scholarly journals Grade 10 English First Additional Language Learners’ Strategies For Past Tense Irregular Verb Inflection Mastery

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 190
Author(s):  
Farisani Thomas Nephawe ◽  
Matodzi Nancy Lambani
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Initial Study ◽  
Limpopo Province ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
The Past ◽  
Verb Inflection ◽  
Irregular Form ◽  
Irregular Verbs ◽  
Academic Year

<p class="Default"><strong>Abstract.</strong><strong> </strong>The mastery of the irregular form of verbs in the past simple tense poses challenges to non-native learners of English all over the world. The objectives of this study were to identify the types of learners’ strategies useful for mastering the irregular verb inflection, to describe and evaluate them, and to establish why the English First Additional Language learners face difficulties in mastering those strategies. The study followed a quantitative research design. A questionnaire was used as an instrument for data collection from the respondents. Data were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 22 to ensure valid interpretations. Subsequent themes were placed in a table and a graph dealing with the inflection of irregular verbs. The target group of this study comprised 21 Grade 10 learners who were attending Dimani Secondary School in Limpopo Province, South Africa during the academic year 2021. From the data analysis, the initial study findings established that the respondents were incompetent in mastering the inflection of irregular verbs in the past simple tense when using the suppletion principle and the terminal consonants phoneme changes. The researchers used the grouping of common irregular verbs and the learning of irregular verbs in sentences strategies because learners were different and learned irregular verb inflection differently. Although it was previously found that learners could not understand the inflection of irregular verbs in the past simple tense, after having utilised these two strategies, the inflection of irregular verbs in the past simple tense improved with tremendous results.</p><p class="Default"> </p><p>Keywords: Inflection; irregular verbs; past simple tense; strategies<em></em></p>

The Past Tense Debate Revisited: Electrophysiological Evidence for Subregularities of Irregular Verb Inflection

2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (9) ◽  
pp. 1870-1885 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefanie Regel ◽  
Andreas Opitz ◽  
Gereon Müller ◽  
Angela D. Friederici
Keyword(s):  
Past Tense ◽  
Past Participle ◽  
Rule Based ◽  
Syntactic Rule ◽  
The Past ◽  
Past Tense Form ◽  
Electrophysiological Evidence ◽  
Verb Inflection ◽  
Experimental Block ◽  
Irregular Verbs

Neuropsychological research investigating mental grammar and lexicon has largely been based on the processing of regular and irregular inflection. Past tense inflection of regular verbs is assumed to be generated by a syntactic rule (e.g., show-ed), whereas irregular verbs consist of rather unsystematic alternations (e.g., caught) represented as lexical entries. Recent morphological accounts, however, hold that irregular inflection is not entirely rule-free but relies on morphological principles. These subregularities are computed by the syntactic system. We tested this latter hypothesis by examining alternations of irregular German verbs as well as pseudowords using ERPs. Participants read series of irregular verb inflection including present tense, past participle, and past tense forms embedded in minimal syntactic contexts. The critical past tense form was correct (e.g., er sang [he sang]) or incorrect by being either partially consistent (e.g., *er sung [*he sung]) or inconsistent (e.g., *er sing [*he sing]) with the proposed morphological principles. Correspondingly, in a second experimental block, pseudowords (e.g., tang/*tung/*ting) were presented. ERPs for real words revealed a biphasic ERP pattern consisting of a negativity and P600 for both incorrect forms in comparison to the correct equivalents. Most interestingly, the P600 amplitude for the incorrect forms was gradually modulated by the type of anomaly with medium amplitude for consistent past tense forms and largest amplitude for inconsistent past tense forms. ERPs for pseudoword past tense forms showed a similar gradual modulation of N400. The findings support the assumption that irregular verbs are processed by rule-based mechanisms because of subregularities of their past tense inflection.

