ENGLISH-MAJOR UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ USE OF LEXICAL VERBS IN THE THIRD-PERSON SINGULAR –S IN ORAL COMMUNICATIVE TASKS

Abstract

Acquisition of lexical verbs in the third-person singular –s present tense (henceforth 3SG–s) has been well documented with child learners of English as a first language, and learners of English a second language. However, much less has been known about the production of 3SG–s by learners of English as a foreign language (EFL), especially Vietnamese EFL learners. This study therefore explores how Vietnamese English-major university students use 3SG–s when they perform oral communicative tasksin a speaking course. Analysis of their audio-recorded task performances shows that students omitted the 3SG–s in a large majority of obligatory contexts. Omission was varied between students, and more frequent with allomorph /iz/ than /s/ and /z/, different productive forms of the 3SG–s morpheme. In light of these results, the study offers pedagogical implications for enhancing students’ use of 3SG–s through oral communicative tasks.