Tense and aspect in interlanguage: error analysis in the English of Cantonese-speaking secondary schoolstudents. Title. Author(s) Chow, Po-ki.; 周寶琪.

Transcription

1 Title Tense and aspect in interlanguage: error analysis in the English of Cantonese-speaking secondary schoolstudents Author(s) Chow, Po-ki.; 周寶琪. Citation Chow, P. [ 周寶琪 ]. (2006). Tense and aspect in interlanguage : error analysis in the English of Cantonese-speaking secondary school students. (Thesis). University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR. Retrieved from Issued Date 2006 URL Rights The author retains all proprietary rights, (such as patent rights) and the right to use in future works.

2 Tense and Aspect in Interlanguage: Error Analysis in the English of Cantonese-speaking Secondary School Students by Chow Po Ki A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts at The University of Hong Kong June 2006

3 Declaration I declare that this dissertation represents my own work, except where due acknowledgement is made, and that it has not been previously included in a thesis, dissertation or report submitted to this University or to any other institution for a degree, diploma or other qualifications. Signed Chow Po Ki i

4 Abstract of dissertation entitled Tense and Aspect in Interlanguage: Error Analysis in the English of Cantonese-speaking Secondary School Students Submitted by Chow Po Ki for the degree of Master of Arts at the University of Hong Kong in June 2006 This dissertation presents an analysis of errors made by 77 Cantonese-speaking secondary school students of English at three proficiency levels on tense and aspect. A qualitative approach was adopted. Data were collected based on students free-writing texts. The focus of the dissertation was on four error types: (a) Inappropriate verb form, (b) Misunderstanding of the nature of words, (c) Wrong verb-form after the modal word and (d) Wrong aspect. The results showed that students made errors not only due to the mother tongue influence, but other factors as well. Factors such as interlanguage influence, the difference between Cantonese and English and intralingual influence are salient. In addition, fewer and fewer errors are made when learners learn more and more to a large extent. Other factors such as language structure mechanism, language attitude and motivation are also salient in the learning process. Intralingual and developmental errors are found among the sample sentences. It is hypothesized that these errors result from the difference between English and Chinese. (165 words) ii

5 Acknowledgements I am grateful to Dr A. Bodomo, my supervisor, for giving sincere guidance in the development of this dissertation. His expert comments and sincere encouragement motivated me to work harder on my thesis. Not only did I learn a lot from this thesis academically, I also experienced a kind support from my supervisor. I thank all my teachers at the Department of Linguistics, the University of Hong Kong, who broadened my scope of linguistics and encouraged me to further develop my critical thinking and analytical power. I am deeply indebted to my colleagues and the English panel chair for providing students free-writing texts and giving valuable information about students performance. Finally, many thanks to my classmates and friends whose peer support was indispensable during the whole process. iii

6 Declaration Abstract Acknowledgements Table of contents Contents i ii iii iv Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Background of the study 1.2 The Objectives of the study 1.2 Thesis organization Chapter 2 Literature Review 2.1 Comparision of Cantonese and Mandarin 2.2 Second Language Acquisition 2.3 Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis 2.4 Error Analysis 2.5 Interlanguage Hypothesis 2.6 Language Transfer Transfer Hypothesis Language Transfer: The Role of Mother Tongue Language Transfer: Relationship with Contrastive Analysis 2.7 Non-structural factors---language Transfer vs Avoidance 2.8 Analysis of the development of tense and aspect in L Tenses--Present Tense-Past The future Future time in the past Aspect Aspect Progressive The Present Progressive The Past Progressive The Perfect Progressive Progressive with will/ shall Aspect Perfect iv

7 Present Perfect Past Perfect 2.9 Conclusions Chapter 3 Methodology 3.1 Purpose of the research 3.2 Research questions / hypothesis 3.3 Subjects 3.4 Data 3.5 Method 3.6 Procedure 3.7 Conclusion Chapter 4 Data Analysis 4.1 Four types of errors Inappropriate verb form Misunderstanding of the nature of words Wrong verb-form after the modal word Wrong aspect 4.2 Evaluation of errors 4.3 Conclusion Chapter 5 Interpretation of the result 5.1. Comparison of Chinese and English languages on tense and aspect Simple present Simple past The future Progressive Perfective 5.2 Conclusion 5.3 Addressing the issues

8 Chapter Six Conclusions and recommendations 6.1 Summary of each chapter Chapter 1--Introduction Chapter 2---Literature review Chapter 3---Methodology Chapter 4---Data analysis Chapter 5 ---Interpretation of the result 6.2 Summary of findings 6.3 Implications for teaching 6.4 Suggestions for future research 6.5 Concluding remarks References Appendices

