Name: NURSYITRAFAIZ BT AHMAD FAUZI Matriculation number: D20102041898 Group number: UPSI01 (A121PJJ) Course code: AT34J Course

title: BIL3013 ENGLISH GRAMMAR Semester: SEMESTER 1 2012/2013 Lecturer: DR NAPISAH BT KEPOL Task: TASK 2 ERROR ANALYSIS

INTRODUCTION Grammar can be defined as the rules of a language, governing the way in which words are put together to convey meaning in different contexts (N. Chitravelu;S. Sithamparam;S.C. Teh; 2001). Having good grammar knowledge will make the language users able to construct a sentence in the correct order to elucidate their ideas and intentions efficiently. According to GMAT Ultimate Grammar (2011), grammar rules are created in order to
give structure to the language. The language rules reflect the usual behaviour of a grammatically constructed pattern. A rule does not necessarily have to behave absolutely the same every time, but will behave according to the rule most of the time.

As for writing, grammar is the most essential part of language that should be mastered by people who wished to be a good writer. However, these rules of language have always been like a sharp poisonous thorn for most pupils especially those who come from a rural area like my pupils of Year 5 at Sekolah Kebangsaan Kampong Pahang, Tapah, Perak. To make things worse, more than half of them have quite low learning ability and lack of vocabulary. Thus, teaching writing to them has been a hard task for me even though they have been introduced to the rules of the English language as early in Year 1. As time passes by when they step into a higher level of learning process especially when doing written exercises, they are still unable to incorporate grammar rules in writing correctly. They keep doing errors and mistakes even for easy part of speech like the using of articles especially when I asked them to do the language activities which are the written exercises on their own. For completing this second task, I put more stress on discovering the errors they made rather than the mistakes they had committed while writing. Therefore, I have chosen several sets of my pupils written task which had been done in the class during the schooling period. Actually, from their written works, I have found a lot of

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NURSYITRAFAIZ BT AHMAD FAUZI D20102041898

grammatical errors but the one that I would like to emphasise here are the errors in using the verb groups. The errors they made while using the verb groups are numerous even for the auxiliaries and not forgotten to mention here are the simple present tenses and simple past tenses.

ERRORS IN USING THE VERB GROUPS Errors in using verb groups actually are the most common ones which made by my pupils. As being explain to them almost every lesson, there are some rules to be obeyed when they are using the verb groups, such as: the form of the sentence whether it is in the active or passive form, and the tense of the sentence. According to Noor Azlina Yunus(1986)there are about six basic verb patterns in English. These verb patterns actually are very complex for my pupils to understand so that they always make errors when doing it.

One of the verb patterns meant here is the using of linking verbs (to be). Noor Azlina Yunus(1986)wrote that the linking verb usually describe a state or condition which is usually an adjective or a noun. Look at sentences below: 1(i) a) It a big and beautiful house. b) It my mothers dream house. c) We happy to move into the house. d) Although the bungalow expensive but my father can afford to buy it. e) The living room wide. In the sentences above, the pupils had not put the linking verbs. In the sentences, it is clear that the pupils had omitted the to be + adjective/ noun. The sentences should have been written as: 1(ii) a. It is a big and beautiful house. b. It was my mothers dream house. c. We are happy to move into the house. d. Although the bungalow is expensive but my father can afford it to buy it. e. The living room is wide. Still in relation to linking verbs, the students had also sometimes misused the correct form of to be used in their sentences. The errors are as follows: 2(i) a. The house has located near the town.

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BIL3013 ENGLISH GRAMMAR TASK 2 b. It has a big house but need a cleanup. c. There is some houses near our bungalow. d. I were amazed to see the big house.

NURSYITRAFAIZ BT AHMAD FAUZI D20102041898

e. The house is the biggest house that I have ever lived. The sentences should have been have been written as follows: 2(ii) a. The house is located near the town. b. It is a big house but need a cleanup. c. d. There are some houses near our bungalow. d. I was amazed to see the big house. e. The house was the biggest house that I have ever lived. The other grammatical error done by my pupils is the use of to infinitive. Study the sentences below: 3(i) a) My father wanted to bought a bungalow. b) My mother finished to cleaned the bungalow. c) We stopped cleaning the house to had our lunch. d) I like to lived in the bungalow. e) My sister hoped to had her own room. From the examples provided above, it is clear that the pupils had made errors in using the infinitive. They had obviously failed to recognize how to use the infinitives. In sentences a, b, c, and e the pupils had failed to understand that any verb that comes after the infinitive should be written in the simple form of the verb. Although the tense used in writing recount is in past form, but there are still infinitives should be used. Therefore, the sentences should have been written as follows: 3(ii) a) My father wanted to buy a bungalow. b) My mother finished to clean the bungalow. c) We stopped cleaning the house to have our lunch. d) I like to live in the bungalow. e) My sister hoped to have her own room.

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When we are writing about something we have done in the past, we usually use past tense since it is tells about past experiences. In the sentences below, the pupils had failed to put the verbs in the past form. The errors are as follows: 4(i) a) Last week, my father buy a new house. b) My mother mop the floor. c) I help my parents to clean the house. d) We eated our lunch happily. e) However, my father telled us to clean the house before we move in. In sentences a, b, c, d, and e my pupils did not use the past form of the verbs. They were actually used the simple form of the verbs. This is incorrect because in the story, they were telling their past experiences. Thus, they should have used the past form of the verbs. In sentence d and e, the student also failed to use the correct past form of the verb. They have known that past tense has two kind of forms which are regular form (adding d or ed ) and irregular form (the spell has changed). The verbs in both sentences (d and e) are the irregular one. So, they should not add ed. They had obviously making generalization that the past forms of the verbs should always added by ed. Therefore, the sentences should have been written as follows: 4(ii) a) Last week, my father bought a new house. b) My mother mopped the floor. c) I helped my parents to clean the house. d) We ate our lunch happily. e) However, my father told us to clean the house before we move in.

Another grammatical error they usually make is still connected to the verb group that is the -ing form of the verbs or to be exact the use of progressive tenses. Progressive or continuous tense explains that the process of something is or was been doing at that moment of time. Study the sentences given below: 5(i) a) My sister and mother is mopped the floor in the house. b) We were have our lunch after that. c) My father was cut down the tree.

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In the sentences, my pupils had unable to recognize the correct ing form of the verbs. Instead of using the ing form they used the simple form of the verbs. They had also failed to decide whether they should use the past progressive or the present progressive as well in order to explain the process they are doing or describing in the sentence. In sentence (a), the pupils also had making an error when using the linking verb to be. It was supposed to be written in plural form were, as the subjects are more than one person My sister and mother. Thus, the sentences should actually have been written as follows: 5(ii) a) My sister and mother were mopping the floor in the house. b) We were having our lunch after that. c) My father was cutting down the tree. Apart from that, my pupils also get confused when they are dealing the ing words as nouns or so called gerunds. It means here that the ing verbs can be nouns. My pupils had forgotten about this when they did written exercise on their own. Look at the sentences below: 6(i) a) When we finished ate the lunch, we rested for a moment. b) My little sister likes entered every room in the bungalow. c) We enjoyed ate the lunch together. Like other nouns, we know that the gerunds can be found as the subject or object of a sentence. The examples provided clearly shown that the gerunds are at the position of object. Thus, they should be written as follows: 6(ii) a) When we finished eating the lunch, we rested for a moment. b) My little sister likes entering every room in the bungalow. c) We enjoyed eating the lunch together.

CONCLUSION From the examples of my pupils writing materials, it can be concluded that the pupils have not been able to use of verb groups correctly. They were so obvious from the number of the errors they had made. Although they had been taught about it before, they were still confused which one to use when constructing even a simple sentence. From my personal view, these errors occurred because in bahasa Malaysia there are no such things as the verb conjugations. There are no terms as time signaling in expressing ideas. The pupils are truly unfamiliar to this form and by 5|Page

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far mostly because English is a foreign language for them. Thus, making them feel unfamiliar with the language rules and hard to adapt the difference of it than their mother tongue. Apart from that, my pupils actually were still confused in making the agreement between subject and verb. This happened because in bahasa Malaysia there is no such concrete rules between the subject and verb when ones needs to construct a sentence. REFERRENCE Noor Azlina Yunus(1986). A Quick English Reference. Penerbit Fajar Bakti Sdn. Bhd. Petaling Jaya Nesamalar Chirtavellu; Saratha Sithamparam; Teh Soo Choon(2001). ELT Methodology Principles and Practice. Penerbit Fajar Bakti Sdn. Bhd. Selangor

Hyacinth Gaudarth; Richard Hughes; Jessie Micheal (1999). Towards Better English Grammar. Penerbit Fajar Bakti Sdn. Bhd. Selangor GMAT CLUB (2011). GMAT Ultimate Grammar (5TH EDITION). GMAT Club, Inc. John Eastwood (2002). Oxford Practice Grammar with answers. Oxford University Press Toni Haryanto (2007). Grammatical Error Analysis in Students Recount Texts, English Department Faculty of Languages and Arts Semarang State University

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