J-Lalite: Journal of English Studies
Vol 4 No 1 (2023): June

A Study on Tense Errors in the Compositions of Secondary Students in Brunei

Hazirah Daud (University Brunei Darussalam)



Article Info

Publish Date
30 Jun 2023

Abstract

This study examines the errors in tenses made by 34 secondary students in Brunei who were asked to write a short story based on a picture composition, with the focus on testing Krashen's Natural Order Hypothesis (NOH) in L2 acquisition. The objective of the study is to test the theory in NOH that irregular past tense is acquired before regular past tense through the analysis of the errors made in the verbs. The collected data were analyzed based on the four steps of error analysis: identification, description, explanation, and evaluation. The findings suggest that irregular past tense for verbs such as "go," "is," "eat," and "buy" were the most commonly found errors, mainly due to inappropriate or incorrect tense markings. Contrary to the hypothesis, the study suggests that irregular verbs are not necessarily acquired before regular past tense, possibly due to the large number of irregular verbs that learners need to know. Thus, the article concludes that the study provides useful information for language pedagogy and emphasizes the importance of considering the learners' L1 and individual differences in language acquisition.

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Journal Info

Abbrev

jes

Publisher

Subject

Arts Languange, Linguistic, Communication & Media

Description

J-Lalite which is published twice a year (every June and December) is a double blind peer-reviewed publication consists of research-based and review articles, fresh ideas about language, literature, cultural studies which have never been published before. The journal covers all aspect relating to ...