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Writing
Glyn B. Gabano-Magbanua, PhD
Dulce Imelda Mercado
Carol Abule
Vanessa Joy Dayag
Abstract
The proposed research will look into paragraphs and essays written by
Omani college students at the Al Musanna College of Technology to identify
errors committed at the discourse level. Additionally, it will attempt to
classify the errors into either interlingual or intralingual in nature. A total of
300 paragraphs and essays written by students from across three levels
(level 2, Level 3 and Level 4) will be examined. Implications for classroom
teaching and research will be discussed.
Introduction
Did you want visit Salalah. Did you went see a good Place
in Oman. Lend me afew menet of your time I tell You more
Information about the best Place in the Summer. Spiclily wather
Scareny and festival. this is three reason to make Salalah a good
place. (sic)
-
As students move from one level to the next in education, they are
expected to manifest a general improvement of their skills. In the EFL
context, as students move from school to college, they are also increasingly
expected to be able to express themselves and what they know about
different subjects through the four macro skills, namely: listening, speaking,
reading and writing. Of the four, writing seems the most complex as
students
will
have
to
struggle
to
learn
the
language
and
write
errors like slips of the tongue or the shift from formal to informal
grammatical patterns in informal contexts. These are usually committed by
native English speakers who think in their own language. Thus, these
unsystematic performance errors can be self-corrected and are therefore
more appropriately referred to as mistakes. On the other hand, errors are
systematic violations of the linguistic patterns of the language to which nonnative speakers (in this case, the Omani students) have been exposed to (in
this case, English). These errors are likely to occur repeatedly and not
recognized by the learner. Hence, only the teacher can locate them, the
learner cant (Gass and Selinker, 1994). It is in this context that the word
error is used in this study.
In the Omani EFL context, students are exposed to the language as
early as when they begin school. Belonging to the umbrella term Arab
learners on the basis of their first language, these students share many of
the weaknesses and language problems with other Arab students from other
Arab states. Although these problems are not concentrated on just a single
macro skill, research into Arab EFL learners reveal that many of these
problems occur in students writing outputs. Jdetawy (2011) found out that
Arab
EFL
learners
specifically
commit
errors
in
syntax,
semantics,
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Error Analysis
It is inevitable that learners make errors. Stark (2001) views errors as
normal and inevitable features of language and as such, are essential
conditions of learning. Olasihende (2002) likewise believes that errors are
unavoidable and a necessary part of the learning curve. As students make
errors, Corder (1975) suggests that teachers do a periodic and detailed error
analysis to identify systematic errors that should be targeted for corrective
feedback.
Error Analysis has been defined in many ways. As it is concerned with
the analysis of errors committed by L2 learners, it is carried out by
comparing the learners acquired norms with the target language norms and
explaining the errors (James, 1988). It was also James, in 2001 (p.62) who
referred to error analysis as the study of linguistic ignorance, the
investigation of what people do not know and how they attempt to cope with
their ignorance. For Crystal (1999), EA in language teaching is the study of
unacceptable forms produced by someone learning a language, especially a
foreign language. These unacceptable forms are what Brown (2012) called
the deviations of the rules of the second language. These deviations are
observed, analyzed and classified to reveal the systems operated by the
learner.
For Corder (1974) error analysis simply focuses on the errors learners
make. It consists of a comparison between the errors made in the Target
Language (TL) and the TL itself. It has two objects: theoretical and applied.
The theoretical object elucidates what and how a learner learns when he
studies a second language while the applied object serves to enable the
learner to learn more efficiently by exploiting our knowledge of his dialect for
pedagogical purposes. Sercombe (2000) identified three purposes of error
analysis: (1) to find out the level of language proficiency the learner has
reached; (2) to obtain information about common difficulties in language
learning; and (3) to find out how people learn a language. Additionally,
Vahdatinejad (2008) considers error analysis as an important component of
language teaching because it can be used to determine what a learner still
needs to be taught as it provides the necessary information about what is
lacking
in
the
Consequently,
learners
error
competence
analysis
provides
and
thus
valuable
needs
remediation.
information
to
three
native language transfer or the use of a rule or pattern from the native
language; (2) developmental error which is an intralingual error thats
made by all learners of a given language regardless of their native language;
(3) induced errors, caused by the way a teacher or textbook presented or
explained a given form; and, (5) communication strategies which is used by
the learner to get meaning across even though he/she knows the form used
is not correct.
Richards (1971) on the other hand, differentiates three sources of
error: (1) interference error which results from mother tongue interference,
(2) intralingual error which reflects the incorrect generalization of the rules
within the target language; and, (3) developmental error which occurs when
the learners hypothesize about the target language based on their limited
knowledge. However, Schacheter and Celce-Murcia (1977) found intralingual
and developmental errors to be closely related and thus proposed that both
errors be considered to be in the same category intralingual and
developmental errors which then refer to the errors that occur when a
learner has not really acquired a significant knowledge of the target
language.
In a paper entitled The Study of Learner English, Richards and
Simpson (1974) identified seven sources of errors:
Successions
of
approximate
systems
which
recognize
the
METHODOLOGY
1. Data Collection
Researchers have worked out a procedure for gathering the needed
data for EA. Following Corder (1975) and Ellis (1995) the present study will
start with selection of a corpus of language, identification of errors,
classification and explanation.
To gather the corpus of the language, the researchers will analyze
randomly selected LEE (Level Exit Exam) writing papers of 10 students each
from three different levels at the Al-Musanna College of Technology, Oman:
Level 2 (Elementary), Level 3 (Pre-Intermediate) and Level 4 (Advanced).
The researchers will then proceed to the identification and classification of
errors using a modified model from AbiSamra (2003) and Kaweera (2013).
2. Error Identification and Classification
Errors will be classified as:
a. morphological errors (errors in singular/plural morphemes, tenses,
prepositions, articles, adjectives, irregular verbs, possessives)
b. lexical errors (errors in word choice)
References:
Corder, S.P. (1981) Error Analysis and Interlanguage. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Corder, S.P. (1973) Introducing Applied Linguistics. London: Penguin
Selinker, L. (974) Interlanguage. In Richards, J. (ed) Error Analysis.
London: Longman, p. 31-54.
Corder, S.P. (1993) Introducing Applied Linguistics. London: Penguin.
Brown,
R.
(1973)
First
Language.
Cambridge,
MA:
Harvard
University Press.
Corder, S.P (1967) The Significance of Learners Errors. International
Review of Applied Linguistics 5:161- 70 [reprinted along with other
key papers by Corder, in Corder (1981)]
Lado, R. (1964) Linguistics Across Cultures. Ann Arbor, MI: University
of Michigan Press.
Dulay, H., Burt, M. and Krashen, S. (1982). Language Two. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Corder,
S.P.
(1971)
Idiosyncratic
Dialects
and
Error
Analysis.
:Longman.
English as a Global Language. Edinburgh: