VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES **0** BÙI VĂN TỰ A Contrastive Analysis of Tense-Aspect Combinations in English and the Vietnamese Equivalents (with Possible Applications to Teaching and Learning English) (Phân tích đối chiếu kết hợp Thời-Thể tiếng Anh tương đương tiếng Việt với ứng dụng dạy học tiếng Anh) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60.22.15 HANOI - 2009 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES **0** BÙI VĂN TỰ A Contrastive Analysis of Tense-Aspect Combinations in English and the Vietnamese Equivalents (with Possible Applications to Teaching and Learning English) (Phân tích đối chiếu kết hợp Thời-Thể tiếng Anh tương đương tiếng Việt với ứng dụng dạy học tiếng Anh) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 60.22.15 Supervisor: Nguyễn Hương Giang, M.A HANOI - 2009 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION…………………………………………………………………………… i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………………………… ii ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………………… iii TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………………………… iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ……………………………………………………………… v LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES vi PART 1: INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………… 1 Rationale………………………………………………………………………………… Hypotheses……………………………………………………………………………… Scope of the study……………………………………………………………………… Significance of the study………………………………………………………………… Methods of the study…………………………………………………………………… Design of the study……………………………………………………………………… PART 2: DEVELOPMENT……………………………………………………………… Chapter 1: Theoretical background……………………………………………………… 1.1 Time in language……………………………………………………………………… 1.1.1 Diagrammatic representation of properties of time ………………………………… 1.1.2 Deixis and Temporal Reference……………………………………………………… 1.2 Tense and Aspect in English: A general outline……………………………………… 1.2.1 Tense in English……………………………………………………………………… 1.2.1.1 Definitions of tense ……………………………………………………………… 1.2.1.2 Classifications of tense…………………………………………………………… 1.2.2 Aspect in English…………………………………………………………………… 1.2.2.1 Definitions of tense………………………………………………………………… 10 1.2.2.2 Classifications of tense…………………………………………………………… 10 1.3 Tense-aspect combinations in English 12 1.3.1 Present simple……………………………………………………………………… 13 v 1.3.2 Present Progressive ………………………………………………………………… 14 1.3.3 Present Perfect ……………………………………………………………………… 14 1.3.4 Present Perfect Progressive ………………………………………………………… 15 1.3.5 Past simple…………………………………………………………………………… 16 1.3.6 Past Progressive……………………………………………………………………… 17 1.3.7 Past Perfect………………………………………………………………………… 18 1.3.8 Past Perfect Progressive …………………………………………………………… 19 Expressions to future time in English …………………………………………… 20 1.4 Chapter 2: The Expressions of the Equivalents to Tense and Aspect in Vietnamese 22 2.1 Literature review of the equivalents to Tense-Aspect System in Vietnamese ……… 22 2.1.1 Vietnamese- an isolating language ………………………………………………… 22 2.1.2 The equivalents to tenses in Vietnamese …………………………………………… 23 2.1.3 The equivalents to aspect in Vietnamese …………………………………………… 23 2.1.4 The use of tense - aspect markers in Vietnamese …………………………………… 24 2.2 Examples of English Tense-Aspect combinations to the Vietnamese equivalents 25 Chapter 3: An empirical study ………………………………………………………… 28 3.1 Subjects………………………………………………………………………………… 28 3.2 Hypotheses …………………………………………………………………………… 29 3.3 Instruments…………………………………………………………………………… 29 3.4 Research design and procedures ……………………………………………………… 30 3.5 Results and discussion………………………………………………………………… 31 PART CONCLUSION ………………………………………………………………… 40 REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………………… 41 APPENDIX………………………………………………………………………………… I vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS C.A ………………………………… contrative analysis E A……………………………………… error analysis ET event time IL interlanguage INF……………………………………… infinitive L1 the first language L2 the second language MT mother tongue NP noun phrase PP prepositional phrase RT reference time ST speech-act time SLA second language acquisition T………………………………………… time line TL target language VP verb phrase vii LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure1: Diagrammatic representation of time as a time line Figure2: Diagrammatic representation of “Mrs Lan cooked” Figure 3: Diagrammatic representation of a situation in the past which is referred to from the speech-act time Figure 4: Present tense Figure 5: Past tense Figure 6: Present simple Figure 7: Present progressive Figure 8: Present perfect Figure 9: Present perfect progressive Figure 10: Past simple Figure 11: Past progressive Figure 12: Past perfect Figure 13: Past perfect progressive Table 1: Percentages of subjects’ options for items 1, 4, and 15 Table 2: Percentages of subjects’ options for items and 12 Table 3: Percentages of subjects’ options for items 6, 8, 10, 11 Table 4: Percentages of subjects’ choices for items 2, 3, 9, 13 and 14 PART 1: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study English is the most popular language in the world In Vietnam, English has been more and more important since Vietnam became an official member of the World Trade Organization That is why every Vietnamese desires to master this language to communicate with the rest of the world, which seems to