DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES OF SPANISH LEARNERS IN LEARNING ENGLISH’S GRAMMATICAL TENSE AND RELATIVE CLAUSE

P R E S E N T E R S :

A G U N G D I A H W U L A N D A R I

A R D I A N S Y A H

E K A U L I A N T I P U T R I

P A U L A K R I S T A N T I

SLA (Second Language Acquisition) research suggests overwhelmingly that language learning is a developmental process, which cannot be consciously controlled or predicted by teachers or learners (Willis & Willis, 2001, p. 179).

Specifically, Johnston (in Doman, 2012, p. 813) argues that language is learned in sequences or as Developmental Stages.

INTRODUCTION

Moreover, Pienemann et al point out that there is a large amount of evidence supporting the notion that language learning for speakers of any language is systematic, whether or not the learner language is similar this is considered not affecting the stages of the above learning process (in Doman, 2012, p. 813).

The existence of Developmental Sequences in Learner Language (referring to Corder) is closely the typical stages of language development of the target language (TL) which happens in certain time (in Tarone, 2009, p. 37).

Regardless of the way learners are taught, and regardless of their NL, these structures can be seen to develop in the same orders in meaning-focused learner language. We need to understand the nature of this ‘built-in syllabus’ (Corder 1967) — this strong tendency that learners have to produce the same simple linguistic structures.

WHAT IS DEVELOPMENTAL STAGE?

Tarone and Swierzbin (2009) state that generally In English, determiner requires the gender of the possessor. A male possessor requires the use of ‘his’, or a female possessor requires ‘her’, conversely, French or Spanish determiners take the gender of the possessed item (p. 38).

According to White, the basic sequence that speakers of French and Spanish follow when learning English is:

1. Use ‘the’ or ‘your’ for all persons, genders, and numbers.

2. Overgeneralize either ‘his’ or ‘her’ to most contexts.

3. Use ‘his’ or ‘her’ correctly in all contexts.

(in Tarone & Swierzbin, 2009, pp. 38-39)

GRAMMATICAL TENSES

Grammatical tense can be defined as the grammaticalized expression of the location in time of an action or state. Verb tense only roughly relates to actual time (Huddleston, 1984) . Basically, The English language has two grammatical tenses: Present Tense & Past Tense

According to Swan & Smith (2001), English and Spanish have grammatical similarities in regular and irregular verbs, past, present and future tenses, and perfect & progressive verb forms. Compared with English, both Spanish and Catalan are:

- Have high inflection in verb systems

- Have freer word order

- Show gender and number in adjective and nouns

- Have no modal auxiliaries

- Passive forms are used rarely

- Have a subjunctive mood

GRAMMATICAL TENSES

2. Irregular Past

3. Regular Past (-ed)third person singular –s

possessive ‘s

1. Progressive (-ing)plural

copula (‘to be’)

auxiliary (progressive as in ‘He is going’)article

Stephen Krashen‘s (1982) Grammatical morpheme acquisition sequence

(In Lightbrown & Spada, 2013, p.47)

RELATIVE CLAUSES

A relative clause is a subordinate clause modifying a noun. For example, the noun phrase “the man who wasn’t there” contains the noun “man”, modified by the relative clause “who wasn’t there”.

In many languages, relative clauses are introduced by a special class of pronouns called relative pronouns. In the previous example, “who” is a relative pronoun. We use relative clauses to provide extra information. This information can either define something (defining clause), or provide unnecessary, but interesting, added information (non-defining clause). Relative clauses can be introduced by:

1. A relative pronoun: who (whom), which, that, and whose.

2. No relative pronoun, but starting with “A”.

3. Where, why and when instead of a relative pronoun.

Doman (2009) states that using relative clauses frequently causes considerable concern for non-native speakers of English so much, so that they are often avoided completely .

(in Doman, 2012, p. 817)

RELATIVE CLAUSES

Part of speech Relative clause1 Subject The girl who was sick went home.2 Direct object The story that I read was long.

3 Indirect object The man who[m] Susan gave the present to was happy.

4 Object of preposition I found the book that John was talking about.5 Possessive I know the woman whose father is visiting.6 Object of comparison The person that Susan is taller than is Mary.

