Perception of the English Universal Present Perfect in Polish Learners of English and British Native Speakers

Abstract

It is widely considered that Polish does not possess the present perfect, and that it represents a challenge to those teaching Polish learners of English. From a teaching perspective, the question arises of what a Polish learner of English perceives when they read/hear a present perfect sentence. The research presented here attempts to answer that question, but with a focus on the universal present perfect. A questionnaire was developed to measure the perception of the English universal present perfect’s two defining features: its incompleteness and its continuability. The questionnaire was completed by Polish learners of English and a group of British native speakers. The hypotheses were: 1. Incompleteness/continuability would be perceived in the universal present perfect, 2. that lower proficiency learners would perceive incompleteness/continuability at a lower rate and perception would increase with proficiency, and 3. British native speakers would have the highest level of perception. The results show that the incompleteness/continuability of the universal present perfect are perceived. While perception decreases with lower proficiency learners, British native speakers did not have the highest levels of perception. The next step is to develop a pedagogy which focuses on perception-based teaching and carry out an experiment to analyse its efficacy.