Christina Lorimer

ENG 653
May 3, 2010

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Error Analysis 2: Simple past tense
Student Information, Class Context and Data Description

Maria (pseudonym) is a nineteen-year old student in ENG 212 at San Francisco State University.
Born in Honduras, she is a native speaker of Spanish, but over thirteen years of having lived in
the United States she has developed a native-like accent and fluency as a speaker of English as
well. Although orally proficient in both languages, Maria feels more confident speaking
Spanish, citing her inability to speak her mind clearly in English as the root of this insecurity.
Her daily contexts of school, work and home call for both languages. She speaks only Spanish at
home, mostly English at school and both English and Spanish at work.
ENG 212 is an advanced grammar for composition class for multilingual students.
Sequentially positioned before ENG 209, first year composition, students are assumed to have a
solid understanding of basic grammar points and the ability to reflect on and express their ideas
in writing. The overarching goal of ENG 212 is for students to develop the self-editing skills
necessary in making these ideas coherent and cohesive.
I analyzed six pages of formal and informal hand-written data for this error analysis. The
formal writing sample was the first draft of the first essay due in ENG 212. This assignment
asked students to read an article about cultural miscommunication and share if theyve had a
similar or dissimilar experience. Maria completed the informal writing assignment during our
first tutoring session. As a form of needs assessment, I asked Maria to address several questions
about her English language experience in essay format. Finally, I analyzed a piece of writing
written in an academic setting but primarily informal, a journal assignment about her social
networking style turned in for a grade in ENG 212.

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Error Identification
Both writing samples show evidence of grammatical and lexical errors, including verb tense and
form, word choice and form, and run-on and comma splice sentences. In previous sessions, we
reviewed sentence structure problems that prevented a clear understanding of her ideas and, with
time, comma splice and fragment errors have been less prevalent. However, there are still many
word level problems and verb tense errors specifically remain a problem. In particular, I will
focus on Marias simple past tense errors, discuss the context in which they are found most often
and review strategies to target this repetitive error pattern.
Overall, I found 46 instances of correct verb tense use and 30 instances of incorrect verb
tense use, 16 of which were errors with simple past tense. The five following examples show
incorrect simple past tense use. The verb that should have been put in the past tense is underlined
and in bold font.
E1: We both meet new people in school
E2: But I ignore the situation
E3: Melissa change dramatically
E4: I went up to her and ask her what was wrong
E5: I use to be with my friend during school hours
In contrast, the five examples below show correct simple past tense use. The verb that was
correctly put in the past tense is underlined and in bold font.
C1: When I was in high school
C2: I had a so call bestfriend
C3: I went up to her
C4: They were the main ones from our group
C5: I told him that I didnt know what that was
The number of correct times Maria uses the simple past tense may be exaggerated by the fact
that the irregular primary verbs, such as to be and to have, are used repetitively in the same
writing sample; it is the regular verbs that pose a problem in the simple past tense.

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Error Analysis
Linguistic description: Simple past tense verb endings
Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman (1999) describe the simple past as used when the speaker
conceptualizes a complete event factually, but as remote in some way (p. 114). Inherent in this
definition are two key concepts: the simple core aspect meaning of completeness and the
past core tense meaning of remoteness. Due to a myriad of reasons, many ESL students have
difficulty understanding the meaning of this complex tense-aspect system and, as a result, past
tense verb errors in writing are common. Maria also struggles with past tense verbs; however,
her problem seems to lie in the formation of simple past tense verb endings, not a
misunderstanding of the core meanings of the present and past forms. A complete grammar
lesson would include a general review of the simple past tense formation and focused activities
on simple past tense verb endings.
Relevant grammatical rules
I. Simple past tense According to Celce-Murcia (1999), the simple aspect system refers to
events that are viewed as whole and complete, with no further development. The core meaning
of what the past tense adds to this simple aspect is a sense of remoteness in time (literal) or
feeling (hypothetical). Pulled from Celce-Murica (1999, p. 114), the following are uses of the
past tense that demonstrate the notions of completeness and remoteness:
a. A definite single completed event/action in the past: I attended a meeting.
b. Habitual or repeated action/event in the past: It snowed every day.
c. An event with duration that applied in the past with the implication that it no longer
applies in the present: Professor White taught for thirty years.
d. With states in the past: He owed me a lot of money.
e. Imaginative conditional in the subordinate clause: If she took better care, she would be
healthy.

