Investigating ESL Students' Academic Performance In Tenses

Muhammad Javed*, Atezaz Ahmad**
* Doctoral Candidate, School of Educational Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia.
** Department of Education, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Pakistan.
Periodicity:October - December'2013
DOI : https://doi.org/10.26634/jelt.3.4.2518

Abstract

The present study intends to assess the ESL students' performance in tenses at secondary school level. Grade 10 students were the target population of the study. A sample of 396 students (255 male and 141 female) was selected through convenience sampling technique from the District of Bahawalnagar, Pakistan. A test focusing on five different types of tenses namely present indefinite tense, future indefinite tense, past perfect tense, present perfect tense, and past indefinite tense was developed carefully. SPSS version XX was used to analyze the data. Students' overall performance was computed. T-value was calculated to compare the mean scores of male and female, public and private, and urban and rural students. The findings of the study revealed that the overall mean score of the students was relatively better in present indefinite tense, future indefinite tense, and past indefinite tense as compared to the mean scores of past perfect tense, and present perfect tense. The analysis, based on t-value, revealed a significant difference between the mean scores of male and female students and public and private school students. Contrarily, no significant difference between the mean scores of rural and urban school students was found. The students were recommended improving their competence in weaker areas.

Keywords

Secondary School Students, Tenses, Gender and Demographic Based Comparison, Public and Private Students

How to Cite this Article?

Javed, M., and Ahmad, A. (2013). Investigating ESL Students' Academic Performance In Tenses. i-manager’s Journal on English Language Teaching, 3(4), 21-26. https://doi.org/10.26634/jelt.3.4.2518

References

[1]. Abusch, D. (1994). Sequence of tense revisited: Two semantic accounts of tense in intensional contexts Ellipsis, Tense and Questions, Dyana2 Esprit Basic Research Project, 6852.
[2]. Bardovi-Harlig, K. (2000). Tense and Aspect in Second Language Acquisition: Form, Meaning, and use, Language Learning: A Journal of Research in Language Studies, 50, 1.
[3]. Celce-Murcia, M., Larsen-Freeman, D., & Williams, H. A. (1983). The grammar book: An ESL/EFL teacher's course. Rowley, Massachusetts: Newbury House.
[4]. Chomsky, N. (1999). Derivation by phase (Vol. 18, pp. 1-52).MIT, Department of Linguistics.
[5]. Chomsky, N. (2002). Syntactic structures, Walter de Gruyter.
[6]. Comrie, B. (Ed.). (1985). Tense: XE-AU...(Vol. 17).Cambridge University Press.
[7]. Declerck, R., Reed, S., &Cappelle, B. (Eds.). (2006). The grammar of the English tense system: a comprehensive analysis (Vol. 1), Walter de Gruyter.
[8]. Englis, N. (2008). Increasing The Students Achievement On Past Continuous Tense By Using when and where Reference. Retrieved June 21, 2013, from http://www. kborneo.com/read.cfm?THE_ID =308
[9]. Hidayah, T. E. (2007). A Correlation Between Students' Mastery of Past Tense and Their Achievement in Writing Recount: The Case of the Eleventh Year Students of SMA IWeleri in the Academic Year of 2006/2007 (Doctoral dissertation, UniversitasNegeri Semarang). Retrieved June 19, 2013, from from http://lib.unnes.ac.id/1217/
[10]. Javed, M., Juan, W. X., & Nazli, S. (2013). A Study of Students' Assessment in Writing Skills of the English Language, International Journal of Instruction: 6(2),pp. 129-144.
[11]. Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics (2012). 4th Edition. Retrieved July 2, 2013, from http://torrenttown.org/download-ebooks /181895-longman-dictionary-of-language-teaching-and-applied-linguistics-4th-edition.html
[12]. Shakil, M., and Calderin, V. (2010). Survey of Students' familiarity with Grammar and Mechanics of English Language–An Exploratory Analysis, Polygon.4, pp.43-55.
[13]. Smith, M. S. (1993). Input enhancement in instructed SLA, Studies in second language acquisition, 15(02), pp.165-179.
[14]. Stowell, T. (1995). What is the meaning of the present and past tenses, Temporal reference, aspect, and actionality, 1, pp.381-396.
[15]. Von Stechow, A. (1995). On the proper treatment of tense, In Proceedings of SALT (Vol. 5, pp. pp.362-386).
[16]. Wormuth, D. R., Hartfiel, V. F., & Jacobs, H. L. (1983). Teaching ESL composition: Principles and techniques, Rowley, Massachusetts: Newbury House.
[17]. Wren & Martin, (2005). High School English Grammar & Composition, New Delhi: S. Chand & Company Ltd.
If you have access to this article please login to view the article or kindly login to purchase the article

Purchase Instant Access

Single Article

North Americas,UK,
Middle East,Europe
India Rest of world
USD EUR INR USD-ROW
Pdf 35 35 200 20
Online 35 35 200 15
Pdf & Online 35 35 400 25

Options for accessing this content:
  • If you would like institutional access to this content, please recommend the title to your librarian.
    Library Recommendation Form
  • If you already have i-manager's user account: Login above and proceed to purchase the article.
  • New Users: Please register, then proceed to purchase the article.