Avoidance Strategy Usage of English Articles

This study examines whether English users at a U.S. university apply avoidance strategy in using English articles. All participants had learned English for at least 10 years and had used English for at least 15 years at the time of the data collection, so they made an ideal sample to examine the differences between native speakers of English and non-native speakers of English, in terms of avoidance strategy usage of English articles. To examine whether non-native speakers avoid using a certain feature when unsure of the correct usage, the mean differences of each article usage between NS and NNS groups were calculated and compared. On the basis of results showing that there are no statistically significant differences in terms of article usage between the groups, it is concluded that the highly advanced level participants did not use avoidance strategy in English articles, and that the type of English article and the task type did not affect learners' avoidance strategy usage. This research is expected to provide teachers and researchers with information about highly advanced level L2 language speakers' usage patterns with regards to avoidance strategy.