Nunation and the L2 acquisition of English indefinite articles by L1 Najdi and Hijazi speakers

Whether nunation is a marker of indefiniteness is a controversial issue in the literature of Arabic grammar. To date, no study has investigated whether the use of nunation in a speaker’s L1 can affect their second language (L2) acquisition of English articles. This paper reports the results of a study on the use of English articles by speakers of two Saudi dialects, Najdi and Hijazi, of which only the former – Najdi – grammaticalises nunation. The study recruited 56 participants (24 Najdi speakers, 24 Hijazi speakers and 8 native speakers of English). The experimental groups were third-year secondary school students whose English was at the elementary level, according to the Oxford Quick Placement test. The participants completed a 48-item multiple-choice test that examined their use of the English indefinite articles a and ø. It was found that a) the participants used ø more accurately than a; b) Najdi speakers were more accurate in using a than ø due to the presence of nunation in Najdi; and c) because Hijazi does not use nunation, Hijazi speakers were more sensitive than Najdi speakers to the semantic properties of nouns modified by articles.