COURSE CODE: BIL 3013 COURSE TITLE : ENGLISH GRAMMARSEMESTER : SEMESTER 1 2012/2013TASK TITLE : TASK 2 : ERROR ANALYSIS

PREPARED BYNAMEMATRICULATION NUMBERGROUPTELEPHONE NUMBER

MOHD HALIM SHAH BIN MISWAND20102046784UPSI02(A121PJJ)013-2498474

LECTURERS NAME : DR NAPISAH BINTI KEPOL

HAND IN DATE : 30 NOVEMBER 2012

INTRODUCTIONGrammar is said to be the heart of any language. Learning the correct grammar is very important in order to produce proper sentence structures. The rules of these structures are known as grammar. They are the buildings blocks which a language learner must know how to use when he or she constructs sentences in order to communicate effectively and be understood. Individuals with writing problems may have difficulties in one or more aspects of writing skill such as proper use of grammar, conventions, punctuation, capitalization, spelling, and some of the basic and initiating aspects of writing. Very often, students use the wrong form of verb in a sentence which does not agree with the subject as well as the tense.

This error analysis is done with my Year 6 (Level 2) pupils. They are from medium and low proficiency levels. Less than 25% pupils attended tuition classes because of the unavailability of such services or their parents cannot afford to send them to one. A combination of factors such as poverty, unavailability of tuition services / centers, social environment, interest and attitude contributes to the pupils inability to acquire the target language, which is English.

1. Choose one part of speecha. The part of speech that I choose is verb.

2. Examine the errors that your pupils make when using the part of speech in their written work. Group the errors into different types.

a. When I read my pupils written work, I find out that the one of the highest errors when using the part of speech is concerning the verb. They are not very sure and not confident with the usage of the verb. These pupils are confused when using certain types of verbs which is not likely the same with their mother tongue, Bahasa Melayu / Bahasa Malaysia. For instant, in Bahasa Malaysia, they dont have auxiliary verbs (or helping verbs), regular and irregular verbs and changes in verb forms when the tense is different. Based on these observation, I will group the pupils errors as follow: Error groups:i. Auxiliary verbs a. wrongly used auxiliary verbs (wrong type, wrong place)b. over-used of auxiliary verbs (putting them unnecessarily)c. omission of auxiliary verbs (leaving out auxiliary verbs)

ii. Regular and irregular verbs a. Pupils are confused with the changes in verb forms (spelling) between regular and irregular verbs

iii. Omission of the main verba. Pupils leave out the main verb in their sentences

iv. Verb after infinitive toa. Wrong use of verb forms after infinitive to

3. Describe each type of error thoroughly. Provide examples of the errors as used by the pupils.

i. Auxiliary Verbs.a. Wrongly used auxiliary verbs (wrong type, wrong place)

Description / explanation of error: The pupils use the wrong type of auxiliary verb. They are not sure which is the correct auxiliary form to use when the sentence is in the Present Tense or the Past Tense. Pupils simply write / put down an auxiliary verb which is in the past tense, into a sentence which is in the present tense. The pupil should have written is in place of was since the sentences are in the Present Tense. Another possible explanation is the Subject-Verb Agreement rule which says that the verb must always agree with the subject. This particular pupil may have followed the rule partly since he managed to use was which agrees with the subject Encik Jasin and the pronoun He. However, he may overlooked the tense of the sentence, which is in the Present Tense. So, he should have written is in place of was.There are two examples for this group of error:Example 1: Encik Jasin was a kind manExample 2: He was an owner of a foodstuff in his village.These are the correct forms of the verbs:Example 1: Encik Jasin is a kind man. (The auxiliary verb is replaces auxiliary verb was)

Example 2: He is the owner of a food store in his village.(The auxiliary verb is replaces auxiliary verb was, an owner change to the owner, foodstuff to food store)

