The Bottleneck Hypothesis in L2 English Acquisition by L1 Bangla Speakers

Abstract

While acquiring a second language, the most demanding linguistic properties are functional morphologies rather than core syntax, according to the Bottleneck Hypotheses (Slabakova, 2008, 2013). In this thesis, I did an experimental study on the Bangladeshi L2 English speakers, speaking L1 Bangla. Bangla verbs are rich in inflections and the verb conjugation is a bit complex in that verbs have to agree with their subjects in person and formality level, but not number (David 2015:205). Therefore, Bangladeshi L2 English speakers find English Subject-Verb agreement troublesome. In the case of the WO, English typically observes SVO whereas Bangla primarily follows SOV. Having said that Bangla verbs somewhat enjoy free movement and depending on the positions of the verb, meaning can get changed. The reason behind choosing SV agreement and Word Order is the mismatch of these two properties between Bangla and English. To conduct the experimental study, I employed the acceptability Judgment Task and the results of the acceptability judgement task showcase that in ungrammatical items the acquisition difficulty in SV agreement compared to word order is glaring, especially in high proficiency groups, lending support to the Bottleneck Hypothesis.