THE ACQUISITION OF COMPLEX ENGLISH STRUCTURES BY ADULT NATIVE SPEAKERS OF ARABIC AND HEBREW

Abstract

This investigation examined the acquisition of five complex English syntactic structures by Egyptian and Israeli adult learners at different levels of proficiency. Carol Chomsky's methodology, as adapted by d'anglejan and Tucker, served to assess comprehension of these structures. The responses of the Egyptians and Israelis, which were similar to one another as well as to those of the French Canadians previously studied by d'anglejan and Tucker, suggest that first and second language learners of English encounter some of the same difficulties. Their responses also suggest that the creative construction hypothesis can be applied to second as well as to first language acquisition.