Strategies in the acquisition of temporal clauses by EFL Arab learners

Abstract EN

The study attempts to investigate the general assumption that L I and L2 learners adopt similar, universal strategies in processing temporal clauses.

This assumption is, to a certain extent, confirmed by the findings of the present study.

Eighty Arabic speaking learners of English at two distinct levels of proficiency were assessed on processing of temporal relations which are expressed by some temporal conjunctions(TCs).

Three integrated variables were investigated in this study: syntactic (temporal clause position in the sentence; initially or finally), semantic (Sequence vs.

simultaneity and arbitrary vs.

logical sequences of events), and pragmatic (congruent vs.

non-congruent sequence of events).

The results showed that, similar to LI acquisition studies, EFL learners tended to use the order of mention strategy, i.e., when the events mentioned in the structure coincide with the events' occurrence, in their understanding of the tested sentences of Sequence task.

This supports the general hypothesis that second language acquisition (SLA) route of development matches that ofLl acquisition.