Use Of Past Tense Research Articles

An Analysis on Grammatical Errors in Students' Recount Texts: A Case Study on the Second Grade Students Faculty of Letters Indraprasta PGRI University

<p>This study aims to analyze and classify what types of mistakes made by learners (in this case the second grade students of Indraprasta University PGRI) in applying the simple past tense in the text of recount text. The errors are defined according to Mariusz Trawinski's theory. In addition, this study aims to obtain percentage of each type of mistakes made by learners, as well as to uncover the most dominant mistakes made by learners in using the simple past tense in the text recount. The method used in this research is descriptive qualitative method, while the general pattern or research design used by the researcher is a case study. Furthermore, the authors chose the second level of students who numbered 25 people as subjects in this study. The data in this research is obtained through the test of making recounts to the students. The result of the error analysis process is that learners perform three types of errors which are regular verb, irregular verbs, and auxiliary verbs. It is seen from the percentage of each type of error, the auxiliary verb is the most commonly performed error type with a percentage of 42.23%. Furthermore, errors in irregular verb is 33.90%, whereas the type of regular verb error is 29.87% of the total errors made by the learner. And from the side of the taxonomy of surface tactics or surface strategy taxonomy, errors in regular verb, irregular verb, and to be auxiliary consist of misformation, misordering, omission, and addition error. The highest error on auxiliary verb is misformation. The highest error on irregular verb is misformation. And the highest error in regular verb is omission. This shows that the use of simple past tense in writing recount text is still difficult to understand the students of the second grade of PGRI Indraprasta University.</p><p> </p><strong>Keywords:</strong> simple past, recount texts

人を主語にとる名詞述語文のテンス体系

In order to investigate the tense system of predicate nominal sentences with a human-denoting subject, I collected relevant example sentences from conversational sentences in contemporary Japanese novels. I also divide the collected sentences into those denoting an individual subject and those denoting a generic subject. I further provide the three-way classification of sentences denoting individual subjects in terms of whether they may be concurrent with expressions of past tense.BR These classifications reveal the tense system of each type of sentence. Firstly, when a subject denotes an individual subject, a sentence describing a constant characteristic of the individual denoted uses a past tense form to express the inexistence of the individual. If the individual is existent, however, the use of past tense is disallowed, and only the non-past form is used. Secondly, a sentence describing a variable characteristic of the individual denoted may be concurrent with the past tense form and it also allows the use of temporal expressions for past tense. In connection with this, I also observe that the use of the past tense form expresses that the relevant characteristic is no longer existent (i.e. a change of the individual or the inexistence of the individual), while the use of the non-past tense form describes the present characteristics of the individual. Finally, a sentence denoting a temporal phenomenon is compatible with temporal expressions for past, and the use of the past tense form points to the pre-utterance time at which the event in question occurred, while the use of the non-past tense form describes the present event.BR On the other hand, in the case of generic subjects, most of the collected sentences describe judgments based on the speaker’s thoughts, and the non-past tense form tends to be used. For the groups which are currently inexistent, however, the use of the past tense form is licensed, which implicates that the groups in question are no longer existent.

L1 French learning of L2 Spanish past tenses: L1 transfer versus aspect and interface issues

This paper examines the process of acquiring L2s that are closely related to the L1 through data on how adult French speakers learning L2 Spanish in a formal setting develop knowledge and use of past tenses in this L2. We consider the role of transfer and simplification in acquiring mental representations of the L2 grammar, specifically in the area of tense and aspect, and how learners deal with integrating grammatically encoded, lexical and discursive information, including mismatching feature combinations leading to particular inferential effects on interpretation. Data is presented on the Spanish past tenses (simple and compound past, pluperfect, imperfect and progressive forms) from two tasks, an oral production filmretell and a multiple-choice interpretation task, completed by learners at A2, B1, B2 and C1 CEFR levels (N = 20-24 per level). L1 influence is progressively attenuated as proficiency increases. Difficulties were not always due to negative L1 transfer, but related also to grammar-discourse interface issues when integrating linguistic and pragmatic information in the interpretation process. This has clear implications for the teaching of closely related languages: instruction should not only focus on crosslinguistic contrasts, but also prioritize uses requiring complex interface integration, which are harder to process.

