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Running Head: SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION OF AN ARABIC 1

Second Language Acquisition in an Arabic Speaking Adult

Carole A. Hanna

FL 664 Case Study Project

Dr. Abreu

March 2011

SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION OF AN ARABIC2

Abstract

This observation of an adult learner of English looks at progress after several years of in-

class learning and living in the culture to analyze and track Second Language Acquisition.

Analysis of pronunciation and sentence structure using case-study methodology to evaluate if the

L1 (Arabic) provided assistance or interfered with the acquisition of the L2. Initial findings

suggested incomplete transfer of the L1 due to absent structures and no interlingual comparison.

It was noted that errors from the L1 and specific problems were identified and either corrected or

were being ameliorated.


Second Language Acquisition of an Arabic Speaking Adult

John (pseudonym) is a 57 year old male who immigrated to the United States in 1986 when

he was 29 years of age. Although John states that he had roughly seven years of study in the

English language, the main emphasis in the class was using the Grammar Translation Method.

The purpose of the language was to be able to reference books printed in English, little or no

emphasis was placed on speaking, understanding or communicating. He is the middle child of a

moderate income (by Syrian standards) family of five. Both his parents only received an

education up through the sixth grade. However, his mother was a firm believer in education so

she pushed all her children to complete college level or beyond. John had finished medical

school and his internship in general medicine before immigration. After he completed his

mandatory army requirement he moved into the home of his older brother who completed his

engineering degree in the United States.

When John first sought out help in his language skills, he lived in a home where no English

was spoken and he did not watch television or listen to the radio. Only the L1 was spoken and

all of the people he associated with spoke Arabic. Although he demonstrated little difficulty in

reading the language, he was very uncomfortable in a social situation due to a lack of general

understanding when someone spoke to him. However living with his sibling, who had

completed his university training helped him greatly as a reference in the early years of his L2.

This ability to draw on his brother’s knowledge helped him to compare what he understood in

the L1 and focus more clearly on the L2 especially in the areas of vocabulary and comparing

relationships of word order and meaning between the two languages. Usage of the L1 in learning

activities has been shown to aid in language learning as well as task completion. (Storch and

Aldosari, 2010, pp. 356-357).


His initial request was to improve his ability to understand and converse to prepare for entry into

a medical residency program. Although his level of understanding was fair, he had no

knowledge of American slang and his level of acculturation was practically non-existent. Also,

he was unable to understand anyone with a British of Spanish accent. This was particularly

troublesome since he would be working with a large Hispanic population. The second request

was to increase his vocabulary level because he felt constrained in English and had a fairly high

level of vocabulary in Arabic. The vocabulary issue was addressed through the acquisition of a

set of 7th -12th grade vocabulary books which John worked on diligently and completed all the

assignments. At each level we spent many hours applying the newly learned words in as many

contexts as possible. In hindsight, this was a good strategy since it has been indicated in recent

research that Arab ESL learners have word processing skills developed in the L1. (Fender, 293)

This early foundation in vocabulary and the application of the vocabulary proved to be an

excellent base on which to develop his English competency.

Cross-linguistic influence

A pattern of behavior developed in him whenever someone spoke to him, after someone

addressed him, he turned to me to answer for him. Later, he would ask questions concerning the

event to be able to avoid it later. But each new incident evoked the same stress level and hence

the repetition of the pattern of behavior. After many such incidents, it became apparent that his

behavior needed to be forcibly broken. When conversations began, I found a reason to slip away

to force and attempt to muddle through. This increased social anxiety greatly but was necessary

to be able to function in the next stage of his medical training with the residency part of the

medical requirement. In time, confidence grew and the behavior disappeared.


