Tense Shifting in Spanish-Speaking English Language Learners

Abstract

Young monolingual children typically demonstrate frequent tense shifting during narrative development, whereas older children maintain a consistent narration tense. Therefore, inconsistent tense usage in older children could be an indication of overall limited language skills. However, information regarding tense use in bilinguals has been lacking. This study examines the frequency of tense shifting in the English and Spanish of kindergarten- to third-grade Spanish-speaking English Language Learners (ELLs). In addition, it investigates whether the amount of shifting is dependent on children’s relative proficiency in each language, and whether the use of regular and irregular verbs affects tense shifting. The main results of the study are that tense shifting for ELLs occurs mainly in English, grade level does not affect tense shifting, and relative proficiency in first language (L1) and second language (L2) is the critical variable for tense shifting.