A Study on the EFL Korean Learners’ Acquisition of English Articles: Focusing on UG

Abstract

The study conducted by Ionin, Ko and Wexler (2004) focuses on L2-English learners who do not have articles in their native languages. The results of their study are based on the assumption that speakers of languages without articles such as Korean are not affected by an L1 transfer effect in acquiring English articles. Lee (2012) raised a problem with the assumption of their study and argued that Korean has an L1 transfer effect. In addition, Lee (2012) argued that Ionin, Ko and Wexler’s (2004) assumption is not valid and should be reconsidered. Given this background, this study conducted two experiments based on the studies of Ionin, Ko and Wexler (2004) and Lee (2012), who have conflicting views on acquiring English articles by L2 English learners, to ascertain if the same results as those of Ionin, Ko and Wexler (2004) and Lee (2012) can be obtained for Korean EFL middle school students. In addition, this paper goes on to suggest the direction of how English learning should proceed in the future, based on the results collected by Korean EFL middle school students.