Abstract
This corpus-based study examined the usage, mastery and developmental pattern (Norwati, 2004) of English prepositions of place, in and on across three different academic levels namely Form 4, Form 5 and College students. The Malaysian Corpus of Students Argumentative Writing (MCSAW) was used as the source of data in analyzing the use of prepositions of place, in and on in the students’ argumentative essays. In achieving this, the concordance output was utilized to determine the frequency and types of errors made by students. This paper also presents other common errors in relation to the usage of these two prepositions. The findings showed that in terms of mastery levels and developmental pattern, there was no steady progress from Form 4 to Form 5. Yet, the College students managed to show a positive development in the use of prepositions of place, in and on. The findings also revealed that students are confused between in and on as well as using them with or without articles correctly. The findings of this study can benefit English teachers in teaching prepositions of place and the use of MCSAW can be fully utilized by teachers for further future researches.
Highlights
Grammar has always been considered as an essential substance in teaching English especially in English as a second language environment such as in Malaysia (Mukundan & Norwati, 2009)
The findings showed that in terms of mastery levels and developmental pattern, there was no steady progress from Form 4 to Form 5
The objectives of this study are to identify the errors in the use of prepositions of place, in and on among Form 4, Form 5 and College students in their argumentative essays and to determine the frequency of these errors occur in their argumentative essays
Summary
Grammar has always been considered as an essential substance in teaching English especially in English as a second language environment such as in Malaysia (Mukundan & Norwati, 2009). As mentioned by Tetreault and Chodorow (2008), the errors which deal with prepositions are the most common mistakes done by the non-native speakers especially in their writing. This could be due to a wide range of linguistic functions that prepositions serve, ESL learners may feel discouraged to learn and master this grammar topic. In choosing the appropriate preposition, one has to know and understand the context as well as “the intended meaning” (Tetreault & Chodorow, 2008) of what to be conveyed. The researchers are called to choose the prepositions of place as the main subject matters as these are among one of the main problems faced by Malaysian students regardless of their age groups
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