9 Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Background of the study In this study, L1 refers to Cantonese, and L2 refers to English. Since written Cantonese is mainly based on written standard Chinese, the term written Chinese is the same as Cantonese in this thesis. As Hong Kong was a British colony before 1997, there is no doubt that English is the second language in the community. Not only can people speak English in the classroom, they also can speak it around their living environment. Competence in English at work and even among some social groups is a pre-requisite for success. Language pedagogical approaches, such as Communicative Approach and Task-based Learning Approach have been promoted by the EMB since The aim of these approaches is to encourage students to learn English in a natural and interesting way. However, it is very common to see that students still make more or less the same errors on tense and aspect even though they have the so-called English exposure at school. Typical errors are Did you went to Shatin yesterday? and I is going to home. The data of this thesis were collected from 36 Form One students, 31 Form Four students and 16 Form Six students in a Band Two CMI school (CMI stands for Chinese as a Medium of Instruction). The English levels of the subjects are mixed. All the data are authentic. 1.2 The objectives of the study With reference to the above phenomena, this study aims at finding out the reasons why students made errors in second language learning, specifically on tense and aspect with the theories related to second language learning, such as contrastive analysis, error analysis and interlanguage hypothesis. Needless to say, the difference between Cantonese and English is a major focus. It is expected that this study will help develop second language pedagogy. 1

10 Here are the research questions of this study: (1) Are the errors of verb-forms in English made by Cantonese-speaking secondary school students mainly due to the influence of their mother tongue? (2) Are fewer and fewer errors made as learners learn more and more? 1.3 Thesis organization This study consists of six chapters. This chapter outlines the background and the objectives of this study. Chapter Two presents the literature review, which gives readers a basic knowledge about second language learning phenomena such as language transfer and avoidance, theories such as contrastive analysis, error analysis and interlanguage hypothesis, and definitions of tense and aspect with appropriate examples. Chapter Three outlines the methodology and explains the process of collecting data. Then Chapter Four focuses on the data analysis. The main errors found from the collected data are outlined with evaluations. Chapter Five interprets the findings and readdresses the research questions. Chapter Six concludes this study by summarising each chapter, giving suggestions for future research and outlining concluding remarks. 2

11 Chapter Two Literature Review 2.1 Comparison of Cantonese and Mandarin Cantonese is one of the dialects in China. It is a topic-prominent language. It has a substantial literature, both oral and written (Matthews and Yip, 1996:3), but its written form is not standardized (p.5) when compared to Mandarin. In fact, both Cantonese and Mandarin share more or less the same grammar and written vocabulary. There is practically one universal Chinese grammar. (Chao quoted in Matthews and Yip, 1996:5). However, there are some things that the two languages don t have in common. In Cantonese, the noun telling the agent of the action must be shown in the sentence but it is not the same case in Mandarin (Matthews and Yip, 1996). Cantonese lacks a strong prescriptive grammatical tradition prescribing or stigmatizing certain grammatical constructions whereas Mandarin consists of structural patterns. (Matthews and Yip 1996:4) Written Cantonese consists of many borrowed words and Cantonese expressions. Spoken and written Cantonese are a bit different. Its status has been increasing due to the economic development in Southern China, and the influence of films and pop songs (Matthews and Yip, 1996). 2.2 Second language Acquisition Second language acquisition refers to acquiring a language outside and inside the classroom and using the language as an important language other than a native language. It is different from foreign language learning since people may not have a chance to utter the foreign language in their usual practice. In this thesis, the second language (L2) refers to English, and the native language refers to Cantonese. Second language acquisition (SLA) consists of three stages. According to Schumann (1976), initiating factors such as acculturation, attitude and motivation, and ego-permeability are involved at the first stage. At the second stage, cognitive processes are involved. Learners have to undergo the processes of generalization, imitation, inference, analogy and rote memorization. At the third stage, learners can utter the target language, and the utterance is the so-called linguistic product. In order to learn more about SLA, studies such as contrastive analysis, error 3

12 analysis and interlanguage hypothesis are pre-requisites. 2.3 Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis Contrastive Analysis (CA) hypothesis consists of two versions- strong vs weak. Lado (1964:2) assumes that the student who comes in contact with a foreign language will find some features of it quite easy and others extremely difficult. Those elements that are similar to his native language will be easy for him and those elements that are different will be difficult.. Lado (1964:2) further states that teachers can get to know better the actual need in teaching from the comparison of the two languages and the predictions of errors. Dulay and Burt also outline the CA Hypothesis on the following two assumptions 1. Language learning is habit formation. 2. Where L2 and L1 differ, the old habit (using L1) hinders the formation of the new habit (learning L2). (Dulay and Burt 1972:237) The CA apriori is the strong version. It is neutral between comprehension and production. (Schachter 1974:213) It aims at predicting the difficulties that the learners may have. It is also called the predictive version. It can fill the loophole of the error analysis as the error analysis without apriori predictions simply fails to account for the avoidance phenomenon. (Schachter 1974:212). However, Eckman (1977) states that the strong form of the CA (CA apriori) could not predict accurately and correctly. Wardhaugh (1986 quoted in Robinett & Schachter, 1986: 7) has the same point on the CA apriori that the strong version is quite unrealistic and impracticable. James (1986, quoted in Robinett & Schachter, 1986:90) states that The predictions of student errors in L2 made by CA are not reliable.. In this sense, the CA aposteriori leaves room to develop the job of CA as it is based on production (Schachter 1974:213). The CA aposteriori is the weak version. Its function is to compare the construction of the target language with that of the first language with an aim of discovering the reasons of the occurrence of the errors (Schachter 1974:206). If the structures of the two languages are similar, learners will transfer his first language to the target language. However, if there is a big difference between the two languages, 4

