ACQUISITION OF ENGLISH TENSES AMONG ARABIC-ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS: A CASE STUDY

Abstract

Arabic native speakers have difficulty expressing tense in English (Alsalmi, 2013; Mazyad, 1999).  Therefore, this study examines Arabic native speaker learning English as a second language awareness of grammaticality in expressing future tense.  In a tense comparison between the two languages tenses such as past, present and future, do not always have the same counterparts.  It is well known that Arabic language has an impoverished system in the domain of aspirations of time - the absence of futurity.  Alsalmi, (2013) notes that there are three significant differences in expressing future between the two languages.  Findings will be used to show their awareness by level and will contribute to a better understanding of how to teach this grammatical element.