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The acquisition/learning of English morpho-syntactic properties by L1 speakers of Saudi Arabia: Evidence from verb phrase ellipsis.

Category
Arabic Language
Date
Date
Monday 11 December 2017
Time: 2-3pm
LHRI Seminar room 1, 29-31 Clarendon Place, University of Leeds

You are warmly invited to the fifth meeting of Arabic Language at Leeds PGR group.

In this session, Tomader Alfraikh (PhD student in Linguistics and Phonetics) will share her work about "The acquisition/learning of English morpho-syntactic properties by L1 speakers of Saudi Arabia: Evidence from verb phrase ellipsis".

Abstract:
In my project, I will focus on English Verb Phrase Ellipsis (VPE) and how it is acquired by L1 Saudi-Arabic speakers. VPE is a structure that involves morpho-syntactic and semantic constrains. I am interested in showing how these properties are represented differently in Saudi-Arabic and English grammars and how L1 Saudi learners of English acquire those properties. From my knowledge as a teacher of grammar I have not come across explanations on details of VPE in identifying conditions in textbooks that go beyond sample examples of VPE without focusing on “auxiliary stranding.” So, textbooks –to the best of my knowledge- offer general examples without details. Thus, the purpose of this research is to arrive at the most suitable pedagogical method to teach such grammatical knowledge in a language classroom. This is done by describing the difficulty L2 Saudi-Arabic learners encounter while acquiring morpho-syntactic features.
It will be a good occasion to give her some feedback and share new ideas.

This is going to be our last meeting before the Christamas break, then we will meet again in the second semester.

Come and join us!

the Arabic PGR committee