be far from easy for all Vietnamese learners of English as a foreign language To communicate effectively in English, it involves many aspects in which grammar is one of the basic and central points This M.A thesis focuses on the acquisition of the English Tense-Aspect combinations by Vietnamese learners, with the primary aim to what extent it is possible to achieve competence in the field of Tense and Aspect of English and their combinations Pursuing this aim the paper concentrates on three major aspects: firstly, a general introduction of time and a general outline of Tense and Aspect are presented; secondly, an overview of the English Tense-Aspect combinations is shown, which will be contrasted with the Vietnamese equivalents; thirdly, an empirical research of error analysis is conducted to find out how the Vietnamese high-school learners deal with the Tense and Aspect system in English in general and the present progressive in particular Hypotheses In this thesis, two research hypotheses are formulated as followed: The English Tense-Aspect combinations, especially the present progressive may not properly be acquired by the Vietnamese high school learners of English Interference of the first language is significant in the foreign language acquisition of the present progressive of English Scope of the study Both a primary research and the secondary one are conducted to meet the target of the thesis In the primary research, the author draws out a general outline of tense and aspect system in English and the Vietnamese equivalents Though there exist many opinions of linguists and grammarians in terms of tense- aspect systems in English, the author follows the ones in which English has two tenses: present and past tenses Therefore, there is no future tense mentioned in the study, but a various expressions to future time are shown For the secondary research, an empirical study is investigated on the errors of applying the English tense-aspect system in written tests This study does not cover all areas discussed in the primary research but only focuses on the present progressive - one of the verb forms frequently employed in both written and spoken forms in English Significance of the study Learning a foreign language is different from learning our native language Each language has its own features in terms of phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics Fromkin (1990, p 68) states that “Learning a second language differs qualitatively from learning a first language because of various factors: psychological, physical and sociological They must be considered in addition to the linguistic structure of the second language and how it differs from the native language.” The question is why foreign language learning and teaching raise so many problems Many linguists and methodologists suppose that the main cause is in the differences between the languages in which the characteristic features are highly complex, productive and arbitrary As Corder (1973, p 102) suggests: "Contrastive comparison of the mother tongue of the learner and the second language will offer an account of the differences between L1 and L2 or predict learning problems or learning items" In fact, English and Vietnamese have their own structures Vietnamese is typically classified as an isolating language in which all the words are invariable and grammatical relationships are shown through the use of word order English, on the other hand, is classified as partially synthetic and analytical Thus, learning English is so hard for Vietnamese learners Since Vietnamese learners, especially high school students at my school - Quỳnh Côi high school in Thaibinh province, are confusingly using English tense and aspect systems when they speak English in the class or making quite a lot of mistakes in the written tests It is my hope that this thesis plays an important role in helping the Vietnamese high school learners systematize this kind of linguistic resources, and acquire a good knowledge of English and Vietnamese grammar, which can help them use English more correctly Methodology of the study The major method of this research is contrastive analysis The theoretical background for the study is the comprehension of language learning as a cognitive process For this aim, the English Tense-Aspect combinations and the Vietnamese equivalents are analyzed contrastively so as to find out the similarities and the differences in which transfer from the first language knowledge may be used to comprehend and produce linguistic structures in the foreign language acquisition process To prove whether the hypotheses can be maintained or should be rejected, an empirical research study is carried out by assessing students’ written tests A deductive method is used to find out the sources of errors which help teachers of English at high schools teach English more effectively * Why Contrastive Analysis (C.A)? Linguists and language teachers are aware of the importance of C.A O’grady et al (1991, p 72) says: “ seeking to improve the second language teaching methodologies, early researchers came to believe that by comparing and contrasting the learner’s native language with the second language, new insights could be gained into the language learning process.” James (1980, p 204) states that “C.A is a linguistic enterprise aimed at producing inverted (i.e contrastive) two