Acquisition of the non-generic definite article by Spanish learners of English as a foreign language

Abstract

This study explains the acquisition of the non-generic uses of the english definite article the by L2 learners. Chilean university students completed a  questionnaire  containing  deleted  obligatory  uses  of the. in  all,  four identified categories showed to have different accuracy rates. Of the four categories, the one most similar to the L1 was the least difficult to acquire while the most different resulted as the most difficult. This concurs with other research and can be explained by L1 rules that are transferred to the L2.The other two categories did not show the same acquisition rate as compared to previous studies and cannot be explained by L1 transfer given  that  both  languages  share  the  same  rules.  Time  spent  studying the english increases accuracy rates across all categories. Knowing that difficulty with the definite article can be attributed to L1 interference is useful  when  implementing  pedagogical  recommendations  to  teach  the english article system.