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f. Social distancing: Did you want to stay a while?
II. Regular and irregular past tense verb endings This analysis focuses specifically on regular
and irregular past tense verb ending formation, the target area of Marias verb tense errors. Most
verbs in English are regular, meaning they use the same inflections to mark person, tense, aspect,
and voice (Biber et al., 2002, p. 115). To form regular past tense verb endings one simply adds
an ed suffix but has to memorize six main patterns to mark past tense irregular verbs.

Verb Ending

Past Tense Verb Ending Formation

Patterns
Examples

Regular

1. base + suffix ed

a. looked, moved

Irregular

1. The t suffix replaces a

final d of the base or may
be added to the base
2. The t or d suffix is
added and base vowel
changes
3. No suffix is used and the
base vowel changes

a. buildbuilt, spoilspoilt

4. Only the base vowel

changes

d. beginbegan, comecame

5. Forms are identical to

base form

e. cutcut, hithit

6. The form is completely

different

f. gowent, eatate

b. thinkthought, sellsold
c. givegave, knowknew

Adapted from Biber et al (2002), p. 116 - 117

Analysis
This particular problem is characteristic of speakers whose native language expresses
grammatical meaning through inflections. In Spanish, Marias first language, inflection usually
adds an extra syllable, so the speaker and listener are more likely to notice that the verb is in the
past tense. However, as Biber et al. (2002) point out, In English many grammatical distinctions
are not marked on verbs because English verbs have few morphological forms (p. 115). For

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the regular past tense, English adds ed. If the verb is irregular, there are three different
pronunciations for that ending:
III. Pronunciation of ed suffix
ed

1. /t/ after voiceless consonants except /t/: watched, looked, pushed

2. /d/ after vowels and voiced consonants except /d/: tried, moved
3. /Id/ after /t,d/: waited, wanted, included

In English, the past tense only adds an extra syllable for base verbs with an ending sound of t
or d (number three of pronunciation rules above). It is imperative Maria know these rules as she
tries to produce the written form of past tense verbs because they can help her understand why
she may hear one thing but have to write another. Like many Generation 1.5 studentsi, Maria is
what S. Goen-Salter (as cited in Roberge et al., 2009) would call an ear learner. Ear learners
are identified as those students who learn best in the aural mode, as opposed to eye learners,
students who learn best in the written mode (p. 242). Generation 1.5 students characteristically
learn English naturalistically, by listening and speaking (Roberge et al., 2009). Therefore, Marias
arbitrary verb ending formation in the past tense is probably due to a lack being able hear the
difference between present and past tense, and, because Marias written English mirrors her
spoken English, this problem manifests itself in her writing:
E1: We both meet new people in school [It should be met].
Explanation: The present and past tense of the verb to meet sound very similar. Maria
might not be able to hear the difference between meet and met and is guessing
about which spelling to use.
E2: But I ignore the situation [It should be ignored].
Explanation: The past tense suffix ed in regular verbs doesnt produce another
syllable, making it difficult for Maria to notice the past tense shift and produce the
regular past tense verb ending -ed.
E3: Melissa change dramatically [It should be changed].
Explanation: The problem further complicates itself when the last sound of the verb in
question is the same as the first sound of the word that follows it. In this error, the verb
shares a /d/ sound with the following adverb, making it more difficult to detect.

