Understanding and Interpreting Data on the Learning of English Tenses and Verb Forms: A Research-Based Resource Book for the Teaching of English as a Second Language

By Jason Miin-Hwa Lim

Guiding learners to acquire sufficient knowledge of grammar constitutes an interesting domain in the field of teaching English as a second language. This research-based resource book focuses on the learning of English tenses and verbal categories, which forms a huge and fascinating component of English grammar that merits attention in teachers’ attempts to improve their students’ English proficiency. Inspired by concepts relating to explicit learning, consciousness raising, contrastive analysis and error analysis, the author used a wealth of data derived from a set of elicitation procedures to reveal the linguistic interference encountered by second language learners. Arguing for the need to conceptualise grammatical rules positively, this inquiry focuses on studying learners’ wide-ranging responses to a large number of items designed to explore linguistic interference in the learning of English verb forms in eight major categories. The findings, explanations and illustration-based recommendations provided in this volume will give trainee teachers, instructors and researchers deeper insights into how strategies can be aptly employed to enhance learners’ performance in using English verb forms and related grammatical categories, which constitute a key dimension in the learning and teaching of English as a second language.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing Singapore
• Release date: Jan 8, 2021
• ISBN: 9781543762464

Jason Miin-Hwa Lim

Jason Miin-Hwa Lim is Full Professor of English and Linguistics at the University of Malaysia Sabah. He has published extensively, and was a Fulbright Research Scholar at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Lim is an Editorial Board Member of Journal of English for Academic Purposes (Elsevier).

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Copyright © 2020 by Jason Miin-Hwa Lim.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

It gives me great pleasure to thank some individuals for their contributions in the process of completing this book. Many thanks go to Professor Dr. Hajar Abdul Rahim, Dr. Wang Yoon Yah, and other reviewers appointed by Partridge Publishing Singapore, who have provided numerous useful comments and suggestions that have a significant impact on the contents and quality of this book. I would like to thank Elsevier for the permission to re-use some materials in the papers that I have published as the first and corresponding author.

Let me thank the University of Malaysia Sabah (UMS) for providing a generous research grant (SDK0248-2020) which has made it possible for me to publish this book. I appreciate the valuable grant awarded to me for attaining the highest count in Scopus-indexed journal citations in the Arts category. Special thanks should also be extended to the University of Science Malaysia, University of Malaya and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor for giving me the opportunities to access a large number of related resources and references at their libraries.

I have great joy thanking the gracious God for giving me wisdom and strength to complete this book. My deepest gratitude goes to my parents Lim Siew Tyan and Chan Suet Chin, whose wisdom and understanding have inspired me over the years.

I would also like to thank my wife Irene Tan Ah Lean for being patient, supportive and considerate throughout these years when I was attempting to complete this volume. I am indebted to my beloved daughters Joanna Lim Wei Li and Jessica Lim Wei Zhen who had to bear my absence and neglect while I was crafting the different parts of this book.

To my beloved students and respondents who provided valuable responses to all my questions in this investigation, I wish to express my heart-felt gratitude. It is also my hope that this book can be of much use to teachers and learners of English as a second language.

SYNOPSIS

Guiding learners to acquire sufficient knowledge of grammar constitutes an interesting domain in the field of teaching English as a second language (TESL). It is a major and fascinating component in view of (i) the numerous opportunities that instructors can possibly use to aptly handle the enormous challenges facing them in a language classroom, and (ii) the possibility of using a broad range of teaching strategies to maximise learners’ performance in learning English grammar. This book, in particular, focuses on the learning of English tenses and verbal categories, a huge and stimulating component of English grammar that merits massive attention in a teacher’s attempt to enhance students’ acquisition of the English language.

Based on my experience in teaching English in a second language context, I am convinced that a host of problems can be resolved if sufficient attention is focused on the factors affecting the acquisition of the target language. The difficulties faced by students can be significantly minimised if adequate attention is directed to the effects of language interference, teaching materials, techniques of teaching grammar, learner characteristics (including learners’ aptitudes and attitudes towards language learning), instructors’ knowledge and competence, and variations in learning situations. In relation to these factors, this book focuses on the first few aspects, thus highlighting the extent to which language interference can possibly provide us with pertinent information on how to design our teaching materials and adjust our techniques of teaching grammar in the second language learning situation.

