The Acquisition of Gender Agreement in Adult Learners of Arabic

The present study investigates the acquisition of subject-verb gender agreement in Arabic. The participants were adult L2 learners of Arabic with different native language backgrounds at two different levels of proficiency, as well as native speakers of Arabic. The participants were divided into three groups: learners whose L1s have grammatical gender; learners whose L1s don’t have grammatical gender; and a control group (native speakers of Arabic). One comprehension and three production tasks were used to elicit the data. Results showed significant difference between the L2 learners and the native speakers. However, no significant difference was found between the two experimental groups, suggesting no effect of L1. There exists a significant effect of proficiency level. Advanced learners significantly outperformed the intermediate learners. The findings of this study are discussed in light of the FTFA and the FFFH. To some extent, the results lend support to the former hypothesis.