Abordaje de sujetos migrantes y procesos migratorios en libros de texto de Ciencias Sociales. Un análisis de caso

El presente trabajo recupera avances de la investigación "´Nosotros, los argentinos´: la construcción de la identidad nacional en libros de texto de Ciencias Sociales", en el contexto de la cual hemos analizado el modo en que dicha identidad es construida discursivamente en libros de texto destinados a la enseñanza secundaria, que circulan actualmente en instituciones educativas de la Argentina. Uno de los ejes priorizados en el análisis ha sido la construcción de procesos migratorios vinculados al territorio nacional, con especial atención a sujetos discursivos presentes y desplazamientos territoriales abordados; aspectos que se recuperan en este artículo mediante la selección de un caso específico que forma parte del corpus de la investigación. Para la aproximación propuesta nos hemos posicionado en el análisis crítico del discurso y, desde esa perspectiva, hemos recurrido a herramientas teórico-metodológicas del enfoque histórico del discurso (Wodak, de Cillia, Reisigl y Liebhart, 2009). Desde dicho enfoque entendemos los discursos como prácticas sociales y asumimos que el lenguaje juega un rol fundamental en la estructuración de relaciones de poder en la sociedad. Por ello, proponemos un abordaje de los textos seleccionados que toma en cuenta el modo en que sujetos, relaciones, hechos y procesos son nombrados (estrategias de nominación); los rasgos que se les atribuyen (estrategias de predicación) y los argumentos o esquemas argumentativos empleados (estrategias argumentativas). El caso seleccionado responde a una de las tendencias observadas en el corpus general de la investigación para el tratamiento de procesos migratorios, dado que localiza la temática en tiempos lejanos y solo incorpora referencias marginales e imprecisas a la existencia de procesos migratorios en la actualidad. Asimismo, el análisis de las estrategias discursivas empleadas en el libro muestra una esquematización superficial en el abordaje de dichos procesos desde el que se borra a sujetos migrantes y se explican los procesos en términos económicos, poniendo en relación directa pobreza y migración. Todo esto ayuda a construir una visión restringida de la diversidad cultural que entra en conflicto con el abordaje explícito de la temática que el libro propone. Ante lo expuesto, entendemos que se vuelve necesario un trabajo compartido de revisión crítica de libros de texto que involucre diferentes niveles de la administración de la educación, a las editoriales y a los colectivos docentes para contribuir a pensar abordajes acordes con una educación inclusiva.

The present perfect in Irish English

ABSTRACTThis article begins with an introduction to language corpora and the approach to linguistic description arising from corpus linguistic approaches to the description of varieties. It stresses the importance of a well‐balanced, representative corpus for general language description and demonstrates the benefits of a quantitative as well as a qualitative approach. It introduces the International Corpus of English: Ireland Component (ICE‐Ireland) and presents a case study of the present perfect, with particular reference to the HAVE + –ed participle construction, the after perfect, the medial‐object perfect, the BE perfect, the extended‐now perfect, and the use of present and past tense with perfective meanings. Throughout the case study, the article underlines the importance of quantitative patterns in the data uncovered by a corpus linguistics approach.

Developmental Errors in Chinese L1 Speakers’ Use of the L2 English Past Tense and Perfective Aspect

This study investigated intermediate-level Chinese EFL learners` ability to use three tense-aspect categories in English: simple past, present perfect, and past perfect. Participants (N = 142) were asked to complete three types of controlled tasks: multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, and translation, and then to provide an explanation for their answers through group discussions. The findings indicate that although the learners were well acquainted with the tense-aspect forms, they were not able to use them appropriately; past perfect was the most difficult category for both low-intermediate and upper-intermediate learners; they tended to overuse the simple past form when describing events that occurred in the past but their influence has lasted to the present; they often used the present perfect form in sentences containing definite temporal adverbials; and finally, they applied the perfective aspect to the verbs whose lexical aspects import punctuality. These lead to the conclusion that Chinese EFL learners are disposed to rely on L1 translation, tense-aspect consistency in adjacent discourse, and local lexical cues such as temporal adverbials in order to facilitate their understanding of the intricate usage of the English tense-aspect system.