After many years of tutoring and attempting to refine and perfect idiosyncrasies in the L2, it

is evident that the L1 has a huge role in where certain “holes” in application lie. Eckman’s

Markedness Differential Hypothesis clearly explains why at first certain errors kept repeating

themselves. (Gass, 254) The sentence “I have a headache.” always was declared, “I have

headache.” The inability to remember to add an indefinite article remained a constant. Here is

where the lack of article distinction in the L1 is apparent. Still the lack of the indefinite article

continues to show in conversation. At a restaurant during a recent outing, John told me “the

waiter has been here long time.” No indefinite article is found in the Arabic language and no

point of interlingual comparison. (Jaensch and Sarko, pgs. 38-39) John had great difficulty in

understanding the significance of indefinite articles but in time when singled out, John was able

to correct the error, but in the stress of the moment, the error remained. Later, when learning to

speak Arabic to be able to communicate with his parents, certain differences with English

became apparent. The evident lack of articles in the Arabic language leaves a gap for reference

when situational stressors are applied. The Linguistic Deficit Coding Hypothesis and its

ramifications remained the largest challenge over many years. Finally, the suggestion that a

random, loose, floating article was looming overhead became the plug to fill in the gap of the L1

coding deficit. ( Sparks & Ganschow, 58) Whenever the article was missed, either by John or

anyone in his family, I would look up as if searching for the offending article. In time, John

would look up and smile knowingly when an article was missed and soon it wasn’t missed by

him anymore. This particular error has become fossilized in many of the members of the Arabic

speaking community, perhaps because it does not prevent the purpose of communication and

understanding is obtained. (Klein, 14)


John’s correspondence to the hierarchy of difficulty by Stockwell (Brown, 249) and

associates is of course; my personal interpretation and I feel it is very low. His level of

transference is very low as he has a good ear and elicits little problem with understanding word

order when drawing from his L1 base of reference. At this point in our work, he shows little

difficulty in coalescence, which was more evident in the early years of study. Truly John makes

few mistakes and has all but eliminated the errors he quite clearly manifested early on. There

remains no residual evidence of “foreigner speak” which he can quickly identify in others when

it is present. Perhaps this is not surprising since there has been some credence given to ease of

attainment among highly-educated , non-native speakers. The accuracy of comprehension in the

L2 is highly linked to the amount of education received by a learner.(Slabakova, 285) Since John

has a post-doctorate level of education , his ability and relative ease in overcoming problems

with his SLA makes sense. He mainly struggles with pronunciation. In a study done at the

University of Alabama it was found that native listeners were able to determine”accentedness” in

very short segments of speech. (Munro 41). However the pronunciation issues I refer to are not

for lack of accentedness, but for comprehension by others.

Our first activity provides a clear example which caused great anxiety was another example

of the lack of certain sounds in the L1. Although John has no difficulty in discerning the

difference in the letters P and B when he hears them, he only has one letter from the L1 which is

somewhere in between the two. Another example is the ck diphthong and the g sounds which

although present in the L1 is less distinct. John was asked to practice making the sounds in a

stress-free environment (not in conversation) to work on how this feels and is different.

J- (pronouncing the p sound) “puh, puh, puh, puh”.

J- (Pronouncing the b sound) “buh, buh, buh, buh”.


The repetition continued for several minutes and was followed by a series of attempts at the ck

and g sounds. We spent several minutes alternating the sounds and discussing the different

placement of the tongue.

This was all due to the fact that he had a new nurse assigned to his unit. His regular nurse is

named “Becky”. The new nurse is named “Peggy”. John found that individually he could

pronounce the names fairly and be understood, however in conversation if both names were

mentioned, they sounded identical!

J-“Pbegky and Pbegky”.

John is determined to overcome this aspect of pronunciation error because he feels he cannot

be understood and therefore it is a point of contention which in most instances is relatively

unnoticed. However after many futile attempts of using both names in a sentence, he finds that

the names come out identically. So to maintain the image of being in control, he uses the

strategy of avoidance by calling them Mrs. ____and Mrs. ______! But his goal is to be able to

overcome this problem at some point.