13 learners will avoid using the new language structure or only use it extremely carefully (Schachter 1974:212). 2.4 Error Analysis Error Analysis can account for something that contrastive analysis cannot. Schachter states that the CA aposteriori hypothesis cannot give a clear picture of the situation of the second language acquisition, but the error analysis does since it provides evidence about how learners learn and apply the new language (Schachter 1974:213). Corder (1981:57) mentions that learners are likely to make errors when applying their language intuition in the target language learning. The non-standard English spoken by the West Indian Creole and French speaker is an example mentioned by Corder (1981). The construction of the target language is somehow influenced by their first language. Error Analysis is therefore used to compare the first language of the learner with the target language (Corder 1981:57). In addition, error analysis is the clinical approach to deal with the language problem (Corder 1981:29). It is a good tool to confirm and disprove the predictions of the theory on the issue of bilingual comparison, and a practical method for justifying the theory of transfer, and is also a part of methodology of the psycholinguistic investigation of language learning (Corder 1981:35). Schachter and Celce-Murcia (quoted in Robinett & Schachter, 1986:274) agree with Richards three-way classification of errors. They are (1) interference errors, (2) intralingual errors and (3) developmental errors. The interference errors are due to the influence of the first language on the usage of the second language with the condition of the difference of two languages. The intralingual errors refer to the language problems made because of the complicated rule of the language, learners from different language background made the same errors. The developmental errors refer to strategies by which the learner acquires the language. According to Corder (1981:5), there are two schools of thought on the issue of learners errors. One school mentions that errors were made because of the inappropriate teaching methods. However, the other school indicates that errors occur inevitably no matter how much effort is paid since we live in an imperfect world (Corder 1981:6). Corder (1981:8) states that learners will learn the second language when there is a motivation and exposure. He further explains that language input ( syllabus ) is huge, but the key point is how much and what 5

14 the learners select to learn ( a built-in syllabus ). Corder points out the difference between errors and mistakes. Errors are from the systematic process of language learning while mistakes are unsystematic and of no significance to the process of language learning (Corder 1981:10). Corder claims that errors can tell us how much language learners learn and the strategies for the language acquisition (Corder 1981:11). Duskova (quoted in Robinett & Schachter, 1986:219) indicates that his study about the Czech can show the interference from the first language on the errors in word order and syntactic formation of a sentence. Duskova (quoted in Robinett & Schachter, 1986:224) states that confusion of the grammar system of the target language is salient to the occurrence of the errors. He quotes an example from his study of Czech that errors in the forms of irregular verbs made by learners of Czech are mainly due to interference from other forms of the verb in English. Learners hence found it difficult to distinguish the correct word form. He explained in detail that this situation occurs because a learner internalizes first, are impressed on his mind as basic forms which he resorts to as substitutes for all other forms not yet adequately learned (Duskova, quoted in Robinett & Schachter, 1986:227). Schachter states the same point that errors are not only caused by the first language influence, but also the learning approaches the learner uses in the acquisition of the target language and the mutual interference of items within the target language. (Schachter 1974:206) 2.5 Interlanguage Hypothesis The term interlanguage (IL) was introduced by Selinker in Different linguists use different terms for interlanguage. James called it interlingua, Nemser called it approximative systems, and Corder named it transitional competence. No matter how many names there are for this term, interlanguage is the product of a complex interaction between the native language and target language grammars and universal principals underlying grammar construction. (Yip, 1995:3). It consists of the characteristics of the first language (L1) and the target language (L2). However, it is easy to see the major influence of the first language in the sentence structures of IL grammars (Yip, 1995:11). Corder (1981) states that there are not norms in interlanguages which are not used as a regular communication 6