This book is not over-ambitious in making a claim about the exhaustiveness in considering all the factors influencing the learning of English verb forms, and I do not claim that grasping the ways in which the learning of grammar is interfered by a learner’s first language or target language will help us resolve all problems associated with grammar acquisition. Nevertheless, based on the findings reported in my past research into English tenses, it appears reasonable to suggest that comprehending how learners’ first language interferes with the acquisition of English verb forms is likely to help us come up with useful strategies for (i) overcoming the difficulties in distinguishing the correct verb form(s) to be used in a situation from other erroneous verb forms, and (ii) minimising learners’ confusion with the numerous functions of English verbal categories. More importantly, it is often wrongly assumed that teaching English grammar without using any words from the learners’ first language is always the best way to encourage students to learn grammar, especially in a subconscious manner. However, most learners of English as a second language do not acquire English grammar subconsciously and informally through extensive exposure to the target language. The limited exposure of many learners to the use of English on different social occasions, in particular, has made it difficult for learners to acquire English grammar subconsciously in informal settings. This book therefore argues that apart from encouraging students to learn English grammar subconsciously, it is essential to use a broad range of strategies to raise learners’ consciousness via explicit explanation and illustration of the intralingual and interlingual differences. It is often through the ‘additional’ and ‘conscious’ learning of English verb forms that students can effectively familiarise themselves with English grammar. It is also argued here that the learning of English verbal categories, which generally constitute the predicators of sentences, that instructors will be able to simultaneously facilitate the learning of other related language elements, including the subjects, objects, complement and adverbial of a sentence.

Given that this book discusses the linguistic factors causing errors in the second language acquisition of the verb forms in English, much of the explanation in this book need to be based on my research data published in the last two decades. Some data has been used to account for the errors which might have occurred interlingually and intralingually among Asian learners of English. In other words, the data cited as examples in this monograph originates primarily from my research into second language learners’ actual responses to pre-structured multiple-choice items and information on the subjects’ feedback and attitudes related to the use of English verb forms. More specifically, percentages of errors made in the use of the verbal categories were analysed and explained by (i) identifying the differences between the subjects’ mother tongue and the target language, (ii) considering the subjects’ tendency to use certain verb forms in various situations, and (iii) referring to the rules governing the use of different verb forms in English. My findings suggest that both interlingual and intralingual errors are prevalent in the second language acquisition of the verbal categories, and such errors can be ascribed to cross-linguistic differences in the use of verb phrases, confusion arising from the complexities in the English verb forms, and the subjects’ general ignorance of a large number of rules governing the use of the English verb forms. On the basis of these errors, recommendations are made on how to overcome difficulties resulting from cross-linguistic differences and intralingual interference in the domains of grammatical rules and verb forms. This book, in particular, recommends that apart from using a three-column table (which is normally a conventional way of specifying the three forms of each verb), English language instructors could (i) use a five-column table which specifies distinctly the relation between main verbs and auxiliary verbs in the process of teaching English verbal categories, and (ii) draw on comparisons and contrasts of the rules governing the use of the verb forms concerned to raise learners’ awareness of the functions of the forms concerned. Such comparisons may be done by using abbreviations signifying the meanings of rules and employing appropriate time lines that clearly illustrate the differences of the rules concerned.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Synopsis

