Abstract
This study is an attempt at investigating morphological and syntactic errors in compositions committed by twenty first-year EFL learners at the Department of English in Al-Imam Al-Kadhum University College/ Thi-Qar. The procedure followed is observing these errors in composition writing. The findings reveal that the compositions are abound with morphological and syntactic errors and such errors are classified under eleven categories: omission of '-s'3rd person singular, misuse of ‘-s’ plural, misuse of derivational suffixes, wrong word form, inappropriate plural ending, subject-verb disagreement, auxiliary Be omission, irregular verbs, faulty sentence structure, omission of articles and misuse of prepositions. Analyzing the morphological and syntactic errors, the study explores a growing body of evidence that the learners‘ errors are due to English rule misapplication, Lack of basic understanding, overgeneralization, online chat or short message service language (SMS) influence and L1 language interference (literal translation). The findings, which show that the morphological errors are committed more than the syntactic ones, support the claim that the students lack enough exposure to written English. Thereupon, the study suggests remedial implications against the stumbling-stone of improper rule application in contributing to provide a remedy for such a critical period of college study and to draw the teachers' attention to the most pervasive errors ( the morphological ones) which aggravate difficulties in their written production.
Highlights
- Syntactic Error Analysis Out of the 232 errors in the learners‟ compositions, 67 errors are syntactic. They comprise on six categories, namely: subject-verb disagreement, auxiliary Be omission, irregular verbs, faulty sentence structure, omission of articles and misuse of prepositions, respectively
Verb must agree in number and person with its subject in English, they disagree in the data, as in: a)
Teachers should consider students‟ errors as a powerful learning tool and not a failure. It is really positive as teachers view the weaknesses of their learners and how the errors progress in the process of learning and they are not permanent. Taking these remedial and pedagogical implications into consideration, it is hoped that teachers regard such morphological and syntactic errors as an impediment in the process of teaching so as for students to avoid them to write compositions flawlessly
Summary
As the above table and figure show that the morphological errors, which occur 165 or 71 %, are committed more than the syntactic ones, which occur 67 or 29 %. - Morphological Error Analysis: The morphological errors in the learners' compositions are five - as presented in the following table and figure. They are omission of '-s' 3rd singular, misuse of '-s' plural, misuse of derivational suffixes, wrong word form and inappropriate plural endings, respectively. Followed by misuse of derivational suffixes which occurs 22 and 13%. Wrong word form consists of 20 and 12%, followed by the lowest rate of inappropriate plural ending which happens 18 and 11%
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