Adult native-Arabic speakers knowledge of English shifted tenses Nassir Saleh al-Qadi.

Abstract EN

The aim of this study is to discover what was known by adult native-Arabic speakers learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL).

These learners were exposed to English shifted tenses in public schools and at the college level.

The study was based on a theoretical contrastive analysis done by the researcher between the English shifted tenses and their Arabic equivalents.

This analysis predicted the possible effects the Arabic language would have on learning English by native-Arabic speakers, regardless of their level of language proficiency and age.

The positive and negative effects of Arabic on learning eighteen English shifted tenses consisting of conditionals, reported speech, and expressions with wish were tested with 82 adult Saudi Arabian EFL learners.

The effects of the Arabic language were confirmed statistically through specially designed tests. The overall performance was unsatisfactory since the subjects of the study only scored satisfactorily on 8 out of 18 of the questions on the eighteen English shifted tenses.

Evidently, the order of difficulty of the three types of the eighteen English shifted tenses was expressions with wish, conditionals, and reported speech.

It is hoped that the results will be useful for adult native-Arabic speakers learning the English shifted tenses as well as EFL teachers and curriculum developers.