International Journal of Learner Corpus Research 2:1 (2016), 68–100. doi 10.1075/ijlcr.2.1.03cro issn 2215–1478 / e-issn 2215–1486 © John Benjamins Publishing Company L2 English article use by L1 speakers of article-less languages A learner corpus study Peter Robert Crosthwaite University of Hong Kong his paper adopts the Integrated Contrastive Model (Granger 1996) to an exami- nation of the use of articles in the L2 English written production of L1 speakers of three article-less languages (Mandarin Chinese, Korean and hai) across four L2 proiciency levels. Data is sourced from the International Corpus Network of Asian Learners of English (ICNALE; Ishikawa 2011, 2013), comprising 575 writ- ten essays totalling 125,588 words across two writing prompts. Accuracy of zero, indeinite and deinite articles is measured using Pica’s (1983) Target Language Use across Bickerton’s (1981) semantic/pragmatic article contexts (generic, speciic deinite, speciic indeinite and non-speciic indeinite). he results show two diferent orders of article accuracy depending on L1 background, as well as efects of writing prompt on the accuracy of certain article forms, and evidence of pseudo-longitudinal development for particular article usages as L2 proi- ciency increases, although not in all cases. Massive overproduction of indeinite/ deinite articles in generic contexts is problematic for all three L2 groups regard- less of L1 background and L2 proiciency. However, Mandarin L2 English users appear to enjoy a signiicant advantage in L2 article accuracy over Korean or hai L2 English users in almost all contexts of use and L2 proiciency levels, pro- viding further potential evidence that the oten reported grammaticalisation of deiniteness/speciicity markers in L1 Mandarin is aiding Mandarin L2 English users’ acquisition of the English article system. Keywords: article use, L2 English, Contrastive Interlanguage Analysis, Integrated Contrastive Model, Mandarin EFL learners, Korean EFL learners, hai EFL learners