G.K. Verosha is presently working as an Assistant Lecturer at the National Institute of Education (NIE), Sri Lanka. Her duties at NIE include contributing to the curriculum and material development process of English as a Second language for the general education in Sri Lanka and contributing to the national level teacher training programmes  She has obtained her B. A and master's degree from the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka and PGDE (TESL) from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka.

 

Abstract

Making errors is a device learners use in order to learn (Corder,1967). So, investigating learner errors and reasons for making those errors is significant in implementing a successful teaching learning process. Further, data gathered through research related to learner errors are used to identify the strategies learners use to acquire a language and sources of learner errors which are important in suggesting remedial measures.

Few researches have been conducted to investigate reasons for the errors made by the school level second language learners in Sri Lankan context. Therefore, this study was conducted with the purpose of identifying the reasons for the grammatical errors made by junior secondary level students in English writing.

The sample subjected to the research was consisted of 60 students from junior secondary grades in an urban school in Western province, Sri Lanka. Students’ writing books and term test answer scripts were examined to identify the errors made by the students. Class record books were examined and a questionnaire was distributed among students of the sample to collect data with the purpose of identifying the background of the students which is supportive in investigating reasons for the errors. Three English teachers who handle the junior secondary classes were interviewed to gather views related to the issue and to get their suggestions for remedial measures.

Analyzing the data gathered, several reasons were identified for the errors made by the students. Among the reasons identified, influence of the mother tongue, lack of knowledge on grammar rules, absence of a language rich environment to acquire the language and use what they learn in the classroom can be considered as the main reasons. Based on the researcher’s observations, suggestions of the teachers and information gathered from the literature, remedial measures are suggested to minimize the problem.

 

Introduction

Existing English language syllabi for junior secondary grades in the general education system in Sri Lanka have been designed focusing on six skills of listening, reading, speaking, writing, grammar and vocabulary. Improving writing skills is essential for students because, only writing and reading skills are assessed in national level examinations in Sri Lanka. Further, to be a competent language user, it is important to master the ability to write grammatically correct sentences to convey written messages clearly and effectively.

In order to help students to improve their writing skills, it is essential to investigate the reasons for making grammatical errors. So, in this study reasons for the grammatical errors made by the students of junior secondary grades in their writing have been investigated and remedial measures have been suggested.

 

Literature review

According to Corder (1967), an error is a deviation in learner language which results from lack of knowledge of the correct rule.

As Corder (1967) says further,

“A learner's errors, then, provide evidence of the system of the language that he is using (i. e. has learned) at a particular point in the course (and it must be repeated that he is using some system, although it is not yet the right system). They are significant in three different ways. First to the teacher, in that they tell him, if he undertakes a systematic analysis, how far towards the goal the learner has progressed and, consequently, what remains for him to learn. Second, they provide to the researcher evidence of how language is learned or acquired, what strategies or procedures the learner is employing in his discovery of the language. Thirdly (and in a sense this is their most important aspect) they are indispensable to the learner himself, because we can regard the making of errors as a device the learner uses in order to learn. It is a way the learner has of testing his hypotheses about the nature of the language he is learning. The making of errors then is a strategy employed both by children acquiring their mother tongue and by those learning a second language” (Corder ,1967, p. 167).

Jack Richards presents three sources of errors (Richard, 1970)

1. Interlanguage errors - errors caused by the interference of the learner's mother tongue.
2. Intraligual errors - reflect the general characteristics of rule learning such as faulty generalization, incomplete application of rules, and failure to learn conditions under which rules apply.
3. Developmental errors - illustrate the learner attempting to build up hypotheses about the English language from his limited experience of it in the classroom or textbook.

“Wilkins (1972) observes: When learning a foreign language an individual already knows his mother tongue, and it is this which he attempts to transfer. The transfer may prove to be justified because the structure of the two languages is similar-in that case we get ‘positive transfer’ or ‘facilitation’- or may prove unjustified because the structure of the two languages are different- in that case, we get ‘negative transfer’- or ‘interference’.” (Source of errors in language learning research English language essay, 2018)

According to Jack Richards, errors can be classified as follows.

