THE ENGLISH ARTICLE SYSTEM AND SECOND LANGUAGE PAKISTANI LEARNERS: A CASE STUDY

Abstract

The article system has always been one of the most difficult features of the English language for Pakistani learners. Even the learners of the advanced proficiency level find difficulty in using the articles correctly and therefore, either underuse or overuse them or substitute wrongly. The purpose
of this study was to investigate among Pakistani learners, the accuracy stages in the acquisition of the English article system. Bickerton’s (1981) model of article classification was used to identify the noun phrase (NP) contexts in which articles appear. The referentiality in this model is determined by
two semantic features whether a noun is a specific referent [±SR] and/or known to the Hearer [±HK] The sample population was drawn from the learners studying at the Department of English of the International Islamic University, Islamabad(IIUI) at three proficiency levels: elementary, intermediate and advanced. The results showed that the LI of the learners which is Urdu, a language without articles (–ART), influences the way articles are acquired. In the light of the findings, the study also makes some recommendations that may help improve the Article pedagogy in Pakistan in general and in the IIUI in particular.