The acquisition of the English plural morpheme (s) in EFL learners: a lexical or a developmental morphophonemic feature?

This paper presents work-in-progress investigating whether the emergence of the English plural morpheme <s> in formal Vietnamese learners of EFL is a result of the developmental morphophonemic interface in the learners L2. The investigation follows the research findings of (i) Daos (2007) cross-sectional study on the acquisition order of the <s> morpheme conducted in a Processability Theory (PT) framework, and (ii) Hansens (2004) longitudinal study on the production of English codas by two Vietnamese learners of English. Dao (2007) found that contrary to what PT predicts, Vietnamese learners of EFL acquire the phrasal nominal plural marker <s> before the lexical nominal plural marker <s> and the inter-phrasal verbal marker <s>. In an explanatory account of Daos (2007) findings, Charters, Dao & Jansen (2011), attribute the reverse emergence order of the English nominal plural morpheme <s> in Vietnamese learners of EFL to probable differences between L1 and L2 conceptual structure and concomitant links to lexical structure and form. Hansen (2004) on the other hand suggests that the emergence sequence of English bi-morphemic plural <s> in her Vietnamese learners is constrained by phonological developmental effects and grammatical conditioning, as well as L1 transfer effects. The paper presents results from a morpho-phonological analysis of the speech production data of 6 of Daos (2007) 36 adolescent, formal Vietnamese learners of EFL, using PRAAT phonetic analysis software. The aim of the analyses is to ascertain whether Hansens (2004) suggestions are further supported by Daos data. (240 words)