Due to the push to go paperless at his place of employment, John was asked to read a 20

minute excerpt from a science-fiction work into a microphone program to enable the computer to

personalize a voice recognition system for computer dictation. This assignment had

approximately 4 weeks allotted for the employees to complete. John was extremely hesitant to

complete this assignment. When I asked him why he was reluctant to complete the assignment,

he replied, “I don’t understand what I am reading and don’t know if I pronounce well.” After

several attempts at reading the bizarre text, it was recorded. However, when John did not

understand what he was reading he did a poor job making anything clear. The text was chosen

because it had many letters from the alphabet not used frequently in everyday speech but for an


L2 learner, the task was daunting. After further exploration, John explained to me that he was

not a reader in general. In his country, reading for pleasure was considered a waste of time that

could be spent studying. This explained his unease reading as well as his lack of familiarity with

fiction in general. Also, he very comfortable with rote learning as most of his formal education

was presented this way, the idea of reading out loud for expression was foreign to him and he

was not at all comfortable with it. In a study by Kharma in 1998, it was found that the trend

generally in Arab nations places emphasis on meaning over form. Abu-Rabia in 1997 stated,

“Arabic is perhaps the only language in the world in which readers must first understand the

sentence in order to recognize the word”. (Abbott, 639-640) I asked John to write something

about his thoughts on learning English. The following is what he wrote to me without any

corrections. He was hesitant to write to me because his weakest area in English is writing. He

typed this response:

1-starting English at age 13 years.

2-alphabet: In my first language there is one letter for B & P and one letter for G&J. This

continue to be a problem for pronounciation.

3-grammer:

Some of the tenses are not compatible with my firt languge such as the one with had. It made

difficult to use and understand the language. Using articles such as a and an was a problem

4-there was an emphasis on studing the languge with little opputunity to speak and hear English

So reading and writing was ahead of listening and speaking.

5-there was a transiton period where I was continusly translating anything from fisrt to second

languge.


Certainly his thoughts are common to anyone who seeks to acquire a second language.

Without discussing why I chose several activities for this study or even what I felt were key

issues in John’s journey toward SLA, it is apparent he has many of the same ideas where he has

struggled and continues to strive to ameliorate his progress. Hayes-Harb suggests that if learners

are made aware of processing difficulties, they would be able to more quickly develop effective

learning strategies to help them in word identification processes which include reading, spelling

and pronunciation. (Hayes-Harb, 336-338)

Another problem with the recorded word for learners whose L1 is Arabic, is the common

pattern of errors in pronunciation where stress is placed on the initial syllable instead of the final

syllable as native speakers would do. Likewise in the case of three syllable words, the emphasis

is misplaced such as eleven for eleven and cucúmber for cucumber. ( ‘ being the primary stress) (

Younes, 73) In light of the general processing skills learned through the acquisition of the L1, the

difficulty with this particular assignment for a non-native English speaker is monumental.

However, after much practice and explanation of sentence structure to explain the seemingly

incomprehensible story line, John successfully recorded the piece. However, the project was

cancelled when their large number of foreign physicians were unable to successfully accomplish

the necessary voice recognition level.

Recently, John has been bolder in his risk-taking since he volunteered to speak at a social

gathering to talk of the merits of a retiring physician. He did however state that he is more

comfortable with “planned extemporaneous expression”. He likes it to look like it is off the cuff

but in fact is no at all good with this method of expression. Yet this is a bold change for John

who is no longer self-conscious about his “accent” and now is often on the offensive where

situations occur and someone asks “where he is from”? Now he either asks people about


their”accents’ or turns to humor. One such example occurred recently, after ordering in a

restaurant, a waitress asked him where he was from, he smiled and replied, “New York”! The

woman responded, «I knew it!” To this, John was pleased because for him it represented a

personal victory.

Reversal of sentence structure

Although John has been studying English for many years, the language error of reversing

compound words or adjectives in a sentence still occurs when he is tired, multitasking or is under

some social stressor. He will say “Put on your beltseat” or the “clothtable” is dirty. Perhaps this

is derived from the complete-projection principle that in terms of context, the learner may not

have complete access to the grammatical system which underlies the interlanguage. Another

possibility is that the IL matrix is insufficiently developed and therefore a weak point in the

matrix. This may lead the learner to never totally acquire certain aspects of the TL. (Jake, 342-

343) (Pires & Rothman, 212)

While ordering in a restaurant, John was asked to order for the people at the table. Since

there was a lot of activity going on this was designed to create some stress because people were

talking to him and giving their orders and the waitress was trying to clarify what he was saying.