1. Overgeneralization – Jakobovits defines generalization or transfer as the use of previously available strategies in new situations.
2. Ignorance of rule restrictions – This is closely related to the generalization of known structures. That is applications of known structures to the contexts where they do not apply.

This is again a type of generalization or transfer because, here the learner uses a previously applied rule in a new situation which is not appropriate.

3. Incomplete application of rules – Occurrence of structures whose deviancy represents the degree of development of the rules required to produce acceptable utterances.
4. False concepts hypothesized – This is resulted by the faulty comprehension/learning of rules of the target language. 

According to Rod Ellis, in 1982, Dulay, Burt and Krashen proposed a surface strategy taxonomy as an alternative to a linguistic classification of errors highlighting the ways surface structures are altered.  The following chart shows how the errors are categorized in a surface strategy taxonomy.

Category	Description	Example
Omissions	The absence of an item that must appear in a well-formed utterance.	She sleeping.
Additions	The presence of an item that must not appear in a well-formed utterance	We didn’t went there.
Misinformations	The use of the wrong form of the morpheme or structure.	The dog ated the chicken.
Misorderings	The incorrect placement of a morpheme or group of morphemes in an utterance.	What daddy is doing?

Table 2.1 – Classification of Errors in a surface strategy taxonomy.

As this taxonomy does not present a cognitive process, less recognition was received from the scholars.

 

Research Methodology

The sample consisted of 60 students selected from junior secondary grades of Sapugaskanda Maha Vidyalaya, Makola, which is an Urban school in the Western province in Sri Lanka. The sample was aged between 11-13 years. Male and female students from 6,7,8 grades were taken into the sample.  Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used in the process of collecting data. As it was pre-decided to investigate the reasons for the grammatical errors made by the students of the sample, writing books and the term test answer scripts were examined as the first step. Then a questionnaire was distributed among the students to identify the background of the students. Further classroom observations were done to observe the teaching learning process conducted and to observe the level of students’ participation in the lessons conducted. Three experienced English language teachers were interviewed with the purpose of collecting teachers’ views on the problem, to understand the problems they encounter in the teaching learning process and to get their suggestions for remedial measures.

Gathered data was analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively.

 

4.Results and Findings                                                                                                                   

Data collected from writing books and term test answer scripts

Examining the writing books and the term test answer scripts of the students, the following errors were identified. Identified errors have been classified considering the error classification presented by Jack Richards.

Interlanguage errors (Interference of native language)

Intralingual and developmental errors

I like animal is a cat. / I can English/ She can swimming/ English want to our studies/ I very like English/ I like subject is English/ I English study well/ We could running / The trip I like to go is Kandy. / The next day going to the temple. /I love to my country/ I helped to my mother/I went to a trip last month/./ I come to school in bus./ I like to dogs./ I inform to police/ We cricket play./ We shramadana organized./ All the books we collected and went home./ Mangoes he likes very much./ I not eat rice/ Today no newspaper/ She wants eating cake/Time is 10 now/My age 12 now/He coming from Kandy/You like to sing?/He also same/My teacher also good/Pet I like is cat

Overgeneralization: My name is a Tharindu/ My school name is a Gamini Vidyalaya/ The Saman is a good boy/ Come on tomorrow/He came on yesterday/He will come on today. /She can sings/ What you are doing? /I comed home. /I goed town/I dranked water/My friend can sings/We are hope/He is writes/They are play/He was played.   Ignorance of rule restrictions: He is student. / Many childs played/ There are many womens/ Many peoples came /Every students in the class were good. / Every students played/ There was so many students/She don’t help me/ My school name is Vidya Vidyalaya./ My father name is Roshitha   False concepts hypnotized: /Mother is helps me/ The dog was ate buns/ we could ran. /My great person’s my father. /Some students was came yesterday. / We didn’t can’t do it. / I don’t never smoke/ Many people didn't smoked. / The teacher did not gave us marks   Incomplete application of rules: Mother helping me. / Mother help me/Mother is help me.