Production of the English past tense by children with language comprehension impairments

2005 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
KATE NATION ◽  
MARGARET J. SNOWLING ◽  
PAULA CLARKE
Keyword(s):  
Language Comprehension ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Matched Control ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Phonological Skills ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Poor Comprehenders ◽  
Irregular Form ◽  
Irregular Verbs

Three experiments investigated the ability of eight-year old children with poor language comprehension to produce past tense forms of verbs. Twenty children selected as poor comprehenders were compared to 20 age-matched control children. Although the poor comprehenders performed less well than controls on a range of tasks considered to tap verbal-semantic abilities, the two groups showed equivalent phonological skills. Poor comprehenders performed as well as control children when asked to inflect novel verbs and regular verbs. In contrast, poor comprehenders were less skilled than controls at inflecting both high frequency and low frequency irregular verbs. Although the predominant error pattern for all children was to over-regularize, this was most marked in the poor comprehenders; control children were more likely to produce errors that contained knowledge of the irregular form than poor comprehenders. In addition, the ability to inflect irregular verbs was related to individual differences in verbal-semantic skills. These findings are discussed within a framework in which verb inflection is related to underlying language skills in both the phonological and semantic domains.

scholarly journals Effects of orthographic forms on pronunciation in experienced instructed second language learners

2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
BENE BASSETTI ◽  
NATHAN ATKINSON
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Vowel Duration ◽  
Writing System ◽  
The Past ◽  
Word Repetition ◽  
Repetition Task

ABSTRACTIn spite of burgeoning evidence that the orthographic forms (“spellings”) of second language (L2) words affect L2 learners’ pronunciation, little is known about the pronunciation of known words in experienced learners. In a series of four studies, we investigated various orthographic effects on the pronunciation of L2 English words in instructed learners with 10 years’ experience of learning English. Participants were native users of the phonologically transparent Italian writing system. Study 1 investigated the pronunciation of “silent letters,” using a word-reading task and a word-repetition task. Study 2 examined the effects of vowel spelling on vowel duration, namely, whether L2 speakers produce the same target vowel as longer when it is spelled with a vowel digraph than with a singleton letter. Study 3 explored the effects of the morphemic spelling of the past tense marker <ed> using a verb paradigm-production task. Study 4 tested whether L2 speakers produce homophonic words differently when they are spelled differently. Results confirmed that orthographic forms affect experienced instructed learners’ pronunciation of known words, albeit less so in immediate word repetition than in reading-aloud tasks.

De Verwerving Van Morfologische Regels in Schrift (III)

1999 ◽  
Vol 61 ◽  
pp. 97-110
Author(s):  
Marjolein van Dort-Slijper ◽  
Gert Rijlaarsdam ◽  
Eva Breedveld
Keyword(s):  
Negative Transfer ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Production Task ◽  
The Past ◽  
Verb Inflection ◽  
Group 6 ◽  
Special Case

In order to provide textbook authors with empirical data on the acquisition in Dutch of written morphology in nouns, verbs and adjectives, several empirical studies have been undertaken. In this article, the third study reports on the performance of the morpheme -e in a special case of adjectives in Dutch: the adjectives derived from participles. The study tries to determine the possible interference between the morphological rules for verb inflection (past tense) and adjective declension in reading and writing. Five classes of adjectives were distinguished according to order of relative difficulty established a priori. Subjects (n=157, grade 6, 7 and 8 from two schools) individually completed a compre-hension and a production task in which factors were systematically varied. Also a recognition test on the spelling of the past tense of verbs was administered. The results showed an effect of categories of verbal adjectives in the production task, but only for groups 7 and 8; group 6 was not sensitive to the differences between the categories. In the recognition task, no effect of type of adjective (verbal or normal) was found for groups 7 and 8; but for group 6, performance on verbal adjectives was lower for the three most difficult categories of adjectives. In the production task, all three groups performed lower on verbal adjectives than normal adjectives in the two most difficult categories of adjectives. It turned out that groups which acquired spelling rules for the past tense of verbs to a higher level, made more errors in the spelling of verbal adjectives, especially in the two categories of adjectives which related the strongest to the spelling of verbs. It was concluded that indications were found that negative transfer or interference is present. Authors recommend changing the order of phases in which spelling rules are trained: from 'adjective declension-verb inflection (past tense)-verbal adjective declension' to 'adjective declension (including verbal adjective declension)-verb declension (past tense).

