The relevance of the U-shaped learning model to the acquisition of the simple past tense in the Arab Learners of English context

摘要

Building on previous studies of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) and Applied Linguistics theories related to the acquisition of the simple past tense, this empirical study focuses on two recent models which are proposed in order to explain and predict language acquisition behaviour which may be relevant to the SLA of the simple past and the grammatical construction. These models are the U-shaped learning model (Pinker, 1984), and the Adaptive Control of Thought-Rational ACT-R model (Taatgen and Anderson, 2002). This article only focuses on the relevance of the U-shaped learning model. An empirical study was conducted on 74 Arab Learners of English (ALEs) which lasted four months. A detailed analysis was made of the simple past tense forms in 222 written texts produced by ALEs. Written texts were collected from each subject at three stages in the experiment (after two weeks, after two months and after four months). Quantitative and qualitative analysis in addition to descriptive analysis of the target and non-target-like forms show that there is little evidence of the U-shape in the forms produced by the learners within the beginning, middle and end phases of this investigation. We cannot, however, exclude the possibility of the U-shape appearing in a longitudinal study of learners' development of the simple past tense forms over a number of years.