A Study of Errors in Learning English Grammatical Structures on Present Tense in Different Aspects

1. A Study of Errors in Learning English
Grammatical Structures
on Present Tense in
Different Aspects

2. BACKGROUND
In Thailand, the English education mainly focuses on structures rather than
communication. However, it was found that most Thai students achieve some of
the lowest score in English tests (Noom-ura, 2013). It is interesting that one of
these problems resulted from tenses and aspects selection (Sukasame, Kantho, &
Narrot, 2014). It was found that Thai students were more likely to face difficulty with
the tense and aspect selection, according to L1 interference. Particularly, in Thai
system, verb inflections are absent while they exist in English. Thai learners
of English therefore tend to use one form of verb in all tenses—and ignore
the verb inflections to express tenses and aspects.

3. ❏ To investigate the errors in learning English grammatical
structures on present tense and aspects made by Matthayom
4-5 students.
❏ To develop English materials help Matthayom 4-5 students
overcome the problems they face in mastering present tense
in different aspects.
OBJECTIVES

4. LITERATURE
REVIEW

5. A Study of Errors in Learning English Grammatical Structures
on Tenses of Mathayom Suksa 4 Students of the
Demonstration School
● The results showed the student’s errors in learning English
grammars on Tenses.
● There errors were found in present simple (48.4%), present
perfect tense (67.4%), and present continuous tense (32.3%).
Previous study

6. ● Tense expresses the time that an action occurs in relation to
the moment of speaking (Cowan, 2008, p. 350).
● Tense is used to refer to the grammatical forms that the verb
undergoes in expressing the time reference of an event or
situation that the verb describes.
Tenses in English

7. ● English is a language that requires an overt morphological
marking of time reference (Cowan, 2008, p. 350).
● Present and past are exposed in English by inflections on verb.
● Present time for third person singular is indicated by adding – s
to a regular verb.
Tenses in English
Example:
- He drinks tea at breakfast.
- She only eats fish.

8. ● Aspect refers to how speakers view some events, actions, or progress.
There are two aspects including perfective, and imperfective aspects.
● Some learners of English had difficulty in understanding how they need to
see an event- aspect, and they had troubles in using English present
simple and present progressive (Rahman & Ali, 2015).
Aspects in English

9. ● The context and time markers (adverbs) serve as a clue to
signal either present, past, or future time.
● The lexical items are added to sentences to indicate time in each
aspect.
❏ ‘เเลว’ : perfective aspect
❏ ‘กําลัง’ : imperfective aspect
❏ ‘เมื่อวาน’ : past tense
❏ ‘วันนี้’ : present tense
❏ ‘พรุงนี้’ : future tense
Time references in Thai

10. METHODOLOGY

11. Matthayom 4-5 students
Mengrai Maharaj Witthayakhom school, Chiang Rai
Participants

12. FOUR PROCEDURES FOR PRETEST
1. Selecting Matthayom 4-5 students of Mengrai
MahaRaj Witthayakhom School, Chiang Rai
2. Contacting the participants for
Cooperation
3. Explaining the pretest to participants
4. Giving the pretest to participants
Data collection

13. PRETEST
The present tense in different aspects
(present progressive, present perfect and
present simple tenses)
Step: 1

14. THE RESULT ANALYSIS
The scores of students are analyzed to
develop material, media or activity.
Step: 2

15. THE EVALUATION
Students are asked to participate in
English activity organized by
researchers to see the improvement.Step: 3

16. To investigate the errors in learning
English grammatical structures on
present tense in different aspects
➔ 3 parts
➔ 5 items in each part
➔ 15 items
Instrument
Pretest

19. FORMS OF EACH ASPECT
Instrument (cont.)
Pretest

20. A Study of Errors in Learning English
Grammatical Structures
on Present Tense in
Different Aspects

21. ❏ To investigate the errors in learning English grammatical
structures on present tense and aspects made by Matthayom
4-5 students.
❏ To develop English materials help Matthayom 4-5 students
overcome the problems they face in mastering present tense
in different aspects.
OBJECTIVES

