Second Language Learners’ Comprehension of English Tense-Aspect Markers

ความเขาใจเรองตวบงชกาลและการณลกษณะในภาษาองกฤษ ของผเรยนภาษาทสอง

สรอยศธร อศรางกร ณ อยธยา Soisithorn Isarankura

Abstract This paper investigates Thai learners’ conceptual understanding of the aspectual

properties of the English tense-aspect system in relation to time reference. It also explores whether the meaning of verbs as they relate to the expression of action and time, or what is termed lexical aspect, aids learners in their interpretations of grammatical aspect. The participants in this study included 99 Thai speakers of English classified into three English proficiency groups, with 33 in each group. The results from multiple-choice selections of time references and aspectual properties show a linear increase in the degree of agreement in relation to learners’ proficiency levels. The present time reference of the present simple and present progressive were the most accessible time spans among all groups, followed by the past simple. Time reference of the tense with the combination of two aspects like the past perfect progressive was the most challenging one to perceive for all groups. Variations were greater with regard to the interpretations of aspect. The data reveal that the aspects which involve more than one time point posed difficulty for the learners. With regard to lexical aspect, the results support the Aspect Hypothesis prediction that learners at the onset of acquisition acquired the form-function mapping of telic verbs with past markers and atelic verbs with imperfective markers. It is hoped that understanding learners’ interpretations of the form-function mapping in the English tense-aspect morphology is a valuable tool for ESL/EFL teachers to develop a more informed model of teaching the English tense-aspect system to Thai learners.

Key words: tense, time reference, lexical aspect, grammatical aspect

บทคดยอ

บทความนศกษาความเขาใจเชงมโนทศนของผ เรยนไทยเรองการณลกษณะซงสมพนธกบเวลาของระบบกาลในภาษาองกฤษ และศกษาวาความหมายของค ากรยาทแสดงการณกระท าและเวลา หรอทเรยกวาการณลกษณะประจ าค า (lexical aspect) จะมสวนชวยใหผ เรยนสามารถตความการณลกษณะทางไวยากรณ (grammatical aspect) ไดดขนหรอไม กลมตวอยางประกอบดวยผ เรยนภาษาองกฤษชาวไทย 3 กลม ซงจ าแนกตามความสามารถทางภาษาองกฤษเปนระดบสง กลาง และต า กลมละ 33 คน รวมทงสน 99 คน ผ เขารวมการวจยเลอกตวเลอกทใหความหมายของกาลและการณลกษณะจากการอานบทความในแบบทดสอบ ผลการวจยพบวาความเขาใจระบบกาลของผ เรยนมความสอดคลองกนมากขนอยางเปนสดสวนกบความสามารถทางภาษาทสงขน ผ เรยนมความเขาใจการบงชเวลาปจจบนโดยใชรปกาล present simple และ present progressive มากทสด ตามดวยการบงชรปกาลในอดตโดยใช past simple สวนการบงชเวลาของรปกาลทมการณลกษณะสองลกษณะอยดวยกน เชน

past perfect progressive พบวาเขาใจไดยากทสดในกลมผ เรยนไทยทกกลม ส าหรบการตความเรองการณลกษณะนนพบวา ความเขาใจของผ เรยนมความไมสอดคลองกนมากกวาการบอกเวลา โดยเฉพาะการณลกษณะทสมพนธกบชวงเวลาเกนกวาหนงชวงยงสรางปญหาใหกบผ เรยนมากขน สวนผลการวเคราะหการณลกษณะประจ าค าพบวาสอดคลองกบขอสมมตฐานการณลกษณะทกลาวไววา ผ เรยนภาษาในระดบพนฐานจะเรยนรความสมพนธของ รปกาลกบความหมายโดยเรมตนจากการเชอมโยงตวบงชกาลในอดตกบค ากรยาทแสดงการสนสดของเหตการณอยางชดเจน (telic verbs) และเชอมโยงการณลกษณะทแสดงการด าเนนอยของเหตการณกบค ากรยาทไมบงบอกจดสนสดทชดเจน (atelic verbs) ทงนผ วจยหวงวาการเขาใจการตความรปและความหมายระบบกาลของผ เรยนจะเปนเครองมอส าคญทผสอนจะน าไปใชเพอพฒนารปแบบการสอนระบบกาลในภาษาองกฤษใหกบผ เรยนไทยตอไป ค าส าคญ: รปกาล เวลา การณลกษณะประจ าค า การณลกษณะทางไวยากรณ Introduction English Tense-Aspect System

Usage of the English tense-aspect system has been widely accepted to be one of the most difficult grammatical areas for learners of English as a second or foreign language (ESL/EFL) to fully master (Richards, 1981; Riddle, 1986; Hinkel, 1992). The tense-aspect system is normally introduced very early in ESL/EFL classes, yet even advanced learners of English often have difficulty acquiring the system. Research suggests that errors in usage of tense are likely to result from the learners’ lack of understanding of referential relationships between time reference and aspectual property in association with their grammatical markers. Successful acquisition of the tense-aspect system requires knowledge of grammatical forms and a clear conceptual understanding of the time reference and aspectual property encoded in each form in order to choose the one that best fits a certain situation. This paper reports a study on the acquisition of tense-aspect morphology by Thai learners. Before presenting the theoretical framework for the study, a brief overview of the English tense-aspect system is in order. First, time reference in relation to tense markers will be described. Then, four grammatical aspects and aspect markers will be discussed, followed by the four categories of lexical aspect.

1. Tense and Time Reference Tense is a grammatical category of a verb when it is used in a predicate of a

sentence. English marks tense with grammatical markers. One piece of semantic information represented by a grammatical tense marker is the time reference being made by the speaker. In English, there are three grammatical tenses representing three time references marked by specific tense markers as shown.

