Language and Education: Learning and Teaching in Society - The Collected Works of Ruqaiya Hasan Vol 3 - Ruqaiya Hasan†
11 English process, English tense: foreign learner, foreign teacher [1995]
Language and Education: Learning and Teaching in Society - The Collected Works of Ruqaiya Hasan Vol 3 - Ruqaiya Hasan†
Ruqaiya Hasan† [+]
Macquarie University
Description
As the title suggests my presentation1 is concerned with what, speaking generally, might be described as temporal expressions, or how time is construed linguistically.2 The presentation has two foci: first, the aim is to focus on temporal expressions in English primarily because it seems likely that such a discussion might be of some use in the business of teaching and learning English as a second or foreign language (ESL/EFL). Secondly, my concern is also with certain general issues: in fact I would like to open this talk with a brief discussion about the nature of human language. Now, I have a feeling that while discussing some features of the English language would be readily recognized as relevant to the teaching and learning of esl/efl, the relevance of the second issue might not appear obvious. It may be useful then to begin with a few words concerning why an understanding of the nature of human language is relevant to the teaching of language, whether the language being taught is a mother tongue or an other tongue.