A Contrastive Analysis of German and English Morphosyntactic Features

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2017 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2,0, University of Mannheim, language: English, abstract: In this thesis, the accuracy of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) is explored with the help of a study investigating the German L2 morphosyntactic competence of 15 English L1 speakers in two settings: a language assessment test setting as well as in online processing.

Within this thesis L2 morphosyntactic competence was limited to the two investigated areas of subject-verb-agreement (SVA) as well as the distinctive verb placement in German main and subordinate clauses. Previous research has identified these two linguistic areas as being especially prone to error in adult L2 acquisition of German. Since all test takers varied in their German language proficiency levels (encompassing a range from A2 to B2 according to the CEFR) it was hypothesised that L2 learners of a B2 language proficiency level generally outperform L2 learners of a lower language proficiency level (B1 and A2) in all investigated areas. However, this hypothesis could not be affirmed since the study did not find significant differences in the morphosyntactic competence of English German L2 learners between test takers of distinctive CEF language proficiency levels.