Tense Errors In English Among The English Second Language Immigrant Learners In America.

Smarthinking Response Form

comments [in bold and in brackets] within your essay. Thank you for choosing Smarthinking to help you improve your writing!

*Writing Strength:
You define important terms, such as tenses and grammar, in the draft. This helps the readers better understand your discussion. Good job!

*11848397, you requested help with the Main Idea/Thesis:
Since you are to make an arguable claim supported by credible evidence in this paper, it will be best if you focus more on the reasons that defend your position rather than the variables themselves. Assuming this is your intended thesis:

• Failure to have sensitivity in grammatical prototypes might affect an immigrant’s ability to acquire EFL, as can other variables such as tenses, learning method, and other background circumstances.

it will be improved if you tell the readers your reasons for believing that failure to have sensitivity in grammatical prototypes and variables like tenses, learning methods, and other background circumstances affect an immigrant’s ability to acquire EFL. This way, readers will immediately understand why you argue for this position. Here’s a model that you can use:

• Failure to have sensitivity in grammatical prototyes and other varibales, such as _____________, _____________, and _____________ (specific variables) affect an immigrant’s ability to acquire EFL because _____________, _____________, and _____________ (supporting reasons).

I removed the word “might” in this model to show how definitive your position is. A clear, strong, and direct thesis like this is essential in an argument essay. You can use this model or develop it as needed. To know more about this, you can review these materials about Developing a Thesis and Writing an Argument Essay.

* 11848397, you requested help with Content Development:
In relation to the previous lesson, you need to make sure that you defend your position in the discussion. This means you elaborate on the reasons to demonstrate the validity of your argument. For example, you mention learning method in the thesis. If you will use this as a basis for your reason, you can expound on it in the discussion by answering these questions:

• Why do learning methods affect an immigrant’s ability to acquire EFL?
• How do they affect their ability to acquire EFL?
• What aspects of these methods impact one’s ability to acquire EFL?
• Which credible sources support this claim?

As you revise the thesis, make sure your discussion aligns with it.

Organization
Finally, you name several variables in the thesis; however, I notice that you mostly discuss tenses in the discussion. As mentioned in the assignment description, the body paragraphs should each focus on one aspect of the argument. Ideally, these should be the reasons or evidence that support your argument. Here’s a suggestion:

1. Introduction – background information about the topic (EFL, immigrants, etc.); thesis statement
2. Body Paragraph 1 – first reason that supports your reason (for example, why tenses affect an immigrant’s ability to acquire EFL)

• Body Paragraph 2 – second reason that supports your reason (for example, why learning methods affect an immigrant’s ability to acquire EFL)

1. Body Paragraph 3 – third reason that supports your reason (for example, why background circumstances affect an immigrant’s ability to acquire EFL)
2. Body Paragraph 4 – presentation of the counterargument; presentation of refutation
3. Conclusion – reaffirming the thesis, recapping the key points, closing the essay

This is just a sample. You can use it or develop it according to your revised thesis. The goal here is to ensure that the different parts are organized. Make sure to discuss a single subtopic per paragraph to have a focused discussion. Here’s a lesson you can review about this: Formal and Informal Outlines.

Summary of Next Steps:

• Write a strong, comprehensive thesis.
• Develop the discussion.
• Focus on one idea per section.

Thank you for submitting your draft for review, I hope this helps you in the revision process

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Please look for comments [in bold and in brackets] in your essay below..

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tense errors in English among the English second language immigrant learners in America.

ENGL 1211: English Composition with Research

August 8, 2022

 

 

 

 

Tense errors in English among the English second language immigrant learners in America.

 

Immigrant students in the United States need a solid foundation in English grammar to communicate effectively, read well and comprehend what they are reading. Most immigrants struggle to process what they are reading without a solid foundation in grammar. This makes it difficult for them to excel in their academic and working pursuits. Speaking the language can also help immigrants fit in with American society. It can help immigrants be better understood by others, which can help them connect with people and build relationships. The American education structure has the Evel to try and educate the native immigrant on how to read, write and understand English. Although, A lot of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students have many difficulties learning the language, and as a result, they make many mistakes in writing contests and competence examinations. Failure to have sensitivity in grammatical prototypes might affect an immigrant’s ability to acquire EFL, as can other variables such as tenses, learning method, and other background circumstances.

Tense is a linguistic term that refers to the time of an event. Tenses can either be passed, present, future, and conditional. Each tense has rules that must be followed to ensure the proper meaning is conveyed. Second language learners are often confused about the proper use of tense, leading to errors in their communication. Immigrants often don’t know the proper use of the present perfect tense and make tense errors in their communication. When it comes to mastering the English tense might be a challenging task for EFL students. [If you meant to have the phrase “When it comes to mastering English” as the introductory element of this sentence, a comma should be placed after it to separate it from the sentence’s main idea.] One of the most difficult areas for English language learners to grasp is the usage of verb forms, according to Mocciaro and Young-Scholten (2022). Because of this, students of English as a Second Language (EFL) may make errors when trying to communicate the timing of an event in the target language. EFL students have been shown to articulate themselves in a way that confuses the concept of time.

