Acknowledgements Abstract (English) 摘要 List of Tables and Figures List of Abbreviations Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Tense and aspect in English 1.2.1 Tense 1.2.2 Aspect 1.3 Simple past tense in English 1.3.1 Forms 1.3.2 Meanings 1.3.3 Form-meaning construction of the simple past tense 1.4 Chinese past temporality expressions 1.4.1 Pragmatic and lexical devices 1.4.2 Aspectual markers 1.5 Research Motives 1.6 Structure of the book Chapter 2 Theoretical Framework 2. 1 Introduction 2.2 Construction grammar 2.2.1 Introduction 2.2.2 Construction grammar and generative grammar 2.3 Form-Meaning connections 2.3.1 Form 2.3.2 Meaning 2.3.3 Form-meaning connections 2.3.4 Form-meaning connections in IA and L2 acquisition 2.3.5 Process of form-meaning connections 2.3.6 Factors affecting form-meaning connections 2.4 Associative learning theory 2.4.1 Introduction 2.4.2 Associative learning and language learning 2.4. 3 Factors affecting associative learning 2.5 Implicit learning/knowledge and explicit learning/knowledge 2.5.1 Definitions 2.5.2 The interface issue 2.6 Research questions 2.7 Summary Chapter 3 Literature Review and Preliminary Studies 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Literature review 3.2.1 Form-oriented studies 3.2.2 Meaning/Concept-oriented studies 3.2.3 Other multi-dimensional studies 3.3 Preliminary studies 3.3.1 Two empirical studies 3.3.2 Two corpus-based studies 3.4 Summary Chapter 4 Current Studies on Chinese learners' FMCs of the Simple Past Tense 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Methodological concerns 4.3 Methodology 4.4 Studyl-A corpus-based approach 4.4.1 Data collection 4.4.2 Data coding 4.4.3 Data analysis 4.5 Study 2..An empirical study 4.5.1 Methodology and data collection 4.5.2 Data analysis 4.6 Results and discussion 4.6.1 Results and discussion about the FMCs of the simple past tense in both studies 4.6.2 Factors affecting the FMCs of English simple past tense " 4. 7 Summary Chapter 5 The Role of Explicit Learning in Establishing the FMCs of the Simple Past Tense 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Implicit learning and explicit learning 5.3 Explicit learning and corrective feedback 5.4 Types of corrective feedback and the literature review 5.4.1 Direct vs. indirect 5.4.2 Direct vs. metalinguistic cue 5.4.3 Focused vs. unfocused 5.5 Research design and methodology 5.6 Data collection 5.7 Data analysis 5.8 Resuhs and discussion 5.9 Summary Chapter 6 Conclusion 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Major findings 6.3 Pedagogical implications 6.4 Limitations and future research Appendices References