Acquisition of the Passe Compose and the Imparfait by Non-native Speakers of French

Abstract

One of the main objectives of second language research is to provide a theoretical and empirical basis for designing efficient teaching methods. It is with this goal in mind that the following study was undertaken. When trying to acquire the two French past tenses paste compose and imparfait - and the distinction between them, learners of French as a foreign language (FFL) experience great difficulty. The traditional teaching approaches offered in textbooks often seem confusing and therefore inadequate; alternative teaching methods are needed. The present cross-sectional study of the acquisition of the passe compose/imparfait system by FFL learners was undertaken with the expectation that a detailed account of the order and successive stages second language learners go through in acquiring the two tenses would generate valuable information for pedagogic purposes.