(In Lightbrown & Spada, 2013, p.54)

Relative Clauses’ acquisition pattern(Adapted from Doughty, 1991)

THE OBJECTIVES OF ANALYSIS

Exploring the stages in the development of linguistic elements of Spanish learners language (Rodrigo and Antonio), such as relative clauses and grammatical tense.

Schumann (1980)Method: analyzing the relative clauses (RC) produced by five subjects (Spanish and Italian) in three different studies to determine the sequence of RC acquisitionResult: The frequency of production was OS > OO > SS > SO.

Abdolmanafi & Rahmani (2012)Method: administering the NELSON English Language tests to 78 students of a university in IranResult: the order of mastery over four types of relative clauses in the test was OS (75.4%) > SS (74.6%) > OO (72.3%) > SO (66.9%) and that the easiest type for mastery in the target group was OS relative clause type, while the most difficult type for mastery in the was SO relative clause type.

Wong (1991) Method: collected 170 English compositions by four Form 5 classes in a Hong Kong secondary school and tried to find out whether there was a natural sequence of acquisition or hierarchy of difficulty of the various relative clause types in ESL learners’ writing in the Hong Kong context.

Result: The frequency of production or the acquisition sequence of relative clauses by the group of Hong Kong ESL learners was OS > OO > SS > SO.

The Summary of Previous Studies

METHOD OF ANALYSIS

Library research

Source of Data

Taken from transcript of the Narrative Task from the two Spanish learners (Rodrigo & Antonio).

Data collection techniques

1. Watching the videos

2. Reading the transcript

3. Identifying the data

4. Highlighting the data from the transcript

5. Listing them

DATA ANALYSIS

Rodrigo

Progressive: 2 Irregular Past: 0 Regular Past: 0 Unclear: 4  Line     Dev. Stage1 she, take, her food    ?3 she has, eh, in your hand    ?7 she walk in the market    ?8 she, talk, with your, with your friend    ?9 they are, talking, about, your    117, 19 they are continue talking    1

Grammatical tenses

Antonio

Progressive: 2 Irregular Past: 0 Regular Past: 0 Unclear:3  Line     Dev. Stage1 She, trying to buy anything    12 She is thinking, eh    15 and child try, the the the take a, a bottle    ?, ?7 the kid, the little, little girl, eh, take the the bottle   ?

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

a. Rodrigo uses progressive forms more than past tense in the narrative task

b. Antonio also uses more progressive forms than past tense in the task

c. Rodrigo and Antonio say many unclear forms in the narrative task

d. The use of relative clauses are not found in both Rodrigo and Antonio’s task

CONCLUSION

Based on the data analysis (Rodrigo and Antonio’s narrative task’s transcript):

Rodrigo and Antonio use progressive forms more than past tense

Both Rodrigo and Antonio seem to be confused in using regular and irregular past forms. They make unclear forms whether it is simple tense or past tense.

We did not find any relative clause forms in Rodrigo and Antonio’s narrative task.

Rodrigo and Antonio only understand the use of progressive forms at the moment. They still need to learn more English grammar tense. This is relevant to Krashen (1982) grammatical acquisition sequence where progressive form is the first step to be learned by L2 learners.

REFERENCES

Abdolmanafi, S.J. & Rahmanai, Z. (2012). An investigation of the learnability of relative clauses by EFL learners. World journal of English language, 2(3), 29-37.

Doman, E. (2012). Further Evidence for the Developmental Stages of Language Learning and Processability. US-China Education Review, A(9), 813-825 .

Huddleston, R. (1984). Introduction to the grammar of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Lightbrown, P.M. & Spada, N. (2013). How Languages are Learned. 4rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Schumann, L. (1980). The acquisition of English relative clauses by second language learners. In R.C. Scarcella and S.D. Krashen (Eds.), Research in Second Language Acquisition. Rowley: Newbury House.

Swain, M. & Smith, B. (2001). Learner English: A teacher’s guide to interference and other problems. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Tarone, E. & Swierzbin, B. (2009). Exploring learner language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Willis, J. & Willis, D. (2001). Task-based language learning. In R. Carter, & D. Nunan (Eds.), The Cambridge guide to teaching English to speakers of other languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Wong, J. (1991). Learnability of relative clauses: A Hong Kong Case. Working Papers of the Department of English, 3(1),108-117.