15 among the society (p.68). As mentioned above, Nemser coins interlanguage as approximative system. Nemser (quoted in Nehls 1987:2) points out that an approximative system is the deviant linguistic system actually employed by the learner attempting to utilize the target language. The interchange of the first language and target language creates a new language; this is the interlanguage. Cook (2003) also describes the overlapping or shared area by two languages as the integration continuum or interlanguage. In fact, Adjemian (1976) indicates that there are three characteristics of interlanguage. Firstly, there is systematicity. Interlanguages are natural languages in which an internal consistency exists in the rule and feature system (Adjemian, 1976:301). Secondly, there is permeability of the developing grammar (Yip,1995:11). Learners only acquire partially the target grammar rules because their first language plays an important role in the IL grammar at different levels (Yip 1995:12). Adjemian (1976:308) states that Interlanguages (IL) are incomplete and in a state of flux. Their grammar is strange since learners internalize the target language and use it in their preference. Language transfer either positive or negative plays an important role. Stability is the third characteristic according to Adjemian. Fossilization and backsliding are the evidence of stability. Fossilization is the long term persistence of plateaus of non-target-like competence in the IL. (Selinker & Lakshamanan quoted in Gass and Selinker 1992:197). It occurs when the permeability disappeared in the IL. Selinker (1987, quoted in Nehls, 1987:17) states that fossilization is a psycholinguistic process in which people from different ages and educational levels make errors in the IL relevant to the TL with the influence of their NL. These phenomena occur when people are in a situation of anxiety, excitement or extreme relaxation. Fossilization can be the result of the five processes of language transfer, the transfer-of-training, strategies of second-language learning, strategies of second-language communication and overgeneralization. Gass (1979) agrees with Kellerman that language transfer occurs when two languages are too close together. Furthermore, the transfer-of 7

16 training occurs when learners transfer their language structure of L1 they learnt at school to their use of L2. (Selinker 1987, quoted in Nehls 1987:20). Selinker (quoted in Nehls 1987:20) raised an example of Serbo-Croation that there is no difference between he and she, but Serbo-Croatian speakers transfer what they learnt in their first language to English. Therefore, they use he for both he and she. In this sense, the language problem shows that they cannot distinguish the function of he and she in English, and it is the fozzilizable error. A strategy of second language learning (Selinker 1987, quoted in Nehls 1987:21) is common in the interlingual situations since learners simplify the structures of the target language and produce the interlanguage sentence structures. Selinker (quoted in Nehls 1987:22) indicates that this subconscious strategy is called cue-copying which is probability matching. The cue-copying was an experiment done by Crothers and Suppes (Selinker 1987 cited in Nehls 1987:22). Moreover, the strategy of second language communication is related to the strategy of second language learning. It emphasizes the past experience of the speaker (Selinker 1987 cited in Nehls 1987 :22). Selinker (cited in Nehls 1987) states that learners make the target language according to their experience and knowledge. Therefore, they are not very confident to produce the language. Hesitation and disconnection are involved in the communication. Overgeneralization occurs when a learner overuses the grammatical rules or structures (Selinker 1987 cited in Nehls 1987). To take an example, Where did he wanted to go? The past tense morpheme ed in the word wanted is not adequate in this question since did has already told the question in the form of the simple past tense. This kind of error is easy to find in the IL. We call it as overgeneralization. On the other hand, Adjemian (1976) states that backsliding shows the result of learners trying to utter the correct target language rule. Learners are aware of the correct form of the target language and try to apply the rule in the utterance. Adjemian regards that backsliding is evidence of a function in the IL which has almost lost its permeability. (Adjiemian 1976:317). 8

17 2.6 Language Transfer Selinker (1992) states that there is no need to distinguish any process for language transfer because learners pursue their linguistic knowledge to the new target language. Dulay and Burt (1972) agree with Selinker and raised the L2=L1 hypothesis. Selinker (1992) quotes Kellerman s suggestions that two interacting factors are involved in language transfer. One is the learner s perception of the nature of the L2, and the other is the degree of markedness of an L1 structure (Gass and Selinker 1992:8). These two factors will be discussed in detail in the later part of this section. However, Odlin has his own perception on language transfer. He states that cross-linguistic influence is also known as language transfer. (Odlin, 1989:1). He classifies the outcomes of language transfer in terms of positive and negative. Positive transfer refers to any facilitating effects on acquisition due to the influence of cross-linguistic similarities whereas negative transfer refers to cross-linguistic influences resulting in errors, over-production, miscomprehension, and other effects that constitute a divergence between the behaviour of native and non-native speakers of a language (Odlin, 1989: 167). Transfer is the influence resulting from similarities and differences between the target language and any other languages that has been previously (and perhaps imperfectly) acquired. (Odlin, 1989:27). In his definition, native language influence is not the only factor for language transfer. He states that when languages mix, native language, borrowing and code-switching are involved. On the issue of borrowing, he mentions borrowing transfer and substratum transfer. Borrowing transfer refers to the influence a second language has on a previously acquired language whereas substratum transfer is the type of cross-linguistic influence investigated in most studies of second language acquisition; such transfer involves the influence of a source language (typically, the native language of a learner) on the acquisition of a target language. (Odlin, 1989:12). The difference between borrowing transfer and substratum transfer is that borrowing transfer focuses on lexicon but substratum transfer on syntax and pronunciation. 9