Abbreviations And Notations

Chapter 1: Language Learning, Interference And Grammatical Errors

1.1 Introduction

1.2 Understanding Second Language Acquisition

1.3 Second Language or Foreign Language

1.4 Advocating Meaningful Explicit and Implicit Learning

1.5 Transfer and Interference

1.6 Interlingual Errors

1.7 Intralingual Errors

1.8 Previous Methods of Analysing Learners’ Errors

1.9 Contrastive Analysis

1.10 Interlanguage and Contrastive Analysis

1.11 Error Analysis and Related Elicitation Procedures

1.12 Studying Grammar in Context

1.13 Methods, Approaches and Instructional Strategies

1.14 Malaysian English and Tense Usage

1.15 Research Questions Relating to English Verb Forms

1.16 Rationale for Conducting a Study of English Verb Forms

Chapter 2: Learning The English Tense System And Verb Forms

2.1 Introduction

2.2 The English Tense System

2.3 Lack of Agreement on Definite Relationships between Tense and Time

2.4 Introducing English Verb Forms to Second Language Learners

2.5 Morpheme Order Research and the Learning of English Verb Forms

2.6 The Aspect Hypothesis in the Learning of English Verb Forms

2.7 The Grammatical Aspect

2.8 The Lexical Dimension

2.9 Further Explanations about Stative Verbs

2.10 General Principles in Tense-Aspect Morphology and the Need for Grammaticality Judgement Tests

Chapter 3: Selected Procedures For Analysing Errors In Verb Forms

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Research Design for Studying English Verb Forms

3.3 Instruments Used in the Study

3.4 Subjects Involved in the Study

3.5 Procedure for Collecting Data

3.6 Procedure for Analysing Data

Chapter 4: Interpreting Data In The Learning Of English Tenses And Verb Forms

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Validity of the Instrument

4.3 Reliability of the Instrument

4.4 Learners’ Choices in Items Requiring the Use of the Simple Present

4.5 Learners’ Choices in Items Requiring the Use of the Present Continuous

4.6 Learners’ Choices in Items Requiring the Use of the Simple Past

4.7 Learners’ Choices in Items Requiring the Use of the Past Continuous

4.8 Learners’ Choices in Items Requiring the Use of the Present Perfect

4.9 Learners’ Choices in Items Requiring the Use of the Present Perfect Continuous

4.10 Learners’ Choices in Items Requiring the Use of the Past Perfect

4.11 Learners’ Choices in Items Requiring the Use of the Past Perfect Continuous

4.12 The Subjects’ Feedback and Attitudes

4.13 Summary of the Subjects’ Responses

Chapter 5: Interference And Recommendations On The Teaching Of English Tenses And Verb Forms

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Interlingual Interference in the Learning of English Tenses and Verb Forms

5.3 Intralingual Interference and Rules Governing the Use of English Tenses and Verb Forms

5.4 Intralingual Interference and Learners’ Confusion with Tenses and Verb Forms in English

5.5 Reflections on Interlingual and Intralingual Errors

5.6 Recommendations on the Learning of English Tenses and Verb Forms

5.7 Possible Avenues for Further Research

References

Appendices

ABBREVIATIONS AND NOTATIONS

(Note: Detailed explanations on the abbreviations for the rules governing the use of verbal categories are given in Tables 3.1 through 3.8.)

CHAPTER ONE

LANGUAGE LEARNING, INTERFERENCE

AND GRAMMATICAL ERRORS

1.1 Introduction

This book deals with an interesting area concerning the second language learning of grammar, focusing in particular on some useful information that could be meaningfully elicited from learners in the process of learning English tenses and verb forms. To argue for the need to use some practical strategies for helping second language learners to acquire English verbal categories, I will first review several concepts pertaining to second language acquisition and explain how researchers currently deal with second language data using different approaches. Subsequently, attention will be directed to the importance of looking at the learning of grammar in context. I will argue for the need to consider rules in relation to context, and the necessity to place adequate emphasis on both meaningful explicit learning and implicit learning. Given the explanation about how these two types of learning take place, I will subsequently focus on how instructors and researchers can possibly gauge the extent to which learners have encountered problems by analysing their errors using various approaches. Attention will then be devoted to interlingual and intralingual errors which may be studied using contrastive analysis, error analysis and/or other related procedures. Looking further into these procedures, some grammaticality judgment tests will be recommended as a way to reveal specific problems encountered by learners in second language acquisition of grammar, particularly English tenses and verb forms. Overall, the major concern of this book is associated with how teachers of English as a second language can (i) possibly be exposed to the strengths and weaknesses of the different approaches to studying learners’ second language data, and (ii) whether a more objective stance can be adopted while analysing and using the wealth of information derived from practical elicitation procedures.

