Acquisition of morphological gender among learners of Arabic as a second language from Yoruba speakers: Applied Study

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the acquisition of grammatical gender in Arabic as a second language by Yoruba-speaking learners and to identify the major difficulties and errors they encounter in the use of masculine and feminine forms. The study is based on the structural differences between Arabic and Yoruba. Arabic has a grammatical gender system whose effects extend across several components of sentence structure, whereas Yoruba does not exhibit a comparable system of gender agreement. The study adopts a descriptive-analytical approach by examining the linguistic performance of a sample of 54 Yoruba-speaking learners, equally distributed across three proficiency levels: beginner, intermediate, and advanced, with 18 learners at each level. The analysis focuses on gender-related errors involving demonstratives, relative pronouns, anaphoric pronouns, adjective and predicate agreement, subject–verb agreement, and numeral–noun constructions. The findings reveal variation in the patterns and frequency of errors across the three proficiency levels, indicating that certain difficulties with gender agreement persist as learners’ linguistic proficiency develops. The study also highlights the influence of the learners’ first language in explaining some of these errors, particularly the absence of grammatical gender in Yoruba. It recommends instructional strategies based on cross-linguistic comparison, gradual and systematic practice, awareness of gender agreement, and the effective use of modern educational technologies