Semantic number in relation to English language learner awareness

Abstract

This paper focuses on semantic number in English and its effect on students’ understanding of countability and how they see the world through English. Semantic nominal plurality of reference is not always equivalent to a marked plural noun or S-V plural agreement. The paper aims to explain and illustrate whether morphosyntactic markedness of number coincides with semantic specificity/informativity, and if EFL learners’ worldview shifts depending on their awareness of semantic number. The linguistic issue of number is paired with education, i.e. learners’ development in a foreign language framework. The research was targeted towards English majors (Faculty of Philology, Skopje, N. Macedonia), whose knowledge of number agreement (competence) in English was explored via a questionnaire covering various instances of number inconsistencies. It is noteworthy that most students afterwards stated a rising level of confidence in communicating in English due to a higher level of language accuracy and semantic awareness. (e.g. L1 interference); (c) examining the consequences of L2 proficiency in more detail so as to better understand its relation to cognitive resources and how they are used in planning well-formed utterances; (d) doing a longitudinal study on semantic number in a much wider time frame; (e) analyzing the National Curricula and Teaching Plans for EFL in primary/high school education in N. Macedonia regarding their inclusion of and approach towards number; (f) tasking the fourth-year students who have taken the EFL Methodology (practical) course to create age-appropriate and level-appropriate accuracy activities that focus on number (for primary/high school EFL learners).