Teaching the Spanish Preterite Tense through Temporal Aspectual Discourse

Abstract

English-speaking students of Spanish as a second language frequently have difficulty understanding the distinction between the two Spanish simple past tenses. Since English has only one simple past tense, students must distinguish between two possible past tenses: the preterite and the imperfect. In the present study the preterite tense, only, was taught to first- and third-semester students to determine whether beginning and intermediate students may better understand the functions of this tense through the use of a temporal discourse approach. To date no study has examined the relationship between instruction at both the beginning and intermediate levels using a temporal discourse approach. The significance of this study is that it examines the potential effect of teaching with this approach to beginning and intermediate students.

A total of sixty-three subjects participated in the investigation. One research cell of twenty-one subjects was used in Instruction group 1 at the first-semester level. Two research cells were used at the third-semester level: Instruction group 2 and No Instruction group. The No Instruction group was included as a control group for the third-semester level. All subjects in groups 1 and 2 received instruction; all subjects in all three groups received one pretest and three posttests.

Findings reveal a significantly greater production of correct preterite tense verbs as compared to learners receiving no instruction. Findings also reveal that learners receiving temporal aspectual instruction maintained increases in correct preterite tense verb production over time. Performance by both beginning- and intermediate-level learners receiving temporal aspectual discourse instruction showed no significant difference in the pattern of change in scores on the production of preterite tense verbs.

Results of the present study provide evidence that temporal discourse instruction improves correct production of preterite tense verbs.