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Title
Common errors in the Use of the Simple Past and Past Progressive Tenses in Jordanian Undergraduate EFL Students' writings
Presenter
Khaleel Bader Al-Bataineh
Abstract
This study is an analysis of compositions and structured tests written by Jordanian first-, second-, third- and fourth-year university EFL students. It aims at identifying the kinds of errors they commit in the use of the simple past and past progressive tenses. The committed errors are categorized into three main error categories, namely, selection, addition and omission based on Corder's taxonomy (1981) and their frequency computed and then compared according to the class levels. This is a case study design that employs two data collection methods, namely, a free-writing task and a structured test. Data was elicited from 200 students during the students’ class sessions. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was utilized to test the difference in the categories of errors (Selection, Omission and Addition) according to different class levels. As follow-up tests to the two ways (ANOVA), a Post Hoc test was conducted to examine if there is a significant difference in mean scores between the class levels. The researcher presents and discusses the errors committed by the four groups of subjects in terms of their types and potential sources. The findings revealed that there is a significant difference between different class levels in the error categories. Also, the causes of these errors were varied and many. The major and most obvious causes were the following: the lack of the knowledge of using both tenses, the influence of the mother tongue or the interference from the first language which is Arabic language, the overgeneralization, false concepts hypothesized and incomplete application of rules.
Biographical Data
- Mr. Khaleel Bader Al-Bataineh is pursuing a doctoral degree in Teaching of English as a Second Language (TESL) at National University of Malaysia. He received his B.A. in English Language from Yarmouk University, Jordan. He obtained his Advanced Diploma in Education and M.A. in English Language. His research interests are foreign language acquisition and error analysis. He has presented several papers at both the national and international levels and has several publications in areas related to second language acquisition and learning.
- Dr. Parilah M. Shah is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Education, National University of Malaysia. She obtained her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut, USA. She has presented several papers at both the national and international levels and has several publications in areas related to second language acquisition and learning.
- Dr. Nooreiny Maarof is an associate professor at The Faculty of Education, University Kebangsaan Malaysia. She earned her BA (English) and MA (TESOL) from Northern Illinois University, Dekalb, Illinois and her PhD (Multilingual/Multicultural Education) from The Florida State University, Talahassee, Florida. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in education (TESL) and supervises both masters and doctoral theses/dissertations for the TESL programme at the faculty. She is actively involved in research on education and TESL. She is also a member of advisory boards of TESL programs of public universities in Malaysia. She publishes in both local and international journals in education (TESL/TEFL). Her research interests include TESL, multicultural/multilingual issues in education, culture in language teaching, ESL/EFL literacy and language testing and evaluation
contact asian_efl_journal@yahoo.com
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