Il tempo e l'aspetto nel discorso. Italiano e olandese a confronto

Time and aspect in speech. Italian and Dutch in comparison The Italian and Dutch verbal systems differ not only in the richness of the forms exhibited by Italian, but also in the way in which aspect is realized in the two languages. Despite a number of similarities, the Italian past tense is potentially problematic for a Dutch speaker from both an aspectual and a pragmatic point of view. The present study aims to highlight a possible differentiating factor on the use of past tenses in the two languages. In particular we follow Boogart (1999), who studied the verbal system of Dutch and English, and propose that while the ‘discursive mode’ (i.e. the speaker’s intentions) is relevant in determing the choice between different past tenses in Dutch, it is irrelevant when the same choice has to be made in Italian. In order to evaluate this hypothesis we report the results of a study conducted with monolingual speakers of Dutch and Italian. The results show that while the ‘discursive mode’ is crucial in Dutch, Italian responds solely to aspectuality. Furthermore, our data suggest that aspect is in Dutch mainly a pragmatic phenomenon. In highlighting a clear difference between the two languages, our study consitutes an important contribution to the study of cross linguistic interference in learning a second language, since it explains the nature and direction of linguistic interference in Dutch native speakers (L1) learning Italian (L2).

An Error Analysis on the Use of Past Tense in Narrative Text Translation of SMA Students

<p>This article describes the errors that students committed on the use of<strong> </strong>past tense in narrative text translation. The purpose is to reveal the common errors in using past tense in narrative translation made by the eleventh grade students at one of state senior high school in Surakarta. In this research, the researcher used descriptive method. The study focused on the difficulty in using past tense in narrative text translation. The techniques of collecting the data used in this research are using test and questionnaire. The qualitative data were analyzed by identifying the data of errors, describing the errors and classifying into the types of errors, explaining the errors based on the error sources, and evaluating the errors. Based on the result of the research, the total error is 465 errors. First, the errors based on the indicators are: error on the use of V2, error of time marker, error of modal auxiliaries, and error of helping verb. The highest frequency of error is error on the use of V2 (390/ 83.87%). Then the lowest frequency of error is error of time marker (1/ 0.22%). Second, the errors based on the causes of errors are omission (absence of an item that must appear in a well-formed utterance), addition (characterized the presence of an item, which must not appear in a well-formed utterance), and overgeneralization (the learner creates a deviant structure on the basis of other structures).The highest frequency of error is omission (104/ 56.52%), and the lowest frequency of error is addition (36/ 19.57%).</p>

English Tense Use In Indonesian Journal Articles

<p>This paper reports a study of English tense use in second language writing. Attempting to validate Oster’s (1981) claims on tense use as a rhetorical device in discourse, the study seeks to find out whether Indonesian writers’ use of English tense conforms or confront the previous claims. The data are drawn from twelve journal articles taken from three different Indonesian scientific journals. The use of tense is accounted and analyzed according to the rhetorical functions it plays. The results show that 89% of the present tense verbs are used differently. Contrary to Oster’s claim, this study proves that present tense is also used for generalization. This study also indicates that simple present tense is used more frequently within non-integral citations than the use of simple past tense and present perfect tense in reporting past literature. This paper argues that professional writers are more likely to employ non-integral citations to promote their own ideas to the readers. This is shown by the prominent use of non-integral citations and their combination with the present tense.</p>