22. FINDING

23. Pretest
The collected data from 20 participants,
Matthayom 4-5 students of Mengrai MahaRaj
Witthayakhom School is calculated to find the
percentage which indicates the correctness
and incorrectness on English present tense
in each aspect (present simple, progressive
and perfect ), as well as the errors on each
aspect.
DATA ANALYSIS

24. Grading criterion
Score Description
1 Participants can come up with a complete form without any
errors.
0 Participants cannot come up with a complete form. There
are some errors found such as omission of tense marking
for each tense and incorrect verb be conjugation.

25. RESULTS

26. Figure 1: The percentage of correctness and incorrectness
on English present tense in each aspect (present simple, progressive and perfect )

27. 1. Use past tense form
Sample students were likely to
substitute most of the items given by
past tense form.
❏ I always drank a glass of milk
every day.
❏ She regularly carried an orange
umbrella.
Present simple
Item 6,7

28. 2. Omission of tense marking for
singular verbs
Sample students got low score in present
simple tense. Most of them omitted
adding -s and -es suffix to verbs in
relation to third-person singular.
❏ She regularly carry an orange
umbrella.
❏ He often visit his grandparents’
home.
Present simple
Item 7, 13

29. 3. Addition of -ing suffix
Sample students were likely to
add -ing suffix to verbs given.
❏ I always drinking a glass
of milk every day.
❏ She crying since last night.
Present simple
Item 5,6

30. 4. Others (unidentified form)
Some of the students could not come up
with a correct form in some of the items
given—that is, they tended to change the
form of verbs given to others which are
incorrect.
❏ We usually were aet Tom Yum
Kung at Sonya’s home.
❏ We usually aet Tom Yum Kung at
Sonya’s home.
Present simple
Item 15

32. 1. Omission of verb to be
Most of the sample students failed
to add verb to be before verb -ing
which indicates the progressive
aspect.
❏ He currently swimming at the
pool.
❏ They studying in the class now.
Present progressive
Item 10,11

33. 2. Omission of tense marking (-ing
suffix) for present progressive
Some verbs were not marked by -ing
to show progressive aspect.
❏ He is take photos in the garden
right now.
❏ Look! She is come home now.
Present progressive
Item 1,4

34. 3. Use past tense form
Some verbs were marked by past
tense instead of tense marking for
progressive form.
❏ Now, they used my computer
to do these exercises.
❏ He currently swam at the pool.
Present progressive
Item 8,10

35. 4. Use present simple form
Some verbs were marked by
present simple form in the
progressive sentences.
❏ He takes photos in the garden
right now.
❏ I writes a test at the moment.
Present progressive
Item 1, 3

36. 5. Others (unidentified forms)
Some of the students could not come up
with a correct form in some of the items
given—that is, they tended to change
the form of verbs given to others which
are incorrect.
❏ Now, they useina my computer to
do these exercises.
❏ They have stukyino in the class
now.
Present progressive
Item 8,11

38. 1. Use present progressive form
Sample students were likely to
change the verbs given to
progressive form. However, they
came up with a complete form with
correct verb conjugation.
❏ I am playing football in the field
since 4 o’clock.
❏ They are walking to the bus stop
for one hour.
Present perfect
Item 9,14

39. 2. Use past tense form
Some verbs were marked by past
tense instead of tense marking for
perfective form.
❏ She cried since last night.
❏ I played football in the field since
4 o’clock.
Present perfect
Item 6,9

40. 3. Use present tense form
Sample students tended to use
present simple tense in present
perfect items with the incorrect verb
conjugation.
❏ We studies Korean language
for two years.
❏ She cry since last night.
Present perfect
Item 2,6

