The "Passé composé" (ex: J’ai marché) is definitly seen as a tense.
However, in French too, there are some construction to express tense, which are not recognized as tense:
Je vais manger. (I am going to eat.)
Je viens de manger. (I just ate.)
Je suis en train de manger. (I am eating.)
Je suis sur le point de manger. (I am about to eat.)
I am not a professionnal linguist but I’ll have a go.
The notion of aspect used to be ignored at secondary level whether teaching French to natives or FLE (FSL).
But it has always been recognized and studied at university level. Things are changing though, I’ve come across this extract of a French grammar book in which the notion of aspect is explained to 14 year old secondary students.
To answer your question, yes J’ai marché will be described in terms of aspect by linguists : the compound verb here expresses an accomplished action. Or I should say that it was described as such decades ago when I was at university, in case things are different now.
But in French we also use the notion of grammatical mood, which I do not think is used to such an extent when describing the English language. « Temps, modes et aspects » are usually studied together by linguists.
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