本研究旨在探討學習英語時，在以中文為母語的初學者中，空號代名詞現象轉移的情形。受測者為高雄縣八卦國小三至六年級學生，測驗題型分兩種：文法判斷題以及引導式的口語測驗題。本研究結果摘要如下：1. 不同年級學生在動詞變化和偵測空號名詞表現有顯著不同。六年級學生明顯已能掌握動詞變化，在偵測空號名詞表現方面雖優於其他年級，卻仍與其他年級一樣無法偵測出空號名詞句子為錯。 2. 四個年級偵測出空號名詞句子為錯誤時，多以代名詞填在主詞位置，實值名詞填在受詞位置，顯示中文用詞現象在英語學習過程中的影響。 3. 雖然中文裡空號主詞出現頻率較空號受詞為高，與本研究結果相左，若以年級細分，可發現空號受詞出現頻率在四個年級裡相差不多，唯空號主詞變少了。可見動詞變化仍影響學生學習英語時主詞存在與否。 4. 學生習得英語有其階段性，符合The Minimal Tree Hypothesis. 學生認知理解程度及課堂上習慣用語對語言學習有很大的影響。教學者應因應學生認知能力而予以適度的文法概念，並在課堂上充份利用各種練習擴充句型運用範圍。

The study aimed to investigate the phenomenon of Chinese young EFL learners transferring the null argument. The experimental tasks used in the present study consisted of a grammaticality judgment task and a guided oral production task. The two tasks were given to the 691 third to sixth graders in the elementary school. The major findings of this study are summarized as follows: 1. With regard to the learners transferring the null-argument in L1 Chinese to L2 English, the findings in current study indicate that it is positive. All subjects got an average of 16.7143 correct rates in correcting null argument sentences 2. The null argument use in subject and object position in English is different from that in Chinese. The characteristics of INF(lection) may help the phenomenon. 3. Objects added were almost full name nouns and subjects were pronouns which were the phenomenon of L1 transferring, too. 4. As for the accessibility of UG, this present study showed that there is an order of L2 learners acquiring target language. There are also non-linguistic maturation factors in the course of acquiring target language. It may be due to the maturation of physics and psychology and the influence of instruction has great influence, too. English teachers should take advantage of drills to expand the learning materials. On the other hand, the grammar explanation should not be taught explicitly until children are older.

TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments.....................................................................................................................i Abstract (Chinese)....................................................................................................................ii Abstract (English)...................................................................................................................iii Table of Contents....................................................................................................................iv List of Tables..........................................................................................................................vii List of Figure.........................................................................................................................viii CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION...........................................................................01 1.1 Background......................................................................................................................01 1.2 Motivation and Purpose....................................................................................................03 1.3 Significance of the Study.................................................................................................05 1.4 Research Questions..........................................................................................................05 1.5 Definition of Terms..........................................................................................................06 CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW...............................................................07 2.1 Universal Grammar and Language Acquisition...............................................................07 2.1.1 Principals and Parameters.............................................................................................07 2.1.2 Accessibility of UG in SLA..........................................................................................08 2.2 Linguistic Properties of Pro-drop.....................................................................................11 2.2.1 General Concept of Pro-drop........................................................................................11 2.2.2 Pro-drop in Chinese.......................................................................................................12 2.3 Empirical Studies in Language Acquisition on Pro-drop Parameter...............................15 2.3.1 Wang, Q., Lillo-Martin, D., Best, Co. & Levitt, A. (1992)..........................................16 2.3.2 Yuan (1997)...................................................................................................................16 2.3.3 Wu (1999)......................................................................................................................17 2.3.4 Kong (2001)..................................................................................................................17 2.3.5 Wu (2004)......................................................................................................................18 2.4 Summary..........................................................................................................................18 CHAPTER THREE METHODOLOGY......................................................................20 3.1 Subject..............................................................................................................................20 3.2 Materials...........................................................................................................................22 3.3 Procedures........................................................................................................................31 3.4 Data Analysis...................................................................................................................32 3.5 Previous Pilot Study.........................................................................................................34 3.5.1 Pilot One........................................................................................................................34 3.5.2 Pilot Two.......................................................................................................................35 CHAPTER FOUR FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION..................................................36 4.1 Results of the Experiment................................................................................................36 4.1.1 Grammaticality Judgment Task.....................................................................................36 4.1.2 Guided Oral Production Task........................................................................................42 4.2 Discussion........................................................................................................................46 4.2.1 L1 Transfer in 4 Groups................................................................................................46 4.2.2 Null Subject...................................................................................................................52 4.2.3 The Accessibility of UG................................................................................................56 4.2.4 Non-Linguistic Maturation Factor.................................................................................58 CHAPTER FIVE CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS.......................................63 5.1 Answers of Research Questions.......................................................................................63 5.2 Teaching Implications......................................................................................................64 5.3 Suggestions for Further Research....................................................................................66 REFERENCES......................................................................................................................67 APPENDIX............................................................................................................................69 Appendix A............................................................................................................................70 Appendix B.............................................................................................................................71 Appendix C.............................................................................................................................72 Appendix D............................................................................................................................73 Appendix E.............................................................................................................................74 Appendix F.............................................................................................................................75 LIST OF TABLES Table Page 3.1 Subject Numbers......................................................................................................21 3.2 Textbooks of Each Semester and Course Periods Per Week...................................24 3.3 Content of the Task for Grade Three ......................................................................26 3.4 Content of the Task for Grade Four.........................................................................26 3.5 Content of the Task for Grade Five ........................................................................27 3.6 Content of the Task for Grade Six............ ..............................................................29 4.1 Mean Scores of accurate rates on the verb agreement in the Grammaticality Judgment Task in Four Groups…............................................................................36 4.2 Summary of the Results of ANOVA in Grammaticality Judgment Task between Grade Six and Grade Five…....................................................................................38 4.3 Summary of the Results of ANOVA in Grammaticality Judgment Task between Grade Six and Grade Four………….......................................................................38 4.4 Summary of the Results of ANOVA in Grammaticality Judgment Task between Grade Six and Grade Three……………….............................................................39 4.5 Summary of the Results of ANOVA in Grammaticality Judgment Task between Grade Five and Grade Four......................................................................................39 4.6 Summary of the Results of ANOVA in Grammaticality Judgment Task between Grade Five and Grade Three....................................................................................39 4.7 Summary of the Results of ANOVA in Grammaticality Judgment Task between Grade Four and Grade Three...................................................................................40 4.8 Results of Correlation Coefficient for Learning Hours and Accuracy Rates in Grammaticality Judgment Task...............................................................................40 4.9 Mean Scores of Accurate Rate on Null Arguments in Grammaticality Judgment Task in Four Group..................................................................................................40 4.10 Mean Scores of Accurate Rate on Verb Agreement in Guided Oral Production Task in Four Groups.............................................................................................43 4.11 Mean Scores on Guided Oral Responding Task in Four Groups...........................43 4.12 Summary of the Results of ANOVA in the Guided Oral Task between Grade Six and Grade Five......................................................................................................43 4.13 Summary of the Results of ANOVA in the Guided Oral Production Task between Grade Six and Grade Four....................................................................................44 4.14 Summary of the Results of ANOVA in the Guided Oral Production Task between Grade Six and Grade Three..................................................................................44 4.15 Summary of the Results of ANOVA in Grammaticality Judgment Task between Grade Five and Grade Three.................................................................................44 4.16 Summary of the Results of ANOVA in the Guided Oral Production Task between Grade Five and Grade Three.................................................................................45 4.17 Summary of the Results of ANOVA in the Guided Oral Production Task between Grade Four and Grade Three................................................................................45 4.18 Results of Correlation Coefficient for Learning Hours and Correction Accuracy in the Guided Oral Production Task.……………………………………………….45 4.19 Mean Scores of Accuracy Rate on Null Argument in the Grammaticality Judgment Task (Task One) and on the Guided Oral Production Task (Task Two)47 4.20 Mean Scores of Accuracy Rate for Null Subject and Null Object Items in Four Groups……………………………………………………………………………48 4.21 Mean Scores of Accuracy Rate for Null Subject and Null Object Items in Task one and Task two………………………………………………………………...49 4.22 Mean Scores of Accuracy Rate for Items with Expletive Subjects it and there in Three Groups…………………………………………………………………….51 4.23 Results of Regression Analysis for the Proficiency of Verb Agreement and the Accuracy Rate of Null Subject in the Grammaticality Judgment Task in Four Groups……………………………………………………………………………52 4.24 Results of Correlation Coefficient for the Accurate Rates of Verb Agreement and Null Object Items in Grammaticality Judgment Task…………………………...52 4.25 The Percentage of the Subject with and without MUP in Four Groups…………52 4.26 Results of Correlation Coefficient for the Accuracy Rate of Null Subject and the Accuracy Rate of the Expletive Items in Grammaticality Judgment Task………54 4.27 Individual Results of the Accuracy Rate on Null Subject Who Correctly Added Dummy Subjects in the Three Items……………………………………………..54 4.28 Results of Correlation Coefficient for the Proficiency of Verb Agreement and the Accuracy Rate of the Expletive Items in the Grammaticality Judgment Task…..56 4.29 Accuracy Rates on Correcting Null Argument Sentence Task…………………..59 LIST OF FIGURE Figure 2.1 Full Transfer Full Access………………………………………………………….09 3.1 Procedure of the study…………………………………………………………….3

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