The First National Conference in Teaching English,Literature and Translation (NCTLT) Kharazmi International Institute for Research & Education

Quantifiers are ubiquitous and universal in natural languages and provide information about quantity. They precede and modify nouns and must be agreed with the nouns. The distinction between count nouns and mass nouns is determined by the quantifiers and the determiners that are appropriate to the nouns (Ware 1979, p. 15). Using correct quantifiers may be similar or different concerning countable and uncountable nouns in English and Persian. In line with Subset-superset hypothesis by Wexler (1987), certain quantifiers such as some can be rendered into different forms in Persian, which in turn can pose learnability problems since first language is more general than second language, positive evidence is not enough, negative evidence also needed. The current study aims to investigate if Iranian EFL learners have any difficulty using English quantifiers through positive and negative evidence. OQPT Test was administered to a total of 100 Iranian EFL students out of whom 40 participants whose scores ranged between 30-40 were selected as lower intermediate level. Then subjects randomly divided into two groups experimental and control groups. The experimental group was taught the English quantifiers through providing negative evidence. The control group was taught the same quantifiers by providing just positive evidence. Two tests were administered, i.e., Grammaticality Judgment Test as a comprehension task and Translation Test, as a production task. Before the instruction both groups were subjected to a pre-test with Grammatically judgment test and Translation test to ensure the level of proficiency in quantifiers. Then the immediate post-test was administered immediately after the treatment and after two weeks of interval a delayed post-test to test the long-term effect of the negative and positive evidence. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were adopted. Regarding descriptive statistics, the data was analyzed in terms of mean and standard deviation to determine the accuracy on the tested parameter and for the reason of concerning the availability of UG. Moreover, Mixed ANOVA inferential test was used to compare the mean scores between the experimental and control groups. The results of the study showed a statistical significance difference among the means of the experimental group and the control group in immediate post-test and delayed post-test. The experimental group outperformed the control group in post-test one and two in both Grammatically judgment test and Translation test (p<0.05). This verified the efficiency of negative evidence in the immediate post-test and delayed posttest. The implications of the study for teaching English in EFL contexts will be discussed

کلیدواژه ها:

Acquisition ، English and Persian quantifiers ، Positive and negative evidence