valued typologies (a C.A is always concerned with a pair of languages) and founded on the assumption that languages can be compared.” We know that the real purpose of C.A of the two languages is to find out the differences and the similarities in phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics The errors and difficulties occurring in the language acquisition may be caused by the negative interference from the first language Therefore, one way to help learners overcome the difficulties is to study the differences and the similarities carefully Ellis, Rod (1994, p 17-38) asserts the importance of C.A: “…the essential source for errors is in the contrastive analysis (C.A) assumed to be transfer from the mother tongue (MT) of the learner towards the target language (TL) Thus, interference from L1 towards a second or foreign language was assumed to take place whenever the habits of the learner’s MT differed from those of the TL.” Clearly, the aim of C.A is to predict learner difficulties and make the research results available for language teaching so as to affect study programs and learning outcomes positively Besides, C.A provides an important impetus to the genesis of other theories and research approaches in second language acquisition, such as error analysis (E.A) In EA, learner language is analyzed first and then attempts are made to find explanations for the errors, which might include differences between the MT and the TL of the learner Thus the contrastive approach is incorporated into error analysis as an explanatory element, but it is not the only possibility to explain learner errors and it is not employed to predict errors EA pursues the same intention as CA, that is to provide feedback for language teaching, and additionally seeks to attain insight into how languages are acquired In short, C.A is an effective method for language teachers We-the English teachers should pay attention to the points where there are structural differences between the languages, predicting the difficulties the learners may face We also make the learners aware of the contrast so that they will understand the causes of the errors and avoid committing them Design of the study The thesis has three main parts as follows: The first part - Introduction composes of the rationale, the hypothesis, the scope, the significance, the methodology and the design of the study The second part – Development includes three chapters Chapter shows the theoretical background of English tense and aspect system In chapter 2, the author presents the English Tense-Aspect combinations which will be contrasted with the Vietnamese equivalents; In chapter 3, an empirical research of error analysis is conducted to find out how the Vietnamese high-school learners deal with the present progressive – one of the verb forms frequently used in written and spoken forms of English Then some conclusions and implications for instruction strategies are drawn in the last part of the study 30 3.4 Research design and procedures The research employed in this study was basically deductive in which it began with an observed regularity that needed to be described and explained This means that the hypotheses mentioned above were deduced and then tested by collecting appropriate data which could be used to either support or reject the hypotheses A total of 15 multiple-choice items requiring the use of the present progressive were set Each item included four options, and had certain linguistic features in common with the expected grammatical choice The researcher determined the options on the basis of the deductive design explained above by considering the errors that the students normally made in spoken and written forms As the questions were intended to assess the subjects’ knowledge of the use of the present progressive in various situations, the subjects were asked to respond to questions that assessed their knowledge of the meanings of various verb forms, particularly the present progressive The subjects were not required to state the rule but were instead expected to use their knowledge to select the grammatically correct answer from the four options This means that the subjects’ knowledge was diagnosed primarily at the implicit and discriminatory levels since they were only required to distinguish the grammaticality of the verb forms given, differentiate their functions, and decide on the grammatical verb form which was most appropriate in the context implied by the words used in each sentence The percentages of the subjects’ options were then analysed with reference to both features and rules in the subjects’ first language and the target language The researcher then assessed the subjects’ knowledge of the rules by referring to their responses to the questions 3.5 Results and discussion Table shows that the present progressive was correctly used by most of the subjects in items 1, and 7, 15 to refer to an action occurring “at the time of speaking” In items and 4, 35 students of 45 (77.8%) and 29 students of 45 (64.5%), respectively chose the correct combinations of tense and aspect – progressive 31 Table 1: Percentages of subjects’ options for items 1, 4, and 15 No Subjects’ Items Grammaticality No of Percentages students (%) erroneous 13.3 grammatical 35 77.8 options Lan - a dress at making the moment She is making makes all her clothes made erroneous 