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L2 Tense and Time Reference
Author(s) -
HINKEL ELI
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
tesol quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.737
H-Index - 91
eISSN - 1545-7249
pISSN - 0039-8322
DOI - 10.2307/3587178
Subject(s) - past tense , present tense , linguistics , psychology , mathematics education , philosophy , verb
The meaning and forms of tenses are complex and often difficult for nonnative speakers to acquire. The concepts associated with time which differ among language communities can present an additional level of complexitv for learners. In a survey, 130 ESL students were asked to describe the meanings of English tenses in terms of time concepts used in ESL grammar texts. The results suggest that speakers of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Arabic associate different temporal relationships with the terms right now, present , and past than do native speakers. An implication of this finding is that grammar teaching that utilizes descriptions of time accepted in English‐speaking communities to explain usages and meanings of English tenses can produce a low rate of learner comprehension.