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24TEACHING GRAMMAR IN EFL CONTEXT: THE IMPORTANCE OF ANALYZING THE FREQUENT ERRORS
Gulvisar Sodiq qizi Sadriyeva gulvisarsadriyeva@gmail .com Uzbekistan State World Languages University
Abstract: Error analysis is a significant tool that provides information about how students acquired the presented materials and the points to be remedied by the teacher. The aim of the very paper is to investigate the grammar errors of a particular EFL student both in oral and written language so as to understand the main problems. Analysis of the errors plays an essential role in selecting teaching techniques and materials as well as planning the content for the next step of teaching. As Thornbury (1999) mentioned, majority of language practitioners rely solely on the coursebooks and pre-determined materials in which individual learner differences are almost neglected. Therefore, analyzing student's mistakes before selecting teaching approach and sources can fill this gap. This paper will be helpful for teachers as they can be much more attentive to the students' grammar errors which are made more frequently and they may offer appropriate activities to remedy the situation. A small scale project consisting of three parts were employed to collect relevant data.
Keywords: interlanguage, interference, error analysis, infinitive, gerund, grammar mistakes
I. INTRODUCTION
Being a very controversial area of teaching, grammar has always been in the centre of different discussions. Although it was recommended to discard grammar from language teaching, it has still a key role in this field (Saracone, 2008). The main reason is that grammar is the building block of language together with vocabulary which are closely connected with the use and meaning of language.
Error correction is one of the important tasks in language teaching, including grammar as well. Measuring the level of learning achieved by the students requires the teachers to be aware of the type and nature of the mistakes that students make often. As Truscott pointed out, detecting real existing errors, providing a precise and concise correction consistently are the main steps of error correction that every teacher should take. Varying the type of feedback according to the individual differences of the learner will be much more effective. It is evident that the initial stage should be recognizing the most frequent mistakes which may turn to fossilized errors unless corrected on time. Taking its significance into account, this paper focuses on the way of analyzing grammar mistakes, particularly, the most common ones. Two different tools were
employed to collect relevant information: an oral interview was used to find grammar mistakes in oral language while an essay helped to find those mistakes in written language of the chosen participant. The results of the study showed the frequent mistakes, almost fossilized grammar errors of him.
II. METHODS
The following procedures were taken to collect data for the given study.
2.1. Data collection.
Firstly, background information was collected before moving the language errors of the student.
The observed EFL student, S.M. is a 17-year-old teenager who is 10th grade student of secondary school in Chirchik town. Being a native Uzbek, he is a competent user of Russian which is the common as a second language in Uzbekistan. Mukhammadali has been learning English as a Foreign language for 2 years in order to enter the university which requires an IELTS certificate and be able to access the literatures that are available in English. His current proficiency level is Intermediate. He said that he improved his language through English listening to different songs, radio podcasts and watching films. Therefore, his listening skill is relatively developed than the other ones. According to him, reading long articles or passages are the most tedious part of language learning.
As the main focus of this project is grammar, two different tools were employed to collect necessary and relevant data on the grammatical ability and grammar errors of the learner. Oral interview about the student, his language learning process were taken so as to find out spoken mistakes of him. When it comes to the written mistakes, instead of giving special task, one of his existing written essays was chosen in order to analyze errors in natural setting. If the students know that they are being observed, it will affect their performance (Bucknall, 2012).
2.2. Identification of errors
The main function of the two tools was to identify the most frequent grammar error that learner makes both in spoken and written English. Taking this point into consideration, wide range of questions were given in the interview to observe how he manages to use certain grammar structures and analyze major grammar mistakes in spoken language. After that mistakes and errors were classified. As teacher and researcher, one should have a clear definition of ERROR. We should be able to distinguish between errors and mistakes.
III. RESULTS
While analyzing the spoken mistakes, it was found that the learner correctly used tenses and conditional sentences that are considered as the difficult topics of English grammar. Most EFL learners consider English articles, prepositions and the rules of subject-verb agreement confusing. For example, the following mistakes have been
found in the speech of the learner: "an English classes", at the school", "back to home", "my intentions was", there was some exercises". Although he knows the rules of these grammar points, he has made mistakes in his speech. The main reasons of such errors are overgeneralization of L2 rules and the effect of L1 (Selinker, 1992). In Uzbek language, there are not articles, therefore, the majority of Uzbek learners subconsciously make mistakes in the use of articles although they know the rules. When it comes to the mistakes of prepositions, the vast majority of the errors that he made are fossilized because of overgeneralization of the L2 rules and partially effected by native language of the learner. For instance, in English, we use preposition "to" in order to show direction that is equivalent to Uzbek suffix "ga" and the mistake "back to home" is the consequence of these two reasons. When the frequency of mistakes was analyzed, errors with Infinitive and Gerunds made up large proportion compared to other grammar mistakes. If we pay attention to the following mistakes: "worth to learn" (worth +ing), opportunity of access" (preposition + ing), "advised to learn (advise + ing/advise + obj. + to do), "It was difficult concentrating" (Adj. + to do), "can't help to listen" (can't help + ing), "recommends to read" (recommend + ing/recommend + obj. + to do), we can see that he had problems in applying different rules of both Infinitives and Gerunds. The list of verbs followed by Infinitives or Gerunds or either of them usually pose considerable challenges to the EFL learners. Furthermore, many other rules and exceptions confuse the students especially when they engage in communication where they have less time to think and categorize. In my learner's case, two main causes lead to such many mistakes. Firstly, he mostly worries about his fluency than accuracy while speaking in the target language that causes some grammar mistakes. As Selinker (1992) pointed out, "strategies of communication are used by the learner to resolve communication problems when the interlanguage system seems unequal to the task" (p.749). The next reason is again the effect of native language. In other words, the meaning of both Infinitives and Gerunds are expressed with "Harakat nomi" in Uzbek language: "O 'qishga qiyin" - difficult to read (Infinitive); "o 'rganishga arziydi" - worth learning (Gerund). Uzbek learners usually confuse these two forms because of negative transfer.