Table 1: Time References and Tense Markers in English

Time Reference

Tense Tense Marker

Singular Plural

Present Present tense -s (except for ‘I’) Ø (‘zero’ marker)

Past Past tense -ed (except for irregular verbs)

Future Future tense will, shall, be going to

The time reference expressed by tense can be said to be a conceptual time, that

is, it is not an absolute time determined by a clock or a calendar. Rather, it is a relative time, relative to the speech time or the time the utterance is spoken. The choice of tense is affected by the relationships between three times: event time, speech time, and reference time. Huddleston (2006: 102) refers to tense as “relational” in that “it locates one time by its relation to another. Richards (1995) claims that tense is deictic as it is simultaneous with the moment of utterance but points either toward time now or time then. The choice of tense is largely subjective and context-sensitive; it depends heavily on the time point the user wants to focus on in a particular context (Gabrielatos, 2003). Speakers of languages without morphological tense markers may find it difficult to conceptualize the time reference from the context. For learners to master the English tense system, they have to understand not only how the three notions of time—i.e. event time, speech time, and reference time—correspond to tense, but also how context impacts on determining tenses.

2. Aspect and Aspect Marker In addition to the three-way tense marking system as shown in Table 1,

English also requires another piece of semantic information conveyed by another category called aspect. Aspect is a separate feature from time and tense. It is independent of any reference time. Most linguistic theories recognize two types of aspect. The aspect that is expressed in particular grammatical forms is called grammatical aspect or viewpoint aspect (Smith, 1983). Another type of aspect encoded in the lexical class of the verb phrase is referred to as lexical aspect. Grammatical Aspect vs. Lexical Aspect

Grammatical aspect signifies how an action or event is viewed and is expressed through grammatical markers such as verb inflections or auxiliaries. An event can be seen as a completed whole, in progress, repeated intermittently, habitual, durative, or continuative to a more recent time (Jacob, 1995). The grammatical aspect is sometimes called the ‘viewpoint aspect’ (Smith, 1983). As illustrated in Table 2, English has 4 aspects: simple, perfect, progressive, and perfect progressive (Svalberg and Chuchu, 1998). Similar to time reference, aspect is also marked by a specific marker as shown.

Table 2: Aspects and Aspect Markers in English

Aspect Aspect Marker

Simple Ø

Perfect have + V-en

Progressive be + V-ing

Perfect Progressive have been + V-ing

The four grammatical aspects can be summarized as follows.

1. The simple aspect (also called the ‘indefinite aspect’) depicts an event as a whole, as incomplete (indefinite), as seen unfolding from beginning to end, or as unchanging (Richards, 1995).

2. The perfect aspect expresses the time relation of anteriority, either in terms of continuative, experiential, or resultative perfect (Huddleston & Pullum, 2002). Quirk et al. (1992, p. 91) describes the perfect as indicating “a period of time stretching backwards into some earlier time.” For example, present perfect denotes “current relevance” (p. 91); past perfect signals “past-in-the-past” (p. 92). With the perfect, the reference time may be specified by the time clause, adverbs, or the context.

3. The progressive aspect describes an event in the category of meanings which involve the features such as being in progress, imperfective (not as a whole process), durative, dynamic, and having limited duration (Huddleston and Pullum, 2002).

4. The perfect progressive combines the functions of perfect and progressive aspects and can more or less be predicted from the functions of the individual aspects. Following the basic use of the perfect which expresses anteriority, the perfect progressive can suggest the results of an event/situation at the reference time, but with the emphasis on the temporary or limited duration of such a situation, as implicated in the progressive. Jacobs (1995) makes a distinction between perfect and perfect progressive aspects in that the latter has applied a sense of completion upon the individual perfect aspect to the duration sense of the progressive. Thus, instead of being completed, the action/event is rather interrupted at the time the sentence refers to (pp. 209-210).

Grammatical aspect can also be distinguishable in terms of perfective and

imperfective viewpoints that the speaker can take on the event. As defined in Comrie (1976), perfective aspect allows us to view an event from outside as a completed whole, with a beginning and an ending, (bounded or external perspective), whereas imperfective aspect constrains us to focus on the internal stages of ongoing situation, with no specific beginning or ending (unbounded or internal perspective). Simply put, perfective aspect denotes completed events and is marked by the simple past form (V-ed), whereas imperfective aspect denotes ongoing situations and is marked by the progressive form (be + V-ing).

As can be seen, although time and aspect are neither equivalent nor subsumed under one another, they complement each other in determining the morphological tense-aspect marker. The four-way aspect marking as shown in Table 2, when combined with the semantic information of time reference signified by the three-way tense marking presented in Table 1, will result in the complex English tense-aspect system that accommodates a set of twelve grammatical markers representing the division of three time lines combined with four aspects as shown. Table 3: Twelve Tense-Aspect Grammatical Forms in English

Simple 0

Perfect have + V-en

Progressive be + V-ing

Perfect Progressive have + -en be + V-

ing Present Present simple

plays Present perfect has/have played

Present progressive is/am/are playing

Present perfect progressive has/have been playing

Past Past simple played

Past perfect had played

Past progressive was/were playing

Past perfect progressive had been playing

Future Future simple will play

Future perfect will have played

Future progressive will be playing

Future perfect progressive will have been playing

(Larsen-Freeman, Kuehn, & Haccuis, 2002:3) Another type of aspect is called lexical aspect, also known as ‘semantic aspect’

(Comrie, 1976). Lexical aspect indicates the semantic properties inherent in the meaning of the predicate or a particular conception of a situation regardless of any reference to time (Robison, 1995; Salaberry, 1999). Vendler (1967) classifies lexical aspect into four classes:

1. States (STA) denote stative situations that have no dynamics, and continue without additional effort or energy being applied (e.g., love, hate, want, seem, know, be).

