The acquisition of English reported questions by L1 Thai learners: interlingual and intralingual factors

Abstract

The study investigated Thai students’ errors in using L2 English reported questions based on Error Analysis. Thirty L1 Thai students of L2 English of the intermediate and advanced English proficiency levels did a written test on English reported questions covering four aspects: time reference, pronouns, spatial and temporal deixis, and the reported question structure. It was hypothesized that both groups of students would have problems with spatial and temporal deixis, and the intermediate students would have problems with time reference and object pronouns. Moreover, interlingual and intralingual factors were assumed to be possible causes of errors. The findings partially confirmed the hypotheses that both groups of students had problems with spatial and temporal deixis, and the intermediate students had problems with time reference and object pronouns. The results also showed that the advanced students had problems with time reference but they made a much lower error rate on this aspect. Furthermore, the intermediate students also had problems with the reported question structure while the advanced students did not. It was assumed that, based on Error Analysis, the possible causes of the errors on these four aspects were due to the interlingual factor and intralingual factors, i.e. overgeneralization, false concepts hypothesized, ignorance of the rule restrictions, and context of learning.