Table 4.1 – Classification of Errors

 

Data collected from the questionnaire

Data collected from the questionnaire distributed among the students can be analyzed as follows.

According to the data collected from the questionnaire distributed among the students of the sample, it is observed that only 24% of the sample had stated that their favourite subject is English. Out of the reasons they had given for English not being their favourite subject, the most common reason is “English is difficult”. But 81% of the students stated that they like to learn English if it is not a difficult subject. Further, the answers they had given to the questions on the importance of learning English prove the fact that they had already understood the importance of learning English. So, it is obvious that although the majority of the students like to learn English, there is a firm idea established in their mind that English is a difficult subject and they won’t be able to master the language however much they attempted, the very reason which demotivates them to learn English. The absence of someone to get help from is another issue they face. Except 10% of the sample, all the other students go for extra classes to learn English. Yet they consider English as a difficult subject. That means they do not get satisfactory guidance and assistance from their extra classes also.

Only 2% of the students read English novels and newspapers.7% and 10% of the students watch English films and listen to English songs respectively. 2% of the students watch English news telecast. The above data prove the fact that most of the students do not use the extra resources available around them to learn English. Further 86% of the sample do not get assistance from their household to improve their English knowledge except from school and tuition classes. 2% of the students stated that they get the opportunity to speak in English with the people in their household and the relatives.

Data gathered from the questionnaire was analyzed with the purpose of identifying the background of the issue which was supportive to determine the reasons for the problem.  Since the researcher had identified the importance of collecting the views of the teachers related to the issue,3 English teachers who handle English language for junior secondary classes were interviewed. The ideas presented from the teachers’ point of view regarding the issue were helpful in identifying reasons for the issue and suggesting remedial measures.

 

Reasons identified for the errors made by the learners

Examining the errors identified and the data collected from the questionnaire, interviews and classroom observations, the following reasons were identified. Interference of the mother language can be considered as one of the main reasons for the errors made. Students in the sample speak in Sinhala at home. Therefore, they think in Sinhala and translate the very idea into English once they want to express their ideas in English which results in errors. As an example, in Sinhala language, the same sentence structure is used to express ideas related to simple present tense and present continuous tense in spoken form. / mɑmə bɑt kɑnəvɑ / is for both I eat rice and I am eating rice. This similarity influences them to make errors when they write simple present and present continuous sentences.

The word order of simple English sentences is Subject, Verb and Object (SVO) and the word order of Sinhala simple sentences is Subject, Object and Verb (SOV). When the students think in Sinhala and translate the idea into English, this difference in word order results in errors. As an example in Sinhala / mɑmə pädɑm kɑrənəvɑ / for I study. But students write “I study do”.

Incorrect sentence structures and grammar rules resulted by overgeneralization, ignorance of rule restrictions, false concepts hypnotized and incomplete application are the other reasons for making errors. When the students have less knowledge on the sentence structures taught, they try to use what they already know in every situation when they want to express their ideas which results in errors.

Absence of usage is the other reason. Students in the sample are from Sinhala speaking families. Although they have opportunities to learn the language at the school and in extra classes, because of the absence of a language rich environment, they have no opportunities to use the language they learn and also acquire the language in real life situations apart from formal classroom. Although they are taught different sentence structures in the formal classroom, they get less opportunities to understand the usage. Therefore, they have no clear understanding of the particular sentence structure that should be used relevant to each tense and the idea that should be expressed. As an example, they have been taught that simple present tense is used for habitual actions. They know what habitual actions are and the sentence structure related to simple present tense. But they have no opportunity to use the learned sentence structure to talk about habitual actions. The ultimate result is they make errors when they are asked to express their ideas on habitual actions.