1.2 Understanding Second Language Acquisition

Second language acquisition has been defined as (i) the process of learning a language which is subsequent to the learning of the learners’ first language (as young children), or (ii) the study of individuals and groups who are learning the second language (Saville-Troike, 2012). The notion of a learner’s ‘first language’ differs from that of the learner’s native language. A person’s native language may not necessarily be his/her first language at a certain point in time. This explains why difficulty often arises when some individuals are required to identify exactly what their native language actually is. Such a question is problematic for individuals whose relative fluency has shifted from their former first language (which used to be their native language) to a language learned (target language) at a later part of their life (Saville-Troike, 2012, p. 11). This explains why it is sometimes more appropriate to compare learners’ target language with their first language, rather than their native language, unless their native language or mother tongue remains to be their first language during the process of learning a second language.

Understanding second language acquisition requires some fundamental knowledge about how a second or foreign language is learnt. This requires a notion of the debatable difference between second language learning and second language acquisition. On the one hand, second language learning engages both awareness of the object of learning and the intention to learn it, and the outcome is likely to be some explicit knowledge (VanPatten & Williams, 2015a). This means that second language learning requires gaining explicit knowledge about language (e.g., rules on tenses and the related patterns). Learning may take place regardless of whether the medium of instruction is the target language (e.g., English) or the learners’ first language (e.g., Malay or Chinese). Language learning is therefore a conscious and deliberate process undertaken with the learner’s intention to learn. On the other hand, second language acquisition is indeliberate, subconscious or largely ‘unconscious’. Acquisition occurs as a by-product of appropriate and meaningful input in a comfortable environment, thus resulting in implicit knowledge (VanPatten & Williams, 2015a, p. 30). In accordance with Krashen’s Monitor Theory (1977, 1981, 1982), acquisition occurs naturally and outside of awareness and takes place spontaneously when learners engage in normal interaction in the target language by focusing on meaning. This suggests that both teaching and learners’ intention are not prerequisite for second language acquisition to take place.

Although language can be learnt using various approaches, the underlying commonality is that these approaches are based on some fundamental hypotheses. These hypotheses have to do with the prediction that (i) language learning is largely grounded in learners’ exposure to their second language (L2) in use, which constitutes the linguistic input (or the second language data) they receive, and (ii) learners induce the rules from their second language via the input given to them while using some cognitive mechanisms (Ellis & Wulff, 2015).

The difference in the use of the word ‘learning’ and ‘acquisition’, however, requires a review of the development of our knowledge and theories about language learning in general. Crystal (2008, p. 8) defined acquisition as the process or result of learning (acquiring) a particular aspect of a language, and ultimately the language as a whole. Krashen (1982), however, points out the difference between second language acquisition and second language learning. According to Krashen (1982), second language acquisition is a process which is similar to the way children develop ability in their first language. As mentioned above, it is a subconscious process, and language acquirers are not usually aware of the fact that they are acquiring language (Krashen, 1982, p. 10). They are generally not consciously aware of the rules of the target language (TL), but have a ‘feel’ for correctness through implicit learning in informal situations or natural settings. Second language learning, however, refers to conscious knowledge of a second language, knowing the rules, being aware of them, and being able to talk about them (Krashen, 1982, p. 10).

The distinction between second language acquisition and second language learning lies in (i) the ease and inevitability with which children acquire knowledge of their first language (L1) or second language (L2), and (ii) the conscious, laborious efforts which are essential in the learning of an L2 after human maturational processes are basically complete. Krashen (1981) explained that adult L2 behaviour involves both ‘acquired’ and ‘learned’ competences. Informal L2 learning environments which lack explicit tutelage, are hypothesised to contribute to acquired competence. In contrast, formal L2 learning environments which are characterised by explicit teaching procedure of rule isolation, feedback and error correction are believed to contribute to learned competence.

In this volume, the terms ‘acquisition’ and ‘learning’ are used interchangeably for a number of reasons. First, the learners referred to in Chapters 3 through 5 might have learnt the target language in both formal and informal settings. Second, the immediate concerns of the research reported in this volume are in the descriptions of the target language output in terms of their ability to recognise and use the English verbal categories (explained in the chapters concerned), and not the settings or environments in which the second language is learnt. Third, the two terms have been used interchangeably in some literature on language learning for several decades. For instance, Shih (1979) used the terms ‘acquisition’ and ‘learning’ interchangeably in her study on methods for diagnosing the second language learner’s knowledge of target language rules. Similarly, Lim (1994, p. 14), in her error analysis of English compositions written by students in a Malaysian secondary school, acknowledged that there was often a distinction made between language acquisition and language learning but used these two terms interchangeably to mean one and the same thing. Apart from this, Vanthana (1993) used the terms ‘learning’ and ‘acquisition’ interchangeably in her study of attitudinal variables in the learning of English as a second language among matriculation students of the teaching of English as a second language (TESL) programme irrespective of whether conscious or subconscious processes were involved.