Supporting resource:Richard Hughes & Carmel Heah in Common Errors in English: Grammar Exercises for Malaysians, p.133, explain that you cannot begin to write in English until you have decided which group of tenses you wish to use. There are two basic groups; present and past.Supporting this explanation, Magdalene Chew & Surinder Kaur (2003), in their book, The New Students Companion: for Malaysian Students, pp.136-137 stated that the verb must always agree with the subject.

b. Over-used of auxiliary verbs (putting / placing them unnecessarily)Description / explanation of error:

The pupil uses more auxiliary than is needed in a sentence. He is not supposed to write two auxiliary verbs side by side in a sentence. One reasonable explanation for this over-used of auxiliary is perhaps due to the structure in the Bahasa Malaysia sentence; telah melihat is written as had saw. The pupil should have just leave out the auxiliary verb had and just write , One day three boys saw a young boy grabbed a tin of biscuits. This error is possibly based upon the interference of the pupils mother tongue.

Another possible explanation for this error is perhaps due to misunderstanding between the Past Tense and Past Perfect Tense. This is possible because both have almost similar characteristics. For example, both mean something had been done in the past. In Past Perfect, the basic sentence structure is,

Subject + verb to have + participle + objectSo, this pupil may get confused and has written,Three boys + had + saw (supposed to be seen) + a young boy ...

Thus, he may not know what to choose and simply write the above sentence.

There is one example for this group of error:Example 1: One day, three boys had saw a young boy grabbed a tin of biscuits.The correct form is , One day, three boys saw a young boy grabbed a tin of biscuits.

Supporting Resource:Betty Schrampfer Azar (2003) in Fundamentals of English Grammar, p.164, stated that the simple past expresses an activity that occurred at a specific time (or times) in the past. Betty further added that, the present perfect expresses an activity that occurred at an unspecified time (or times) in the past.

c. Omission of auxiliary verbs (leaving out auxiliary verbs)Example of error: Encik Jasin mad at him.The correct version: Encik Jasin was mad at him.

Description / explanation of error:

The most possible explanation for the pupils error is quite similar to (i) b, which is possibly caused by interference of the pupils mother tongue. The pupil might be influenced by the Bahasa Malaysia sentence structure which may look like this,

Encik Jasin marah padanya, which cause the pupil to directly translate it into Encik Jasin mad at him, instead of writing Encik Jasin was mad at him.

The auxiliary verb was should be used since the sentence is in the Past Tense.

The second type of error that the pupil has done is, ii. Regular and irregular verbsa. Pupils are confused with the changes in verb forms (spelling) between regular and irregular verbsExample of error:Example 1: They maked a long line in front of the counter.Example 2: They taked him to met Encik Jasin.

Description / explanation of error:The pupil is possibly confused of the changes in spelling or the changes in the verb form of irregular verb such as make and take.She may not realize that the sentences should be written as,

Example 1: They made a long line in front of the counter.Example 2: They took him to meet Encik Jasin.

Supporting resource: According to E.W. Roberts & Martins in A Practical Approach to English Grammar and Composition for High Schools (2001), p.115, many other Verbs form their Past Tense by simply changing their inside vowel or by having several letters added on to the Present Tense. In some cases only vowel is changed, while in other case several letters have to be added on. We call such Verbs the irregular Verbs because they do not take ed or d to form their Past Tense.

Another reference material supporting this explanation is English Grammar: A Malaysian Student Guide by Peggy Chan (2012), pp 21-24, which explains explain that Irregular Verbs may include two of the three forms are identical. A brief example showing that two of the three forms of the Irregular Verbs mentioned by Peggy Chan is shown below,BaseSimple Past TensePast Participle

BecomeBecameBecame

KeepKeptKept

MakeMadeMade

TakeTooktook

WinWonWon

TellToldTold

ThinkThoughtthought

The third type or group of error is,iii. Omission of the main verbExample 1: He pity because the young boy was jobless.The correct sentence is,He felt pity because the young boy was jobless.Description / explanation of error:The pupil once again is influenced by his mother tongue, Bahasa Malaysia which possibly says, Dia kasihan sebab budak lelaki itu tiada pekerjaan and directly translate it into He pity because the young boy was jobless. Another possible explanation is that the pupil may not know or simply has forgotten the simple basic rule of an English sentence which says that every sentence must have a verb /main verb. According to this simple basic structure of an English sentence,