18 According to Yip and Matthews (2000), language transfer can still occur even though bilingual children learn two different languages at the same time. The main factor is that the ambiguity of input is an impetus to the language transfer. Learners utter the target language with the knowledge of their L1 when they find any difficulties in applying the certain target language rule or form or when their knowledge in L2 is too ambiguous Transfer Hypothesis Schachter proposes a hypothesis on the language transfer. The hypothesis is that the learner infers from previous knowledge, the domain within the universe from which the solution to the current target language problem will be taken. (Schachter 1992 cited in Gass and Selinker 1992:38). There are three outcomes from this hypothesis. Firstly, the learner may choose the wrong domain because the domain of the native language of the learner is the relevant domain for the second language. (p.38). Secondly, the outcome is the correct domain and the correct hypothesis. The native and target language structures are identical and the learner has recognised the fact. It is an example of positive transfer. Thirdly, the outcome is the correct domain but the wrong hypothesis. Learners are correctly equating the relevant domains of the native and target languages but the hypothesis is assumed to be appropriate for the native language but not for the target language. Then, transfer error or negative transfer occurs.(p.38) Language Transfer: The Role of Mother Tongue Corder (1992, cited in Gass and Selinker, 1992) states that the mother tongue system is not for the syntax acquisition of the second language, but for the phonological acquisition. However, mother tongue still plays an important role in the syntax acquisition. He indicates that pidgin is a good example since people use their linguistic knowledge of mother tongue and the target language word to communicate. Borrowing is involved in the process of forming pidgin. In fact, the syntax structure of pidgin is not as complicated as that of the mother tongue. In addition, pidgin is a kind of interlanguage as the language structures are from neither the mother tongue nor the target language. In this sense, he claims that this syntax acquisition is called a developmental continuum in which learners 10

19 learn or use the target language step by step in the learning process. According to the study about syntactic transfer conducted by Chan (2004) in Hong Kong, she found that many Chinese ESL learners including those at the advanced level as well tend to think in Chinese (L1) first before writing the sentences in English. The syntactic transfer is influenced by the mother tongue (L1). Furthermore, a psychological factor is involved in the process. That learners have different perceptions of languages may affect the language transfer. This is similar to what Andersen (1983) states that transfer is like a filter that can choose what L2 input learners need. The closer the language structures, the more facilitative effect of the mother tongue can be. Therefore, mother tongue can facilitate the communication and even the language acquisition when the structures of two languages are similar Language Transfer: Relationship with Contrastive Analysis The relationship between language transfer and contrastive analysis is close. As mentioned above, Lado (1964) states that it is easy for learners to learn the target language if it is similar to the mother tongue. Ard and Homburg (1992, cited in Gass and Selinker 1992:47) agree that transfer always occurs under the conditions of greater similarities between lexical items of a target language and an L1. White (1992, cited in Gass and Selinker 1992:217) states that if the L1 and the L2 share a parameter setting, this might be expected to offer an advantage to the language learner, and lead to some kind of positive transfer, if the L1 and L2 settings differ, some form of negative transfer be expected. 2.7 Non-structural factors in transfer Language transfer vs Avoidance In language learning, avoidance is a very common strategy that learners would like to adopt to make the communication done. Like language transfer, avoidance involves the first language, the second language or more languages the learners can master. However, there is one thing which can distinguish language transfer and avoidance. It is the fact that Avoidance does not necessarily, or even normally, result in error, but in the underrepresentation of certain traits in the 11

20 learner s performance in a second language (Laufer and Eliasson 1993:36). As mentioned above, learners make errors in negative transfer, but learners try not to make errors by applying other simple language structures. Therefore, Laufer and Eliasson (1993:36) state that Avoidance is not to be equated with ignorance. The study done by Laufer and Eliasson (1993) shows that L1-L2 difference is the most possible situation that the avoidance occurs in L2 learning because learners avoid using the target language structure which does not occur in the learners native language. Furthermore, inherent complexity also contributes to avoidance: when learners find that the target language structure is too difficult and complicated, they will choose not to use this structure, and use the simpler structure instead. In this sense, learners take their own choices when using the target language structures. Avoidance but not ignorance occurs if the target structure is not familiar to them. 2.8 Analysis of the development of tense and aspect in L2 Salaberry and Shirai (2002:2) state that tense tells when an event happens, concerning some other time as well. According to Weist (cited in Salaberry and Shirai 2002:23), there are two concepts on tense. They are (1) deictic tense and (2) relative tense. Deictic or Absolute tense refers to a relationship between moment of speech (S) and moment of event (E) where E before S defines past, E simultaneous (simul) with S indicates present, and E after S specifies future (Comrie 1990: ). Relative tense refers to a relationship between ET and reference time (RT) and absolute tense. The past perfect and the present perfect are the examples. (Comrie 1990: ). Klein (1994:16) states that aspect concerns the different perspectives which a speaker can take and express with regard to the temporal course of some event, action, process, etc. Aspect can be also shown by the internal meanings of the verb and its connection with the message one wants to present via the constructions of the verbal endings. (Dowty 1986; Smith 1991;Tenny 1994; Verkuyl 1994 quoted in Salaberry and Shirai, 2002:2). Salaberry and Shirai (quoted in Salaberry and Shirai, 2002:2) point out that the former explanation of aspect mentioned above is called lexical or situation aspect while the latter one 12

