A01_RICH4603_04_SE_A01.QXD

(Chris Devlin) #1
I have finished. She hasalways lovedanimals.
If the auxiliary is in the present tense, the verb group is described as the
present perfect(e.g. They have eaten) and if the auxiliary is in the past tense,
the verb group is described as the past perfect(e.g. They had finished).
English also has a fairly rare future perfect(They will have finished before
noon tomorrow).
In English the perfect generally refers
a to a state or event that extends up to a point in time (e.g.I have lived here
for six years – up to now)
b to an event that occurred within a time period (e.g. Have you ever been
to Paris? – in your life up to now)
c to an event that has results which continue up to a point in time (e.g.
I have broken my watch – and it’s still broken now).

performancen
(in generative grammar) a person’s actual use of language. A difference
is made between a person’s knowledge of a language (competence) and
how a person uses this knowledge in producing and understanding
sentences (performance). For example, people may have the competence
to produce an infinitely long sentence but when they actually attempt to
use this knowledge (to “perform”) there are many reasons why they restrict
the number of adjectives, adverbs, and clauses in any one sentence. They
may run out of breath, or their listeners may get bored or forget what
has been said if the sentence is too long. In second and foreign language
learning, a learner’s performance in a language is often taken as an indirect
indication of his or her competence (see performance analysis), although
other indexes such as grammaticality judgements are sometimes con-
sidered a more direct measure of competence.
There is also a somewhat different way of using the term “performance”. In
using language, people often make errors (see speech errors). These may
be due to performance factors such as fatigue, lack of attention, excitement,
nervousness. Their actual use of language on a particular occasion may not
reflect their competence. The errors they make are described as examples of
performance.
see also usage^1


performance-based assessmentn
an approach to assessment that seeks to measure student learning based on
how well the learner can perform on a practical real-world task such as the
ability to write an essay or carry out a short conversation. This approach is
thought to be a better measure of learning than performance on traditional
tests such as multiple-choice tests.


performance
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