Abstract

This study examines Saudi Arabian EFL students in relation to alternating, and non-alternating passive verbs. This study also considers factors related to the mastering of alternating / non-alternating verbs by (40) Saudi student participants related to correct/incorrect usage of alternating / non-alternating verbs by Saudi Arabian EFL student participants in a Grammaticality Judgment Task (GJT). The results of this study demonstrate that participants scored a satisfactory mean score of correct answers in the usage of alternating verbs (79%). On the other hand, this study demonstrates that the (40) Saudi EFL student participants achieved a total mean score of (48%) for non-alternation verbs. This study then considers possible causes for correct usage of alternating verbs and proposes to identify elements which relate to correct transfer by the (40) Saudi EFL student participants. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that the over-generalizing of the passivisation rule for verbs that do not alternate resulted in improper usage. Lastly, this study indicates that a similarity between the construction of the non-causative and passive construction gives rise to improper understanding of English Passive Alternation by Saudi EFL student participants.

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