According to the data gathered from the questionnaire, it is obvious that they do not use the reachable methods possible like reading newspapers, books, listening to music, watching films and news telecast to acquire the language. Since the students in the sample have less exposure to a language rich environment in their household, the most effective method they can use to improve their language ability is using the above mentioned resources.

By the end of grade eight, they are taught to construct sentences using ‘be’ verbs, few modal verbs, simple present/past/future tenses, present/past continuous tenses, present/past perfect tenses and present/past passive voice. Students have got confused with different sentence structures that have been taught and the confusion has become worse as they have no opportunities to use the learned sentence structures in real life situations. Sometimes they are taught different sentence structures one after the other without sufficient activities to practice the learnt structure. As a result, they are unable to figure out the differences among taught sentence structures and internalize correct grammar rules.

Teaching grammar in isolation is the other reason. Most of the time teachers teach grammar lessons in isolation. So, the students do not have a clear idea of to which context the learnt grammar lesson should be applied. In some instances, it was observed that the students know the grammar rules but they get failed to use them accurately when they are given an opportunity to express their ideas.

Absence of authentic learning is the other reason. Students do not get the opportunity to acquire English language and apply what they have learnt in real life situations. They get the English knowledge only from what teachers teach in the formal classroom. They have not been given opportunities to learn the language through authentic situations and materials. Most of the time textbook is the only material used by the teachers to teach English in which students are given activities using artificially created situations. So, the students tend to make errors as they do not know to which context, the learned grammar structure should be applied.

Since English teachers conduct the English lessons in Sinhala, students do not get the opportunity to hear the target language at least during the teacher speaking time in the classroom. Teachers also cannot help at this situation because if they conduct the lesson only in English, the majority cannot understand the lesson as the classrooms are heterogenic.

Since the students’ social environment is not supportive to acquire or learn English, students do not get assistance to learn, acquire or use English from the household environment. Because of that the only opportunity they have to learn English is in school or extra classes once again which is not effective for every student because most of the classes are heterogenic and do not address individual learning needs of the students.

 

Analysis of the data collected from the discussions with the teachers

Three English teachers were interviewed with the purpose of collecting data related to the issues they face in the teaching learning process and to get their suggestions for remedial measures to minimize the issues.

During the discussions, the teachers come up with the idea that most of the students do not actively respond to textbook activities as the activities are too challenging for their level. The main reason for this issue is the heterogeneity of the classrooms and the absence of activities in the text book catering to the needs of the low and average level of the students. So the best solution for this issue is altering the activities in the textbook by the teachers to make the activities appropriate to the level of the students. For this teachers need time, freedom guidance and assistance. So, the need for a mechanism to guide the teachers to adapt the activities depending on the level of the students is highlighted. Further, the teachers do not have sufficient time left to alter the activities catering to the needs of the students as they are burdened with clerical work required by the authorities.

The teachers highlighted the importance of having multi-level groups within one classroom as a method of answering the heterogeneity of the classroom. But in practicality, it is difficult to conduct lessons to address the needs of all the students in one classroom because of different issues like time and space constraints. As the average number of students in the classrooms subjected to the research is 38, it is difficult for the teachers to pay attention to the needs of each and every student. Since there is less space inside classrooms, it is difficult to have groups considering the different levels of the students and even difficult to control the classroom when more interactive activities like games are conducted as the students take things lightly and do not pay attention to learn what is taught. So, as a result, complaints come from the adjoining classrooms for being noisy. The other reason is time constraints. 40 minutes period per day is not enough to handle a multi-level classroom successfully.

Further, giving more freedom to the teacher to design new activities and alter the textbook lessons depending on the necessity and the level of the students is important. But the teachers come up with the idea that the authorities expect the teachers to cover all the lessons prescribed for the term which is not practical and effective because of the heterogeneity of the classrooms. So, the teachers are compelled to cover the syllabus within the given period of time to meet the targets given by the authorities. In that case, teachers do not get the opportunity to conduct lessons catering to the different needs of the students as they need to follow work on covering the syllabus which has ultimately resulted to make English education a failure. So, this matter requires an immediate solution because, all the money and time spent on English education will be in vain if the students are not given assistance to reach the expected level addressing their needs.

