A Comparative Study of L1 Norwegian and L1 Chinese Learners’ Acquisition of L2 English Subject-verb Agreement and Word Order

Abstract

Nowadays, English has been widely used by L2 language learners. With respect to L1 Chinese and L1Norwegian speakers in the process of English learning, both groups are prone to a range of errors, especially in subject-verb agreement and word order. This thesis aims at exploring the L1 Chinese and L1Norwegian English learning difficulties in subject-verb agreement and word order and makes a comparison between the two groups. The study also further seeks to investigate whether morphology or syntax is more difficult for L2 English learners and examines the influence of other intra- and extralinguistic factors (proficiency, gender, chronological age, etc.) on their grammaticality judgments. The empirical data were collected with the help of an online survey tool, JATOS. The results of the statistical analysis revealed that both L1 Norwegian and L1 Chinese patterns similarly and perform significantly less accurately on the subject-verb agreement (morphology) than word order (syntax). In terms of word order performance, the results reveal that L1 Norwegian and L1 Chinese differ significantly, it also shows that L1 Chinese individuals had more difficulty learning word order than L1 Norwegian participants. However, in terms of morphology (subject-verb agreement) and syntax (word order), the result is not confident enough to state morphology is harder than syntax due to limited data. Based on previous research and the bottleneck hypothesis, this thesis lends a tentative propensity to support syntax before morphology. Finally, it is found that both, the native language and L2 English proficiency influence the participants’ performance, while such factors as age, gender, and the length of studying English do not.