0 makes erroneous 8.9 You can’t see John has erroneous 10 22.2 now erroneous 2.2 are having erroneous 11.1 is having grammatical 29 64.5 erroneous 10 22.2 coffee but today she drinks erroneous 19 42.2 tea erroneous 8.9 grammatical 12 26.7 still erroneous 11 24.4 still has been erroneous 17.8 grammatical 16 35.6 erroneous 10 22.2 He -a have bath Sarah usually drinks drink drinking is drinking 15 You cannot use the is machine now because repaired it - repaired is still being repaired was still repaired For the sentence which consisted of a temporal adverbial indicating the time of speaking such as “at the moment” or “now”, the majority of the subjects managed to recognise that the action was occurring “at the moment of speaking” and that the present progressive (in its active form) should be used The table above also shows that more than one-fifth of the subjects used the present simple “is repaired”, and more than a quarter of them used the past simple “was repaired” These subjects might have realized that the present progressive should be used when an action at the time of speaking was indicated through the use of the temporal adverbial “now”, but might not be aware of the grammatical form of the present 32 progressive in the passive form that involves the passive auxiliary “is being” and the past participle “repaired” The error rate in the use of the present progressive was also higher when a temporal adverbial indicating an action occurring at the time of speaking, such as “now” or “at the moment”, was not given in item Table shows that about two-thirds (64.4%) of the subjects used the present simple, for instance “drink” or “drinks” instead of the present progressive in item These subjects did not seem to know that the adverb of frequency “usually” was used in the first sentence to indicate a habitual action, but the temporal adverb “today” was used in the second sentence to indicate an action occurring “at or around the time of speaking” They might have thought of the Vietnamese case: “Bà giám đốc thường uống cà phê vào sáng, hôm bà lại uống trà” because it seems to be not popular to say such a sentence “… ,nhưng hôm bà lại uống trà” These results suggest that intralingual interference could have occurred as a result of the subjects’ ignorance of the rules governing the use of the present progressive and the present simple The use of the present progressive for an action occurring “around the time of speaking” was also identified as an area of difficulty Table shows that most (72.5%) of the subjects did not use the present progressive for an action occurring around the time of speaking Table :Percentages of subjects’ options for items and 12 No Subjects’ Items Grammaticality options Nurul’s mother: Percentages students (%) does … get on erroneous 19 42.2 How - Shafinaz was …getting erroneous 12 26.7 erroneous 8.9 Grammatical 10 22.2 erroneous 17.8 Grammatical 21 46.7 erroneous 15 33.3 at school? on Shafinaz’s mother: Very are … get on well She seems to like the is … getting life 12 No of on I usually go to school by worked car My father takes me because he passes is working my works 33 school on his way to the is being work erroneous 2.2 factory But this week he -in another factory in the opposite direction That’s why I am queuing at this bus station In item 5, more than 12 learners (26.7%) seemed unable to distinguish between the present progressive, i.e “is getting on” and the past progressive “was getting on” The high error rate supports the view that most of the subjects tended to use the present progressive correctly for an action occurring at the time of speaking only when the present progressive was used in the active voice, and especially temporal adverbials such as “now” and “at the moment” were given In cases where these adverbials were not used, most of the subjects had difficulty choosing the correct verb to use Such errors can be explained that no temporal adverbials were used to indicate whether the speaker was referring to an event occurring around the time of speaking or an event which was taking place at a definite time in the past The subjects’ tendency to use the past progressive instead of the present progressive for an action going on around the time of speaking could be partly due to their lack of awareness of the temporal references of these two verb forms In item 12, a third (33.3%) of the subjects used the present simple “works” instead of the present progressive “is working” for an action occurring around the time of speaking These subjects chose the present simple incorrectly to indicate an action occurring during a period of time “this week” They seemed unable to differentiate between the present simple and the present progressive, both of which are normally used to refer to actions at the present, and they appeared unable to distinguish between the use of the present progressive for an action occurring around the time of speaking and the use of the present simple for a habitual action which happens at the present This kind of error can be explained by the negative interference Almost all Vietnamese students translate such the sentence “Bác Nam thường làm ca đêm, tuần bác lại làm ca ngày” into English as “Mr Nam often works the night shift but this week he works the day shift”, and hardly they translate like “Mr Nam often works the night shift but this week he is working