acquisition of (in) definite and generic english articles by persian learners of english

English articles can create problems, particularly, for learners whose l1 lacks them. the present research investigated whether persian l2 learners of english encounter problems acquiring articles in (in) definite and generic contexts which are non-existent in persian. the theoretical underpinning of the study was the interface hypothesis (ih) by sorace and filiaci (2006) arguing that features involving syntax pragmatics interface are harder for learners, even at advanced levels, to acquire than features involving syntax semantics interface. to this end, 45 learners in three groups of different proficiency levels (elementary, intermediate, and advanced), screened through the standardized oxford placement test, constituted the participants of the study and completed a timed acceptability judgment task requiring the recognition of correct articles. the results of paired sample t-tests did not support the ih; while a syntax pragmatics interface is involved in (in) definite articles, they appeared much easier for learners to recognize than articles in generic contexts containing a syntax semantics interface. however, as the learners had never experienced any instruction on generic but on (in) definite articles, their fairly high performance on generic articles especially in higher levels can imply support for the ih. the conflicting findings of this study warrant further research in this regard.