Passive voice and participial adjective development in English language learners

This study examines the development of passive voice and participial adjectives in four adult English language learners. The foundation of the study is based on prior research on the order of morpheme acquisition (Krashen, 1982 Lightbown, 1983 Larsen-Freeman, 1975 Goldschneider & DeKeyser, 2005) and the developmental stages of other structures (Schumann, 1979 Hatch, 1978 Pienemann, Johnston, & Brindley, 1988 Keenan & Comrie, 1977). The first research question addressed was whether or not there are developmental stages apparent in the development of passive voice and participial adjectives. Through a series of tests, two for each structure, administered in a pretest, instruction, posttest design, oral data was elicited. The patterns of development suggest that there are developmental stages in the acquisition of both passive voice and participial adjectives. The second question was whether one structure develops before the other. The evidence gathered failed to indicate that either structure develops before the other