Inflection and Derivation

2019 ◽  
pp. 241-261
Author(s):  
Andrew Spencer
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Personal Pronoun ◽  
Past Participle ◽  
Double Object ◽  
Completely Regular ◽  
Auxiliary Verbs ◽  
The Past ◽  
Irregular Verbs ◽  
Categorial Status

The chapter presents an overview of phenomena which pose important problems of description and analysis. I focus on the inflectional system, which has undergone severe attrition and shows idiosyncrasies typical of such systems. For nominals I describe the personal pronoun paradigm and the ‘possessive -s’ clitic/phrasal affix. The controversial categorial status of adverbs in -ly is discussed, while for verbs, all the subcategories prove to be highly problematical. For instance, only 50 irregular verbs distinguish past tense from past participle (e.g. wrote/written), so it is not even clear whether the past participle category is a highly restricted subcategory, with the vast majority of verbs showing past tense/past participle syncretism, or whether this is a case of ‘overdifferentiation’, like the forms am, are, were of the verb BE. On the other hand, the polyfunctionality of the completely regular -ing suffix, which derives verb, noun, and adjective forms, also poses serious unresolved problems. Auxiliary verbs and related phenomena alternate between periphrastic, clitic, and genuinely morphological (affixal) constructions. The chapter concludes with consideration of those aspects of derivational morphology which seem to be indisputably productive, hence part of the grammar, including (certain types of) event nominalization, some cases of double object alternation, and morphosemantic mismatches of the kind electrical engineering ⇒ electrical engineer.

Regional variation in the English verb qualifier system

2002 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Sampson
Keyword(s):  
Regional Variation ◽  
Spontaneous Speech ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Past Participle ◽  
Standard Language ◽  
The Past ◽  
Redundant Data ◽  
Irregular Verbs ◽  
Past Tenses ◽  
English Verb

Nonstandard dialects often use the same form for the past tense and past participle of irregular verbs for which the standard language has distinct forms. One possible reason would be that some speakers have a nonstandard system of verb qualifiers (tense, mood, and aspect markers) in which the past tense/past participle distinction is functionally redundant. Data on spontaneous speech in Britain in the 1990s partly supports this by showing marked regional variation in the use of the Perfect construction. However, some nonstandard past tenses cannot be explained in terms of a nonstandard qualifier system.

scholarly journals Error Analysis On The Use Of Past Tense In Writing Recount Text A Case Study At The Second Year Students Of Madrasah Tsanawiyah Darul Ishlah Ireng Lauq At The Academic Year 2013/2014

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Suparlan Suparlan
Keyword(s):  
Error Analysis ◽  
Quantitative Method ◽  
The Other ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
The Past ◽  
Specific Objective ◽  
Second Year ◽  
Academic Year ◽  
Year 2013

The writer is interested in investigating the error analysis in using past tense in writing recount text a case study at the second year students of Madrasah Tsanawiyah Darul Ishlah Ireng Lauq at the academic year 2013/2014. The problem of the present study is limited in on the use of past tense in writing recount text. On the other hand, the general objective of the writing is to analyze the use of past tense in writing recount text. The specific objective is to know the students ability in using the past tense especially in writing recount text.The population of the study includes all students who have been studying at the second year of Madrasah Tsanawiyah Darul Ishlah Ireng Lauq at the academic year 2013/2014.The instrument of data collection is only one test. The test type/ part namely slot test. The test is confined to use the simple past tense. The data is analyzed by descriptive quantitative method. From the result of this analyze, the writer concludes the second year of the students of Madrasah Tsanawiyah Darul Ishlah Ireng Lauq at the academic year 2013/ 2014 has difficulty in identifying the past tense. This analyze shown that they make errors in using auxiliary did, errors in using verbs and other errors. Finally not only auxiliary did or verb as the specific study had most errors but also another errors appear without they realize, it happened because the lack of mastery in structure of past tense one of the tense in English.