1.3 Second Language or Foreign Language

Although I have provided a definition of ‘second language acquisition’ in the previous section, it is necessary to further explain what ‘second language’ means in the context of this book. This is especially relevant given that (i) there has been some debate in regard to the status of a language in a country in which the language appears to be a ‘foreign language’ in some contexts. For instance, in the context of Malaysia, some learners have so much exposure to English that the target language can be distinctly regarded as the learners’ second language. However, in the same country, it is not surprising that in an average proficiency class taught at tertiary level, English appears to be a foreign language to at least a portion of the learners (from the rural areas in Malaysia) who have had little training and/or exposure to the target language. This requires us to consider the distinction between second language and foreign language, especially since attention will be turned to language learners’ responses to grammatical items (focusing on the English verbal categories) in Chapter 4 of this book.

As a language may be learnt by a non-native speaker, it would seem necessary to determine whether it is learnt as a ‘second language’ or a ‘foreign language’. With regard to this, Shih (1979, p. 3) defined ‘second language’ as a language learned chronologically second to one’s native language, after the basics of one’s native language have been established, that is after about age 5. A learner’s second language may have become a secondary, an equally important or even the primary medium of communication in his or her daily life. The difference between the terms ‘second language’ and ‘foreign language’ depends on the basis of whether or not the language is spoken in the learner’s immediate social milieu (Shih, 1979, p. 3). Marckwardt (1963) distinguished a learner’s second language (L2) and foreign language (FL) by referring to (i) the presence of the target language learning environment support in the case of L2, and (ii) the absence of such support in the case of foreign language for learning the language outside formal instructions. Such definitions are adopted in Chapters 3 through 5 in view of the fact that the subjects had learnt English after their mother tongue and that they had the opportunity to learn English even outside formal classroom instructions.

1.4 Advocating Meaningful Explicit and Implicit Learning

Although the words ‘learning’ and ‘acquisition’ are used interchangeably in this book, it is necessary to further clarify the differences between explicit learning and implicit learning here. As this book argues for the need to incorporate some explicit teaching of English tenses and verbal categories, it would be appropriate to first consider how teaching is associated with learning (given that no effective teaching can take place without involving a process that genuinely facilitates learning). In regard to language learning, instructors may have to distinguish between the roles of implicit learning/knowledge from explicit learning/knowledge in the learning of language in general. It should be acknowledged here that explicit learning differs from explicit teaching (VanPatten & Williams, 2015a), but it is argued (in this volume) that explicit teaching procedures that carefully take into account the possible interference experienced by learners may help instructors to draw learners’ attention to the possible errors committed, thus resulting in some meaningful instructed learning.

As it is argued later in this volume, knowing some differences between explicit and implicit learning is essential in an argument for the need to incorporate activities that encourage meaningful learning in the later chapters of this book. The argument is necessary in that some scholars are sceptical about the need to encourage explicit learning. For instance, according to Krashen’s (1981, 1982) Monitor theory, explicitly learned knowledge is of limited use while acquired implicit knowledge constitutes the source of spontaneous communication, and more importantly, it is claimed that explicit knowledge generally does not turn into implicit knowledge. According to the Monitor Theory, learned or explicit knowledge is of limited use, and acquired or implicit knowledge is the source of spontaneous communication, and as such, explicit knowledge cannot turn into implicit knowledge (VanPatten & Williams, 2015a, p. 30). However, it has to be pointed out here that the influential Monitor Theory has come in for considerable criticism over the years because there have been few empirical studies actually testing any of the aspects of Monitor Theory (VanPatten & Williams, 2015a, p. 31). This is especially evident in that there is no independent way of confirming which knowledge source is being used by learners at a particular time, although it is widely known that the knowledge source may be (i) subconsciously and implicitly acquired, or (ii) intentionally and explicitly learned (VanPatten & Williams, 2015a, p. 31). In other words, it is often difficult to distinguish implicit learning from explicit learning (VanPattern & Williams, 2015b), and such difficulty in differentiation has been ascribed to the fact that we need, in the first place, a thorough understanding of some basic constructs, which are the main features or mechanisms on which our prediction of a learning phenomenon depends. These constructs include learners’ ‘consciousness’ and ‘awareness’, both of which affect the way in which we differentiate implicit learning from explicit learning.