 

Conclusion

Based on the data analyzed, it can be concluded the fact that the students tend to make errors because of the interference of their mother tongue, inadequate knowledge of grammar rules, absence of a language rich environment and a person to get support from, not using easily reachable resources available to learn English, fewer opportunities to practice or use what they have learnt in the classroom and less opportunity to use language in real life situations.

Since the students are from Sinhala speaking families, it is not practical to expect a language rich environment in their households. So, teachers can play a significant role in creating a language rich environment in the English language classroom. As the best solution, the teacher can use the target language as much as possible in the teaching learning process being a role model and encourage the students to respond to the teacher and express their ideas using the target language.

Further, teachers can use authentic materials, situations in the teaching learning process. The advantages of using authentic learning techniques and bringing examples from real life situations do not limit to creating a language rich environment, it makes the learning process more engaging and motivates the students to use what they have learnt. Further, the teachers can encourage and guide the students to use easily approachable materials like reading newspapers listening to news, listing to music, watching English dramas and movies, reading simple novels, and writing to a pen pal. Teachers can initiate this process by creating interesting activities using above mentioned resources.

Further, giving more freedom to the teacher to alter the textbook lessons depending on the necessity and the level of the students is important. In this approach, teachers should be given opportunities to adapt the textbook activities to answer the needs of the students rather than forcing them to cover all the activities in the textbook prescribed for the term. Further, they should be given enough time to plan the lessons to address the needs of the students making them free from clerical work. Teachers themselves can prepare a plan to address the needs of the different levels of students. This is not a task that can be performed by an individual teacher. This should be a collective effort of all the English teachers in the school. So that they can share what they have created. The relevant authorities and teacher trainers can play a supportive role in organizing training programmes to support the teachers to perform the above mentioned task successfully.

Further, the teachers can encourage the learners to use the target language as much as possible in the school by organizing co-curricular activities which can be considered as one of the effective solutions. Teachers can organize English camps, English days, English day competitions, English drama festivals and English concerts with the contribution of all the students of different levels. This gives opportunities and motivates students to use the target language.

 

Reference

• Abeywickrama, R. (2010). An Analysis of Errors in English Writing of Sinhala Speaking Undergraduates. Sabaragamuwa University journal, 9(1), 97-114. http://repo.lib.sab.ac.lk:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/780.
• Arachchi, N.W. (2016). A Linguistic Study to Identify Writing Errors in English: Based on Year Eleven Students of Uva Province, Sri Lanka. International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR), 5(10), 133-140. https://www.ijsr.net/archive/v5i10/ART20162028.pdf
• Corder, P. (1967). The significance of learner errors. International review of applied linguistics, 5, 161-170. https://www.uky.edu/~tmclay/Corder%201967.pdf
• Ellis, Rod. (n.d.). The study of second language acquisition. https://drive.uqu.edu.sa/_/malehyani/files/Rod-Ellis-The-Study-of-Second-Language-A.pdf
• Richard, J. (1970, March). A Non-Contrastive Approach to Error Analysis. TESOL Convention, San Francisco. https://www.professorjackrichards.com/wp-content/uploads/1971-paper.pdf
• Richard, J. (1973). Error analysis- Perspectives on second language acquisition. https://www.academia.edu/7416946/_EBOOK_Error_Analysis_Perspectives_on_Second_Language_Acquisition_by_Jack_C_Richards_1973_source_BookFi_org
• Source of errors in language learning research English language essay. (November 2018).UKEssays. https://www.ukessays.com/essays/english-language/source-of-errors-in-language-learning-research-english-language-essay.php?vref=1
• World Bank (2011). Transforming School Education in Sri Lanka - From Cut Stones to Polished Jewels. World Bank, Colombo, Sri Lanka. https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/366241468301732117/pdf/660360PUB00PUB0Report0final0version.pdf

 

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