Nourddine Amrous

Acquisition of the Pro-drop Parameter Among Moroccan Efl Learners: an Optimality-theoretic Account Nourddine Amrous

Amidst the whole host of claims on the process of acquiring a second language has emerged the present study. In it, the processes involved in the acquisition of the pro-drop parameter properties by Moroccan EFL learners are accounted for. The theoretical tools mobilized for this undertaking are the ones that draw from Optimality Theory. The study is motivated by the almost universal agreement on the difficulty inherent in acquiring the English pronoun system in general. The book accordingly puts to test the major hypothesis that academic level can be a factor in acquiring pro-drop parameter properties (That-trace, word order, null subject and resumptive pronoun) and whether some of these properties are acquired before others in an implicational manner. This book is likely to interest researchers in Second Language Acquisition, Optimality Theory and English Language Teaching. However, given the relative simplicity in its writing, the work might also interest general readership.