It is clear that explicit learning has an important role in addition to implicit learning. On the one hand, explicit learning refers to input processing with the conscious intention to find out whether the input information contains regularities, and in cases where regularities can be identified, learners will proceed to work out the concepts and rules with which these regularities can be captured (Hulstijn, 2005, p. 131). On the other hand, implicit learning refers to input processing without any conscious intention, and this means that implicit learning generally takes place subconsciously or unconsciously (Hulstijm, 2005, p. 12). This means that when we state that students are learning a language item explicitly, we know that they are aware of what they are going to learn and they should also have the intention to learn it. We can see that Hulstijjn (2005) has specified an additional condition for explicit learning to take place. Using Hulstijn’s (2003) definition, we can say that explicit learning should involve not just learners’ awareness while learning a language item, but also intentional learning which requires the learners’ deliberate attempt to commit new information to memory" (p. 360). DeKeyser (2003), however, having a different point of view, pointed out that in explicit learning, learners have a degree of awareness of the language item to be learnt, but some learners may not have a definite intention to learn the language item at least initially.

We can now view explicit learning as a form of learning that takes place only when learners (i) are aware of what (e.g., a language item and related details) they are learning, (ii) may or may not have a clear initial intention to learn it, and (iii) ultimately are expected to pay attention to what is being learnt. This means that explicit learning effectively takes place when learners need to use their attentional resources in addition to knowing what they are learning and demonstrating an (initial or subsequent) intention to learn the language item concerned (Ellis, 2009a). More specifically, explicit instruction has been found to have a distinct advantage over implicit types of instruction (e.g., Chan, 2019; Nezakat-Alhossaini, Youhanaee, & Moinzadeh, 2014; Norris & Ortega, 2000) for both short-term and long-term effects. The aforementioned argument has a meaningful implication for the teaching (or instructed learning) of grammar. For instance, in regard to the learning of grammar, if one argues that explicit learning may not produce any usable outcomes, one has to first ensure that the learners who have been encouraged to learn explicitly have actually paid sufficient attention to what is being learnt (or what they have been instructed/taught to learn) aside from showing a genuine interest to learn what (s)he is actually aware of. It is based on such a need that I will discuss the possible aspects (as demonstrated in Chapters 3 to 5 about the learning of the English verbal categories) which are likely to enlighten us on how we can possibly stimulate learners’ awareness of what they need to learn, provided that they have been motivated to pay attention to the language system introduced to them.

Despite the explanations given above, it needs to be acknowledged here that some scholars (e.g., VanPatten & Williams, 2015b) have been skeptical about whether we can actually clearly distinguish between explicit and implicit learning. This has to do with the fact that we can always ask whether learning without awareness is even possible and whether explicit learning can ever provide the basis for spontaneous and automatic retrieval knowledge (VanPatten & Williams, 2015b). Ellis (2009b, p. 335), however, is of the view that the two types of learning differ from each other given that implicit knowledge involves widely divergent and diffuse neural structures while explicit knowledge is localised in more specific areas of the brain. It should, however, be pointed out that the main argument of this book is not on whether explicit learning can always be clearly distinguished from implicit learning, but on how use we can consider learners’ errors meaningfully to help learners maximise the learning of English tenses and verbal categories, provided that learners’ attention is effectively drawn to the various aspects of the verb forms introduced to them. This therefore requires our current understanding that (i) explicit learning and implicit learning are somehow related (given that some awareness is arguably present in both forms of learning), and (ii) adequate meaningful explicit teaching (grounded in our analysis of the errors committed by learners) is likely to produce some meaningful learning which may be explicit and/or implicit in nature.

In general, the interface (connection) between explicit and implicit learning is likely to exist. Ellis & Wulff (2015, p. 89), for instance, claimed that "patterned practice and declarative pedagogical grammar