2. Activities (ACT) denote events or actions that have duration, but without a specific endpoint (e.g., run, walk, play, sing, sleep, talk, rain).

3. Accomplishments (ACC) are similar to activities in that they denote events or actions that have inherent duration, but they have an inherent endpoint once the goal is reached (e.g., make, build, paint).

4. Achievements (ACH) denote situations that take place instantaneously, and can be perceived as being reduced to a single point without duration (e.g., reach, arrive, leave, recognize, notice)

Among these classifications, there are three semantic binary features:

[±punctual] or [±P], [±telic] or [±T], and [±dynamic] or [±D]. A punctual predicate denotes an event that occurs in an instant with no duration, as opposed to a situation perceived as lasting for some duration of time. A telic predicate suggests a situation

that is presumed to have an inherent endpoint if the goal is reached, in contrast to an event with no well-defined endpoint. A dynamic predicate describes an action or an event as opposed to a condition, a property or a relation. These three aspectual semantic contrasts affect the four lexical aspect classifications, as shown in Table 4. Achievements are punctual whereas all other categories are durative. Achievements and accomplishments are telic (having an inherent endpoint) whereas activities and states do not have a specific endpoint. State verbs are non-dynamic (i.e., stative), whereas activities, achievements and accomplishments are dynamic. Table 4: Semantic Features for Vendler’s classification of Lexical Aspect Categories

Categories Semantic Features

State [–punctual] [–telic] [–dynamic] Activity [–punctual] [–telic] [+dynamic] Accomplishment [–punctual] [+telic] [+dynamic] Achievement [+punctual] [+telic] [+dynamic]

It can be seen from the above discussion that the relationships between forms and meanings with regard to tense, time and aspect are not simple or obvious. Thus, it is not surprising that learners find it challenging to acquire the complex interplay of the tense-aspect meanings and their morphological forms simultaneously. Over the past few decades, the first language (L1) and second language (L2) acquisition of tense and aspect has received increasing interest in language acquisition research. In the following section, studies on L1 and L2 acquisition of tense and aspect will be briefly reviewed to prepare the discussion of theoretical issues to be investigated in the article.

Acquisition of Tense and Aspect

Studies of language acquisition have long documented L1 child language and adult L2 learning of tense and aspect morphology. One of the earliest studies of morpheme acquisition is Brown’s (1973: 334, cited in Haznedar, 2007) classic work on L1 child English. Brown found that the progressive marker –ing was the first morpheme to emerge in the speech of English speaking children, and that the past tense morphology was used with a small number of punctual verbs such as fell, broke, dropped. Similar to Brown’s study, Bloom, et al. (1980) found a correlation between tense-aspect marking and lexical aspect. In their study, English L1 children used –ing frequently with action verbs such as play and run, and used irregular past forms consistently with completive verbs such as find and fall. In the study of Antinucci and Miller (1976, cited in Haznedar, 2007) examining speech of Italian children, the findings demonstrated that the children’s early use of perfective past form was restricted to ACH verbs such as fall and break. Children did not use ACT and STA verbs with perfective past, but rather with imperfective past. As children develop adult-like competence, they will eventually use both the progressive and the perfective suffixes with other lexical aspect classes. Similarly, Aksu-Koç (1998, cited in Haznedar,

2007) found a strong relation between the past form and punctual verbs and between the progressive form and activity verbs.

While a large body of L1 acquisition research has suggested that at the onset

of L1 acquisition, children tend to associate the progressive marker (V-ing) with atelic activity verbs, and the past-perfective marker (V-ed) with telic verbs (accomplishments and achievements), research in L2 acquisition of tense-aspect morphology also reported associations between lexical aspect and grammatical aspect. For example, Andersen (1991) found that the perfective aspect emerged first with punctual verbs (ACH) and spread gradually to ACC, next to ACT, and finally to STA. He also noted that the use of imperfective moved from STA to ACT, ACC, and finally to ACH. With regard to semantic features of verbs, perfective past was first correlated with [+punctual], and [+telic] verbs, whereas imperfective past with [-punctual], and [-telic] verbs.

Robison’s (1990) study of the relation between form and meaning in

interlanguage verbal morphology reported that punctual verbs (ACH) were significantly more likely to show past marker (V-ed) than durative verbs, and that durative verbs were more likely to show -ing than punctual verbs. Bardovi-Harlig (1995) also found that punctual verbs showed higher use of simple past than durative verbs. Other findings (e.g. Bardovi-Harlig and Reynolds, 1995; Lee, 2001) also suggested that learners tended to use the past marker V-ed with verbs and predicates which semantically entails inherent endpoints (i.e. telic verbs such as die, jump and draw a picture) and use the progressive marker V-ing with verbs which are semantically dynamic and durative (e.g. play and swim). In a study on Japanese learners of English, Gabriele, Martohardjono, and McClure (2005) concluded that lexical aspect determines the distribution of verbal morphology to a certain extent. Overall, Andersen (1991), Robison (1990, 1995), Andersen and Shirai (1996), Bardovi-Harlig (1998) have all argued that the acquisition of tense-aspect morphology is guided by the inherent aspectual properties of verbs during the early stages of L2 acquisition, which suggests that the lexical properties of a verb play a role in the acquisition of tense-aspect, and learners tend to acquire these aspectual properties prior to tense features. The view that learners initially use tense markers to encode aspect is known as the Primacy of Aspect Hypothesis (POA), which predicts the following stages in the acquisition of tense-aspect morphology (Andersen and Shirai, 1996; Bardovi-Harlig, 1998; Robison, 1995).

