Date of Award
5-2010
Thesis Type
Masters
Document Type
Dissertation
Divisions
Faculty of Languages and Linguistics
Department
Department of Asian and European Languages
Institution
Universiti Malaya
Abstract
The objectives of this study are: (a) to analyse and categorise the errors made by Arab students of French when using four French past tenses: the imparfait, passé composé, plus-que-parfait, and passé simple; (b) to compare the French past tenses with Arabic past tenses; and (c) to suggest some pedagogical strategies. The subjects of this study are Arab undergraduates from the Bachelor of Arts programme, majoring in French language and literature at An-najah National University in Nablus, Palestine. The instrument used is a test consisting of four passages. The respondents have to use the correct past tense of the 108 verbs given in the infinitive form. The errors are evaluated and classified into 5 categories and then tabulated according to their frequency and explained in terms of interlingual or intralingual errors. The findings indicate that the errors made were mainly caused by the inherent complexity of the forms and functions in French. The students did perform equally well in the passé composé as they did in the imparfait in terms of the choice of tense, but performed much better in the imparfait test in terms of the accurate form of the tense. Regarding the plus-que parfait, the students found it more difficult, while the test on the passé simple produced the worst results. The choice of tense constitutes a major difficulty for the Arab students especially in the case of the passé simple and the plus-que-parfait, as there is no equivalent of the passé simple tense in Arabic. The pluperfect in Arabic is simpler in form compared with that in French. Although there is evidence of negative transfer from Arabic tenses, the existence of agreement in gender and number in Arabic tenses has sometimes a positive effect on the acquisition of French past tenses. The acquisition of the correct tense and form of French verbs can be facilitated by the use of various measures and strategies.
Additional Information
Dissertation (M.A.) – Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, Universiti Malaya, 2010.
Recommended Citation
Hamarsha, Rasha B. Y., "The use of past tense in French by Arab students : an error analysis." (2010). Student Works (2010-2019). 144.
https://knova.um.edu.my/student_works_2010s/144
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Included in
Applied Linguistics Commons, French Linguistics Commons, Language and Literacy Education Commons
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