PowerPoint in PDF format - Missouri State University
Transcription
PowerPoint in PDF format - Missouri State University
Arabic Speakers’ Avoidance of the English Present Perfect Islam Farag Missouri State University Introduction 12 tenseaspect system in English The misuse of one tense can lead to misunderstanding. ESL students need to understand and master the use of tenses. Avoidance is another type of error. Overview 1. Theoretical Background (Contrastive analysis, Shachter’s Avoidance) 2. Research questions and hypotheses 3. Research Methods A) Present perfect VS Arabic tense system B) Data Collected and Analysis of student’s essays 4. Results 5. Pedagogical Implications 1- Theoretical Background Contrastive Analysis Avoidance • “Those structures that are similar [to L1 structures] will be easy to learn because they will be transferred…Those structures that are different will be difficult because when transferred they will not function satisfactorily in the foreign language and will therefore have to be changed” (Lado 59). • In her analysis of the production of relative clauses, Schachter found that Chinese and Japanese students made a smaller percentage of errors in comparison to Persian and Arabic learners. Although Japanese and Chinese are different languages to English in forming relative clauses. 1- Theoretical Background Avoidance (Two Conditions) 1- “If the [two constructions] are radically different, he [student] will either reject the new construction or use it with extreme caution” (Schachter 212). 2- “The student can take advantage of paraphrase relations to avoid constructions he finds difficult” (Schachter 212). Other research papers. 1- Theoretical Background 2- Research questions and hypothesis Research Question • Do ESL Arabic speaking students avoid using the English present perfect in their writings? Hypothesis No1 • The English present perfect tense is different from the linguistic structure of the Arabic tenses. Hypothesis No 2 • ESL Arabic speaking students avoid using the English present perfect in their writings. 1- Theoretical Background 2- Research questions and hypothesis 3- Research Methods Hypothesis No1 (2 constructions are different) Constrasting the English present perfect with the Arabic tense system Hypothesis No 2 (avoidance and paraphrasing) Analyzing 25 Essays written by ESL high intermediate and advanced Arabic speaking students 1- Theoretical Background 2- Research questions and hypothesis 3- Research Methods A) Present perfect VS Arabic tenses English Present Perfect Arabic Tenses 1- Subject+ (have/has)+past participle: Ex: He has studied French. 1- No accurate reference to time. Verb indicates the action not the tense (Schular 12). Particles and adverbs to express (when). 2- A) An action that happened in the past and still continues to the present. Ex: He has been a doctor since 2001. 2- TWO tenses: the imperfect ( present) & the perfect (past) B) An action that has just finished before the time of speaking. Ex: I have just cooked. c) An action that happened in the past but the effect of the action still continues to the present Ex: I have learned swimming. 3- The Perfect: an action completed in the past without time reference/ the imperfect(present) incomplete action. EX: Yazor (to visit) Zara (visited)/ Ex: Jack visited his uncle. A- Jack zara (visited) Kholoh bilams. (Simple Past) B- Jack zara (visited) khaloh thoma zahab (went) to the hospital (Past perfect/simple past) C- Kana Jack Yazor (visit) khaloh endama kabilto(met him) (Past Continuous/simple past). 1- Theoretical Background 2- Research questions and hypothesis 3- Research Methods A) Present perfect VS Arabic tenses English Present Perfect Arabic Tenses D- (qad, laqad) are particles for confirmation Qad zara (went) Jack Khaloh qabl wafatoh (Present perfect) Therefore, there is not any tense in Arabic that is equivalent to Present perfect. The Present perfect tense is different from the Arabic tense system, which may cause interference, and students might avoid using this tense. 