1. Learners use past marking first on ACH and ACC verbs, and later extend it to

ACT and STA verbs. 2. In languages that encode the perfective/imperfective distinction, imperfective

past appears later than perfective past, and imperfective past marking begins with STA verbs, extending next to ACT verbs, then to ACC verbs, and finally to ACH verbs.

3. In languages that have progressive aspect, progressive marking begins with ACT verbs, and then extends to ACC and ACH verbs.

4. Progressive marking is not used incorrectly with STA verbs. (Andersen and Shirai, 1996:533). From the discussion presented thus far, the investigation into tense-aspect

acquisition in SLA regarding the Primacy of Aspect Hypothesis (POA) provides important empirical data through which to learn about the mechanism of form-meaning associations in SLA. Much research has suggested that lexical semantic classes guide early language learners in their production of inflectional morphology (Andersen, 1991; Robison, 1990, 1995; Andersen and Shirai, 1996; Bardovi-Harlig, 1998, among others). However, most existing studies focus mainly on investigating learners’ production data. This study, on the other hand, examines comprehension data by incorporating insights from theoretical research on tense-aspect morphology. The data was analyzed with a view to finding answers to the following research questions:

(1) To what extent can Thai learners with high, intermediate and low English proficiency levels assign target-like interpretations of English time and aspect encoded in inflectional morphology?

(2) To what extent does lexical aspect facilitate Thai learners’ interpretations of grammatical aspect encoded in English verbal morphology? It is hoped that understanding how well learners can interpret time reference

in conjunction with aspectual property and how lexical aspect impacts the interpretations of grammatical forms can shed some light on how successfully learners associate form and function of verbal morphology. The information obtained from the findings of this study can be a valuable tool for ESL/EFL teachers to develop a more informed model of teaching the English tense-aspect system to Thai learners.

The Study

1. Objectives The aim of the present study is two-fold.

(1) To investigate how Thai learners with high, intermediate and low English proficiency levels can assign target-like interpretations to English time and aspect encoded in inflectional morphology.

(2) To examine the extent to which lexical aspect interacts with grammatical aspect in guiding Thai learners’ interpretations of English verbal morphology.

2. Research Instruments

The study utilized two instruments: (1) A reading passage was constructed in the form of an email to provide

language in discourse. The content was devised so that the target items covered the four aspects of two tenses: the present tense and the past tense. The decision to

eliminate the future tense was based on the assertion that only the present and past tenses in English express the factual account of a situation (Huddleston, 1984; Quirk et al., 1992). The future tense denotes predictive events and thus is expressed by means of a modal auxiliary: will or shall. The exclusion of all future forms in this study was to avoid the interpretations of time and aspect based on speculative situations.

The first draft of the text was prepared for a reliability check by deleting the

verbs in all potential items and replacing each item by a blank, with the base form of the verb given in parentheses. Three native English-speaking teachers (NEST’s) were asked to supply the tense-aspect form for each item. Upon completion of the first task, the three NEST’s were asked to select time and aspect from a set of descriptors that best described time reference and aspectual property of the grammatical verb form they supplied for each context. Disagreements over the variations of verb forms supplied by these NESTs were resolved through discussions. The text was accordingly modified and all the verb forms agreed by the three NEST’s were put back in the passage. Following the modifications, the text contained 24 target items distributed across the eight tense-aspect forms as follows:

Tense-Aspect No. of items Tense-Aspect No. of items Present Simple 4 Past Simple 5 Present Perfect 3 Past Perfect 2 Present Progressive 4 Past Progressive 2 Present Perfect Progressive 2 Past Perfect

Progressive 2

The 24 verbs in the target items were classified into lexical semantic classes as

follows. STA: be feel need enjoy ACT: enjoy (oneself) work watch study ACC: spend visit write take prepare decorate ACH: get pass fail finish come go arrive leave tell open

(2) A questionnaire was designed to elicit the meanings of (I) time reference and (II) aspectual property of the 24 given verbs. A set of multiple-choice selections were provided for the participants to choose one that best described how they viewed time and aspect implicated in each of the 24 verbs and predicates. The terminology used as descriptors to delineate the meanings of time and aspectual properties were chosen from intermediate to advanced ESL/EFL grammar texts and were adjusted according to the comments and suggestions from the NEST’s who pilot-tested the instruments as described in 2(1). The descriptors given in the questionnaire were uniform for all contexts as shown:

(I) The time reference of the event is: (II) The event is viewed as: a. Future a. Started but continuing b. Present b. Completed c. Past relevant to present c. Duration finished d. Past d. Repeated intermittently e. Before another past event e. State or fact

f. Other (please specify)___________ f. Other (please specify)_________

To avoid misunderstandings, the instructions and multiple-choice descriptors were translated into Thai for the participants in lower English proficiency groups.

3. Participants

Participants included 99 Thai speakers of English classified into three English proficiency levels: high, intermediate, and low, with 33 in each group. Recruitment of participants in the high group was conducted by distributing the test instrument to 45 Thai teachers of English from two universities in Bangkok, Thailand. Thirty-three teachers completed the papers and returned them to the researcher. Therefore, the data obtained from these 33 participants were collected for analysis.

Participants in the intermediate and low groups were drawn from 189 undergraduate students in the English Major program of a university in Bangkok, based on their scores on an in-house test of English proficiency. In order to equalize the number of participants in all sample groups, 33 students with the highest scores and 33 students with the lowest scores were selected to represent the intermediate group and the low group, respectively.

