AWEJ Volume.4 Number.2, 2013 Pp.270-282
Tense and Aspect Acquisition in L2 English by Native speakers of Arabic
Mahfood Alsalmi
English Supervisor, Taif, Saudi Arabia
Abstract
This paper sheds light on tense and aspect acquisition in L2 English by native speakers of Arabic. The main goal is to present a clear explanation of tense and aspect systems in English and Arabic. This work includes four sections. The first section focuses on the main definitions of tense and aspect and tries to make a clear distinction between notions such as time-tense, tense-aspect, lexical aspect and grammatical aspect etc. It also provides a classification for tense and aspect systems. The second section contains a brief analysis of tense and aspect systems in English and Arabic and adopts a contrastive analysis approach supported by many examples. The third section investigates the role of language transfer on the acquisition of L2 and outlines some hypotheses and predictions that arise for an Arabic L2 learner of English acquiring tense and aspect. Finally, the fourth section studies the aspect hypothesis in relation to English and Arabic.
Keywords: Tense; Aspect; Acquisition; Arabic; English.