“Go,” “Going,” “Goed”: Relation Between Verb Tense Errors and Reading Comprehension Skills in English Learners

Abstract

School-aged English Learners (ELs) are faced with the challenging task of acquiring a foreign language while simultaneously reading academically demanding literature. Therefore, the current research aimed to examine the relation between the rate of grammatical tense marking errors made by ELs and their performance on measures of reading comprehension (RC). The sample for the current study included 5th-grade students who were categorized as ELs who were receiving English support services ( n = 103). Samples were collected using i-Ready and writing samples. The samples were used to examine ELs’ RC in relation to tense marking errors in their written responses on the district writing assessment at the end of the school year. The results from the study revealed that there was a moderate negative correlation ( r = −.431, p < .010) between verb tense errors and reading comprehension. Students with high rates of verb tense errors received lower RC scores.