The present perfect in the english used by L1 Chinese and L1 Malay language learners
It is widely acknowledged that the English present perfect is one of the more challenging grammatical constructions for learners of English as a second (ESL) or foreign language (EFL) to attain. According to Leech (2004), there are four main functions of the English present perfect, namely State...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2020
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/99330/1/KWAN%20LEE%20YIN%20-%20IR.pdf |
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| Summary: | It is widely acknowledged that the English present perfect is one of the
more challenging grammatical constructions for learners of English as a
second (ESL) or foreign language (EFL) to attain. According to Leech
(2004), there are four main functions of the English present perfect, namely
State-up-to-the Present (SP), Indefinite Past (IP), Habit-leading-to-the
Present (HP) and Resultative Past (RP). SP indicates a state that extends
over a period lasting up to the present moment; IP refers to some indefinite
happening (or happenings) in the past that are “at-least-once-before-now”;
HP highlights “a state consisting of repeated events”; and RP denotes the
result of a past event that is still in operation at the present time. The
Chinese and Malay languages do not have a tense system, which means
there is no exact equivalent of the English present perfect in Chinese and
Malay. Due to the complex nature by which the English present perfect
functions, teachers of English as a second language in Malaysia have
observed that the English present perfect is often an area of serious
difficulty for their students in English grammar.
Using the functional perspective governing the four functions of the English
present perfect by Leech (2004), this thesis discusses the extent to which
L1 Chinese and L1 Malay ESL learners in Malaysia know the full range of
functions of the English present perfect and can use them in English
production. The study also aims to find out the specific present perfect
functions that the participants utilise the best and worst as well as the main
factors determining the relative lack of success in the acquisition of the
present perfect in relation to results obtained by L1 Chinese and L1 Malay
participants of two proficiency levels.
A total of 60 L1 Chinese learners and 60 L1 Malay learners whose
proficiency in English was intermediate and advanced participated in this
study based on their performance in the Oxford Placement Test 2 (OPT2)
(Allan, 2004). The participants were Literature and Linguistics students of
the Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication and medical
students of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra
Malaysia. All were in the second to final year of their programmes. The
instruments used consist of three elicitation tasks: a cloze task, a
Grammaticality Judgement Task and a translation task. The data obtained
from the three tasks were analysed quantitatively using the Statistical
Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25 programme with respect
to descriptive statistics to obtain frequency counts and percentage.
Comparison was made between the mean differences and the significant
differences between the participants of the two language groups at the two
levels of proficiency using t-tests. For multiple comparisons, Tukey’s Post
Hoc Test was also conducted. The data was analysed qualitatively i.e. the
percentages of errors made in the use of the four functions of the present
perfect were analysed and explained by identifying the differences between
the participants’ mother tongue and the target language and considering
the participants’ tendency to use certain verb forms in various situations.
The results of the study showed that the L1 Chinese and L1 Malay learners
have not fully integrated the four principal meanings conveyed by the
English present perfect form in a native-like way. Data collected attest to
the fact that both groups of participants performed best in the use of the
state-up-to-the present function of the present perfect and worst in the use
of the habit- leading-to-the present function. The participants also tended
to use the simple past verb form instead of the present perfect verb form in
present perfect environments in spite of contextual markers that signalled
the use of the present perfect. The persistent difficulty in correctly using
the present perfect can be linked to interacting factors such as
markedness, there being no equivalent form to express the English present
perfect in Chinese and Malay and the complexity in meaning and
ambiguous nature of the English present perfect itself.
The study highlights the importance of investigating the acquisition of the
English Present Perfect by L2 learners and provides some pedagogical
perspectives for L2 English instructors. Based on the findings, the
researcher formulated important recommendations for language instructors
to improve pedagogical language approaches to facilitate language learners
in acquiring ease of use of the English present perfect. |
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