| Chapter 1: | The Problem |
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acquisition of a native language grammar, occurs in sequences or stages and that “much of language acquisition is in fact sequence learning” (N. Ellis, 1996, p. 91).
However, those previously discovered general developmental se-quences should be verified for learners in different situations and with differing language backgrounds. Moreover, the understanding of the process of SLA is still far from complete. There is a need to search for new developmental sequences and to refine the currently discovered ones in order to augment the knowledge base of SLA and to impact the current and future language pedagogy. An in-depth description and analysis of one Chinese ESL learner’s acquisition process with regard to English articles, which is lacking in the current research literature on SLA, will contribute to this understanding and augmentation.
From a pedagogical viewpoint, the study of the acquisition sequence of the English articles is also worthwhile. There are two well-known paradoxes related to the articles in English. One paradox, as described by Kaluza (1981), is that
Hence, it is highly significant in terms of both theory and pedagogy to reveal the acquisition process of English articles in L1 as well as in L2, and to find a better way to obtain and explain this “obviousness.”
Another paradox is related to the fact that while the articles a and the constitute two of the most frequently used words in the English language, they are, however, among the most difficult linguistic elements to learn for learners of English, especially for those learners whose native language lacks the article system. It has been reported that ESL learners who are Chinese-speaking adults as well as Chinese-speaking children exhibit difficulty in mastering the English articles both in classroom settings and in natural English-speaking environments (Aaronson &