タイ人の第二言語としての英語における空項

抄録

This study investigated Thai learners' abilities to detect the ungrammaticality of English sentences with null arguments. Thai, particularly in informal contexts, differs from English in that Thai allows null arguments in subject and object positions. A Grammaticality Judgment (GJ) task was employed and Thai participants were to identify ungrammatical sentences in which either subjects or objects were missing and make corrections. Based on previous L2 findings and L1 facts, we predicted that (1) null subjects would be identified and corrected at a higher rate than null objects, and (2) null subjects/objects in single clauses would be identified and corrected at a higher rate than null subjects/objects in embedded clauses. A grammaticality judgment task (GJ) was conducted with 100 Thai high school and college students. They were divided into four proficiency levels by means of an English placement test. Results from Repeated Measures ANOVAs confirmed both predictions. The results support the role of input consistency and the role of L1 null arguments in the learning of English non-null arguments. In respect of proficiency, post-hoc tests revealed significant differences between groups. This study suggests that L2 learners associate elements allowing null objects in the L1 with L2 null objects and that sensitivity to non-null arguments increases with higher proficiency in L2 acquisition.