An Analysis of Verbal Aspect in Native Speaker and Language

Learner Narrative Writings

Laura Nott

Definitions of Basic Concepts

Discourse Analysis The study of spoken, written, and

signed language.

TEFL instructors can analyze the discourse of their students, other language learners, or native speakers.

Narrative Genre A narrative is a written or oral

account of an event or series of events.

• On the timeline - Foreground• Off the timeline - Background

Foregrounding and Backgrounding

Verb Tense Verb Aspect

• Simple – foreground• Progressive – background

• Perfect – background

Previous Study Eli Hinkel- 2004

• Analyzed academic writings of native English speakers and English learners

• Looked at usage of tense, aspect, and voice

Hinkel’s Results The NNSs tended to use simple, active,

and past tense verbs.

The NSs used more progressive, perfect, and passive verbs, and were less reliant on past tense.

“It seems that the conventions of academic writing and the attendant uses of tenses, aspects and voice need to be addressed in L2 writing instruction.” (25)

My StudyAnalyzing the use of verbal aspects in

NS and NNS narrative writing

Hypothesis The NNSs narratives would rely more on

the simple aspect than the NSs narratives

I anticipated the numbers to show the NSs narratives to have a greater number of progressive and perfect than that of the NNSs narratives.

Collecting the Data Native speaker writing

• End Your Sleep Deprivation – a website where anyone can write about their dreams

• Unspecified age, education, and writing experience

Nonnative speaker writing• Asao Kojiro’s Learner Corpus - from UCL (Catholic

University of Louvain)• Japanese student writings from July of 1997• English majors in a private university near Tokyo• Retelling the Japanese folktale of Momotaro

Searching the Data I complied a corpus of:

• 15 NS narratives• 15 NNS narratives

I searched the corpus for the three verbal aspects using AntConc.

AntConc Search “had”

Perfect Aspect Data (samples using “had”)

L1 Narratives:

arling granddaughters are coming to visit--if you haven’t botched things up with your impatience and b

wn the hill. When I was on the road all the trees had been deep green pine trees. When I rolled down th

ng that truly terrified me. I don't remember if I had seen Satan himself, or just the severed goat head

didn't run at me. I somehow knew that the house I had rolled into belonged to him. He looked at me and

longed to him. He looked at me and I felt like he had asked me to walk with him, but I didn't hear word

dn't hear words, he made no sound. I just knew he had asked me without asking me. I walked with him ar

walked with him around the house. I felt like we had made small talk without speaking, until two boys

boulder. The wolf ran for the first time since I had seen him. He ran toward the two boys, barking. I

back over the small bridge and came to get me. I hadn't moved from my hiding spot until he came for me

eing the wolf again, but he had a human maid that had not been there before. I looked through the fridg

dreams about my son Jeff before, but none of them had ever before been so vivid. His image was so clear

ing a yellow shirt with his image on it, and Mark had not yet started to sprout up to his six-foot heig

Jeff was in remission from leukemia and his hair had come back after falling out during chemotherapy.

bed and went into the bathroom, still shaking. It had been 30 years since Jeff died of leukemia, and fi

in. My husband, Sam, was on a bike trip, and I �� had been dreaming of sleeping in until at least 9 a.m

L2 Narratives:

and. "We shall name Momotaro." "Yes, it is." They had grown the baby since the day. A few years later,

old woman stopped to go to the Onigasima Momotaro had gone to there. When he went out the old woman gave

Percentage of the three aspects in theL1 and L2 narratives

Table of L1 and L2 Data

Column1 L1 Narratives:

L2 Narratives:

# of progressives 29 7# of perfects 19 2

# of sentences 156 96

Results:How were the NS and NSSs using the progressive aspect?

To describe the condition of something in order to create a background for the actions to come:• L1 narrative: “The house was sitting in a huge

clearing.” • L2 narrative: “They cut the big peach, then a baby was

standing up crying in it.”

To describe an action that is still in progress when a second action occurs:• L1 narrative: “I was losing speed and my friends

started leaving without me.” • L2 narrative: “When she is washing there, the peach

streams from the river.”

Results:How were the NS and NSSs using the perfect aspect?

The present perfect indicates that at the present moment something has already been done, while the past perfect indicates that during the referenced time, something had already been done. • L1 narratives:

“I’ve had many dreams about my son Jeff before.” “I hadn't moved from my hiding spot until he came for

me.”• L2 narratives:

“They had grown the baby since the day.” “Momotaro had gone to there.”

Results:How were the NS and NSSs using the perfect-progressive aspect?

Perfect-progressives are a combination of the two aspects. This aspect indicates an action that began in the past and continued until the present or a specified past event.• L1 narratives:

“So I’ve been having this weird dream for almost a month.”

“I had been dreaming of sleeping in until at least 9 a.m.”

Results NNSs were using the aspects in the

same ways as NSs, but not as often.

90% of the sentences in the NNSs narratives contained only simple aspects.

70% of the sentences in the NSs narratives contain only simple aspect.

Conclusions In order to write more like native

speakers, English language learners need to expand their proficiency in progressive and perfect aspects.

Instructors need to focus, not on the grammar, but on the communicative use of aspects within a context.