (6) Irregular past; (7) Possessive (-‘s), and (8) Third Person Singular Present. The results counter the NOH for Auxiliary ‘be’ (is), Article ‘the,’ Progressive (-ing), and Copula ‘be’ (is) while affirming that the Irregular Past, Possessive (-‘s), and Third Person Singular Present tend to be acquired late. Moreover, L1 transfer appears to be the chief determinant of accuracy/acquisition order, while the frequency of language input and the use of cognitive strategies such as overgeneralization, simplification, and incomplete application of rules may have affected the ease (or difficulty) in acquisition.