The acquisition of temporal conjunctions by Saudi Arabian learners of English1

Abstract

Eighty Saudi EFL students were assessed on their understanding of English temporal conjunctions (TCs) and on the effect of the sentence position of the temporal subordinate clause (initially or finally) on such acquisition. The combined performance of the experimental groups did not show any significant difference between TCs indicating sequence and simultaneity. TCs were categorized according to their relationship in time with the main clause event: e.g., FIRST TCs indicate that the main clause event occurs before that in the temporal clause. Responses over the semantic categories of the TCs varied: SECOND and SAME TIME were more difficult than FIRST. The subjects’performance on individual conjunctions within these semantic categories also varied. Similar to the performance for the control group of native speakers, it was found that before (FIRST), after (SECOND), and when2, while, and as (SAME TIME) were the least difficult conjunctions within these categories for the EFL learners by a significant amount. It was also found that whenever1 and directly (SECOND) and now that2 and whenever2 (SAME TIME) were the most difficult conjunctions for the EFL learners. Weak evidence of transfer (positive and negative) was observed in the data. The experimental and control groups gave similar performances for the conjunctions in the SAME TIME category. The EFL learners performed better on temporal clauses which occurred initially in the sentence than on those which occurred finally. The results also showed that these learners, in processing the temporal conjunctions, faced problems similar to those of L1 learners.