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This study examines whether the second language acquisition (L2A) of syntactic properties at the interfaces is problematic for L2 learners. English verb phrase ellipsis (VPE) was tested as an interface property which involves feature interpretability. Two subtle contrasts of VPE at different grammar-internal interfaces were examined: (a) copula be and lexical verb ellipsis at the syntax–lexicon interface (*John is here, and Mary will too vs. John slept, and Mary will too), and (b) progressive be and perfective have stranding at the syntax–semantics interface (*John slept, and Mary was too vs. Peter saw your parents last week, but he hasn’t since). Unlike (a), the contrast in (b) requires identifying (un)interpretable features on -ing and -en to recover the semantics of the elided material. Since Saudi Arabic does not license VPE, (very-)advanced English L2 speakers whose first language (L1) is Saudi Arabic were tested. The results from a bimodal timed acceptability judgment task showed they were more target-like on the contrast at the syntax–lexicon interface than they were on the syntax–semantics interface. They particularly deviated from target-like judgments on have stranding which requires recognizing the perfective uninterpretable feature on -en. These results suggest selective vulnerability at grammar-internal interfaces whenever uninterpretable features are involved.

Although study-abroad experience has been shown to be beneficial in foreign-language learning, we still do not know whether such beneficial gains will last in the long run (Llanes & Munoz, 2013). This study examines whether prior study- abroad experience in an English-speaking country (ESC) during childhood can show long-term linguistic advantages even after return to the home country. The study was conducted in Saudi Arabia with 48 adult Saudi Arabic EFL speakers. They were divided into two groups based on the context at first exposure: study-abroad in an ESC (n=.26), and domestic study in Saudi Arabia (n=22). In addition to the context of exposure, two additional experiential factors were examined: age at first exposure (1-13 years) and years of exposure (8-36 years). The linguistic performance of the groups was compared on three tasks: (a) the Oxford Placement Test as a general proficiency measure, (b) the Vocabulary Levels Test devised by Nation (1990) as a measure of vocabulary size, and (c) the Grammaticality Judgment Test as a measure of morphosyntactic knowledge. The results showed a strong interaction effect between years of exposure and prior study-abroad experience in predicting the level of general proficiency and vocabulary size, but not in morphosyntactic knowledge

This study investigated the effect of the first language (L1) gender system on the second language (L2) acquisition of verbal gender agreement in Standard Arabic. It examined L2 learners from different L1 backgrounds, including English, Filipino, Urdu, and Romance, which have varying gender systems. Urdu and Romance have grammatical gender, whereas English and Filipino do not. Urdu shares more similarities with Arabic than Romance, as it requires gender agreement on verbs, whereas Romance does not. This study used an online grammaticality judgment task to assess L2 accuracy of verbal gender agreement across (un) grammatical conditions. The results suggest that proficiency has a greater influence on L2 learners' accuracy than L1 background. The results showed no significant differences in L2 accuracy among the L1 groups. These findings challenge L1 transfer accounts, arguing that L1 transfer is domain-specific in gender agreement.

This thesis reports a study of the effects on long-term proficiency of starting to learn English in a minimal input setting (the classroom) at different ages. A total of 132 Saudi Arabian college students participated in the study, 50 of whom started learning English in elementary school (3-11 years) and 82 in middle school (12-13 years), along with a control group of 11 native speakers. Previous research has generally found no significant starting age effect on long-term proficiency in minimal input settings (although Larson-Hall, 2008) is an exception). The focus of the present study was on five linguistic properties that differ between English and Saudi Arabic: vP ellipsis, the use of ‘resumptive’ pronouns, adverb placement, the contrast in meaning between progressive/habitual forms, and the contrast in meaning between preterite/present perfect forms. Data relating to knowledge of these properties and relevant individual factors were collected through an Acceptability Judgement Task, Aspectual Interpretation Task, Gap-Filling Task, Cloze Test, and background questionnaire. Results showed no statistically significant effect of starting age on second language (L2) performance, but clear effects of property type. Across varying ages of L2 learning, vP ellipsis, the use of resumptives and the interpretation of the preterite/present perfect contrast emerge as the most problematic, whereas adverb placement and the interpretation of the progressive/habitual contrast appear as the least problematic for L2 learners. The implications of these findings for claims about a possible ‘critical period’ for language acquisition, for the causes of persistent L2 speaker divergence from native speakers, and for the best age to introduce foreign language learning in a classroom setting are discussed.