the day shift” A significant portion of the subjects also combined verb forms erroneously to form the predicator of a main clause Table shows that more than half (66.7%) of the subjects 34 combined the modal auxiliary in item with the present participle “going” in an attempt to indicate a future action Table 3: Percentages of subjects’ options for items 6, 8, 10, 11 No Subjects’ Items Grammaticality options No of Percentage student s s (%) Zainab : How you go erroneous 20.0 go to school usually? erroneous 12 26.7 erroneous 13.3 Grammatical 18 40.0 erroneous 14 31.1 will going Shafinaz: I usually go will being go by bus but tomorrow I am going - in Siti’s car I - because I will saving am going abroad in up September had saved up erroneous 13.3 am saving up Grammatical 17 37.8 erroneous 17.8 That film to the comes erroneous 10 22.2 local cinema next erroneous 16 35.6 erroneous 20.0 Grammatical 10 22.2 Nasri: Why are you will meeting erroneous 22 48.9 walking so fast today? am going to erroneous 17.8 You usually walk meeting quite slowly am meeting Grammatical 8.9 erroneous 11 24.4 have saved up 10 will be come week Do you want to will coming see it? 11 is coming Ben : I am hurrying will meet because my I - mother at o’clock In this case, some 18 of 45 students - 40% of the subjects readily used “will” in erroneous verbal combinations such as “will being go” and “will going” to indicate a future event 35 The omission of the auxiliary “be” as in “will going” was a more obvious error committed by 26,7% of the subjects As the time adverb “tomorrow” was given in the item to indicate the temporal reference of a future event, most of the subjects encountered difficulty in the use of the present progressive which is often used to indicate a future arrangement ( an action which has been planned to take place in the immediate future or near future) To a large extent such errors can be ascribed to interlingual interference from the subjects’ first language-Vietnamese A future action is normally indicated by the aspectual auxiliary “sẽ” whose closest equivalent in the target language is “will” or “shall” Hence, the subjects’ tendency to use “will” in wrong combinations may be attributed to influence from the subjects’ mother tongue which often requires the use of “sẽ” for future actions For example, we always say “Ngày mai theo tàu vào Nam” (Nguyễn Tài Cẩn, 1999, p 314) or “Tuần tới cô cậu cuới nhau” (Bùi Phụng,1992,p 127) Moreover, intra-lingual interference could have also occurred as the participants did not seem to know that the present progressive, which is normally used for an action occurring at the time of speaking, could also be used for a planned future action Table illustrates that more than a quarter (41.1%) of the subjects used “will” to indicate a planned future action or future arrangement in item Even though more than a third (37.8%) of the subjects - 17 students used the present progressive correctly to indicate a planned future action, more than two-fifths (48.9%) used wrong verbal combinations (i.e “have save up” and “will saving up”) for this item Similarly in item 10, 25 (55.6%) of the students chose the erroneous verbal combinations involving the use of “will” as in “will coming” and “will be come” for a planned future action These subjects’ apparent inability to recognise such wrong verbal combinations supports the claim that the existence of many forms of a main verb could be a source of tense-aspect combination confusion In this case the main verb may exist in many forms such as “come”, “comes”, “came” and “coming” even though only the base form “come” can immediately follow the future auxiliary “will” In item 11, these subjects had the tendency to use the auxiliary “will” for a future arrangement due to the reason above-mentioned The high error rate of 74.2 % also suggests that the majority of the subjects had not acquired the rule requiring the use of the present progressive for a planned future action As has been mentioned, the subjects who used the future auxiliary “will” might be aware that a future action was referred to, but had not internalised the rule governing the combination of a future auxiliary and a main verb 36 In item 2, the temporal reference involves the time of inception of an action Table shows that more than half (51.1 %)- 23 of 45 students did not use the present progressive to refer to a routine action which begins before another regular action expressed in the present simple Table 4: Percentages of subjects’ choices for items 2, 3, 9, 13 and 14 No Subjects’ Items Grammaticality No of Percentages students (%) erroneous 15 33.3 grammatical 22 48.9 erroneous 6.7 erroneous 11.1 I am very angry with you and I lose erroneous 19 42.2 am not erroneous 17 37.8 Grammatical 13.3 erroneous 6.7 Grammatical 15 33.3 erroneous 17.8 erroneous 16 35.6 erroneous 13.3 erroneous 13.3 erroneous 17.8 Grammatical 31 68.9 erroneous 0 erroneous 17.8 options No, I -badminton 6.30 at play I start playing at 5.30 am p.m and stop playing at 7.00 playing p.m We can probably start our have discussion at 8.30 p.m Is the played time all played are always going to let you use my car any lose more are always You my car key losing are always lost Fatimah: John works the whole is always time Siti working : You are right He is always - worked is always works is always work 13 It’s seven o’clock The sky get _ gets darker gradually is getting is got 14 Jane: Continue to tell us the would be 37 story, please flying Ling: Then they decide to fly flew over the are flying desert to look for the boy who were has got lost erroneous 11.1 Grammatical 18 40.0 erroneous 14 31.431.1 flying When they -over the desert, one of engines of the aircraft fails At first they don’t know what to do… About a third of the participants used the present simple (i.e “play” ) for the regular action erroneously in this context, and some students chose the present perfect “have played” erroneously for an action that has not come to an end at 6.30 p.m It should be pointed out that the present progressive is normally not used for a regular action or event, and only the present simple is used to refer to a regular action at the present The regular action in this case, however, should be indicated in the present progressive instead of the present simple because the action does not start at 6.30 p.m but is still going on at that time The subjects’ inadequate understanding of the temporal reference of a verb also explains why they made this mistake in the use of the present progressive These subjects did not seem to pay much attention to the time of inception of the action In this case the speaker regularly starts playing badminton at 5.30 p.m and stops at 7.00 p.m., so at 6.30 p.m she is still playing the game The results suggest that these subjects had not acquired the rule requiring the use of the present progressive for a regular action which begins before a certain time In item 3, more than half (63.2%) did not apply the present progressive to refer to a present annoying habit even though the adverb of frequency was given The affirmative forms of the present progressive and the present simple alone include “lose”, “loses”, “is lost”, “am lost”, “are lost”, “is losing”, “are losing”, “am losing” and other verbs which are less often used in English such as “is being lost”, “are being lost” and “am being lost” While the present simple is normally used for a present habitual action, the present progressive has to be used for a present annoying habit Hence, the incorrect use of the present simple can partly be attributed to the subjects’ ignorance of the distinction between the two types of present regular actions 38 In item 13, about two-thirds of the subjects (31 of 45 students) used the present progressive correctly for a gradual development in the present Even though most of the subjects might be familiar with the active form of the verb (i.e “is getting”), nearly onefifth of the subjects used the present simple which might refer to a sudden occurrence of an action instead of a gradual development Such errors could be due to the subjects’ ignorance of the rule requiring the use of the present progressive for an action occurring gradually around the time of speaking The data obtained for item 14 illustrate that more than a fifth (31.1%) of the subjects used the past progressive “were flying” instead of the present progressive “are flying” for an action which starts occurring before another action in dramatic narrative Consider the following sentences: (1) When they were flying over the desert, one of the engines of the aircraft failed (2) When they are flying over the desert, one of the engines of the aircraft fails The respondents who used the past progressive “were flying” inconsistently with the the present simple “fails” might be unaware of the correct sequence of tenses Even though sentences (1) and (2) are both grammatical if they are used in a certain context In another case, the past progressive ought to be used in order to mention an event occurred in the past “one of the engines of the aircraft failed” 39 PART CONCLUSION On the basis of the errors analysed in the preceding section, it is appropriate to conclude that the data appear to support both the hypotheses deduced above Firstly, interference seems to be significant in the foreign language acquisition of the present progressive for Vietnamese high school students In some cases, some subjects’ inability to relate certain verb forms with temporal and frequency adverbials may be ascribed to both interlingual and intralingual interference In other words, interference that caused a large portion of the errors may be both intralingual and interlingual in nature Secondly, the verb forms which may have recurrently caused confusion in the use of the present progressive were the present simple and the past progressive The influence of the subjects’ Vietnamese as the first language on the acquisition of verb forms in the progressive aspect in the target language (English) can be attributed to the fact that the the present progressive and the past progressive are both expressed in the same grammatical form involving the use of the progressive auxiliary “đang” which shows no tense distinction in the learners’ first language The results summarised above have some important implications for strategy instruction in the use of tense-aspect combinations in English First, learners need to distinguish the active forms from the passive ones even though both indicate the same tense and aspect Cognitive strategies involving the practice of verb forms in the present progressive need to be incorporated Such practices should involve not merely the active forms of the present progressive but also its passive