The Acquisition Of Tense And Grammatical Aspect By Chinese-speaking Learners Of English

Tense and aspect constitute essential parts of both language use and language acquisition. The study of the acquisition of tense and aspect can provide significant insights into the understanding of general theoretical issues in language acquisition. Researchers have discovered the associations between lexical aspect and verb morphology in both L1 and L2 acquisition and proposed the Aspect Hypothesis, which predicts that learners initially use perfective/past marking with achievements and accomplishments, and then gradually extend the marking to activities and states. Previous studies have established solid empirical ground for the claim that lexical aspect influences the acquisition of tense and aspect. However, there are still some important research putting forward challenges to the Aspect Hypothesis, so further studies are still needed to verify the universal status of this hypothesis.Bickerton (1981) attempted to account for the acquisition of tense/aspect morphology using his Language Bioprogram Hypothesis. Central to his claims is the assertion that the semantic distinctions, such as state-process and punctual-nonpunctual, are bioprogrammed in children's brains. Whether the bioprogram is involved in second language acquisition is still an empirical question.The primary aim of the study is to test the Aspect Hypothesis and the Language Bioprogram Hypothesis through investigating the data from adult Chinese-speaking learners of English. And the secondary aim of the study is to explore the possible L1 influence on the acquisition of tense and grammatical aspect by Chinese learners of English. The specific research questions are addressed as follow:1) Do Chinese learners of English follow the patterns predicted by the Aspect Hypothesis about the distribution of verb morphology and the direction of the development of tense/aspect system?2) Is there an L1 influence in the acquisition of tense/aspect morphology by Chinese learners of English?3) Does the bioprogram play a role in L2 acquisition of English tense and grammatical aspect?Two cross-sectional studies (Study 1 and Study 2) were designed to investigate the...