Author/Authors :
Tabatabaee, Mahin Sadat Islamic Azad University - Malayer Branch Hamedan, Iran , Mahmoodi , Keivan Islamic Azad University - Malayer Branch Hamedan, Iran , Bayat , Abbas Islamic Azad University - Malayer Branch Hamedan, Iran
Abstract :
ProcessabilityTheory(PT)isatheoryofsecondlanguageacquisition(SLA)developedtoexplaindevelopmentalsequencesinSLAaswellassomeotherphenomena(Pienemann,1998;2015).Process-abilityhasbeenasignificantconcerninsecondlanguageacquisitionresearchsincethe1990s.Withintheframeworkofprocessabilitythe-oryandthroughanalyzingthewritingperformancesofIranianEFL learners,thepresentresearchfocusedontheacquisitionof“Plural-s”and“Adverb-fronting”acrossfiveproficiencylevels,fromelemen-tarytoadvanced,andcompareditwiththestage-likedevelopmentmodelofmorpho-syntacticstructuresproposedbyPienemann(1998,2015).Thestudyfollowedadescriptivemethodofresearch,andthedatawascollectedfrom350participantsatfivedifferentproficiencylevelsfromelementary,pre-intermediate,intermediate,upper-intermediate,andadvanced.Theparticipantswereaskedtoprovidesamplesoftheirwrittens-pluralondifferenttaskssuchasintroductiontask,habit-ualactiontask,storyretellingtask,picturedescriptiontask,compo-sition,andcommunicationtask.Thedatainthisresearchwasanalyzedbothqualitatively,inordertoidentifyandclassifythetypeandorderofthemorpho-syntacticstructuresandquantitatively,bycalculatingmeans.TheresultsoftheKruskal-Wallistestrevealedthatboth“Plural-s”and“Adverb-fronting,”astwomorpho-syntacticstructures,emergeveryearlyinthelanguagelearners’performance.Justthesame,thecompetenceofthelearnergrowsstrongerinconcernwiththesevari-ablesthroughthehigherproficiencylevels.ThesefindingsimplythatProcessabilityTheoryisvalidtoaconsiderableextentforIranianEFLlearners,aswell.
Keywords :
stage-likedevelopment , secondlan-guagelearning , processabilitytheory , Adverbfronting , plural-s
