| This thesis employs the data St5(lower-level English majors) and St6(higher-level English majors) which come from CLEC (Chinese Learner EnglishCorpus), adopts quantitative methodology, and aims to answer three questions:(1)What is the general distribution of tense/aspect errors in St5and St6?(2) Are there anydifferences between regular verbs and irregular verbs on present perfect variation?Does the verb salience affect the use of present perfect significantly?(3) Which type oflexical aspectual verbs has the highest frequency? What are the frequency differencesamong statives, activities, achievements or accomplishments? Does the lexical aspectaffect the present perfect variation significantly?The findings are:(1) In St5, simple past and simple present are the two mostfrequently misused tenses, and present perfect, pluperfect and simple future are theleast frequently misused. In St6, simple present is the most frequently misused, andthen are simple past and present perfect; simple future and pluperfect are leastfrequently misused. Second, the appropriate use frequencies are775times (93.04%) inSt5and1,079times (96.34%) in St6. Generally speaking, learners of lower levelscommit more errors in present perfect than higher level ones.(2) In both St5and St6,the appropriate use of regular verbs is higher than irregular verbs. According toChi-Square test results, verb salience in both St5and St6fails to show muchsignificance with present perfect variation.(3) As for lexical aspectual verbs, thegeneral frequencies are similar in St5and St6. The most frequently used verbs areachievements and activities, and then are accomplishments and statives. According tothe Chi-Square test, lexical aspect is significantly correlated with the present perfectvariation. This study has both theoretical and pedagogical implications. It can make learnersand teachers know the overarching situation of present perfect use for English majors.Moreover, the present study may shed some light on the learning and using of presentperfect for learners, and provides some suggestions for English tense teaching inChina. |
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