21 grammatical or viewpoint aspect. In order to know the changing of verb forms, the lexical aspect is salient since some verbs are static, action etc. It is important to know the reason why some verbs are kept in the same form in the speech time but some are not. For the viewpoint aspect, it shows the presentations of the events. If the event has finished, the verb is presented in the perfective viewpoint. Furthermore, when it is in a part of a situation, imperfective viewpoint is involved. In addition, when the event or the action is flexible, neutral viewpoint is involved. (Salaberry and Shirai, 2002:23) According to Quirk and Greenbaum (1973), the definitions of tense and aspect are much easier to understand. Details are as follows. Tense is a universal, non-linguistic concept with three divisions: past, present, and future; by tense we understand the correspondence between the form of the verb and our concept of time. Aspect concerns the manner in which the verbal action is experienced or regarded (for example as completed or in progress). (Quirk and Greenbaum 1973:40) Tenses--Present The present tense is used to indicate (i) the general truth. e.g. Water boils at 100ªC. The sun rises from the east. There are four seasons. (ii) facts of personal preference e.g. Diana loves chocolate. Kevin hates dancing. Zoe enjoys reading English newspapers. (iii) Routine activities e.g. I wake up at 7 in the morning and go to bed at 11 at night. I go to the English Club once a week. I go to the gym on Wednesdays and Saturdays. 13

22 2.8.2 Tense-Past The past tense is used to indicate (i) an activity or an action happened in the past. e.g. I went to England last year. We had a house-warming party last weekend. (ii) an old habit in the past e.g. I used to play computer games when I was young. I used to sleep less in those days The future There is no future tense in English but the future events can be expressed in a several ways. (i) with will / shall e.g. I will see you next week. Shall we have lunch tomorrow? (ii) with the simple present to talk about plans, programmes, fixed schedules or future events e.g. The flight lands at 8:30 in the evening. The first exam starts from next Monday to next Friday according to the school calendar. The EMB staff have the school visit next month. (iii) with the present progressive to talk a future event which is planned in the present. e.g. I am having a meeting with my boss tomorrow. Diana is coming to Hong Kong next Wednesday. (iv) with be going to + infinitive to talk an activity or an event which is likely to happen. e.g. Zoe and Rebecca are going to London next month. I m going to take a pottery course in summer. (v) with be to + infinitive to express an arrangement or command in the 14

23 e.g. future. Charles and Mary are to be married soon. You are to submit your work by Tuesday. (vi) e.g. with be about to + infinitive to express something in the near future. The listening test is about to begin. The bus is coming, we are about to go Future time in the past We can talk about the future events in the past with the use of the past tense. (i) be going to + infinitive e.g. I told her that I was going to meet her in an hour. (ii) Past progressive e.g. Jade was coming back from Shanghai the next day. (iii) be to + infinitive e.g. The concert was to be held the following month. (iv) be about to e.g. Judy was about to sign the contract Aspect There are two aspects in the verb phrase, the progressive and the perfective. The progressive aspect is expressed by a form of be followed by a verb in the present participle, whereas the perfective aspect is expressed by a form of have followed by a verb in the past participle Aspect Progressive The progressive / continuous tense is used to indicate an activity or an action which is happening at the time of speaking or in the limited duration The Present Progressive The Present Progressive is used to indicate (a) a future plan, (b) an action happening now or in the near future and (c) an action with dynamic transitional verbs (e.g. arrive, come, take, go, land, start, stop, etc.) (a) Yuki is coming back to Hong Kong in summer. 15

24 (b) My sister is cooking the food in the kitchen now / later. (c) The train is arriving in 10 minutes The Past Progressive Similar to the present progressive, the past progressive is used to indicate (a) an action happening at the time of speaking but in the past, (b) the sequence of events in the past, (c) an incomplete action and (d) a past temporal habit. e.g. (a) Sam was watching a movie at 10 o clock last night. (b) Mum was cooking in the kitchen when the bell rang. (c) (i) Lilian was writing an essay yesterday afternoon. (This sentence implies that Lilian did not finish the essay; the action is incomplete) (ii) Lilian wrote an essay yesterday afternoon. (This sentence implies that Lilian finished the essay; the action is complete.) (d) At that time, Mr Chan was drinking 5 bottles of beer every day The Perfect Progressive The perfect progressive is used to indicate a recent activity /action which continues to happen without mentioning the ending. e.g. Richard has been drawing a picture for two hours. (This sentence implies that Richard has drawn a picture for two hours, and he is still doing it.) Progressive with will/ shall The auxiliary verb construction can be used together with the progressive infinitive to denote a future-as-a-matter-of-course : will/ shall + be + V-ing. (Quirk and Greenbaum, 1973:49). e.g. Leon will be preparing his concert next month. (This sentence interprets what Leon will do next month specifically.) 16