The conversation went as follows:

John: “We would like one order of Chicken Marsala with rice and steamed green beans, one

order of Baked Ravioli with a Caesar Salad, one order of Steak Medallions with red potatoes and

asparagus and I would like your breast (pause) chicken plate.”

Waitress: “Will that be all?”

John: “Yes thank you.”

John: (after waitress had left) “I did it again didn’t I?”


Guest: “If that lady brings a breast on that plate, I’m out of here!”

Despite a proficiency level in the L2 which allows John to work and teach on a post graduate

level, these examples of simple sentence structure pose a question as to whether certain aspects

of syntax and morphology are fully acquired or if there is incomplete acquisition. (Montrul, 294)

Communication Ambiguity

One adjustment to American culture has been the addition of texting. John has always

avoided using contractions because he is not comfortable with this abbreviated speech. When I

asked him why he doesn’t use contractions, he replied, “it is too informal” and it feels

“disrespectful”. However the very nature of texting is speech or communication in a much

abbreviated form. This has been an interesting phenomenon. One text recently read:

John- “Mardi gra 4 me plz”

I responded with a phone call because I was unclear as to what he meant. John responded that he

wanted me to spell Mardi Gras. He seemed to feel that this should have been obvious and that

texting is an abbreviated form of communication. I wonder if the fact that since John is not used

to speaking in an abbreviated manner that he does not have a great feel for this. After an

explanation that it is still important to have a subject and a verb present in texting, his

proficiency is increasing and he is becoming more adept at this.

Another example of mis-communication came with a text to his brother. He sent the

following:

John- “Plz bring glasses from mailbox”

His brother then drove to our home, looked in the mailbox and did not find his glasses so

consequently he did not take them with him. John called quite irritated that he was perfectly clear

in is request and it was not carried out. Rather than ask him what had happened, I asked to read


the text. Then I asked John what he felt would have made the request clearer to his brother.

When I suggested the possessive pronoun-“your” in front of the word mailbox, he felt it should

have been obvious that it was his mailbox.

John- “I cannot expect him to drive to my mailbox!”

Me- “Why not”?

John- “Because he is doing me a favor.”

John’s link to American culture thorough texting is showing him that his intention is linked

to the efficacy of the linguistic forms he uses. Although he doesn’t particularly feel strong in

writing the language, he is becoming more proficient in communicating with texting.

Conclusion

The observations made in this adult Arabic speaking learner shows the cross-linguistic

influence encountered in his language acquisition process. With his growth into acculturation

and desire to overcome interference and under differentiation in the L1 in transferring data to his

L2, we can see his progress. He has quickly corrected grammatical errors that lead to

misunderstanding and I believe will continue to do so because he has the desire, motivation and

drive, and language is never static.


References

Abbott, M. L. (2006). ESL Reading Strategies: Differences in Arabic and Mandarin Speaker

Test Performance. Language Learning, 2006, 56 (4): 633-670.

Brown, H.D. (2007). Principles of language learning and teaching. White Plains, NY: Pearson

Education.

Fender, M. (2003). English word recognition and word integration skills of native Arabic-and

Japanese-speaking learners of English as a second language. Applied Psycholinguistics 24

(2003), 289-315.

Gass, S.M., & Selinker, L. (2008). Second Language Acquisition, an introductory course. New

York, NY: Routledge.

Hayes-Harb, R. (2006) Native Speakers of Arabic and ESL Texts: Evidence for the Transfer of

Written Word Identification Processes. TESOL Quarterly, 40(2) (Jun., 2006), 321- 339.

