Simple Past Tense

國

立 政 治 大 學

‧

N a tio na

l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y

30

which is called LINE, I lowered down…

In the example of the student’s writing, every subject in the main clause underlined is I, which is the main leading role in the pictures shown on the test sheet.

4.1.2 Simple Past Tense

In the narration, people would correlate the event with the time. In English, the tense used to narrate the event which happened in the past can be the simple present tense and the simple past tense. The simple present tense can refer to the fact that the event in the narrative truly happened, while the simple past tense can emphasize that the event in the narrative was accomplished in the past.

All narratives of TET and TSW use simple tense as the referent of the time.

However, most of the writers in TSW used the simple past tense. Only eight writers in TSW used the simple present tense. The possible reason for the numerous uses of the simple past tense in TSW may be that the event in sequential pictures is similar to their experiences so that the simple past tense is chosen. On the other hand, in TET, the simple past tenses are used frequently to present the story or the experience of the main leading role. Therefore, for the writers of TET and TSW, the simple past tense is the choice with the highest frequency in writing a narrative. Table 4.2 shows us this result. Because more agentive subjects are used in TSW, the percentage is higher in TSW for the narration of the subject. Furthermore, the difference of the usage of the

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simple past tense in TET and TSW is the most significant according to the largest log-likelihood ratio and the smallest P value.

Table 4.2 The usage of the simple past tense in TET and TSW

TET TSW total numbers of words 3090 9973 total numbers of verbs with the simple past

tense difficult to see. He almost missed the old lady, stranded on the side of the road. But even in the dim light of day, he could see she needed help…

As we can see, the simple past tense is used to narrate the surrounding and actions of the man. The verb in the simple past tense includes the words underlined. Aside from the narrative for the example (3), the other four narratives collected in this narrative used the simple past tense as well.

In students' writings, narratives with the simple past tense or the simple present tense can be found throughout. However, the choice of the simple past tense is more

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common than the simple present tense.

The following is the example of TSW with the simple past tense.

(4) This morning, my first class was math, and I not only hated math, but also I didn’t understand what the teacher was talking about, so I opened my bag, then took up my smartphone. I turned on the Wi-Fi, I received a lot of messages…

The writer of this example used the simple past tense to narrate the mood and action.

The words underlined are the verbs of the simple past tense.

Let's turn to the example of TSW with the simple present tense.

(5) Today is a cloudy day… the bird in the sky attracts my mind, the class is so boring that I can’t focus my concentration on the book… I open the monitor, there is a message from my girlfriend…

The words underlined are the simple present tense verbs in the example (5). There are some differences in the student's writing with the simple past tense. In the narrative with the simple past tense, the verb to be (was/were) is used less often than other types of verb. On the other hand, in this student's writing with the simple present tense, the verb to be (is) is used more often than other type of verbs. Furthermore, we also notice that the writers who use the simple present tense would more readily make the error of the tense easier because they may easily have inconsistent verb tenses in some sentences. In eight students' narratives with simple present tense, some verbs with the simple past tense were found in their narratives.

The following is the example of the students' narrative with many simple present tenses and fewer simple past tenses.

‧ 國

立 政 治 大 學

‧

N a tio na

l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y

33

(6) It's a normal school day, and Teacher Lin is teaching math. But Jay is using his phone under the table..."Teacher Lin, I am sorry, I shouldn't use my phone during the class." Jay said. "Yes, you shouldn't... am I a boring teacher? "

Teacher Lin asked.

In the example (6), the words underlined include verbs in the simple present tense and simple past tense. We found that the verb with the simple past tense appeared with the dialogue. In the narratives of Taiwanese English textbooks, the dialogue used the simple past tense because the time reference was the past.

Therefore, although the writer of the example (6) chose the simple present tense in the narrative, the dialogue in the narratives of the Taiwanese English textbooks may have an impact on changing the simple present tense into the simple past tense to the student’s decision of the tense for the word said and asked of the dialogue in the example (6).