Examining The Patterns Of Simple Past Tense Use In Chinese EFL Learners’ Language Production: A Usage-Based Approach

The system of tense and aspect is a significant issue in second language acquisition.Over the past decades,researchers have extensively investigated the acquisition of tense and aspect,focusing on the role of lexical aspect.However,only a few studies have employed a usage-based approach to examine the influence of intralingual factors(e.g.frequency,contingency,and prototypicality)on the use of the English simple past tense.Therefore,from a usage-based perspective,this study aims to investigate the use of English simple past tense by Chinese EFL learners at different proficiency levels and production modes.The Spoken and Written English Corpus of Chinese Learners was utilized as the learner corpus for this study,consisting of timed argumentations and transcribed texts of TEM 4 and TEM 8 oral tests produced by English majors.The reference corpus was derived from the language production of native speakers in the International Corpus Network of Asian Learners of English.The final dataset consists of 2,100 texts,with L2 learners under different production modes divided into intermediate and advanced proficiency levels.Results indicate that:(1)L2 learners tend to produce more past tense markings and a wider range of verbs in written contexts compared to spoken contexts,potentially due to the demanding cognitive effort required in speaking tasks.Additionally,as proficiency levels increase,L2 learners demonstrate more diverse use of the simple past tense,approaching the target use of native speakers.(2)The generalizability of the Aspect Hypothesis(AH)is influenced by English proficiency and production modes.In spoken contexts,the distribution of lexical aspects aligns with the AH for both L2 learners and native speakers.In contrast,in written contexts,advanced L2 learners and native speakers produce more state verbs than activity verbs,which partially deviates from the AH.This finding suggests that L2 learners can use the four lexical aspects more flexibly as proficiency increases.Furthermore,such a result may also be influenced by the genre of the current study(i.e.argumentations,which may require the use of more state verbs to express opinions).(3)Regardless of learners’ English proficiency levels and production modes,prototypical verbs in the past tense(e.g.achievements and accomplishments)occur more frequently among verbs sharing the highest verb-past tense contingency,suggesting a relationship between contingency and semantic prototypicality of the simple past tense.This study has theoretical and pedagogical implications.Theoretically,it provides new evidence for the AH and the acquisition of constructions at the morpheme level.Pedagogically,teachers can utilize the semantic features and contingency of the past tense to more effectively facilitate learners’ acquisition of the simple past tense.