Investigating Iranian Intermediate EFL learners’ interlanguage rules with a Focus on English Present Tense

In the EFL context, knowledge of grammar, particularly tense, is considered to be the most crucial and difficult part for non-native learners to master properly. The aim of the present study is to investigate some of Iranian intermediate EFL interlanguage rules regarding their usage of different types of present tense. To this end, four female students enrolled on the first semester of the second year at the English Department of Velayat University were randomly chosen. In order to collect data, the researcher asked the participants to create a real conversation in English about topics which were determined before. As the data was gathered, the researcher asked the participants why they committed the identified utterances. The derived interlanguage rules were (a) the transference from mother tongue, (b) substitution of different types of present tense instead of each other, and (c) the use of present tense instead of present perfect

Keywords:

Present tense , Interlanguage rule