INTERLANGUAGE VARIATION IN THE USE OF THE ENGLISH PLURAL, MORPHEME BY JAPANESE ESL SPEAKERS: A COMPARISON WITH CHINESE ESL SPEAKERS

Abstract

The present study investigates the influence that developmental, linguistic, and psychosocial factors have on variation in plural "-s" marking by eight adult Japanese learners of English. The study compares the results of Young (1991) that examined the use of the plural morpheme among Chinese learners of English. The data for analysis were collected by tape-recording one-to-one sociolinguistic interview sessions between the researchers and participants. The researchers undertook a multivariate statistical analysis employing the VARBRUL computer program to obtain the results. The results support Young's overall finding that the interlanguage plural marking shows patterned variation constrained by multi-dimensional contextual factors. The VARBRUL analysis has confirmed that measure expressions such as "two years" and "ten dollars" are strong promoters for plural marking. Also, the study suggests that the speakers' Ll background may affect the variation. Finally, the paper provides several pedagogical implications based on the results.