Jaensch, C. & Sarko, G. (2009). Sources of fluctuation in article choice in English and German

by Syrian Arabic and Japanese native speakers. Eurosla Yearbook , 2009, 9: 33-55.

Jake, J.L. (1998). Constructing interlanguage: building a composite matrix language. Linguisics,

1998, 36(2), 333-382.

Klein,W. (1990). Learning a Foreign Language in a natural acquisition context without

Instruction. Balance & Perspectives: 25 Years of Dutch Applied Linguistics, 1990, n36,

7-15.

Montrul, S. (2010). Dominant language transfer in adult second language learners and heritage

speakers. Second Language Research, 2010, 26 (3): 293-327.

Munro, M.J. (1993). Productions of English vowels by native speakers of Arabic: Acoustic

measurements and accentedness ratings*. .Language and Speech, 1993, 36(1), 39-66.


Pires, A. & Rothman, J. (2009). Disentangling sources of incomplete acquisition: An explanation

for competence divergence across heritage grammars. The International Journal of

Bilingualism, 2009, 13 (2): 211–238.

Slabakova, R. (2009). What Is Easy and What Is Hard to Acquire in a Second Language?

Proceedings of the 10th Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition Conference

(GASLA 2009) ed, Melissa Bowles et al., 280—294.

Sparks, R.L., & Ganschow, L. (1993) The Impact of Native Language Learning Problems on

Foreign Language Learning: Case Study Illustrations of the Linguistic Coding Deficit

Hypothesis. The Modern Language Journal, 77, I (1993).

Storch,N., & Aldosari, A. (2010). Learners’ use of first language (Arabic) in pair work in an EFL

Class. Language Teaching Research, 2010, 14(4) 355-357.

Younes, M.A. (1984). The Stressing of Final Superheavy Syllables by Saudi Learners of

English: Implications for the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis. Proceedings of the Annual

Linguistics Conference (3rd, Irbid, Jordan, April 1-3, 1984).


Appendix A

Voice Recognition Science Fiction Text

"3001: The Final Odyssey," (c) Copyright 1997 by Arthur C. Clarke

Comet Cowboy

Captain Dimitri Chandler [M2973.04.21/93.106//Mars//Space-Acad3005//*//] - or 'Dim' to his

very best friends - was understandably annoyed. The message from Earth had taken six hours to

reach the spacetug Goliath, here beyond the orbit of Neptune; if it had arrived ten minutes later

he could have answered 'Sorry - can't leave now - we've just started to deploy the sun-screen.'

The excuse would have been perfectly valid: wrapping a comet's core in a sheet of reflective film

only a few molecules thick, but kilometres on a side, was not the sort of job you could abandon

while it was half-completed.

Still, it would be a good idea to obey this ridiculous request: he was already in disfavour

sunwards, through no fault of his own.

Collecting ice from the rings of Saturn, and nudging it towards Venus and Mercury, where it was

really needed, had started back in the 2700's - three centuries ago. Captain Chandler had never

been able to see any real difference in the 'before and after' images the Solar Conservers were

always producing, to support their accusations of celestial vandalism.

But the general public, still sensitive to the ecological disasters of previous centuries, had

thought otherwise, and the 'Hands off Saturn!' vote had passed by a substantial majority. As a

result, Chandler was no longer a Ring Rustler, but a Comet Cowboy.


So here he was at an appreciable fraction of the distance to Alpha Centauri, rounding up

stragglers from the Kuiper Belt. There was certainly enough ice out here to cover Mercury and

Venus with oceans kilometres deep, but it might take centuries to extinguish their hell-fires and

make them suitable for life.

The Solar Conservers, of course, were still protesting against this, though no longer with so

much enthusiasm. The millions dead from the tsunami caused by the Pacific asteroid in 2304 -

how ironic that a land impact would have done much less damage! - had reminded all future

generations that the human race had too many eggs in one fragile basket.

Well, Chandler told himself, it would be fifty years before this particular package reached its

destination, so a delay of a week would hardly make much difference.

