Leiden University Student Repository

Wesbeek, Clarissa (2025)

The Acquisition of English Morphology in Dutch Secondary School Pupils: A Comparison between Dutch-Instructed and English-Instructed Pupils

Bachelor thesis | Engelse taal en cultuur (BA)

This thesis aims to investigate and compare to what extent Dutch-instructed and English-instructed secondary school pupils have acquired English inflection (past tense -ed), derivation (diminutive -y & causative -en) and clitic (possessive ‘s). These morphs were chosen due to their similarities to the pupils’ L1 (Dutch) counterparts. The experiment method involves an altered Wug test with gap-fill exercises (Berko 1958). Participants answered each gap-fill exercise by making and uploading a recording of their answer in-program. After transcribing and analysing the results, this thesis concludes that similarities between the L1 and L2 may aid the successful acquisition of morphology. However, this similarity does not appear to play a role in improving pupils’ ability to realise allomorphs in accordance with English pronunciation rules. As for the differences between high and low exposure, the high exposure to the target L2 appears to aid in the acquisition of overt morphology but...Show moreThis thesis aims to investigate and compare to what extent Dutch-instructed and English-instructed secondary school pupils have acquired English inflection (past tense -ed), derivation (diminutive -y & causative -en) and clitic (possessive ‘s). These morphs were chosen due to their similarities to the pupils’ L1 (Dutch) counterparts. The experiment method involves an altered Wug test with gap-fill exercises (Berko 1958). Participants answered each gap-fill exercise by making and uploading a recording of their answer in-program. After transcribing and analysing the results, this thesis concludes that similarities between the L1 and L2 may aid the successful acquisition of morphology. However, this similarity does not appear to play a role in improving pupils’ ability to realise allomorphs in accordance with English pronunciation rules. As for the differences between high and low exposure, the high exposure to the target L2 appears to aid in the acquisition of overt morphology but does not appear to play a role in the acquisition of covert morphology or voicing rules for segmental suffixes.Show less

Linguistics

Morphology

Language acquisition

morphology acquisition

Dutch native speakers

English morphology

Author

Wesbeek, Clarissa

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Linguistics

Supervisors

Grijzenhout, J.

ECTS Credits

10

Language

en