It should be noted that the decision that Thai university teachers of English

would represent the high-proficiency group was based on the presumption that their language ability was high. However, their actual proficiency was not evaluated as it was not viable to request teachers who were randomly chosen from different universities to take the same English proficiency test that the participants in the intermediate and low proficiency groups took. Despite this limitation, care was taken to assess English proficiency of the students representing the intermediate and low proficiency groups, who were in fact the target groups of the study. 4. Data Collection

The participants were asked to carefully read the email and select one answer from the choices that best described how they viewed time reference and aspect of each given verb. The test was given as an untimed paper-and-pencil test. However, the time the participants used to complete the task was averaged at 25 minutes.

5. Data Analysis The instrument was initially conducted with 15 native speakers of English

(NSs) in order to obtain their interpretations as a baseline to compare against those of

Thai participants in the study. These native English speakers were asked to select an answer that best described how they viewed time and aspect for each target item. The results were tabulated and calculated using descriptive statistics.

The analysis of the NSs’ responses has shown that even native English speakers exhibited variations in their perceptions of time reference and aspectual properties. However, in order to identify the choice that represented the NS ‘acceptable’ response for each tense-aspect item, the time reference and aspectual interpretation chosen by the highest number of NSs was selected as a baseline for data analysis against which all those chosen by the Thai participants. Table 5 below shows the mean values of NSs’ ‘acceptable’ response for each item in percentage. Table 5: Mean Values of NSs’ ‘acceptable’ choices for Time and Aspect in Percentage

Present Tense Forms

Form Present Simple Present Perfect Present Progressive Pres. Perf. Progressive

Item 3 20 22 24 1 9 10 2 8 19 23 4 21

Time 93.3 100 93.3 73.3 66.7 86.7 60 100 100 100 100 66.7 86.7

Aspect 93.3 73.3 80 66.7 86.7 86.7 73.3 80 60 66.7 66.7 86.7 86.7

Past Tense Forms

Form Past Simple Past Perfect

Past Progressive

Past Perf. Progressive

Item 5 11 12 15 16 6 17 13 14 7 18

Time 100 93.3 93.3 93.3 93.3 93.3 73.3 60 60 80 80

Aspect 100 66.7 100 93.3 100 80 60 66.7 73.3 80 73.3

6. Results and Discussion 6.1 Time and Aspect by Group

Table 6 below shows the maximum, minimum and mean values of the interpretations of time and aspect in percentage across the three groups based on the NS acceptable choices.

Table 6: Time Reference and Aspectual Property of the 24 Items by Group (in Percentage)

From the above table, one may observe that the mean values of both time reference and aspectual property decreased in relation to proficiency levels. The values of Thai learners with high English proficiency were highest, suggesting that interpretations of time and aspect of the high-learner group were more native-like

Group Time Reference in Percentage Aspectual Property in Percentage

Max Min x Std. F Sig. Max Min x Std. F Sig.

H 100 54.17 80.556 12.701 56.929 .000* 87.50 45.83 63.132 11.128 35.766 .000*

I 91.67 45.83 65.783 13.731 79.17 45.83 57.828 7.708

L 75.00 16.67 45.455 13.794 p<.05 62.50 4.17 39.646 15.384 p<.05

than the lower-proficiency groups. One-way ANOVA was conducted and the results show statistically-significant differences in the mean values of the three groups in both time and aspectual interpretations. The Scheffe pair-wise comparison was further administered to test the differences between groups. The statistical testing results reveal significant differences between the three groups in the interpretations of time, but for the interpretations of aspect, the performance between the high and intermediate groups did not differ significantly, as shown in Table 7.

Table 7: Comparison of Mean Differences between Groups

Another notable point observed from Table 6 was that each group obtained a higher mean value for time than for aspect, which implies that Thai speakers tended to have a better understanding of time reference than aspectual property encoded in verbal morphology. In determining whether the differences in the performance of time and aspect were significant, the t-test results show statistically-significant differences occurring in all groups at the .05 level, as shown in Table 8. The results thus suggest that interpreting aspect was more challenging for Thai speakers than time reference. Table 8: Comparison of Mean Differences between Time and Aspect in each Group

*p < .05

6.2 Time and Aspect by Morphological Form

In order to compare which morphological form is more accessible to Thai learners than others, the interpretations of time and aspect by each morphological form were analyzed and presented in Table 9.

Group Comparison

Time Reference Aspectual Property

Mean Difference Sig. Mean Difference Sig.

H vs. I 14.773* .000* 5.304 .196

I vs. L 20.329* .000* 18.182* .000*

H vs. L 35.101* .000* 23.486* .000*

Group Comparison of Performance for Time and Aspect

Mean - Time Mean - Aspect Mean Diff t Sig. (2-tailed)

H 80.556 63.132 17.424* 6.024 .000*

I 65.783 57.828 7.955* 2.859 .007*

L 45.455 39.646 5.808* 2.652 .012*

Table 9: Mean Values of Time Reference and Aspectual Property by Morphological Form (in Percentage)

With regard to time reference, the results show that scores of the three groups

aligned linearly in relation to proficiency levels. The highest scores in the high group and the lowest scores in the low group indicate the non-native speakers’ typical development pattern. Overall, the analysis reveals higher consistency occurring in the interpretations of time references than aspectual properties. Among the eight morphological forms, time reference of the past simple tense yields the highest degree of agreement in all the groups (H = 95.8%, I = 92.1%, and L = 68.5%), whereas time reference of the past perfect progressive reveals the lowest degree of agreement (H = 59.1%, I = 31.8%, and L = 12.1%). This suggests that time reference of the past simple tends to be easiest to perceive while the past perfect progressive may be the most challenging verbal morphology for Thai speakers to learn.