Moreover, EFL students’ inability to master the tenses of the target language may be attributed in part to the effect of their native language (L1) (TL). As a result, Chinese ESL learners often make mistakes such as employing ‘bare infinitive forms’ rather than ‘verbs inflected for the simple present and past. Other than Chinese EFL students, Dutch English learners exhibit L1 impact. FL students in the Netherlands are expected to know the distinction between simple past and past progressive in English. Therefore, even skilled L2 learners might be influenced by L1 impact.

On the other hand, the bangle speakers suffer the exact impact of L1; they may use their L1 sequence of tense rules in forming English sentences. Tense plays a critical role in ensuring proper and effective communication. In addition to difficulties with tense, EFL students may have difficulty grasping the event-oriented nature of the language they are learning. The English language is a complex language that can be difficult to learn for non-native speakers. One of the significant challenges that EFL students face is that the language lacks a system for representing the order of events in time. Without this system, EFL students have difficulty understanding the language’s structure and flow. This can make it challenging for EFL students to absorb the meaning of their sentences. However, with the right help, EFL students can learn how to use tense to express their meaning in the language.

Many students make tense mistakes due to their inability to discern the various relationships between a verb type and its group, which results in tense errors (Sabra, 2020). [Citations are mostly used as supporting evidence. What the topic sentence should express is the aspect of your argument that you will discuss in this body paragraph. After you establish the thesis, decide whether this body paragraph is about tenses, learning methods, background circumstances, or reasons that support your position. Then, make sure you express it in the topic sentences.] To make matters worse, many L1 students from a wide range of ethnicities studying English as second language neglect or ignore the inflection in verbs. Students with tense mistakes do not know how to utilize suppletive inflection and instead use affixal inflection together with the auxiliary form “be,” making it impossible for them to produce progressive participles, resulting in tense errors. While the affixal inflection has a set of rules for its stem word class, the suppletive inflection may use any word as the inflected form of another, even if the two words are different. Improper use of inflection (suppletive or affixal) may lead to tense problems by giving the improper voice and tense. Tense mistakes are less common among bilingual learners in the second language (L2) because they are more advanced in the two categories above. These results corroborate those who found that the second language acquisition processes of students of all ages and educational backgrounds followed similar developmental patterns.

More likely to know how to use the past tense correctly and can help others learn how to use it too.

Many second language learners are more familiar with the present perfect tense than the past tense. This is because many of them are from countries where the present perfect tense is used correctly. They are also exposed to the present perfect tense in their education and at home. This means they are more likely to know the proper use of the present perfect tense and can help others learn how to use it, too Jacobson and Yu (2018). Teaching the tenses of a language involves teaching the language’s grammar simultaneously. “The way words are put together to make correct sentences” is how defines grammar, according to Lennon (2020). Grammar is the study of the principles that govern word, phrase, and sentence structure. Systematic linguistic analysis is according to what grammarians do. Morphology and syntax are the traditional divisions in grammar. Grammar is abstract in mind, and it becomes concrete in its use. That is to say; it Is a mental concept that manifests itself in the real world. Moreover, it is the study of grammatical which means tacitly knowing about the grammar of a language numero Wood (2022); for the English learners’ errors in grammar directly imply that it would also reflect on the tenses.

Most immigrants struggle to process what they are reading without a solid foundation in grammar. This makes it difficult for them to excel in academic and working pursuits. Immigrants who learn English can also have a better life by connecting with other people more effectively. EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students articulate themselves in a way that confuses the concept of time. EFL students’ inability to master the tenses of the target language may be attributed in part to the effect of their native language (L1) (TL) on their tenses. Many students from a wide range of ethnicities neglect or ignore the inflection in verbs. Improper inflection (suppletive or affixal) may lead to tense problems. Tense mistakes are less common among bilingual learners in the second language (L2). Teaching the tenses of a language involves teaching the language’s grammar simultaneously. Grammar is abstract in the mind and concrete in its use. Many second language learners are more familiar with the present perfect tense than the past tense because they grew up in countries where it is taught correctly. All these challenges encountered in the learning of English by immigrants can be corrected, and they will improve their English proficiency. [Once you have aligned the thesis and the discussion, make sure to reaffirm your main argument here. What again is your position on the topic of immigrants acquiring EFL? What are your specific reasons that defend this position? Remember to not repeat the thesis word for word but restate it to remind the readers of the paper’s main idea.]

References

Fumero, K., & Wood, C. (2022). Grammatical Verb Errors: Differences Between English Learners with and Without Diagnosed Language-Based Learning Disabilities. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 53(1), 122-132.

Jacobson, P. F., & Yu, Y. H. (2018). Changes in English past tense use by bilingual school-age children with and without developmental language disorder. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 61(10), 2532-2546.

Lennon, P. (2020). The foundations of teaching English as a foreign language. Routledge.

Mocciaro, E., & Young-Scholten, M. (2022). Why and How Grammar Matters for Post-puberty Immigrants with Limited Formal Schooling. In English and Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education (pp. 321-339). Springer, Cham.

Sabra, A. (2020). Tense and Aspect in the English Language: A study about newly arrived students with Arabic as their mother tongue.