Tense errors in English among the English second language immigrant learners in America.

 Opinion Article Assignment  

Audience Analysis Assignment

Topic: Tense errors in English among the English second language immigrant learners in America.

The publication of choice is The Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper

To complete this assignment, you must first determine which publication you will write your Opinion Article toward.  This should be a local newspaper from your hometown.  It can be your daily newspaper or an alternative news publication that publishes opinion articles on current events.  Also, refer to your Realize it module for further insight into audience awareness.

Opinion Article Assignment Instructions

In this assignment, you will continue writing about your ongoing research topic, but you will modify it to meet the various formatting and style needs of a typical opinion article for a local publication.  This does not mean that you can just take a 2,000-word paper and cut off 1,000 words; instead, you must demonstrate that you have made careful choices to revise your more academic writing to fit another medium targeted toward a different audience.

1. Determine a local publication to which you will write your Opinion Article. This is likely to be your hometown daily newspaper; however, you may also have a local alternative newspaper that you could use as your target publication.

2. Determine the style, tone, level of formality, etc. that is typical for that publication. Do this by reviewing and reading articles from the publication with particular attention to the Opinion/Editorial or Letter to the Editor sections.

3. Determine the style, tone, level of formality, etc. that is typical for that publication. Do this by reviewing and reading articles from the publication with particular attention to the Opinion/Editorial or Letter to the Editor sections.

4. Write an Opinion Article of between 700 – 1000 words using the same topic you’ve been researching all quarter.

5. Use APA format- it is likely that the publication you choose will not use APA format; however, since learning APA is a key component of this class, we will continue to use it here. If you do decide to submit for publication, be sure to consult publication guidelines and use the reference style specified

Part I (2 paragraph minimum): In a Word document, name the publication choice and explain the target audience’s demographics.  The following categories can help guide you as you define your audience.  Rather than listing these items in bullets, however, write two full paragraphs that define who your audience is.  You do not need to cover each bullet, and you are welcome to include other defining features.  The goal here is to explain who your readers are by showing what qualities or traits they hold.  What makes them unique?   

· Age

· Gender

· Income level

· Education level

· Political affiliation

· Beliefs

· Values

· Motivations

· Experiences

Part II (2 paragraph minimum): Now take your overall audience understanding and explain how you will use it to guide your writing choices for the Opinion Article.  Think about your specific topic (which you’ve been working with all quarter) and the new angle you plan to take for this article, and explain the audience’s expectations and needs by answering the following questions:

· What do my readers know about the topic?  

· What are their current beliefs about the topic?

· What will they want to know?  What is their purpose in reading my article?

· How can I build their understanding of my topic in a compelling way?  (Think about writing strategies, use of support, etc.)

· What might my readers be skeptical about?  How will I handle this skepticism? 

· What choices can I make in terms of style, tone, and word choice to connect with my readers?

ASSIGNMENT REQUIREMENTS:

· Label the Word document with Part I and Part II and use paragraph formatting rather than bullet points.  The questions provided are intended to guide your responses.  Note paragraph length requirements above.

· Use 12-point Times New Roman font and double space.  A title page is not required.

· Document any researched information or direct quotes in APA style, both with in-text citations and a References page. Including research is not required; however, it is required to document the research in 

APA style

 if you choose to include it.

· Write in complete sentences with fully-developed paragraphs, paying attention to grammar, spelling, and punctuation. 

Tense errors in English among the English second language immigrant learners in America.

name

College

ENGL 1211: English Composition with Research

date

Tense errors in English among the English second language immigrant learners in America.

Immigrant students in the United States need a solid foundation in English grammar to communicate effectively, read well and comprehend what they are reading. Most immigrants struggle to process what they are reading without a solid foundation in grammar. This makes it difficult for them to excel in their academic and working pursuits. Speaking the language can also help immigrants fit in with American society. It can help immigrants be better understood by others, which can help them connect with people and build relationships. The American education structure has the Evel to try and educate the native immigrant on how to read, write and understand English. Although, A lot of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students have many difficulties learning the language, and as a result, they make many mistakes in writing contests and competence examinations. Failure to have sensitivity in grammatical prototypes might affect an immigrant’s ability to acquire EFL, as can other variables such as tenses, learning method, and other background circumstances.

Tense is a linguistic term that refers to the time of an event. Tenses can either be passed, present, future, and conditional. Each tense has rules that must be followed to ensure the proper meaning is conveyed. Second language learners are often confused about the proper use of tense, leading to errors in their communication. Immigrants often don’t know the proper use of the present perfect tense and make tense errors in their communication. When it comes to mastering the English tense might be a challenging task for EFL students. One of the most difficult areas for English language learners to grasp is the usage of verb forms, according to Mocciaro and Young-Scholten (2022). Because of this, students of English as a Second Language (EFL) may make errors when trying to communicate the timing of an event in the target language. EFL students have been shown to articulate themselves in a way that confuses the concept of time.

