It's simple isn't it? Investigating Swedish Pupils* Command of Canonical Question Tags with Reverse Polarity at Different Stages of Learning

Abstract

This essay investigates Swedish pupils' command of canonical question tags with reverse polarity in written English at different stages of learning. 22 pupils in 6th grade and 23 pupils in 9th grade completed a set of tag questions which required either a form of "to be", "to have", "to do" or a modal verb in the question tag. As hypothesized, the pupils in 9th grade showed a higher command of question tags than the pupils in 6th grade. The pupils in the study also completed a test which tested them on their knowledge of subject-verb agreement and question formation. The results showed that command of subject-verb agreement in declarative and interrogative sentences did not lead to command of canonical question tags with reverse polarity. However, those pupils who showed good command of question tags also had a good command of subject-verb agreement. The pupils had least difficulty with the question tags which required the verbs to be and to have. The test results indicated that the majority of the pupils had not yet mastered question tags with reverse polarity, but were still in the process of acquiring this feature of the English language.