25 Aspect Perfect The perfective aspect indicates that an action which started in the past has an influence at the time of speaking. The action may have been finished or be still happening Present Perfect The present perfect indicates an event which took place in the immediate past. e.g. You are a bit late, the train has just gone. Remarks: The present perfect cannot be used with adverbials of definite past. e.g. Wrong: (i) I have finished the essay last night. (ii) Mary has just called you yesterday Past Perfect The past perfect is used to tell the sequence of actions in the past. e.g. Sam went to the canteen after he had his work done. (This sentence tells us that the completion of the work is the first action, whereas the action of going to the canteen is the second action. The past perfect can distinguish past events in a clear order.) 2.9 Conclusions After reviewing the literature related to second language learning, and theories related to the issue and definitions of tense and aspect, one may notice that it is not easy to explain the reasons why learners make errors in the language learning. Many factors are involved. In addition, the knowledge of tense and aspect in English is not easy for Cantonese secondary students. This study will address the research questions with the concepts and theories mentioned above. 17

26 Chapter 3--- Methodology After the literature review on the SLA, I will outline the purpose of the research, research questions, procedure, subjects and data in this chapter. 3.1 Purpose of the research After teaching English in a secondary school for a few years, I began to wonder why students always make errors in their writing. In fact, secondary school students have been learning English for at least 10 years. However, no matter which forms students study in, they make errors in English from time to time. All teachers in my school want to help our students improve their poor English level. Many pre-examination preparations and post-examination remedies have been carried out to deal with the students language problem, but the problem has not really been solved. This is always a topic of meetings, and almost all teachers feel frustrated and disappointed with the results. Therefore, the present study aims at investigating the reasons why secondary school students make errors on tense and aspect in their writing, and at finding out some thoughts to improve their English learning in an effective way. 3.2 Research questions / hypothesis It is assumed that errors made by the subjects are due to the L1 influence (Cantonese), and the higher forms the students study in, the fewer errors they make. With the above assumptions, the two research questions are: 1. Are the errors of verb-forms in English made by Cantonese-speaking secondary school students mainly due to the influence of their mother tongue? 2. Are errors made fewer and fewer as learners learn more and more? 3.3 Subjects Three groups of subjects participated in this research. They are from Forms One, Four and Six in a Band 2 CMI secondary school. The abilities are mixed in each group, but they are distinguished as the elementary, intermediate and advanced 18

27 levels in the school. The elementary group consists of 30 Form One students, the intermediate group 31 Form Four students, and the advanced group 16 students. All of them are native speakers of Cantonese and no one declares English as their mother tongue. Subjects from these three forms were chosen because comprehensive findings on the research issue can be done. Furthermore, since the author does not teach the intermediate and advanced groups, it is really with the help of the author s colleagues that the author got data (students free-writing texts) from Forms Four and Six. 3.4 Data The data were collected from 30 free-writing texts from the elementary group, 31 from the intermediate group, and 14 free-writing texts of every 16 students in the advanced group in the academic year of a Band 2 CMI secondary school in Causeway Bay. The data from the advanced group are collected from students portfolio. It is a kind of the mini-longitudinal study for the advanced group. A series of free-writing texts from the smaller number of the advanced group could ensure the credibility of this study when compared to the larger number of students in the elementary and intermediate groups. The collected data were the primary source from the students free-writing texts at the school the author works in. The errors made by the Cantonese-speaking secondary school students were authentic. The lists of sample sentences from the elementary, intermediate and advanced groups are shown in appendix 1, 2 and 3 respectively. The manuscripts of subjects in these three groups are shown in appendix 4, 5 and Method Since it is impossible to find out the best approach empirically and logically (Blaxter, Hughes and Tight 2001), the author decided to apply a qualitative paradigm in this study. Students free-writing texts at three levels were collected from the school the author works in. Observation is the research technique applied in this study. Purposive sampling has been applied in the data selection because the data which are typical or interesting has been chosen (Blaxter, Hughes and Tight 2001:163) 19

28 3.6 Procedure Data were collected from Form One first and attention was paid to the errors made by the elementary subjects. The author observed that subjects in this group made errors in different grammar items such as gerund, prepositions, agreement, tense and aspect. As students have been learning tense and aspect since primary school, the author was intrigued to see that subjects made errors on this issue from time to time and decided to find out the reasons. The data were therefore collected from Forms 4 and 6 in order to see if the subjects in these two groups made the same kind of errors. The following steps will give readers a clear picture of how to deal with the collected data. (1) identify errors (2) categorize errors (3) analyze errors (4) evaluate errors (5) correct errors. 3.7 Conclusion This chapter has provided readers with clear procedures about working on the collected data of the study. The next chapter will show the data analysis with the four main types of errors made by subjects. A section on evaluation, coming in the later part of the next chapter, presents the most common errors and explanations. 20