One-way ANOVA was conducted to test statistical differences in the mean

values of time interpretations performed by the three groups. The results show significant differences in all morphological forms among the three groups, suggesting relationships between L2 proficiency and the ability to comprehend time reference of each morphological form.

In relation to aspectual property, the aspect of the present perfect progressive

yields the highest degree of agreement in the high group (92.4%), whereas the aspect of the past simple reveals the highest degree of agreement among the intermediate and the low-proficiency learners (I = 87.3%, L = 58.2%). For the aspect of the past progressive tense, one may observe that the mean values of the three groups did not follow the typical developmental pattern. That is, the values decrease with increasing proficiency levels (H = 12.1%, I = 24.2%, and L = 37.9%). In addition, the aspect of this morphological form displays the lowest degree of agreement in the high and intermediate groups. The slight deterioration in the developmental pattern suggests that the aspect of this tense-aspect form could be problematic to Thai learners.

Tense-Aspect Form Time Reference in Percentage Aspectual Property in Percentage

H I L F Sig. H I L F Sig.

Pres simple (n=4) 65.909 56.061 47.727 8.327 .000* 78.788 79.546 39.394 21.698 .000*

Pres perfect (n=3) 79.798 53.535 47.475 8.784 .000* 50.505 40.404 24.242 6.080 .003*

Pres prog. (n=4) 94.697 81.061 53.030 28.923 .000* 49.242 43.182 37.879 1.441 .242

Pres pf. pg. (n=2) 84.849 69.697 37.879 14.305 .000* 92.424 75.758 42.424 23.651 .000*

Past simple (n=5) 95.758 92.121 68.485 14.786 .000* 88.485 87.273 58.182 19.685 .000*

Past perfect (n=2) 74.242 60.606 27.273 13.717 .000* 54.546 30.303 30.303 5.340 .006*

Past prog. (n=2) 68.182 42.424 24.242 8.115 .001* 12.121 24.242 37.879 3.733 .027*

Past pf. pg. (n=2) 59.091 31.818 12.121 12.029 .000* 45.455 39.394 28.788 1.447 .240

Two other forms that yielded relatively low mean values in the high group

were the present progressive (49.2%) and past perfect progressive (45.45%). That the aspectual interpretations of these two forms had less than 50% of agreement from the high-group participants implies that the aspect of these forms could be problematic for Thai learners to comprehend; even learners with high English proficiency still had difficulty interpreting aspectual properties of these two forms. As confirmed by the statistical testing results shown in the last column of Table 9, the differences in performance of the three groups in these two forms did not differ statistically.

In investigating the difference in each group’s performance of time and aspect for each morphological form, the t-test results reveal the differences in five forms in the high group, three forms in the intermediate group and the low group, as shown in Table 10. This indicates that with increasing proficiency, Thai speakers’ ability to perceive time references of verbal morphology tend to exceed their perception of viewpoint aspects. Table 10: Comparison of Mean Differences between Time and Aspect in each Group by Form

*p < .05

6.3 Time and Aspect by Item In this section, a more in-depth analysis of the participants’ interpretations of

tense and aspect by item will be presented in order to examine the extent to which lexical semantic classes had an effect on learners’ target-like interpretations of English verbal morphology as claimed by the Primacy of Aspect Hypothesis (POA). Table 11 below shows the participants’ choices of aspectual properties and time references in conjunction with lexical semantic classes of the 24 items classified by morphological forms. The aim of the data analysis presented in this section was to investigate whether lexical aspectual classes yield a facilitative effect in the acquisition of lower-proficiency learners as claimed by the POA. Thus, in order to examine whether different lexical classes yielded different aspectual facilitation patterns for the participants in this particular group, in Table 11 the performance of low-proficiency

Tense-Aspect Form Comparison of Performance for Time and Aspect

High Intermediate Low

x Diff t Sig. x Diff t Sig. x Diff t Sig.

Pres simple (n=4) -12.879 -2.273 .030* -23.485 -4.717 .000* 8.333 1.216 .233

Pres perfect (n=3) 29.293 3.528 .001* 13.131 1.244 .222 23.232 3.112 .004*

Pres prog. (n=4) 45.455 7.973 .000* 37.879 5.364 .000* 15.152 2.908 .007*

Pres pf. pg. (n=2) -7.576 -1.094 .282 -6.061 -.892 .379 -4.545 -.501 .620

Past simple (n=5) 7.273 1.831 .076 4.849 1.677 .103 10.303 1.970 .058

Past perfect (n=2) 19.697 2.425 .021* 30.303 2.789 .009* -3.030 -.291 .773

Past prog. (n=2) 56.061 5.796 .000* 18.182 1.459 .154 -13.636 -1.466 .152

Past pf. pg. (n=2) 13.636 1.427 .163 -7.576 -.867 .392 -16.667 -2.464 .019*

learners was presented first, followed by the intermediate group and the high group, respectively. In addition, the ordering of aspectual interpretations by each morphological form was ranked from highest to lowest percentages based primarily on the performance of learners in the low group.

