Translating Past Perfect: An Effective Way to Teach EFL Learners

Abstract

The past perfect tense poses an enormous difficulty for English as Foreign Language (EFL) learners. Not only is this due to linguistical background, but also due to the complex structure of having to understand the past auxiliary verb first and then to add the correct form of past participles. Even so, unlike present perfect where profound researchers have been conducted to apply various pedagogical implications in teaching, past perfect is often taught by grammar drill exercises and at times even lacks the opportunity to use in full sentences. This paper aimed to find out whether use of full sentences in translated method could be more effective than the usual grammar drills in EFL settings. Both the qualitative and quantitative results show that for the mid and low proficiency group, prepositional time phrase at the end of the sentences helped them understand the sequence of the events and to successfully apply past perfect in their translations. This shows that to better teach past prefect to the mid to low group of students, first, time signaling phrases should be added to the translated writing sentences and then, sentences without such phrases should be given for the students to conceptually understand the sequences.