1- Theoretical Background 2- Research questions and hypothesis 3- Research Methods A) Present perfect VS Arabic tenses B) Data collected and analysis of the essays 2nd hypothesis: student’s avoidance of present perfect in their writings • Corpus: 25 written essays written by high intermediate (5 essays) and advanced students(20 essays) who attended the English Language Institute (ELI).English present perfect is first introduced to students at high intermediate level. Procedures: 1- Examining the number of a) appropriate uses of the present perfect b) incorrect uses of the present perfect c) sentences that should have been used in the present perfect 1- Theoretical Background 2- Research questions and hypothesis 3- Research Methods A) Present perfect VS Arabic tenses B) Analysis of the essays 4- Results Results Table 2: Actual Vs Total Required Table 1: Correct Vs Incorrect Uses The total of actual uses (correctly and incorrectly) Number of the Number of the present perfect present perfect used correctly used incorrectly High Inter. Inter. level 0 Advanced level 17 Total 17 0 2 2 High Inter. level Advanced level Total Total number of sentences that should have been written in the present perfect 0 1 19 39 19 40 1- Theoretical Background 2- Research questions and hypothesis 3- Research Methods A) Present perfect VS Arabic tenses B) Analysis of the essays 4- Results • The total number of the English present perfect production used either correctly or incorrectly is 19 times (17 correctly and 2 incorrectly). 90% of the uses were correct. • These 19 sentences were found in just 9 out of 25 essays , which is 36% of the total students who tried to use the present perfect. • This suggests that students avoid using this tense until they become more confident. 1- Theoretical Background 2- Research questions and hypothesis 3- Research Methods A) Present perfect VS Arabic tenses B) Analysis of the essays 4- Results Paraphrasing as a technique • Students tend to paraphrase using the tense they know very well (i.e., the simple past). • Ex: “Also, did experts make any investigation during all shifts work? Or did experts make any surveys with representative questions?” • Have experts made any investigation during all shifts work? Or have experts made any surveys with representative questions? 1- Theoretical Background 2- Research questions and hypothesis 3- Research Methods A) Present perfect VS Arabic tenses B) Analysis of the essays 4- Results 5- Conclusion Conclusion • ESL Arabic speaking students tend to avoid using the English present perfect in their writings because they have difficulty understanding the English present perfect. • They rely on patterns found in their native language in order to avoid making errors from using the English present perfect tense. • The results also reveal that ESL Arabic speaking students use the English simple past tense - which is linguistically similar to their native language patterns- instead of using the English present perfect. Pedagogical Implications • As a teacher, how can you help Arabic speaking students overcome their avoidance of the present perfect in their writings? Questions • • • • • • • • • • • Work Cited Abu-Joudeh, Maisoun, Sahail M. Asassfeh, Yousef Al-Shaboul, and Sabri Alshboul. "Translating Arabic Perfect Verbs into English by Jordanian Undergraduates." Journal of Language and Literature 4.2 (2013): 44-53. Web. 15 Oct. 2014. Bardovi-Harlig, Kathleen. "Another Piece of the Puzzle: The Emergence of the Present Perfect." Language Learning 47:3 (1997): 375-422. Print. Celce-Murcia, Marianne, and Diane Larsen-Freeman. The Grammar Book: An ESL/EFL Teacher's Course. 2nd ed. Rowley, MA: Newbury House, 1983. Print. Ellis, Rod. The Study of Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1994. Print. Gass, Susan M., and Larry Selinker. Second Langauge Acquistion: An Introductory Course. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1994. Print. Topics in Applied Psycholinguistics. Haywood, John A., and H. M. Nahmad. A New Arabic Grammar of the Written Language. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1965. Print. Hakuta, Kenji. “A Case Study of a Japanese Child Learning English as a Second Language.” Language Learning 26:2 (1976):321-51. Web. 10 Sept. 2014. Irujo, S. "Steering Clear: Avoidance in the Production of Idioms." IRAL XXXI.3 (1993): 205-19. Web. 10 Sept. 2014. Lado, Robert. Linguistics across Cultures; Applied Linguistics for Language Teachers. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan, 1957. Print. Larsen-Freeman, Diane, and Michael H. Long. An Introduction to Second Language Acquisition Research. London: Longman, 1991. Print.