An Exploration of Grammatical Errors in Written English of Libyan EFL Students with Special Reference to Arabic as their First-Language

Ahmed Sanoussi Himeda Al Jawad,Asma Abdalrahman Mansour

doi:10.32996/jweep.2021.3.7.2

Ahmed Sanoussi Himeda Al Jawad, Asma Abdalrahman Mansour

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https://doi.org/10.32996/jweep.2021.3.7.2

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Abstract

This study focuses on an exploration of grammatical errors in written English of Libyan EFL students with special reference to Arabic as their first language. One of the most important factors that negatively affect EFL students' writing is grammatical errors. Several studies have looked at grammatical errors made by learners of English as a foreign language. Some studies have reported that L1 interference has been indicated as an important factor in the commission of such errors. The current study explores the phenomenon of EFL learners making grammatical errors. It also examines whether the time spent learning English and using English in daily life positively affects a student's writing (fewer grammatical errors appear). In addition, it examines whether first language interference leads to errors by Arab learners in particular. Data was collected from 30 EFL participants studying in Faculty of Arts and Sciences Kufrah- Benghazi University by writing an essay, in English, about the students themselves, their families, and the cities where they live in. The subjects also answered a Grammar Recognition Test. The results of this study indicated that the subjects made 205 errors in 10 different grammatical areas, the highest number of errors found in using articles, the second was word/verb form errors, whereas the third was preposition-related errors. Furthermore, errors of active and passive voice, plural, word order, tense, 3rd person morpheme, and copula “be”. The analysis of these results indicated that the appearance of these errors was more common among learners who have less time learning the language as well as who use the language less in their daily life. Furthermore, the results also revealed that Arab EFL learners tend to translate directly from Arabic to English; in this case, L1 interference appears to be a reason for committing grammatical errors by the Arabs. Moreover, students 'lack of competence in English plays an important role in such an occurrence. The study concludes by giving some suggestions for teaching grammar and reducing the occurrence of errors in this area.

Highlights

1 This paper concentrates on errors in the written language of EFL learners
This study focuses on an exploration of grammatical errors in written English of Libyan EFL students with special reference to Arabic as their first language
The results revealed that Arab EFL learners tend to translate directly from Arabic to English; in this case, L1 interference appears to be a reason for committing grammatical errors by the Arabs

Summary

Introduction

1 This paper concentrates on errors in the written language of EFL learners. As errors undoubtedly occur in learning a language (Thornbury, 1999), the authors aim to investigate common types of grammatical errors found. “Such errors were said to be due to the influence of the learners ‘L1 [first language] habits on L2 production” (Dulay et al, 1982: 97). As ESL learners transfer negatively more than positively when writing in an L2 (Ismail and Alsheikh, 2012), Dulay et al (1982) point out that positive transfer "refers to the automatic use of the L1 structure in L2 performance when the structure in both languages are the same, resulting in correct utterances" (p.97) and negative transfer "refers to those instances of transfer which result in an error because old, habitual behavior

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