But all the calculations about rotation, centre of mass, and thrust vectors would have to be

redone, and radioed back to Mars for checking. It was a good idea to do your sums carefully,

before nudging billions of tons of ice along an orbit that might take it within hailing distance of

Earth.

As they had done so many times before, Captain Chandler's eyes strayed towards the ancient

photograph above his desk. It showed a three-masted steamship, dwarfed by the iceberg that was

looming above it - as, indeed, Goliath was dwarfed at this very moment.

How incredible, he had often thought, that only one long lifetime spanned the gulf between this

primitive Discovery and the ship that had carried the same name to Jupiter!

And what would those Antarctic explorers of a thousand years ago have made of the view from

his bridge? They would certainly have been disoriented, for the wall of ice beside which Goliath

was floating stretched both upwards and downwards as far as the eye could see.


And it was strange-looking ice, wholly lacking the immaculate whites and blues of the frozen

Polar seas.

In fact, it looked dirty - as indeed it was. For only some ninety percent was waterice: the rest was

a witch's brew of carbon and sulphur compounds, most of them stable only at temperatures not

far above absolute zero. Thawing them out could produce unpleasant surprises: as one

astrochemist had famously remarked: 'Comets have bad breath'.

'Skipper to all personnel,' Chandler announced. 'There's been a slight change of programme.

We've been asked to delay operations to investigate a target that Spaceguard radar has picked

up.'

'Any details?' somebody asked, when the chorus of groans over the ship's intercom had died

away.

'Not many, but I gather it's another Millennium Committee project they've forgotten to cancel.'

More groans: everyone had become heartily sick of all the events planned to celebrate the end of

the 2000's. There had been a general sigh of relief when 1 January 3001 had passed uneventfully,

and the human race could resume its normal activities.

'Anyway, it will probably be another false alarm, like the last one. We'll get back to work just as

quickly as we can. Skipper out.'

This was the third wild-goose chase, Chandler thought morosely, he'd been involved with during

his career. Despite centuries of exploration, the Solar System could still produce surprises, and

presumably Spaceguard had a good reason for its request. He only hoped that some imaginative

idiot hadn't once again sighted the fabled Golden Asteroid.


If it did exist - which Chandler did not for a moment believe - it would be no more than a

mineralogical curiosity: it would be of far less real value than the ice he was nudging sunward, to

bring life to barren worlds.

There was one possibility, however, which he did take quite seriously. Already, the human race

had scattered its robot probes through a volume of space a hundred light-years across - and the

Tycho Monolith was sufficient reminder that much older civilizations had engaged in similar

activities. There might well be other alien artefacts in the Solar System, or in transit through it.

Captain Chandler suspected that Spaceguard had something like this in mind: otherwise it would

hardly have diverted a Class 1 spacetug to go chasing after an unidentified radar blip.

Five hours later, the questing Goliath detected the echo at extreme range; even allowing for the

distance, it seemed disappointingly small. However, as it grew clearer and stronger, it began to

give the signature of a metallic object, perhaps a couple of metres long.

It was travelling on an orbit heading out of the Solar System, so was almost certainly, Chandler

decided, one of the myriad pieces of space-junk that Mankind had tossed towards the stars during

the last millennium - and which might one day provide the only evidence that the human race

had ever existed.

Then it came close enough for visual inspection, and Captain Chandler realized, with awed

astonishment, that some patient historian was still checking the earliest records of the Space Age.

What a pity that the computers had given him the answer, just a few years too late for the

Millennium celebrations!

'Goliath here,' Chandler radioed Earthwards, his voice tinged with pride as well as solemnity.

'We're bringing aboard a thousand-year-old astronaut. And I can guess who it is.'

Awakening


Frank Poole awoke, but he did not remember. He was not even sure of his name.

Obviously, he was in a hospital room: even though his eyes were still closed, the most primitive,

and evocative, of his senses told him that. Each breath brought the faint and not unpleasant tang

of antiseptics in the air, and it triggered a memory of the time when - of course! - as a reckless

teenager he had broken a rib in the Arizona Hang-gliding Championship.