When Belief Ascriptions Are About More Than What Is on Someone Else's Mind

The third-person belief ascription, “Marie believes that the contract is in the cabinet,” may engender two interpretations: (1) It neutrally describes what is on Marie's mind and (2) it offers indirect evidence about reality, committing the speaker to the cabinet as the most likely location. The circumstances that lead to the evidential interpretation are at present not well documented in the case of belief verbs. In the case of belief-dependent verbs with and without embedding clause syntax, for example, “Marie says that the contract is in the archive,” and “Marie is lookingfor the contract in the archive,” it has been claimed that they eschew the evidential interpretation altogether. We explore the influence of the pragmatic context on the third-person, present tense and first-person, past tense use of the verbs, believe, say, and look for. In three experiments that manipulated the discourse context, 258 adults rated written vignettes. Regardless of the verb and the tense, when presented in discourse contexts without prior shared knowledge of the location of the object in question, the belief ascription was interpreted as indirect evidence. The results illuminate the border area between semantics and pragmatics, particularly regarding evidential uses of belief and belief-dependent verbs.

'Language of the past' - Exploring past tense disruption during autobiographical narration in neurodegenerative disorders.

Compromised retrieval of autobiographical memory (ABM) is well established in neurodegenerative disorders. The recounting of autobiographical events is inextricably linked to linguistic knowledge, yet no study to date has investigated whether tense use during autobiographical narration is disrupted in dementia syndromes. This study investigated the incidence of correct past tense use during ABM narration in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD, n=10) and semantic dementia (SD, n=10) in comparison with healthy older Controls (n=10). Autobiographical narratives were analysed for episodic content (internal/external) and classified according to tense use (past/present). Across both patient groups, use of the past tense was significantly compromised relative to Controls, with increased levels of off-target present tense verbs observed. Voxel-based morphometry analyses based on structural MRI revealed differential associations between past tense use and regions of grey matter intensity in the brain. Bilateral temporal cortices were implicated in the SD group, whereas frontal, lateral, and medial temporal regions including the right hippocampus emerged in AD. This preliminary study provides the first demonstration of the disruption of specific linguistic constructs during autobiographical narration in AD and SD. Future studies are warranted to clarify at what point in the disease trajectory such deficits in tense use emerge, and whether these deficits are a product or contributing factor in memory disruption in these syndromes.

The Effect of Written Corrective Feedback on EFL Learners' Writing Performance: Explicit vs. Implicit

The effectiveness of written corrective feedback has gained much interest among second language acquisition researchers since Truscott’s (1996) argument that grammar correction in L2 writing classes should be abandoned. In spite of the large body of research, there seems to be no unified agreement on the effectiveness of written corrective feedback on L2 learners' written performance. The present study seeks to investigate whether there is any positive effect of giving explicit or implicit written corrective feedback on 20 intermediate L2 learners’ ability to write in English by giving them three writing tasks: a pre-test, an immediate post-test and a delayed post-test. The participants performed on a written task, then, half of the learners received explicit feedback which means that the correct form of specific structures was provided and the other half received implicit feedback which means that the erroneous form was underlined with no correction. Two weeks later they were asked to write another essay in which the rubrics made them use the same forms, namely past tense and definite/indefinite article. A month later, the delayed post-test was conducted on a similar topic. Based on the results of mixed between-within ANOVA analysis, the students writing ability in using past tense and article use on the immediate post-test outperformed that of the pre-test. The effect was also long lasting since their performance on the delayed post-test showed an increase in the learners’ writing ability in the specified structures and this effect retained in their memory for one month. There was no statistically significant difference between the implicit and explicit group on their correct use of the specified structures.

Teaching Culture and Identifying Language Interference Errors through Films

This study reflects intermediate level learners’ opinion about employing films in the EFL classroom for teaching culture and avoiding negative language transfer. A total of 63 participants, aged 21-23, took part in the experiment in the Faculty of Philology at Suleyman Demirel University in Almaty, Kazakhstan. During the experiment the subjects were demonstrated six extracts with culture laden scenes in a time range of 1-3 minutes. Participants had to detect peculiarities of American and Japanese cultures and compare them with Kazakh traditions. In the second part of the experiment, the subjects had to dub the film clips from Russian into English and compare their work with the original sequence. The study showed that the participants enjoyed both activities, and were ready to do them on a regular basis. Students also claim that Japanese and Kazakh cultures have certain similarities, yet there are significant differences too. The learners also assert that Kazakhs have been affected by globalization. As a result, Kazakhs share beliefs and opinions of American culture in some aspects. The most frequent mistakes in dubbing among the learners were omitting articles, incorrect word order in direct and indirect questions, incorrect use of present perfect and past simple tenses, and word-for-word translation. This work adds to the field of culture, language transfer and using films in the EFL classroom.