The number and the frequency of grammar errors are lower in the learner's written work which is not as spontaneous as oral language and there is relatively more time to think and edit. In spite of the fact, certain mistakes have been found in the written work which are similar to the ones in the spoken language but some of them have not been analyzed in the oral interview. For example, mistake with plural form of the noun, misusing verb to be and bear infinitives. The plural form of the noun "media" is used as "medias" a few times that is common mistake among ESL/EFL learners. The source of the error is overgeneralization of the rule of making plurals through "s" as learners usually forget pluralization of borrowings like 'mediae' which came from Latin word.
Unlike to spoken language, in one case, learner confused present perfect and past simple: "Medias became an integral part of daily life in last decade". In this sentence, learner tried to describe a change happened over time but used Past Simple instead of Present Perfect and definite article "the" was omitted before the word "last". It is a result of incomplete control of grammar ability which means that he knows the rules but cannot apply it appropriately in the context. Similar to the spoken language, the mistakes in Infinitives and Gerunds comprise large proportion of the total grammar mistakes. For instance, the following sentences: "related to overuse " or "possibilities of make" show that learner have not acquired the rule of "preposition + ing" well because he used to infinitive and bare infinitive after the prepositions both in spoken and written language. In another example, "social medias are admitted being", gerund is used after Passive verb where to infinitive should be used. The main problem in the written language is still confusion of the verbs that are followed by Infinitives or Gerunds such as "make people to engage" (make + 0 inf.), "cannot imagine to live" (imagine + ing) and "avoid to become " (avoid + ing).
Relying on the analysis of speaking and writing of the student, I can say that he has relatively more problems with Infinitive and Gerunds some of which have already fossilized than other grammar issues that constitute minor part of the overall mistakes.
IV. DISCUSSION
Relying on the analysis of speaking and writing of the student, I can say that he has relatively more problems with Infinitive and Gerunds some of which have already fossilized than other grammar issues that constitute minor part of the overall mistakes. The main source of the problem is learners' willingness to learn grammar which is a set of unnecessary rules and structures in their mind and show their disliking to grammar classes. This, in turn, complicates teacher's task and demands to motivate students before introducing grammar point. Ellis (1993) stated that learners can never be able to engage in interaction in the target language expressing their thoughts, feelings or emotions precisely and concisely unless they focus on grammar of that language. If learners find grammar tedious or arduous, teacher should create such materials that can attract learners' attention and make the lesson more engaging. There are several ways of making grammar learning much more interesting such as integrating technology, media, video or audio materials into the lesson is one of the effective tools. Nunan (1998) suggested that grammar lesson will not be no longer boring but engaging when authentic audio or video visuals become part of the grammar. For example, Rucynski (2011) experimented teaching grammar with the help of TV series called 'Simpsons' or Bedjou (2006) highly stated that the language can be learnt easily and quickly when its' content is interesting and he recommended radio podcasts to make content much more engaging. While selecting any material to the
lesson, the needs, interests and lacks of the target learners should be taken into account in order to provide effectiveness of the lesson.
The next reason of learners mistakes in the use of Infinitive and Gerunds is the lack of ability to internalize the rules and strategies which is one of the learning difficulties of grammar that highlighted by Ellis (2006). Although learners understand the rules, even they do not face difficulties in grasping the rule, they cannot use them in communication accurately. Most linguists considered that this problem will happen as a result of the chosen pedagogical approaches which emphasize on memorization or rote learning rather than focusing on free production of the language (Ellis 2006). In our modern era, in which communication skills are superior to others, designing practice activities is crucial to encourage learners to produce language freely and use target grammar structure rather than getting them to fulfill lower order activities.
Appropriately selected teaching approaches and techniques are key to the success and effectiveness of the lesson. Having analyzed the nature of target grammar point and learner's frequent errors and their sources, the next important step would be choosing pedagogical approaches some of which has already suggested in the previous section.
V. CONCLUSION
To sum up, there is a strong both practical and theoretical evidence that the role of grammar in language learning and teaching is pivotal which cannot be ignored (Ellis, 2002). If student shows his unwillingness towards the lesson or finds it boring, it is teacher's task to draw student's attention by employing relevant teaching techniques and materials. In this way, error correction may come handy through which the instructor may know the lacks of students and selects materials in accordance with the results of the analysis.
The aim of the presented small-scale study was to find out the main and most frequent errors of the chosen student. To achieve it, two procedures, data collection and error analysis were taken with the help of two tools, an interview for oral production and an essay for written one. The results of the study provided a valuable information about the main problems of the participant in grammatical point of view that can be used in designing lessons for him.
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