Now it was all beginning to come back. I'm Deputy Commander Frank Poole, Executive Officer,

USSS Discovery, on a Top Secret mission to Jupiter -

It seemed as if an icy hand had gripped his heart. He remembered, in slow-motion playback, that

runaway space-pod jetting towards him, metal claws outstretched. Then the silent impact - and

the not-so-silent hiss of air rushing out of his suit. After that - one last memory, of spinning

helplessly in space, trying in vain to reconnect his broken air-hose.

Well, whatever mysterious accident had happened to the space-pod controls, he was safe now.

Presumably Dave had made a quick EVA and rescued him before lack of oxygen could do

permanent brain damage.

'Good old Dave!' he told himself. 'I must thank - just a moment! - I'm obviously not aboard

Discovery now - surely I haven't been unconscious long enough to be taken back to Earth!'

His confused train of thought was abruptly broken by the arrival of a Matron and two nurses,

wearing the immemorial uniform of their profession. They seemed a little surprised: Poole

wondered if he had awakened ahead of schedule, and the idea gave him a childish feeling of

satisfaction.

'Hello!' he said, after several attempts; his vocal cords appeared to be very rusty. 'How am I

doing?'


Matron smiled back at him and gave an obvious 'Don't try to talk' command by putting a finger

to her lips.

Then the two nurses fussed swiftly over him with practised skill, checking pulse, temperature,

reflexes. When one of them lifted his right arm and let it drop again, Poole noticed something

peculiar. It fell slowly, and did not seem to weigh as much as normal. Nor, for that matter, did

his body, when he attempted to move.

'So I must be on a planet,' he thought. 'Or a space-station with artificial gravity. Certainly not

Earth - I don't weigh enough.'

He was about to ask the obvious question when Matron pressed something against the side of his

neck; he felt a slight tingling sensation, and sank back into a dreamless sleep. Just before he

became unconscious, he had time for one more puzzled thought.

'How odd - they never spoke a single word all the time they were with me.'

Rehabilitation

When he woke again, and found Matron and nurses standing round his bed, Poole felt strong

enough to assert himself.

'Where am I? Surely you can tell me that!'

The three women exchanged glances, obviously uncertain what to do next. Then Matron

answered, enunciating her words very slowly and carefully: 'Everything is fine, Mr. Poole.

Professor Anderson will be here in a minute...He will explain.'

Explain what? thought Poole with some exasperation. But at least she speaks English, even

though I can't place her accent...


Anderson must have been already on his way, for the door opened moments later - to give Poole

a momentary glimpse of a small crowd of inquisitive onlookers peering in at him. He began to

feel like a new exhibit at a zoo.

Professor Anderson was a small, dapper man whose features seemed to have combined key

aspects of several races - Chinese, Polynesian, Nordic - in a thoroughly confusing fashion. He

greeted Poole by holding up his right palm, then did an obvious double-take and shook hands,

with such a curious hesitation that he might have been rehearsing some quite unfamiliar gesture.

'Glad to see you're looking so well, Mr. Poole...We'll have you up in no time.'

Again that odd accent and slow delivery - but the confident bedside manner was that of all

doctors, in all places and all ages.

'I'm glad to hear it. Now perhaps you can answer a few questions...'

'Of course, of course. But just a minute.'

Anderson spoke so rapidly and quietly to the Matron that Poole could catch only a few words,

several of which were wholly unfamiliar to him. Then the Matron nodded at one of the nurses,

who opened a wall-cupboard and produced a slim metal band, which she proceeded to wrap

around Poole's head.

'What's that for?' he asked - being one of those difficult patients, so annoying to doctors, who

always want to know just what's happening to them. 'EEG readout?'

Professor, Matron and nurses looked equally baffled. Then a slow smile spread across

Anderson's face.

'Oh - electro ... enceph ... alo ... gram,' he said slowly, as if dredging the word up from the depth

of memory.

'You're quite right. We just want to monitor your brain functions.'