Effectiveness of implicit negative feedback in a foreign language classroom

This paper reports on a study that investigated the effectiveness of recasts and clarification requests in a French as a foreign language classroom. The target structures were French past tense structures the passé composé and the imparfait. The study was carried out with three intact classes of high school students in New Zealand, comprising in total 52 participants. A quasi-experimental design was employed, with a pre-test, treatment, immediate post-test and a delayed post-test. The treatment tasks were picture-based, designed to encourage communication and to elicit the use of past tense. The tests were also picture-based, written narrative tasks. The control group did not receive any treatment. Mixed design Repeated measures ANOVAs, followed by ANCOVAs, were computed to examine the effects of the treatment. Overall, results indicate that recasts were more effective for acquisition of the passé composé whereas both recasts and clarification requests proved beneficial for acquisition of the imparfait at this early stage of learning. However, non-parametric tests comparing more advanced and less advanced learners suggest that only the ‘low proficiency’ learners benefited from clarification requests.

AN ERROR ANALYSIS IN THE USE OF PAST TENSE IN WRITING RECOUNT TEXT AT THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS OF SMP UNISMUH MAKASSAR

This research aimed to identify the kinds of error in the use of Past Tense in writing recount text and the dominant error made by the Second Year Students of SMP Unismuh Makassar. This research is Case Study Research. The research was conducted in SMP Unismuh Makassar. The population was the Second Year Students in Academic Year 2013-2014. The researcher took Class B1 which consists of 19 students.The instrument used was writing test. Writing test was used to find out the kinds of errors made by the students in writing recount text. By using this instrument, the researcher analyzed detail information about the errors in the use of Past Tense in writing recount text. The students' errors were classified into four categories based on the kinds of error. Those are the error of omition with 12 errors, error of addition with 31 errors, error of misformation with 166 errors, and error of misordering with 5 errors. The students made the dominant error in misformation category. It can be seen from the percentage result where misformation were 77,57%, then followed error of addition were 14,48%, error of omition was 5,61%, and misordering were only 2,34%. Based on these findings, it can be concluded that the Second Year Students(Class B1) of SMP Unismuh Makassar had many errors in writing recount text. The students should be given intensive exercises in the use of Past Tense in writing recount text. It is quite necessary for the Second Year Students and the English Teacher of SMP Unismuh Makassar to be informed about the result of this research, so they can improve their teaching learning process.Keywords: Error Analysis, recount text, Past Tense, error of misformation.

Performance of preschool children with normal language development in past tense task

The acquisition of tense inflection is a gradual process, and the children appear unaware of the significance of inflectional endings, without recognizing that there is a general rule for deriving one form from another. To investigate the ability of past tense in children with normal language development (NLD). The subjects were 30 children with NLD, aged between 4 and 6 years. To evaluate the use of past tense, we developed a test composed of 30 regular and irregular verbs. The analysis of the answers considered the correct ones, the replacement, overregularization and errors. The 4 years old children with NLD had worse performance than the children of 5 and 6 years in correct answers and total score. There was no difference between the numbers of replacement based on age. By the age of 4, we observed more tense inflection errors. The overregularization errors did not differ between age groups. By the age of 4, children had more regular than irregular verbs correct answers. The 4 years old children with NLD had worse performance than 5 and 6 years old children, because they are still improving the use of verbs in their productions. At this age, we observed tense inflection errors. The 5 and 6 years old children already master the skill of past tense and do not differenciate.