41. 4. Addition of -ing suffix
Sample students tended to attach
-ing to the provided verb instead of
changing it to the perfective form.
❏ She crying since last night.
❏ We studying Korean language
for two years.
Present perfect
Item 2,6

42. 4. Omission of verb 3 conjugation
Sample students were likely to not
conjugate verbs to indicate present
perfect tense; that is, they omitted adding
-en or -ed suffix indicating perfective
form.
❏ We have study Korean language for
two years.
❏ She has cry since last night.
Present perfect
Item 2,6

43. 5. Others ( Unidentified form)
Some of the students could not come up
with a correct form in some of the items
given—that is, they tended to change the
form of verbs given to others which are
incorrect.
❏ We studing Korean language for
two years.
❏ He was build the house since last
year.
❏ They were walken to the bus stop
for one hour.
Present perfect
Item 2,12,14

45. CONCLUSION AND
DISCUSSION

46. Conclusion
Present
simple
Present
progressive
Present
perfective
Correctness 26.3% 10% 1 %
Incorrectness 73.7% 90 % 99%
The percentage of correctness and incorrectness
on English present tense in each aspect (present simple, progressive and perfect )

47. Present simple Present
progressive
Present perfect
Incorrect tense
and aspect
30.5% 44.4% 40.4%
Incorrect tense
form
13.6% 11.1% 12.1%
Verb-subject
agreement
18.6% - -
Unidentified form 26.3% 33.3% 26.3%
Blank 28.8% 11.1% 21.2%

49. Discussion
It can be assumed that sample students cannot come up with a complete form of
present tense in each aspect. They were likely to substitute by other tenses which past
tense received high percentage in three aspects. This means that sample students
answered all items by past tense in most of the items given in pretest, resulted from
lacking of knowledge of time markers given. Additionally, sample students tended to
answer most of the questions with unidentified forms—that is, some words given were
changed to odd ones. Significantly, most of the items were not given any answers by
students. However, when it comes to present tense, students cannot master
subject-verb agreement; they tend to omit adding tense marking to singular verbs.
Finally, even though sample students understand present tense and aspects, they
cannot answer with a very complete form—that is,some errors were found such as
omission of -ing suffix to show progressive verb tense and verb to be or omission of
have/has to show perfective aspects.

50. PLANS FOR
MATERIAL
DEVELOPMENT

51. Academic Activity

52. ACADEMIC PART
❏ Students will be taught about the correct
structures of present simple, continuous, and
perfect tenses, together with the use and
meaning of time makers.
❏ The structure of each tense will be divided into
two forms: singular subject and plural subject.
❏ Students are required to note down in the given
mini-handout.

53. He/She/It + ha + V3
I/Yo /We/The + ha + V3
I/Yo /We/The + V1 Yo /We/The + ar + V-in
He/She/It + V-s/-es
He/She/It + is + Vin
*I + am +Vin
Jar Paj am

54. ❏ Provide students with vocabulary cards of
different forms in English present tense.
❏ Ask students to match those cards with
the correct sentences given which are
indicated by time markers.
❏ Evaluate whether they can come up with
correct forms in English present tense.
ACTIVITY PART

55. Activity Part (vocabulary cards)
cries
is crying
has cried
A board
Cards
1.1 She often __________at night.
1.2 She __________ at her room right now.
1.3 She _________since last night.

56. Cowan, R. (2008). The teacher’s grammar of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Noom-Ura, S. (2013). English-teaching problems in Thailand and Thai teachers' professional
development needs. English Language Teaching, 6(11), 139-147.
Sukasame, N., Kantho, S., & Narrot, P. (2014). A study of errors in learning English grammatical
structures on tenses of matthayomSuksa 4 students of the Demonstration school,
KhonKaen university. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 116, 1934-1939.
Rahman, M,S., & Ali, M. (2015). Problems in mastering English tense and aspect and the role of
the practitioners. IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science , 20(4), 131-135.
References