ESL Learners' Use of Tense and Aspect in English Academic Writing

• In Event: Roundtable Session 47
  In Roundtable Session: Exploring Classroom Discourse, Vocabulary, and Academic Language Use in Second Language Learning

Abstract

This study examined four different proficiency levels of ESL learners’ use of tense (present/past) and aspect (simple/perfect/progressive) in English academic writing compared to native speakers’ corpus data from the Longman Spoken and Written English Corpus. The results showed that the ESL learners’ proficiency levels did not significantly affect the use of tense. However, regarding aspect, a statistically significant difference was found in perfect aspect. The higher proficiency group showed similar tendencies both in tense and aspect to native speakers. With respect to differences between native and non-native speakers, there were statistical differences in all types of tense and aspect, with the exception of progressive aspect. Compared to ESL learners, native speakers tend to use more past tense and perfect aspect.

Authors

• Yilmin Koo, University of North Texas

• Eun Young Lee, University of North Texas