Comparing generativist and constructivist accounts of the use of the past tense form in early child Japanese

2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (6) ◽  
pp. 1365-1384 ◽  
Author(s):  
TOMOKO TATSUMI ◽  
JULIAN M. PINE
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Japanese Children ◽  
Early Child ◽  
The Past ◽  
Past Tense Form ◽  
Verb Inflection ◽  
Distributional Patterns ◽  
Early Use ◽  
General Preference

AbstractThe present study investigated children's early use of verb inflection in Japanese by comparing a generativist account, which predicts that the past tense will have a special default-like status for the child during the early stages, with a constructivist input-driven account, which assumes that children's acquisition and use of inflectional forms reflects verb-specific distributional patterns in their input. Analysis of naturalistic data from four Japanese children aged 1;5 to 2;10 showed that there was substantial by-verb variation in the use of inflectional forms from the earliest stages of verb use, and no general preference for past tense forms. Correlational and partial correlational analyses showed that it was possible to predict the proportional frequency with which the child produced verbs in past tense versus other inflectional forms on the basis of differences in the proportional frequency with which the verb occurred in past tense form in the child's input, even after controlling for differences in the rate at which verbs occurred in past tense form in input averaged across the caregivers of the other children in the sample. When taken together, these results count against the idea that the past tense has a special default-like status in early child Japanese, and in favour of a constructivist input-driven account of children's early use of verb inflection.

Development of Past Tense Counterfactual Sentences: Examining Production and Comprehension in Adolescents and Adults

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 764-773
Author(s):  
Marilyn A. Nippold ◽  
Abigail Nehls-Lowe ◽  
Daemion Lee
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Subordinate Clause ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Choice Response ◽  
Response Format ◽  
Young Adolescents ◽  
Present Perfect ◽  
The Past ◽  
Adolescents And Adults ◽  
Irregular Verbs

Purpose The primary purpose of this study was to examine the development of past tense counterfactual (PTCF) sentences (“If the dog had stayed in the house, he would not have bitten the police officer”) in young adolescents and young adults, addressing both production and comprehension. The goal was to determine if growth occurs during the years between early adolescence and early adulthood and when or if mastery of these sentences occurs. We also examined the development of past tense irregular verbs to determine growth and mastery. Method The participants included one group of young adolescents ( M age = 12.44 years, n = 80) and one group of young adults ( M age = 21.30 years, n = 80). All were monolingual speakers of Mainstream American English. Using a written language task, each participant completed a set of 40 sentences. For each sentence, the missing element affected the main clause (present perfect verb omitted), the subordinate clause (past perfect verb omitted), or either the main or the subordinate clause (past tense irregular verb omitted). To examine differences in production versus comprehension, half the participants in each group used a fill-in response format (production task), and half used a multiple-choice response format (comprehension task). Results On the PTCF sentences, the adults outperformed the adolescents, comprehension exceeded production, both groups experienced greater difficulty with the past perfect compared to the present perfect verb form, and the adults were more likely to show mastery of PTCF sentences than were the adolescents. Similarly, on the past irregular verbs, the adults outperformed the adolescents, and the adults were more likely to show mastery of these verbs. Implications The findings of this study contribute to the knowledge base in later syntactic development and suggest that some adolescents and adults may require formal instruction in subtle aspects of English grammar used in literate contexts, such as PTCF sentences. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.11971872

scholarly journals Processing of regular and irregular past tense morphology in highly proficient second language learners of English: A self-paced reading study

2012 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
pp. 943-970 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHRISTOS PLIATSIKAS ◽  
THEODOROS MARINIS
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
L2 Processing ◽  
Rule Application ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Irregular Verbs ◽  
Reading Study

ABSTRACTDual-system models suggest that English past tense morphology involves two processing routes: rule application for regular verbs and memory retrieval for irregular verbs. In second language (L2) processing research, Ullman suggested that both verb types are retrieved from memory, but more recently Clahsen and Felser and Ullman argued that past tense rule application can be automatized with experience by L2 learners. To address this controversy, we tested highly proficient Greek–English learners with naturalistic or classroom L2 exposure compared to native English speakers in a self-paced reading task involving past tense forms embedded in plausible sentences. Our results suggest that, irrespective to the type of exposure, proficient L2 learners of extended L2 exposure apply rule-based processing.

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