earticle

영어

This study aims to examine Korean EFL learners’ acquisition patterns of English PRO. Also, the influence of their first language and lexical knowledge on the acquisition of PRO. 100 middle school students participated in this experimental study. To investigate the influence of lexical knowledge as well as their first language, the students were informed about the lexical meanings of verbs, and the structures of Control Constructions in English and Korean. The results revealed that Korean EFL learners performed best on Object Control, followed by Subject Control, Adjunct Control(PRO), and worst on Adjunct Control(overt pronoun) due to the influence of their L1. After attaining lexical knowledge and "Pragmatic Lead-in", the students improved significantly in the interpretation of English PRO in Complement and Adjunct Controls. These findings suggest that lexical pragmatic information, as well as L1 knowledge, greatly influence the completion of the L2 acquisition process of English Control Constructions.