Table 11: Lexical Aspect, Grammatical Aspect and Time Reference by Item

As shown in Table 11, the target-like interpretations of aspect were not evenly

distributed across all verbs marked by the same morphological form. The data shows that the low-group learners comprehended the past or perfective morphology (past simple form) attached to telic ACH verbs at the highest percentages (i.e. pass, aim, tell,

Tense-Aspect Form Item Verb Verb Type

Aspectual Property in Percentage

Time Reference in Percentage Time Reference

L I H L I H

Present simple (n=4)

3 be STA 51.52 87.88 93.94 84.85 93.94 100 present

22 need STA 39.39 81.82 84.85 69.70 96.97 96.97 present

24 enjoy STA 39.39 72.73 63.64 24.24 12.12 24.24 future

20 leave ACH 27.27 75.76 72.73 12.12 21.21 42.42 future

39.39 79.55 78.79 47.73 56.06 65.91

Present perfect (n=3)

1 get ACH 30.30 42.42 57.58 51.52 63.64 78.79 past to present

10 finish ACH 27.27 54.55 51.52 33.33 48.48 72.73 past to present

9 visit ACC 15.15 24.24 42.42 57.58 48.48 87.88 past to present

24.24 40.40 50.51 47.47 53.54 79.80

Present progressive (n=4)

2 enjoy ACT 63.64 60.61 78.79 66.67 87.88 100 present

8 feel STA 36.36 24.24 30.30 78.79 96.97 96.97 present

23 open ACH 30.30 51.52 48.48 27.27 63.64 90.91 future

19 go ACH 21.21 36.36 39.39 39.39 75.76 90.91 future

37.88 43.18 49.24 53.03 81.06 94.70

Present perfect progressive (n=2)

4 work ACT 63.64 84.85 93.94 45.45 78.79 87.88 continuing

21 decorate ACC 21.21 66.67 90.91 30.30 60.61 81.82 continuing

42.42 75.76 92.42 37.88 69.70 84.85

Past simple (n=5)

5 pass ACH 66.67 96.97 96.97 69.70 93.94 100 past

15 arrive ACH 60.61 75.76 87.88 75.76 90.91 96.97 past

16 tell ACH 57.58 90.91 84.85 66.67 93.94 93.94 past

12 come ACH 54.55 90.91 90.91 69.70 90.91 100 past

11 spend ACC 51.52 81.82 81.82 60.61 90.91 87.88 past

58.18 87.27 88.48 68.48 92.12 95.76

Past perfect (n=2)

6 fail ACH 39.39 42.42 69.70 36.36 69.70 81.82 past in the past

17 write ACC 21.21 18.18 39.39 18.18 51.52 66.67 past in the past

30.30 30.30 54.55 27.27 60.61 74.24

Past progressive (n=2)

13 watch ACT 45.45 21.21 12.12 27.27 45.45 69.70 past

14 prepare ACC 30.30 27.27 12.12 21.21 39.39 66.67 past

37.88 24.24 12.12 24.24 42.42 68.18

Past perfect progressive (n=2)

18 study ACT 36.36 39.39 42.42 18.18 36.36 60.61 past in the past

7 take ACC 21.21 39.39 48.48 6.06 27.27 57.58 past in the past

28.79 39.39 45.45 12.12 31.82 59.09

and come), followed by the ACC verb (spend). The results were compatible with Andersen’s (1991) study which found that past perfective associated with [+P], [+T], and [+D] verbs appeared earlier in L2 learners than past imperfective. Low-proficiency learners also performed better when interpreting the present or imperfective/progressive morphology occurring with atelic verbs, i.e. ACT verbs: enjoy and work (63.64%). The results support the POA prediction that at early stages of L2 acquisition, learners first acquire the form-function mapping of ACH and ACC verbs with past markers, and in languages that have progressive aspect, progressive marking begins with ACT verbs.

Another important finding is that while the learners performed best with the

present imperfective/progressive occurring with ACT verbs, i.e. enjoy (63.64%) and work (63.64%), these learners still had difficulty interpreting the past imperfective/progressive although it was also attached to the ACT verbs, i.e. watch and study (45.45% and 36.36%). The results were consistent with Gabriele, Martohardjono, & McClure’s (2005) study of the Japanese learners of English, which found that the past progressive was more difficult than the simple past. Gabriele, Martohardjono, & McClure proposed that the developmental model could be a possible explanation accountable for such difficulty, as research has shown that children learning their L1 also have difficulty mastering the target interpretation of the past progressive. Another possible explanation was based on L1 transfer. It may be proposed that there is a mismatch between form and meaning of the past progressive in the L1 and L2. With regard to this explanation, it may be hypothesized that L1 transfer could also play a role in Thai learners’ difficulty in mastering the past progressive. As can be seen, even the high-group participants in this study had problems interpreting the past progressive, but they had little difficulty with the past simple.

With regard to time, within-group variation existed in the interpretations of

time reference of the present simple tense. The data reveal that the three groups were able to assign target-like interpretations to the ‘present’ time reference expressed by the present simple in items 3 and 22 at relatively high percentages, whereas the interpretations of the ‘future’ time reference marked by the present simple in items 20 and 24 reveal weakness in performance in all groups. This suggests that perceiving time of the present simple form may be problematic. Semantically, the present simple in English can be used to convey a wide array of interpretations such as habitual, state of affairs or fact, and narrative interpretation. Thus, it generally has a meaning that cuts across three times: from the past when the situation started to the moment of speaking and with the possibility of extending further into the future, especially when it is used with STA verbs. For example, the STA verb enjoy can generally be perceived to start from the past and extend to the present and future. However, in the reading text used in this study the verb enjoy co-occurs with the verb hope leading the interpretation of time reference toward the future (i.e. Hope you enjoy the rest of your stay in Thailand). In fact, the present time itself is not easy to define in terms of its

beginning and end points, and that is why the present simple form is not used to make predication specifically only to the present time reference (Ajé, 2010). From the results of the study, the present simple was more accessible to Thai speakers when it was used to denote the ‘present’ time reference than when expressing the ‘future’. One may assume that low-proficiency learners, in particular, are likely to associate the tense form with its most common usage and typical time reference; for example, they normally associate the present tense with the present time. This has led us to observe that the tense-aspect form which involves more than one time point is difficult to define and it may not be possible to summarize its characteristics in just one simple description.