forms These forms should be contrasted simultaneously with the active and passive forms of the present simple in different situations This means that cognitive strategies of repeated practices covering different situations, including those involving the use of adverbials indicating the time of speaking and regular events, should be taught to learners in an attempt to raise their consciousness of intralingual differences in time frames, associations with singular/plural subjects, and active/ passive structures The point to be underscored here is that while different forms that resemble one another may be taught in stages, they need to be contrasted constantly and repeatedly in different stages in the process of acquisition Second, learners need to know the differences between the present progressive and other verb forms, particularly the present simple and the past progressive, in terms of time frame It is recommended that some memory-related strategies involving comparisons and 40 contrasts of time lines be used to help learners recall the differences among the present progressive, the past progressive and the present simple Limitations and suggestions for further study Due to the limited amount of data and range of subjects, especially the scope of the empirical study is quite narrow, just the present progressive, it is inappropriate to conclude properly that all Vietnamese high students have difficulties using tense and aspect systems in English Hence, a more extensive study which includes other combinations of tense and aspect would be useful Besides, there should be more types of instruments for error analysis, i.e both oral and written tests and other kinds of written tasks, not only the multiple-choice questions, to get better validity for the study 41 REFERENCES Tiếng Việt Bùi Phụng et al (1992), Learning modern spoken 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Grammar of English, London, N.Y, Longman 25 Richards, Jack G (ed.)(1984), Error Analysis: Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition London, N.Y, Longman 26 Selinker, Larry; (1992), Language Transfer and Fossilization: The Multiple Effects Principle, p 197-216 27 Thomson, Martinet (1991), A Practical English Grammar, Oxford Press 28 Tom Hutchinson (1997), Lifelines, Pre-intermediate ,Workbook, Oxford University Press 29 Virginia Evans (1993), Round-Up, English Grammar Book, Pearson, Longman I APPENDIX An Achievement Test Class: 10 A3 School: Quỳnh Côi High School, Thai Binh Time allowance: 15 minutes Choose the best option to complete these sentences Lan - a dress at the moment She makes all her clothes A making B is making C made D makes No, I -badminton at 6.30 I start playing at 5.30 p.m and stop playing at 7.00 p.m We can probably start our discussion at 8.30 p.m Is the time all A play B am playing C have played D played I am very angry with you and I am not going to let you use my car any more You -my car key A lose B are always lose C are always losing D are always lost You can’t see John now He -a bath A.has Nurul’s mother: B have C are having D is having How - Shafinaz at school? Shafinaz’s mother: Very well She seems to like the life A does … get on B was …getting on C are … get on D is … getting on Zainab : How you go to school usually? - in Siti’s car Shafinaz: I usually go by bus but tomorrow I A go B will going C will being go D am going Sarah usually drinks coffee but today she tea A drink B drinks C drinking D is drinking I - because I am going abroad in September A will saving up up B had saved up C am saving up D have saved II Fatimah: John works the whole time Siti : You are right He - A is always working B is always worked C is always works D is always work 10 That film to the local cinema next week Do you want to see it? A comes B will be come 11 Nasri: Why are you walking so fast today? C will coming You usually walk quite slowly Ben : I am hurrying because I - my A will meeting D is coming mother at o’clock B am going to meeting C am meeting D will meet 12 I usually go to school by car My father takes me because he passes my school on his way to the factory But this week he in another factory in the opposite direction That’s why I am queuing at this bus station A worked B is working C works D is being work 13 It’s seven o’clock The sky - darker gradually A get B gets C is getting D is got 14 Jane: Continue to tell us the story, please Ling: Then they decide to fly over the desert to look for the boy who has got lost When they -over the desert, one of engines of the aircraft fails At first they don’t know what to A would be flying B flew C are flying 15 You cannot use the machine now because it - A is still repaired B still has been repaired C is still being repaired D.was still repaired D were flying ... language learning as a cognitive process For this aim, the English Tense-Aspect combinations and the Vietnamese equivalents are analyzed contrastively so as to find out the similarities and the. .. 13 that the man was in the process of drowning at a certain point of time in the past, whereas this process could have been stopped at a later point in the past Another example for the incompletion... tenses are grammaticalized and formed by morphological marking of the verb and are obligatory in use The English system of grammatical time references can be described in mathematical terms as an addition