Moreover, EFL students’ inability to master the tenses of the target language may be attributed in part to the effect of their native language (L1) (TL). As a result, Chinese ESL learners often make mistakes such as employing ‘bare infinitive forms’ rather than ‘verbs inflected for the simple present and past. Other than Chinese EFL students, Dutch English learners exhibit L1 impact. FL students in the Netherlands are expected to know the distinction between simple past and past progressive in English. Therefore, even skilled L2 learners might be influenced by L1 impact.

On the other hand, the bangle speakers suffer the exact impact of L1; they may use their L1 sequence of tense rules in forming English sentences. Tense plays a critical role in ensuring proper and effective communication. In addition to difficulties with tense, EFL students may have difficulty grasping the event-oriented nature of the language they are learning. The English language is a complex language that can be difficult to learn for non-native speakers. One of the significant challenges that EFL students face is that the language lacks a system for representing the order of events in time. Without this system, EFL students have difficulty understanding the language’s structure and flow. This can make it challenging for EFL students to absorb the meaning of their sentences. However, with the right help, EFL students can learn how to use tense to express their meaning in the language.

Many students make tense mistakes due to their inability to discern the various relationships between a verb type and its group, which results in tense errors (Sabra, 2020). To make matters worse, many L1 students from a wide range of ethnicities studying English as second language neglect or ignore the inflection in verbs. Students with tense mistakes do not know how to utilize suppletive inflection and instead use affixal inflection together with the auxiliary form “be,” making it impossible for them to produce progressive participles, resulting in tense errors. While the affixal inflection has a set of rules for its stem word class, the suppletive inflection may use any word as the inflected form of another, even if the two words are different. Improper use of inflection (suppletive or affixal) may lead to tense problems by giving the improper voice and tense. Tense mistakes are less common among bilingual learners in the second language (L2) because they are more advanced in the two categories above. These results corroborate those who found that the second language acquisition processes of students of all ages and educational backgrounds followed similar developmental patterns.

More likely to know how to use the past tense correctly and can help others learn how to use it too.

Many second language learners are more familiar with the present perfect tense than the past tense. This is because many of them are from countries where the present perfect tense is used correctly. They are also exposed to the present perfect tense in their education and at home. This means they are more likely to know the proper use of the present perfect tense and can help others learn how to use it, too Jacobson and Yu (2018). Teaching the tenses of a language involves teaching the language’s grammar simultaneously. “The way words are put together to make correct sentences” is how defines grammar, according to Lennon (2020). Grammar is the study of the principles that govern word, phrase, and sentence structure. Systematic linguistic analysis is according to what grammarians do. Morphology and syntax are the traditional divisions in grammar. Grammar is abstract in mind, and it becomes concrete in its use. That is to say; it Is a mental concept that manifests itself in the real world. Moreover, it is the study of grammatical which means tacitly knowing about the grammar of a language numero Wood (2022); for the English learners’ errors in grammar directly imply that it would also reflect on the tenses.

Most immigrants struggle to process what they are reading without a solid foundation in grammar. This makes it difficult for them to excel in academic and working pursuits. Immigrants who learn English can also have a better life by connecting with other people more effectively. EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students articulate themselves in a way that confuses the concept of time. EFL students’ inability to master the tenses of the target language may be attributed in part to the effect of their native language (L1) (TL) on their tenses. Many students from a wide range of ethnicities neglect or ignore the inflection in verbs. Improper inflection (suppletive or affixal) may lead to tense problems. Tense mistakes are less common among bilingual learners in the second language (L2). Teaching the tenses of a language involves teaching the language’s grammar simultaneously. Grammar is abstract in the mind and concrete in its use. Many second language learners are more familiar with the present perfect tense than the past tense because they grew up in countries where it is taught correctly. All these challenges encountered in the learning of English by immigrants can be corrected, and they will improve their English proficiency.

References

Fumero, K., & Wood, C. (2022). Grammatical Verb Errors: Differences Between English Learners with and Without Diagnosed Language-Based Learning Disabilities. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 53(1), 122-132.

Jacobson, P. F., & Yu, Y. H. (2018). Changes in English past tense use by bilingual school-age children with and without developmental language disorder. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 61(10), 2532-2546.

Lennon, P. (2020). The foundations of teaching English as a foreign language. Routledge.

Mocciaro, E., & Young-Scholten, M. (2022). Why and How Grammar Matters for Post-puberty Immigrants with Limited Formal Schooling. In English and Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education (pp. 321-339). Springer, Cham.

Sabra, A. (2020). Tense and Aspect in the English Language: A study about newly arrived students with Arabic as their mother tongue.