A Case Study of Iranian Students Learning English Interrogative Structures

Abstract

Researchers have examined the process of learning a second language in adults and children who learn English as a second language. The results of the tudies indicate that second language learners generally pass through similar transitional stages which demonstrate systematic and nonsystematic variations, developmental sequences, and accuracy order. However, most of these studies have investigated L2 learning process in a natural setting. Therefore, the present study examines the process of learning English by adults as a foreign language in an EFL setting and attempts to find out the probable similarities or differences in language learning process. Data were collected from 200 adult students learning English interrogative structure. The results of this study indicated significant similarities between the learning process of the adults learning English as a foreign language and the adults and children learning English as a second language. These findings suggest that a second language is learned through similar processes. Consequently, there should be a kind of universal internal syllabus in the learning of a second language which controls the learning process independent of the environment and age of language learning.