The Acquisition Of English Tense By Lower Educated People: A Case Study Of An Indonesian Woman

Abstract

This is a case study about the acquisition of language by an Indonesian low education woman. Thisresearch is proving the theory in order to know the influence of age factor toward English languageacquisition. Although the participant’s studying English naturally is too late, that is at the age of 28, if itis compared to the theory of second language acquisition in which the critical age is at puberty level,the hypothesis proposed is that the participant can get the proficiency level expected that is theminimal of 75% because she has high motivation and willingness towards English. This researchfocuses on tenses analysis, particularly, Simple Present, Simple Past, and Present Future. The data iscollected through interview technique with natural setting. Among the 52 verbs used, 36 (62%) are inthe form of Simple Present, 6 (11.5%) are in the form of Present Continuous, 5 (9.6%) are in the formof Present Continuous whcih is not perfect, 4 (7.7%) are the combination of Simple Present and PresentContinuous, and only one verb (1.9%) is in simple past tense form. No response towards the two othertenses, Simple Past Tense and Present Future shows that the participant does not know those twotenses. Therefore, this research proves what Bongaerts, etc. in Singleton and Lengyel (eds) (1995:30)claims that adults experience great difficulty in achievieving second language proficiency level, andJohnson and Newport quoted by Towell and Hawkins (1994:27) that incompleteness develops inaccordance with the age: the older someone involves in the second language, the more incomplete thegrammar of the second language, is true.