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Errors in tense and aspect in the compositions of secondary school pupils
Author
Yap, Dennis Swee Beng
Supervisor
Lubna Alsagoff
Abstract
This thesis is an investigation of tense and aspect errors in compositions of Singapore secondary students from a lexical semantic perspective. In particular, it seeks to provide a systematic understanding of the differences in the marking of tense-aspect in Singapore English writing through a quantitative investigation that examines data in relation to the Aspect Hypothesis (AH). The AH examines the acquisition of tense and aspect errors in relation to the meaning of verbs, in particular, meanings which are related to how the verb denotes an event, i.e. its lexical aspect. In acquisition literature, it predicts that a learner will acquire and appropriately use morphological tense-aspect marking for telic verbs (i.e. achievements and accomplishments) before atelic verbs (i.e. states and activities) (Salaberry and Shirai 2002, Andersen and Shirai 1996, Bardovi-Harlig 2000). From this, it was extrapolated that as learners first acquire the use of past marking and/or perfective marking on telic verbs, learners will less frequently make errors in past and perfective marking among telic verbs. Conversely, learners are expected to make past and perfective marking errors more frequently among atelic verbs. In this study, we formulate and test the hypothesis that aspectual classes of verbs can explain patterns of errors in past tense and perfective marking.
The following are the research questions to the study.
1. What are the patterns of errors in tense and aspect in the compositions of secondary school students?
2. What are the possible explanations to these errors in tense and aspect?
3. What are the pedagogical implications for teachers in Singapore in view of these types of errors in tense and aspect in the compositions of secondary school students?
The results of the study were positive, with both sub-hypotheses (H1a) and (H1b) being validated and the main hypothesis (H1) has been validated with clear significance. What this means is that aspectual classes of verbs (i.e. State, Activity, Accomplishment and Achievement) can explain the patterns of errors in tense and perfective aspect marking.
This study is significant for a number of reasons. First, it demonstrates that what has often been attributed to L1 influence is actually universal in pattern. Secondly, the study demonstrates that the variation is consistent - i.e. that pupils are making systematic errors related to a universal tendency to equate meaning with structure. Thirdly, the study has vast pedagogical implications.
The following are the research questions to the study.
1. What are the patterns of errors in tense and aspect in the compositions of secondary school students?
2. What are the possible explanations to these errors in tense and aspect?
3. What are the pedagogical implications for teachers in Singapore in view of these types of errors in tense and aspect in the compositions of secondary school students?
The results of the study were positive, with both sub-hypotheses (H1a) and (H1b) being validated and the main hypothesis (H1) has been validated with clear significance. What this means is that aspectual classes of verbs (i.e. State, Activity, Accomplishment and Achievement) can explain the patterns of errors in tense and perfective aspect marking.
This study is significant for a number of reasons. First, it demonstrates that what has often been attributed to L1 influence is actually universal in pattern. Secondly, the study demonstrates that the variation is consistent - i.e. that pupils are making systematic errors related to a universal tendency to equate meaning with structure. Thirdly, the study has vast pedagogical implications.
Date Issued
2006
Call Number
PE1460 Yap
Date Submitted
2006