29 Chapter 4 Data Analysis 4.1 Four types of errors Inappropriate verb form It is very common to find the errors in an inappropriate verb form in all three groups. The sample sentences are as follows. 1. Last week, we have the Chinese Valentine s Day and Western Valentine s Day. 2. The day was to commemorate Valentine who revolt the tyranny. 3. She live in Kowloon. 4. City Plaza was located in Tai Koo Shing. 5. School finish at half past three. 6. When I am six years old, I uses this name until now. 7. I ve been there for a year ago. In samples (1), (2), (4) and (7), the verbs should be in the simple past tense. In sample (3), s should be added at the end of the verb because of the third person singular. In sample (6), the case is a bit complicated. Since should be used instead of When. The verb am should be was because he/she is no longer six years old now, the simple past tense should be used. uses should be have been using because the student has used this name for a couple of years, he is still using it now and will use it even in the future, so the perfect continuous tense should be used Misunderstanding of the nature of words This kind of error was usually found in the advanced group. Here are the samples. 8.Some teenagers dead in the cyber cafes. 9.The number of birds was suddenly increase in sham Shui Po. 10.I have a little bit not satisfied of the ending. (Here, the error shows that the subject misunderstood satisfied as a verb, so he used have instead of am.) 11.Disneyland is belong to overseas as they culture different. 12.However, this action is not work. 13.As we know that Tsang Yam Kwan was succeeded to be the Chief Executive of Hong Kong. 21

30 14. Joan is come from Hebrew and France s fabie. 15. It is mean god s gracious gift. In sample (8), the word dead is an adjective, but students used it as a verb. Students should change dead to died. In samples (9), (11), (12), (13) and (14), students should omit the copular verb verb to be and just use increased, belongs, succeeded, comes and means. In sample (10), this kind of error can show the influence of Cantonese because there are no different forms of Cantonese words. To take one more word, jealous, as an example,, the same Chinese word is used in the form of verb and noun and only di 的 is added at the end when the word is used as an adjective Wrong verb-form after the modal word 16. I think a God s gift can makes people happy. 17. How could it happened? In samples (16) and (17), the bare-infinitive should be used after the modal words can and could. From an observation, students made this kind of errors because they overgeneralize the form of the tenses. In sample (16), the sentence is in the simple present tense, students are used to adding s at the end of the verb because of the third person singular or the singular countable noun. In sample (17), the student overgeneralized the usage of the simple past tense. The student added ed for the verb happen because the sentence was written in the simple past tense, but the modal verb could is also the past tense of can Wrong aspect 18. Did you go to cyber café before? 19.Does Hong Kong suicides rate reach an alarming level? 20. I think that Deal had experienced what he will never thought before. 21. I ve been there for a year ago. 22. In 2005, it has happened many events. 23. The 6 th WTO has taken place in Hong Kong, it starts from 13 th December this week. 22

31 In sample (18), the present perfect tense should be used because the objective of this question is to ask if people have been to the cyber café before, that is something in the perfective condition. It is also the same case in sample (19) as well, the present perfect tense should be used for this question. There are no time phrases such as yesterday, two years ago etc. in the question. The simple past tense should not be used. Therefore, the correct sentence for the sample (18) and (19) should be (18a) Have you been to cyber café before? (19a) Has Hong Kong suicidal rate reached an alarming level? In sample sentence (20), the past perfect should be used because the past perfect is used for the experience that Deal had, and the experience is out of his expectation, it is possible to use the past perfect to refer to something happened earlier than the past action. Therefore, the correct sentence for the sample (20) should be (20a) I think that Deal had experienced what he had never thought before. In sample sentences (21) and (22), perfect aspect should not be used as the time phrases such as ago and 2005 were written in the sentences, the simple past tense should be used. In addition, the 6 th WTO was finished when the writer wrote it in the writing, simple past tense should be used in sample sentence (23) as well. The correct forms of the above sentences are follows. (21a) I went there a year ago. (22a) In 2005, many events happened. (23a) The 6 th WTO took place in Hong Kong, it started from 13 th December this week. 4.2 Evaluation of errors The errors of inappropriate verb form are the most common in the collected data. Subjects in all three forms made this kind of errors. Most of them did not change the verb-form in the simple past tense, and add s at the end of the verbs in the simple present. This kind of error can be called an intralingual error. The wrong aspect is the second most common error. Subjects in Form 4 and 6 made this error 23

32 most since the content of their writing is richer than that of the junior form. This kind of error can be distinguished as interference error because the native language (L1) influence. Furthermore, students overgeneralized their knowledge on tense, so they used the wrong verb-form after the modal verb. The error as a result of overgeneralization can be distinguished as a developmental error. In addition, the error of misunderstanding the nature of words is also the result of overgeneralization as subjects did not distinguish between the nature of words and utter them without changing the word form as noun, verb or adjective. This kind of error not only can be distinguished as a developmental error but also as an interference error since the native language (L1) influence is involved. 4.3 Conclusion This chapter has listed the main errors made by the subjects and has also given readers clear explanations for the errors. There is no doubt that errors are due to the L1 influence and the interlanguage influence. The next chapter will interpret the results and answer the research questions with the findings. 24