1.

Introduction
English as a language is very complicated and grammar related errors and
mistakes are pretty common among students nowadays. In conjunction to that, I
have chosen a subject. The details of the subject are as stated below.
1. Subject is a year 4, primary school student
2. Subject is a non-native English speaker
The identified subject was told to prepare a written text and a narrated version of
the text for the purpose of analysing and identifying grammar related errors
made by the subject either through writing or through reading.

2. Written text
The subject was assigned to prepare a 100-word essay based on the topic my
Hobby.

My Hobby
Everyone have hobby you know? My hobby is drawing and painting. What
yours?
Hobby is things that you like to do every day. For examples I like to swimming
or I like to play football. It's easy, just a few people like to do nothing.
Everyone like to do something.
For examples, like swimming, you like swimming at the pool on your
backyard. That sound like fun isn't. How about drawing you can do anything
with drawing. You can draw your mom's favourite food or something else
If you have hobby, you know how fun it be. Hobby is great for everybody.

3. Errors identified in written text

Source

Error type

hobby (Line 1)

Determiner error

swimming (Line 4)

To-infinitive error

pool on (Line 7)

Preposition error

Based on the essay written by the subject, there is a clear error in terms of
the use of a determiner before a noun phrase. Subject forgot to add an article
before the noun phrase hobby . Determiners are words which comes at
the beginning of a noun phrase. It is to determine whether the noun phrase is
general or not. Besides that, single and countable noun require a determiner in
order for it to make sense. For example, in this case, the subject wrote Everyone
have hobby instead of Everyone have a hobby. The article a functions
as a determiner in this sentence. It tells the reader that the subject of this
sentence everyone, has only one hobby as the article a means that the noun
phrase that follows is a singular noun (Grammarly, 2013).
Besides that, the subject also shows a clear issue in relation to the use of
to-infinitive clauses. The subject wrote, I like to swimming instead of I like
to swim . To-infinitives are one of the two types of infinitives in which they are
indistinguishable from their base form. It is basically verbs that comes after the
preposition to. According to the general English rules, all verbs that come after
the to preposition must be in their base form, which in this case, the verb
swim.
Lastly, subject fails to use the correct preposition in describing object
location. Subject wrote the pool on your backyard , instead of the pool
in your backyard . The preposition in is used to indicate a space in which
has a limitation or is contained to a boundary towards some degree. The
preposition on on the other hand is used to denote a space or a position just
outside of an area
Mistakes such as these can be improved by exposure towards more
literary materials. Subject can improve on ones grammar issues by reading more
literary works and applying that in ones writing. Aside from that, one must also
avoid using directly translated words, as this would result in a lot of subject-verb
agreement problems as well as determiners and to-infinitive related errors. One
needs to think in English if he or she is needed to respond to a query in English.

4. Recorded speech
The subject was assigned to read aloud their written essay while being recorded
for evaluation purposes.
4.1

The following is the orthographic transcription of the recorded speech

< Everyone have hobby you know? My hobby is drawing and painting,
what yours?
Hobbies thing that you like to do every day. For example, I like to
swimming or I like to play football. It easy just a few people like to do
nothing. Everyone like- to do s:omething.
For examples like swimming, you like swimming at the pool on yours
backyard. That sound like fun isn't. How about drawing you can: doanything with drawing. You can draw your mom's favourite food or:
something else!
If you- have hobby, you know- (hhh) how fun it be. Hobby is great for
everybody //>

4.2

The following are the phonetics transcription of the text

/vrwn hv hbi ju n? ma hbi z dr nd pent. wt jz?
hbi z z t ju lak tu du vri de. fr gzmplz a lak tu swm
r a lak tu ple ftbl. ts izi, st fju pipl lak tu du n.
vrwn lak tu du sm.
fr gzmplz, lak swm, ju lak swm t pul n j bkjd. t
sand lak fn znt. ha bat dr ju kn du n w dr. ju
kn dr j mmz fevrt fud sm ls
f ju hv hbi, ju n ha fn t bi. hbi z gret fr vrbdi./

5. Errors identified in recorded speech

Source

Error type

favourite (Line 5)

pronunciation error

hobby is great for everybody.

(Line 7)

punctuation error

It easy (Line 7)

Deletion error

Based on the phonetics transcription made on the written text, subject

tends to pronounce words wrongly. As an example, subject failed to pronounce
the word favourite correctly in the recorded speech. Analysed based on the
international phonetic alphabet, subject most likely has pronounced the word
favourite it as /frvrt/ instead of /fevrt/.
Besides that, subject also show punctuation errors while reading the text.
Based on the orthographic transcription made based on the recorded speech,
subject failed to vocalize the right modulation and pitch in order to approach a
full stop. As stated in the orthographic transcription. Subject read these line,
Hobby is great for everybody. as <Hobby is great for everybody>
instead of <Hobby is great for everybody //> which, according to
(Gumperz, 2003) and the international English language rules, is the correct way
to approach a full stop.
Lastly, subject also show problems in word or letter deletion. According to
the written speech prepared by the subject herself earlier, the original sentence
was It's easy, just a few people like to do nothing. In contrast to that, in
the recorded speech and based on the orthographic transcription made on the
speech, subject said < It easy, just a few people like to do nothing >. The
word its is a form of contraption from the original word it is
(Dictionary.com, n.d.). subject eliminated the word is from the contraption,
leaving it behind.
These types of errors can be fixed by study and practice. Pronunciation
problem is usually linked to the influence of the subjects mother tongue but can
be fixed by practice and exposure towards English language. Aside from that,
punctuation and deletion errors normally occurs when the written text also
contains punctuation and deletion error. However, this problem can be fixed by
simply improving on the quality of the writing in which in this case, in terms of
punctuation marks and word choices.

6. References
Dictionary.com. (n.d.). Dictionary.com. Retrieved from Dictionary.com:
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/it-s
Fagan, A. (2003). Steps in Doing Transcriptions. London: LCD Publication.
Grammarly. (2013). Articles. Grammarly Handbook, 1.
Gumperz, J. J. (2003). Language and Interaction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins
Publishing.
Hall, H. C. (2012). A Student Self Editing Guide. Twelve Common Erorrs, 1-2.