Browsing by Author "Nyakana, Deniza"

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    The acquisition of the French tense aspect morphology by Tanzania learners of French as a foreign language
    (University of Dar es Salaam, 2014) Nyakana, Deniza
    The study examined the acquisition of the French Passe Compose (PC) and Imparfair (IMP) by Tanzania learners of French as a foreign language test the validity of Aspect Hypothesis (AH), which states that language learners first acquire the past or perfective aspect, which is marked on achievement and accomplishment (telic) verbs and them acquire the imperfective aspect , which is marked on state and activity verbs. Specifically, the study sought to find out the extent to which Tanzania learners of French as a foreign language followed the predictions of the AH in the acquisition of the French Passé Compose (Pc) and Imparfait (IMP) and how the two structures influenced the acquisition of the regular-irregular verbs. The study also analysed the difficulties the learners encountered in using the PC and the IMP. The study used 60 Tanzania learners of French from the University of Dar es salaam, Milambo Secondary School and Korogwe Girls’ Secondary School as its respondents. The data were collected using a close test with 60 spaces. The respondents were asked to fill in the spaces with predicates in PC or IMP verbal forms. The finding showed that the learners followed the predictions of the AH, to great extent. Moreover, the effect of the AH on the production of the PC was manifest in irregular verbs and it was manifest in irregular verbs as far as the productions of IMP was concerned. Furthermore, the learners encountered four types of difficulties. Firstly, they failed to use appropriate auxiliaries to form the PC, they failed to show subject- verb concord. Third, they produced ambiguous constructions. Finally, they supplied alternative constructions such as the present tense and conditional constructions. This study recommends that the teaching of the PC should start with irregular verbs and that of the IMP with regular ones.