Variability of English Past-Tense Morphology by L1 Thai and L1 French Learners

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Abstract

The study explored variability of English past-tense morphology by L1 Thai learners. Based on the Failed Functional Features Hypothesis (FFFH) proposed by Hawkins and Chan (1997) and Hawkins and Liszka (2003), variability of English past-tense morphology by L1 Thai and L1 French learners was due to non-target-like syntactic representations. The participants of the study were thirty L1 Thai and thirty L1 French advanced learners of English. English and Thai are different in that past tense inflectional morphology is obligatory in English, but not in Thai. Data were collected from a cloze test. The results suggested that the L1 Thai learners’ correct supplying of English past-tense morphemes were significantly lower than those of the L1 French learners. Moreover, the asymmetries in the L1 Thai learners’ correct supplying of English regular and irregular past-tense morphemes were also evidenced. It is assumed that non-existence of the past feature in the Thai learners’ L1 led to variable English past-tense morphemes as well as the asymmetries of regular and irregular past tense morphemes as L2 English pastness is unacquirable for the L1 Thai learners. Since the L2 French learners’ production of English past tense morphemes was possibly based on target-like syntactic representations, the results therefore confirmed the FFFH.