Subject + Object + Object(S) + (V) + (O)

Supporting resource: Richard Hughes & Carmel Heah in Commmon Errors in English: Grammar Exercises for Malaysians,p.181, explain that every English sentence has at least two parts: a subject and a verb. The subject, placed at or near the beginning of the sentence, tells us what the sentence is about; it always consists of a noun, or some words which can function as a noun. They further add, but every English sentence follows the same basic pattern. Hence, in this example, the pupil has definitely missed out the most basic rule in an English sentence by leaving out the verb / main verb of the sentence.Peggy Chan (2012) in English Grammar: A Malaysian Student Guide pp-126-127, also supports this by saying that a basic sentence pattern consists of the subject and the predicate. The subject is the doer of the action while the predicate refers to the words that tell us something about the subject and always has a verb.

The fourth and final type of error made by the pupil is,iv. Verb after infinitive toa. Wrong use of verb forms after infinitive to

Description / Explanation of error:

Possibly, the pupil has forgotten the rule which says that in certain parts of sentences , the main verb written after the infinitive to should be in the base form (original form). Another explanation is perhaps due to the verb took which is in the Past Tense. He is influenced by this and simply write meet as met, thinking that it is in the Past Tense.Example of error:

They took him to met Encik Jasin.

The sentence should be written as,They took him to meet Encik Jasin. Supporting resource:Marian Tan (1989) in Basic Grammar 3, p.66, explains that infinitive is the root word or base of a verb. We can make tenses from it. We can use an infinitive in many ways. Two common forms of infinitive are:a. With to : to walk, to go, to catch, to thankb. Without to: w\alk, go, catch, thankWe often use an infinitive with to to show the purpose of an action.Examples:a. Salmah went to the market to buy some vegetables. (Correct)b. Salmah went to the market and bought some vegetables. (Correct)c. Salmah went to the market bought some vegetables. (Wrong)

CONCLUSION

A thorough examination of syntactical differences between the Malay language and English has been shown to be one of the major factors in students inability to successfully master the English language; to successfully understand and apply their existing knowledge of English grammatical structure, as reflected in the results of the written work done by the pupils. Various efforts, on both national and individual levels, have been poured into the strategies to improve students ability or command of English language. However this usually focuses on pedagogy or the teaching of the target language. Perhaps it is timely now to suggest that English teachers should be exposed to linguistic knowledge to better equip them in teaching the language. Because as was previously explained, comparative analysis of the two languages ie Bahasa Malaysia dan English Language may be one of the ways in understanding and solving this persistent problem of inadequacy in target language application. In addition, attention should also be given to conducive and comfortable learning environment to make learning English more fun and exciting, which in turn makes learning more meaningful. All these factors beg the attention of all parties involved in the effort or drive to improve students acquisition of the English language.

One of the main constraints of English acquisition among Malaysian students is the differences of syntactical structures between the Malay and English language. Syntax is one of the main areas of linguistics in which sentence structures and patterns are analyzed. Although Malay and English share the same basic structure, that is subject-verb- object (SVO), there are numerous other differences between the two languages such as the usage of copula be, subject-verb agreement, articles, determiner and relative pronouns.

In the English grammatical system, the form of copula be is crucial in a sentence to connect the subject of a sentence with a predicate. There are three forms of copula be for the present tense namely am, is for the third person singular subjects and are for plural ones as well as you. As for the past tense form was is used for singular subjects (I, he, she, it) while were is for plural subjects (you, we, they) including you in the form of second person singular. This phenomenon, which does not exist in the Malay language and the complexity of the grammatical rules leads to the students failure to acquire the target language.