Lexical Aspect and the Use of Simple Past Tense by Thai Learners of English

This cross-sectional study investigated the use of the simple past tense form by twenty Thai learners of English at two levels of proficiency. A cloze test developed by Ayoun and Salaberry (2008) was adopted. The findings showed that the learners in the high proficiency group used the past tense form more accurately than the learners in the low proficiency group. When verbs were categorized according to lexical aspect, both groups of learners were found to use the simple past tense form most often with telic events as well as with states. This did not correspond to the prediction of the Aspect Hypothesis, which asserts that low-level learners tend to use the simple past tense form with telic events first. The distributional bias in the input could account for the pattern found in this study.

A qualitative study on perceptions of changes reported by caregivers of patients in vegetative state and minimally conscious state: the "time gap experience".

Objective. Our purpose was to provide a comprehensive understanding of how women informal caregivers of patients in vegetative state (VS) or minimally conscious state (MCS) describe, represent, and experience changes that occurred in their life after the acute event of their family member. Methods. A qualitative study was conducted and fifteen women informal caregivers, mothers, or spouses of patients in VS or MCS were interviewed. Results. Caregivers' narratives revealed (1) important personal and interpersonal changes and (2) difficulties while facing the complex situation and integrating past, present, and future, defined as a “time gap experience.” This difficulty is expressed in two ways. First, the reduction of variety of roles into one, caregiver's role. Second, the relationship with the relative is characterised by fluctuation in the relational style between caregiver and relative; it shifts from an adult to adult interaction to an adult to child one. Another fluctuation can be observed in the mixed use of present and past tenses when caregivers speak about their relatives. Conclusions. Caregiving cause pervasive modifications in one's life. Targeted interventions aiming to empower the caregivers, to support them after the acute event in caregiving activities together with patient-focused interventions, and to promote their health should be implemented.

Using concept-based instruction in the L2 classroom: Perspectives from current and future language teachers

A number of recent studies (see, for example, Lantolf, 2010; Negueruela & Lantolf, 2006; van Compernolle, 2011) have focused on the use of learning tools developed according to the principles of concept-based instruction (CBI). Using videorecorded data from interviews and observations of classroom instruction, our study seeks to contribute to the CBI research by examining the implementation of this framework from the perspectives of pre-service and novice teachers of French and Spanish. Therefore, the overarching goal of this study is to understand how and to what extent teachers embrace or reject a pedagogical approach that does not necessarily align with a textbook’s explanation of a grammar point. We have chosen to focus on the teaching of verbal aspect since textbooks for learners of both French and Spanish typically present rules of thumb for learning past tense use without explaining the systematic concept of verbal aspect. The case studies presented in this article demonstrate that – in some instances and for a variety of reasons – experienced, novice, and pre-service teachers prefer materials, techniques, and approaches that are more familiar, albeit not as potentially beneficial for learners.

Evaluating the Grammars of Children Who Speak Nonmainstream Dialects of English.

In this article, we review three responses to the study and evaluation of grammar in children who speak nonmainstream dialects of English. Then we introduce a fourth, system-based response that views nonmainstream dialects of English, such as African American English (AAE) and Southern White English (SWE) as made up of dialect-specific and dialect-universal features. To illustrate the usefulness of a system-based approach and to distinguish our two terms from others in the dialect literature, we present AAE and SWE relative clause data from two previously published studies. Following this, we present new findings from AAE- and SWE-speaking children's use of past tense and past participles to further demonstrate the value of examining larger units (i.e., systems) of a grammar to identify a child's language strengths and weaknesses. We conclude by arguing that a system-based approach moves clinicians, educators, and researchers beyond a preoccupation with the nonmainstream aspects of children's dialects while also moving us beyond Brown's 14 morphemes. Although the focus of the article is on assessment, the content is relevant to the treatment of grammar because effective promotion of any child's grammar (including the grammars of those who speak nonmainstream dialects of English) will occur only when clinicians, educators, and researchers begin to view the child's grammar as a system rather than as a sum of its parts.