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E4: I went up to her and ask her what was wrong [It should be asked].
Explanation: Again, a regular past verb ending of base + suffix ed. The /t/ sound can be
hard for listeners to hear.
E5: I use to be with my friend during school hours [It should be used].
Explanation: Although the ed suffix adds the sound /d/ to the verb ending of use and
the following word begins with the sound /t/, both sounds have identical place and
manner of articulation. The voiceless-voiced distinction can be hard for listeners, even
native speakers, to hear.
Because Maria identifies as an ear learner, it can be useful to use an integrated skills approach in
a grammar tutorial. As Roberge (2009) says, One of the most exciting things with generation
1.5 is that it pushes us to create pedagogy thats more flexible and pertains more to students
needs (p. 194).
Error Treatment: Feedback and follow-up
Consciousness-raising work: To encourage Maria to independently recognize and fix this error
pattern, the first step in our treatment process would be a consciousness-raising activity. I would
create lists of regular and irregular past tense verbs with the endings in bold font in order to make
them more salient. Id cut these lists up so each slip of paper has one verb on it. Maria would say
these verbs out loud and place them in one of the three categories on a pie chart: t, id or d
(See Appendix A). Then, with the aim of promoting self-efficacious behavior, Id ask her to
identify patterns within the data Ive given her. Combining her reflection and pattern
identification with my meta-language, we would collaboratively try to identify the reasoning
behind her verb placement choices. Additionally, Id ask her to formulate one or more rules
describing the patterns we identify. At her level, an inductive approach towards error treatment is
appropriate. As a consequence of having to articulate patterns, Maria would develop more
efficient noticing strategies and work towards independently producing correct past tense
endings.

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Explanation of grammatical rules: After first trying an inductive approach, I would explicitly
explain the grammatical rules behind simple past tense, past tense verb ending formation and
pronunciation laid out in the error analysis section above and in Appendix B. I would take Maria
step-by-step through the decision-making process involved in deciding how to pronounce a past
tense verb ending and consequently how to write a grammatically sound past tense verb ending.
Controlled practice: Using the handout for reference, Maria would complete the following task.
I would give her a set of sentences, each containing the base form of a verb and a blank at the
end. She would need to first read through the sentence silently, analyzing the orthography of the
base verb and trying to decide how to put it in the past tense. The first time through she wont
write anything down. Then, I would have her read the sentences out loud, putting the verbs in the
past tense orally. Finally, I would ask her to write the correct past tense verb ending on the blank
provided in the handout.
Communicative practice: Part one of the communicative practice is a dictation. I would tell her
a short story, which I would have also hand written beforehand, about a past event that happened
in my life. Maria would listen and write down what the short story as I tell it. The two handwritten stories would be placed side by side for comparison. She would underline all the verbs,
double underline the past tense verbs and circle all the past tense verb endings in both stories,
noticing if she correctly formed the past tense verb endings. Part two of the communicative
practice asks Maria write her own short story and then read it out loud to me. After reading
through it once she would have the opportunity to go back and edit. For homework she would
underline all the verbs, double underline the verbs in the simple past tense and circle the simple
past tense verb endings.

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References
Azar, S. B. & Hagen, A. S. (2009). Understanding and using English grammar (4 ed.). New
York: Pearson Education.
Biber, D., Conrad, S. & Leech, G. (2009) Longman student grammar of spoken and written
English (8 ed.). Essex: Pearson
Celce-Murcia, M. & Larsen-Freeman, D. (1999). The grammar book: An ESL/EFL teachers
course (2nd ed.). Boston: Heinle & Heinle.
Harklau, L., Losey, K. M., & Siegal, M. (Eds.). (1999). Generation 1.5 meets college
composition: Issues in the teaching of writing to U.S.-educated learners of ESL.
Mahwah: Erlbaum.
Roberge, M., Siegal, M. & Harklau, L. Eds. (2009). Generation 1.5 in college composition:
Teaching academic writing to U.S.-Educated learners of ESL. Rutledge: New York.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
)!Generation 1.5 students are U.S.-educated English language learners. For more information on
generation 1.5 students, see Harklau, L., Losey, K. M., & Siegal, M. (Eds.). (1999).!
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