Also, there have been studies that analyze the structural differences between the Malay and English language. The studies revealed that differences between the two language structures interfere in the learning of English grammar, which consequently will hinder the acquisition of English as a second language. A review of the related studies on English language learning in Malaysian schools context indicates that the first language (Bahasa Malaysia) interferes considerably with the second language learning.

Then, it was claimed that using the correct form of English grammar is the main problem with Malaysian students writing. The three recurrent grammatical errors were the misuse of articles, to be verb, and subject-verb agreements. Finally, the researchers concluded that the majority of the grammatical errors are due to the first language interference which is Malay language or Bahasa Melayu.

SUGGESTIONS

The following suggestions and remedies have been proposed by some experienced teachers and the researchers based on their experience to reduce the problems in conventions, punctuation, and language use.

They are:Writing classes must witness more practice than delivering lecturesThe teacher must explain the use of all the punctuation marksThe teacher must explain the rules of capitalizationThe teacher must engage the learners in memory/vocabulary gamesThe teacher must motivate and encourage the learners before the actual writingThe teacher must provide the language support on every single topicThe teacher must act as a prompter to assist the student at timesStudents should be encouraged to do home assignment as much as possible

Remedial Exercises

A. ConventionsCopy and dictationJumbled words exercise, and peer editing.

B. PunctuationsStorytelling (melody of speech),Editing, andLoud reading with proper punctuation awareness

C. Language useForm and functions exercises,Sequence of tenses exercises, andGap filling/story writing exercises.

Therefore, all ESL teachers are suggested to deeply give attention to their students errors and practice innovated styles to face these complexities in writing classes. Further studies can also measure the effect of teachers feedback and teaching style of writing errors changes.

REFERENCES

Betty Schrampfer Azar (2003) , Understanding and Using English Grammar Second Edition, New Jersey: Prentice Hall Regents.

E.W. Roberts & Martins (2000), Practical Approach to English Grammar and Composition for High Schools, Kuala Lumpur, Golden Books Centre Sdn Bhd.

Magdalene Chew, Surinder Kaur (2003), The New Students Companion For Malaysian Students, Cheras: System Publishing House Sdn Bhd.

Marian Tan (1989) Basic Grammar 3, Petaling Jaya, Longman Malaysia Sdn Bhd.

Peggy Chan (2012), English Grammar- A Malaysian Student Guide, Petaling Jaya, Sasbadi Sdn Bhd.

Richard Hughes, Carmel Heah(1989), Common Errors in English Grammar Exercises for Malaysians, Petaling Jaya, Penerbit Fajar Bakti Sdn Bhd.

APPENDICESStudents written work based on Question 3, Section C of the UPSR English Language format. Student AEncik Jasin was a kind man. He had a business. He was an owner of a foodstuff in his village. Every day, his villagers, young or old went to his shop to buy for some food. They maked a long line in front of the counter. Some of his customers talked each other happily. He talked to his customers politely and smiled. His customers were very satisfied with the service quality of his job that he gave to them.One day, three boys had saw a young boy grabbed a tin of biscuits from Encik Jasins shop. They chased after him. The young boy felt worried and he ran more faster than them but suddenly, he knocked on a stone and fell on the ground. He was lucky because he was not injured. They taked him to met Encik Jasin.Encik Jasin mad of him. The young boy told that he not had enough money to buy for it. Encik Jasin pity of him. He gave the boy advice and also took the boy to work with him. The boy was very grateful and promised not to do it again. The three boys got some present from Encik Jasin for their help and them thanked him.

Students BEncik Jasin was the owner of a foodstuff shop. He did his work with his household. They cooperate together. Last Sunday evening, young boy went to Encik Jasins shop. He was so hungry. That time, Encik Jasin was talking to his customer.Suddenly, Encik Jasins assistant saw the grabbed a container of biscuits. He ran away with the container. Encik Jasins assistant chased the young boy.After Encik Jasin knew that the young boy stole his biscuits, he pity because the young boy was jobless. The young boy was grateful.15