When Transfer Falls Short: Testing the Full Transfer/Full Access Hypothesis in Thai Learners' Acquisition of the English Progressive Aspect.

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Bibliographic Details
Title:	When Transfer Falls Short: Testing the Full Transfer/Full Access Hypothesis in Thai Learners' Acquisition of the English Progressive Aspect.
Authors:	Petkaew, Jarrawee¹, Ruangjaroon, Sugunya¹
Source:	Journal of Language Teaching & Research. Jul2026, Vol. 17 Issue 4, p1232-1243. 12p.
Subject Terms:	Second language acquisition, Language acquisition, *Language teachers, Morphosyntax, Thai people
Abstract:	The morphosyntactic-semantic interface of the progressive in English and in Thai is presented in this paper, with a focus on the extent to which their semantic construals overlap and diverge, as well as how they are acquired. Following the Full Transfer/Full Access Hypothesis (FT/FA), we predict that only high-proficiency first language (L1) Thai learners will acquire the English progressive, including on-going, stative, habitual, iterative, and future interpretations. To test this, we investigated whether low-, mid-, and high-proficiency learners transferred from their L1 and/or accessed Universal Grammar (UG) when acquiring the English progressive syntax-semantics across five readings. Data were collected from 100 participants using a Grammaticality Judgement Task (GJT) and an Elicited Production Task (EPT). The results showed that, overall, the prediction was not fully borne out: Lower-proficiency learners exhibited no evidence of L1 transfer/FA, despite the partial morphosyntactic and semantic overlap between Thai and English. Intermediate learners performed modestly better yet followed a similar pattern. Advanced learners showed evidence of FT/FA to UG by accepting a wider range of progressive uses and producing some nonprototypical forms (stative, iterative, habitual, and future readings). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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Database:	Education Research Complete

Description
Abstract:	The morphosyntactic-semantic interface of the progressive in English and in Thai is presented in this paper, with a focus on the extent to which their semantic construals overlap and diverge, as well as how they are acquired. Following the Full Transfer/Full Access Hypothesis (FT/FA), we predict that only high-proficiency first language (L1) Thai learners will acquire the English progressive, including on-going, stative, habitual, iterative, and future interpretations. To test this, we investigated whether low-, mid-, and high-proficiency learners transferred from their L1 and/or accessed Universal Grammar (UG) when acquiring the English progressive syntax-semantics across five readings. Data were collected from 100 participants using a Grammaticality Judgement Task (GJT) and an Elicited Production Task (EPT). The results showed that, overall, the prediction was not fully borne out: Lower-proficiency learners exhibited no evidence of L1 transfer/FA, despite the partial morphosyntactic and semantic overlap between Thai and English. Intermediate learners performed modestly better yet followed a similar pattern. Advanced learners showed evidence of FT/FA to UG by accepting a wider range of progressive uses and producing some nonprototypical forms (stative, iterative, habitual, and future readings). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
ISSN:	17984769
DOI:	10.17507/jltr.1704.10