In terms of time reference of the past tenses, the average mean values of time interpretations of the past simple yielded the highest percentages in all groups. In addition, within-group consistency was observed in the performance of the five items marked by this form. This suggests that the association between the past time reference of the past simple and its morphological form is relatively straightforward. As mentioned earlier, the tense-aspect markers associated with one time point such as the past simple, which specifically makes predication to the past time, are more accessible to learners than those relating to more than one time point such as the present perfect which relates the present to the past and the past perfect which denotes the past-in-the-past. Comparatively, the interpretations of time for the past perfect and past progressive forms among the low group-learners revealed greater degrees of within-group variations than those for the past simple. It is also evident that, for the tense with the combination of two aspects like the past perfect progressive, these learners had even greater difficulty interpreting time reference of this tense. As can be seen, the mean values for time reference of items 7 and 18 in the low group were averaged at only 12.1%.

7. Conclusion

This paper investigates L2 learners’ comprehension of English tense-aspect markers by examining the extent to which Thai learners with high, intermediate and low English proficiency levels can assign target-like interpretations to English time and aspect encoded in inflectional morphology. In addition, it also examines the extent to which lexical aspect interacts with grammatical aspect in facilitating Thai learners’ interpretations of English verbal morphology. In response to the first objective, the results of the study reveal a typical development pattern in the interpretations of time reference of all morphological forms investigated in the study. The analyses indicate that tense markers associated with one time point (e.g. the past, the present) show less within-group variations than those relating to more than one time point (e.g. past with present relevance, or before another past event). Consequently, the past simple which makes predication to the past time, and the present progressive which specifically makes predication to the present time tend to be easier to understand than the present simple which does not always make a specific

predication to the present time. The tense-aspect forms which denote more than one time point such as those with the perfect aspect or the perfect progressive aspect are conceived of as more difficult for Thai learners to acquire than time references of the other tense-aspect forms. From the results of this study, time reference of the past perfect progressive appeared to be the most problematic to participants in all groups. In testing significant differences across the groups, statistical testing results revealed significant differences between the high and intermediate groups in two forms: present perfect and past perfect progressive. This suggests that understanding the time reference of these two forms requires greater exposure and increasing proficiency of English. Between the intermediate and low groups, the performance differed significantly in four forms: present progressive, present perfect progressive, past simple and past perfect. Between the high and low groups, significant differences in performance were found in all the eight morphological forms.

The analyses of aspectual interpretations showed greater within-group and

across-group variations than the interpretations of time reference. This finding suggests that aspect is more persistently problematic than time. Of the eight morphological forms, the aspect of the past simple was most accessible to learners in the intermediate and low groups, whereas the aspect of the present perfect progressive had the highest degree of agreement among the participants in the high group, followed by the aspect of the past simple. Like time reference, the aspectual property of the past perfect progressive was found to be problematic to Thai speakers. This could result from the fact that the combination of two aspects makes it difficult for Thai speakers to perceive in a clear manner. In addition, the remoteness of the past time reference may have exacerbated the participants’ difficulty in interpreting time and aspect in certain contexts. This possibly results from the lack of inflectional forms to convey the past as opposed to the present time in the Thai language. Another notable point is that there was a slight deterioration in the participants’ developmental pattern existing in the aspectual interpretation of the past progressive. That is, the mean values decreased as the participants’ proficiency increased across the groups. This finding suggests that this form could be problematic and further investigation should be recommended.

With regard to the second research objective, the results show that in average

lower-proficiency learners responded more accurately to the perfective-telic verb combinations and imperfective-atelic verb combinations than to combinations of other morphological forms. This finding suggests that these learners were more sensitive to the past or perfective morphology when interpreting telic verbs, first ACH verbs, followed by ACC verbs, whereas they were more sensitive to the present or imperfective morphology when interpreting atelic verbs (i.e., ACTs and STAs). The results are consistent with findings of previous studies which showed strong association between telic verbs and perfective aspect markers and between ACT verbs and imperfective progressive aspect markers (e.g. Andersen & Shirai, 1994; Shirai & Andersen, 1995). This finding thus supports the Aspect Hypothesis prediction that at

early stages of L2 acquisition, learners first acquire the form-function mapping of ACH and ACC verbs with past markers, and STA and ACT verbs with imperfective markers.

8. Implications

This study contributes to an increasing body of literature which investigates L2 acquisition of the English tense-aspect system. It does so by considering the comprehension of time and aspect as well as the effect of lexical aspect on the interpretations of grammatical aspect. The data presented in this study suggest that non-native learners of English, even at high English proficiency levels, experience some challenges when they have to interpret tense meanings in their full functional range. In the English tense-aspect system, a number of factors are in play: (1) time reference and its marker, (2) grammatical aspect, (3) lexical aspect, and (4) context. The tense meanings will become specific when time and grammatical aspect that mark verbs interact with context and lexical aspect. As English tenses and aspects have a variety of functions, learners should be encouraged to associate those functions and forms within the context of language use. As demonstrated, lexical aspect plays an important role in learners’ formation of mental representation of events, thus it should be useful to associate lexico-semantic classes of verbs in relation to time-aspect references with which the verb forms are most suitable into the teaching of the English tense-aspect system. 9. Recommendations for Further Research

The analyses of learners’ comprehension of time and aspect in this study have shown common developmental patterns in the domain of English tense-aspect markers. Further research can be conducted to examine the decision making process as learners work on a task that requires them to make choices between tense-aspect markers in given contexts. Moreover, research into the process in which learners supply and manipulate contexts for the production of forms as well as the reasons for which learners decide to use such forms may help address the difficulty learners have in mappings of form and function.

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