My brain would function perfectly well if you'd let me use it, Poole grumbled silently. But at

least we seem to be getting somewhere - finally.

'Mr. Poole,' said Anderson, still speaking in that curious stilted voice, as if venturing in a foreign

language, 'you know, of course, that you were - disabled - in a serious accident, while you were

working outside Discovery.'

Poole nodded agreement.

'I'm beginning to suspect,' he said dryly, 'that "disabled" is a slight understatement.'

Anderson relaxed visibly, and a slow smile spread across his face.

'You're quite correct. Tell me what you think happened.'

'Well, the best case scenario is that, after I became unconscious, Dave Bowman rescued me and

brought me back to the ship. How is Dave? No one will tell me anything!'

'All in due course...and the worst case?'

It seemed to Frank Poole that a chill wind was blowing gently on the back of his neck. The

suspicion that had been slowly forming in his mind began to solidify.

'That I died, but was brought back here - wherever "here" is - and you've been able to revive me.

Thank you...'

'Quite correct. And you're back on Earth. Well, very near it.'

What did he mean by 'very near it'? There was certainly a gravity field here - so he was probably

inside the slowly turning wheel of an orbiting space-station. No matter: there was something

much more important to think about.

Poole did some quick mental calculations. If Dave had put him in the hibernaculum, revived the

rest of the crew, and completed the mission to Jupiter - why, he could have been 'dead' for as

much as five years!


'Just what date is it?' he asked, as calmly as possible.

Professor and Matron exchanged glances. Again Poole felt that cold wind on his neck.

'I must tell you, Mr. Poole, that Bowman did not rescue you. He believed - and we cannot blame

him - that you were irrevocably dead. Also, he was facing a desperately serious crisis that

threatened his own survival...

'So you drifted on into space, passed through the Jupiter system, and headed out towards the

stars. Fortunately, you were so far below freezing point that there was no metabolism - but it's a

near-miracle that you were ever found at all. You are one of the luckiest men alive. No - ever to

have lived!'

Am I? Poole asked himself bleakly. Five years, indeed! It could be a century - or even more.

'Let me have it,' he demanded.

Professor and Matron seemed to be consulting an invisible monitor: when they looked at each

other and nodded agreement, Poole guessed that they were all plugged into the hospital

information circuit, linked to the headband he was wearing.

'Frank,' said Professor Anderson, making a smooth switch to the role of long-time family

physician, 'this will be a great shock to you, but you're capable of accepting it - and the sooner

you know, the better.

'We're near the beginning of the Third Millennium. Believe me - you left Earth almost a

thousand years ago.'

'I believe you,' Poole answered calmly. Then, to his great annoyance, the room started to spin

around him, and he knew nothing more.

When he regained consciousness, he found that he was no longer in a bleak hospital room but in

a luxurious suite with attractive - and steadily changing - images on the walls. Some of these


were famous and familiar paintings, others showed land- and sea-scapes that might have been

from his own time. There was nothing alien or upsetting: that, he guessed, would come later.

His present surroundings had obviously been carefully programmed: he wondered if there was

the equivalent of a television screen somewhere (how many channels would the Third

Millennium have?) but could see no sign of any controls near his bed. There was so much he

would have to learn in this new world: he was a savage who had suddenly encountered

civilization.

But first, he must regain his strength - and learn the language; not even the advent of sound

recording, already more than a century old when Poole was born, had prevented major changes

in grammar and pronunciation. And there were thousands of new words, mostly from science

and technology, though often he was able to make a shrewd guess at their meaning.

More frustrating, however, were the myriad of famous and infamous personal names that had

accumulated over the millennium, and which meant nothing to him. For weeks, until he had built

up a data bank, most of his conversations had to be interrupted with potted biographies.

As Poole's strength increased, so did the number of his visitors, though always under Professor

Anderson's watchful eye. They included medical specialists, scholars of several disciplines, and -

of the greatest interest to him - spacecraft commanders.

web viewjohn had finished medical school and his ... relationships of word order and ... felt...

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