Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Research Orientation
This thesis is going to study both tense and aspect system of verb and also oralEnglish production from a new point of view that is to do some research about the usingand application of tense and aspect of verbs in oral English production by commonuniversity students. On the one hand, this research can make some contribution to thedevelopment of second language acquisition especially the understanding to someimportant terms, such as tense, aspect and oral English production. On the other hand,through the research of the characteristics of using and application of tense and aspect,it can put forward some suggestions on the teaching and learning of oral Englishproduction in order to improve learners' spoken English ability. As for teachers, thisthesis will provide them some valuable information about the using of tense and aspectin oral English production so that they will be aware of what is going to be difficultpoints for the learners in the practical situations. Therefore they can do some adjustmentto their teaching during the class to help learners to build a more solid foundation oftheir English ability. For learners, the thesis will also help them to be more familiar withtheir oral English in order that they can find more suitable ways to express their ideas indifferent situations and also to improve their ability of expressing. For scholars in thisfield, this thesis also will give them some brilliant ideas about the research in this issueto push forward the development of this whole field.
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1.2 Research Background
Leech (1987) claims that the studying of tense and aspect of verbs is the mostdifficult problem in the field of second language acquisition. Lots of scholars havedevoted themselves into the study of this issue hoping to make some contribution to thedevelopment in this particular filed. Wu Heping and Gao Yusong (2007) put forward theidea that the study about tense and aspect has been a miniature of the study aboutSecond Language Acquisition (SLA). However，the basic understanding of the notionabout tense and aspect would be essential for the application of these ideas into thepractical using situations no matter from the natural expression of the English language or from the point view of translating between English and Chinese. In different culture,people have different ways of expressions about time, thus it makes this issue evenmore complicated. Therefore there are some differences about the understanding aboutthese two basic terms in the using process. English prefers to express the idea of timethrough the various changes by tense and aspect of verbs in a sentence; while Chinesetend to express the same idea by conveying the whole meaning in a sentence. Based onwhat have been stated above, the studying of tense and aspect has always been a verydifficult point for generations of Chinese second language learners. Therefore，it isnecessary to do a thorough research about this issue.
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Chapter 2 Literature Review
2.1 Introduction
In order to provide solid evidence to the later discussion of using and applicationof different tenses and aspects of verbs in practical oral production, this chapter willconcentrate on the literature review about some important notions related to the presenttopic of this thesis. This part will mainly cover a review about the studies on tense andthe review about aspect both at home and abroad.
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2.2 Study on Tense
2.2.1 Definition of Tense
As an important idea in the study of language, tense has got many definitionsaccording to different scholars who are doing some researches about this topic. In thispart, several definitions of tense will be presented as the basis of later discussion inorder to have a clear mind about the topic which is going to be discussed in great detailin the later part of this thesis.H. Poutsma (1926: 205) claimed the idea that the understanding of tense refers toverb or verb phrases which can show the time of the action or the state of being. Fromthis definition, time and tense are linked together through the using of verb or a verbgroup. Therefore, the relationship of tense and time is presented by various forms ofverbs or verb groups in different situations.George O. Curme (1931: 354) once put forward four categories of absolute tenseswhich are the present, the past，the present perfect and the future. According to him,there are two relative tenses the past perfect and the future perfect. In his understoiding,tenses are divided into absolute tenses and relative tenses，which is similar to the idea ofHalliday's. However，he also admits that there is relationship between tense and time inhis description, of his understanding of tenses.
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Chapter 3 Research Methodology.........19
3.1 Introductiony......... 19
3.2 Participantsy......... 19
3.3 Instrumenty......... 20
3.4 Proceduresy......... 20
Chapter 4 Results and Discussiony......... 22
4.1 Introductiony......... 22
4.2 Quantitative Analysisy......... 22
4.3 Qualitative Analysis of Tense in Narrative Oral Productiony......... 29
4.4 Qualitative Analysis of Aspect in Narrative Oral Productiony .........35
Chapter 5 Conclusiony......... 39
5.1 Major Findingsy......... 39
5.2 Conclusion y.........40
5.3 Implications for English Language Teaching and Learningy......... 41
5.4 Limitations of the Studyy......... 42
Chapter 4 Results and Discussion
4.1 Introduction
Each of the transcription is named according to the machine the subjects used inthe language laboratory. For example, if the subject used machine Al，then therecording and transcription of the related recording is named Al later in the research.After all these recording were transcribed into text form, each text was numberedaccording to its sentences from Sentence 1 (SI) until to the end of each text. If the texthas twenty sentences，then the text was numbered from Sentence 1 (SI) to Sentence20(S20). Then every verb which can be used as the predicate in a sentence was underlinedin each sentence. After that，each kind of tense and aspect is calculated in every text.Also the percentage of each tense and aspect in the total number was calculated. All thenumbers can be reflected through Table 4.1 including each tense and aspect, their totalnumber and their percentage. This chapter will have a detailed discussion about thetense and aspect used in the narrative oral production by the non-English majors inChina, both from the point view of quantitative analysis and the qualitative analysis.
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Conclusion
The research on the meaning and usage of tense and aspect system has always beena very important topic in the field of Second Language Acquisition. This thesis studiedthe usage and meaning of tense and aspect system in the narrative oral production ofnon-English majors in China. The findings about the distribution and frequency of tensesystem can be listed as the following.First, the percentage for using Simple Present comes to the highest in the narrativeoral production for ordinary non-English majors in China. This kind of phenomenon isclosely related to the general situation that all the learners come to the study of SimplePresent tense at the very beginning of their studying English as a second language andalso as a target language. Second, as the simplest tense for them, most of the learnerswould choose the using of Simple Present as the first choice when they are telling astory which is called narrative oral production. Third, the using of Simple Present andSimple past takes up almost the whole using of tense system for the ordinarynon-English majors in China, They are used to the using of Simple Present and SimplePast to tell a story which is different from the situation of written language in otherresearches.
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Reference (omitted)
