Error Analysis of Present Simple Tense in the Interlanguage of Adult Arab English Language Learners

Muftah, Muneera; Rafik-Galea, Shameem

doi:10.5539/elt.v6n2p146

Cited by 17 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 13 publications

(7 reference statements)

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“…Stapa & Izahar (2010) indicate that errors in learning a language have always been the focal point to individuals who are oppressed with English language learning and teaching standards, particularly, the knowledge of grammar. This is supported by Light Bown & Spada (2006) cited in Muftah & Rafic-Galea, (2013) who claim that learners' errors in learning a language and knowledge on grammar reveal the development of second language. Thus, the communicative language teaching approach was widely accepted and used among theorists and educationists in the 1980s (Stapa & Izahar, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 59%

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A Corpus-Based Study on the Use of Past Tense Auxiliary ‘Be’ in Argumentative Essays of Malaysian ESL Learners

Manokaran¹,

Ramalingam²,

Adriana³

2013

ELT

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This research is a corpus-based study of secondary and college ESL Malaysian learner's written work by identifying and classifying the types of errors in the Past Tense Auxiliary 'Be'. This This research studied the past tense auxiliary 'be', types of past tense auxiliary 'be' errors and frequency of past tense auxiliary 'be' errors found in the Malaysian Corpus of Students' Argumentative Writing (MCSAW) corpus using the WordSmith Tools Version 4.0 and using the Error Analysis (EA) approach. The findings revealed that there are seven types of errors. They are Tense Shift, Agreement, Missing Auxiliary Be, Wrong Verb Form, Addition and Misformation and Misordering. This study can be used as a guide for English Language teachers to identify the most common errors in using the Past Tense Auxiliary 'Be' made by the ESL learners and decide what remedial action can be taken to prevent them from making these errors. It can also help teachers improvise and develop materials which are not only more suitable but also cater to the needs of the students. In addition to the materials, teachers can also revise their teaching approaches and strategies to ensure effective teaching and learning of these grammar components.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 59%

“…Furthermore, Muftah & Rafic-Galea (2013) claim that grammatical knowledge, tense to be specific, is the most critical and difficult part for ESL learners to master. According to Cao, (2012), Zhuang Xin, (2010) andMourssi, (2012), this is because many L1 languages do not have tenses.…”

Section: Problem Statementmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Corpus-Based Study on the Use of Past Tense Auxiliary ‘Be’ in Argumentative Essays of Malaysian ESL Learners

Manokaran¹,

Ramalingam²,

Adriana³

2013

ELT

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“…Lightbown and Spada (2006) asserted that errors in language acquisition and understanding of grammar had become essential factors that signal the growth of the second language (L2) learners' interlanguage system. This view was also quoted by Muftah and Galea (2013). Errors are defined as aspects of learners' utterances that differ in some manner from those Arab World English Journal www.awej.org ISSN: 2229-9327 449 of native speakers, and learners of a target language are unaware of their errors, and hence unable to fix them (Corder, 1981).…”

Section: Errors and Mistakes In Learning English As Second Languagementioning

confidence: 99%

Investigation into Common Errors in English Writing among Non-Academic Staff at a Malaysian Public University

Abdullah¹,

Azmi²,

Hassan³

et al. 2021

AWEJ

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The Malaysian government has long recognized the significance of mastering the English language among its citizenry. The government has planned, and subsequently, implemented many policies to ensure Malaysians master the English language. Although civil servants have a strong desire to master the English language to perform their duties more efficiently, poor English communication skills have become a major concern in this regard. Therefore, this research aims to investigate common errors in writing the English language among non-academic staff at Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA), a public university in Malaysia. The study employed an Error Analysis approach by conducting document analysis where every respondent was required to write a paragraph in the English language in about 150-200 words on the topic“My greatest challenge as a UniSZA officer”. The findings revealed that a sizeable number of non-academic staff committed different types of errors in writing the English language, including errors related to subject-verb agreement, passive voice, plurality, choice of word, omission of word, use of article, tense sequence, word ordering, gerund, addition of word/redundancy, and comparison of adjective. It was observed that lack of linguistic skills, lack of exposure, and inadequate practices in written English were the main factors contributing to the English writing errors among the non-academic staff. These findings could help the university management to develop appropriate programs that can assist the non-academic staff to develop English writing competence. However, this study is limited to English writing errors. Further research may focus on other language skills such as speaking and listening.

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“…Arabic-speaking students face unique difficulties in learning English, from spelling to discourse, resulting in a great deal of negative transfer (Grami & Alzughaibi, 2012;Muftah & Rafik-Galea, 2013;Hassan, 2014;Sabbah, 2015;Albalawi, 2016;etc.). Deacon (2015), for instance, demonstrates that they make more spelling errors in English than do speakers of other languages.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative Error Gravity: Toward a Cross Linguistic Theory

Lotze¹

2019

Preprint

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Negative transfer is a difficulty for Arabic-speaking students of English. This study juxtaposes eight categories of Arabic-to-English transfer errors with equivalent and near-equivalent errors in Arabic. It compares their error gravity as rated by teachers and students to discover whether there are any differences between teacher and student perceptions that might inform teaching practices. It is also the first step toward a cross-linguistic theory of comparative error gravity based on the functional equivalence approach to translation. It finds that teachers tend to perceive grammatical errors as graver than mechanical or lexical errors, with most differences in perception appearing to stem from cultural background. Among students, there is very little consensus, in line with previous studies. This study concludes that teachers and students might benefit from a better understanding of both their own tendencies in perceiving errors and those of the other party in the learning process. It also recommends the development of a full-fledged theory for moving between languages for the purpose of studying error gravity comparatively in languages other than Arabic.

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Error Analysis of Present Simple Tense in the Interlanguage of Adult Arab English Language Learners

Cited by 17 publications

References 13 publications

A Corpus-Based Study on the Use of Past Tense Auxiliary ‘Be’ in Argumentative Essays of Malaysian ESL Learners

A Corpus-Based Study on the Use of Past Tense Auxiliary ‘Be’ in Argumentative Essays of Malaysian ESL Learners

Investigation into Common Errors in English Writing among Non-Academic Staff at a Malaysian Public University

Comparative Error Gravity: Toward a Cross Linguistic Theory

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