engleski

Associating Temporal Meanings with Past and Present Verb Forms

The chapter describes how young EFL learners ascribe temporal meanings to present (and past) verb forms in narrative discourse and how both teachers and learners cope with the problem of the limited repertoire of verb forms when they need to express past temporal meanings in various contexts. A qualitative analysis of classroom discourse in primary classes of EFL is performed, with special focus on young learner's oral expression in the first (L1 - Croatian) and the second (L2 - English) language. It is revealed that avoiding past tenses in early learning leads to an excessive usage of L1 in class communication by both teachers and young learners, who need to cope with past-related situations and contexts. It is concluded that it would be beneficial to expose young learners to frequently used past and perfect verb forms as early as possible, and that English expressions and utterances needed in primary classes, which require past or perfect tenses, should be regularly used by teachers of English.

classroom discourse, young learners, past tense development, perfect tense, teaching of tenses, temporal meanings in narrative discourse

ISBN 978-1-78309-338-0 (hbk) ; ISBN 978-1-78309-337-3 (pbk) ; ISBN 978-1-78309-340-3 (e-book)