A New Look at Methodologies in the Study of Article Acquisition for Learners of ESL*

In order to have a greater understanding of the processes underlying interlanguage development, it is essential to use methods of analysis that can adequately uncover those processes. The current study attempts to demonstrate how an analysis based on suppliance of morphemes in obligatory contexts alone cannot account for the systematic nature of interlanguage variability. A longitudinal study of one Japanese learner of ESL was conducted and the learner's article system was analyzed using three systems of analysis: Huebner's (1979, 1983) system of analysis based on semantic types, an adaptation of his system, and an analysis based on suppliance of morphemes in obligatory contexts. By using a combination of methods of analysis, it is found that, although this learner's use of articles is not target‐like, it is not totally random. Systematicity in the article system is found to be governed by the semantic function of noun phrases, lexical categories of NPs and attempts to keep linguistically related forms consistent with one another.