Analysis of Linguistic and Written Errors of Arabic Language Learners in Iranian Universities (A Case Study of MA Theses Submitted to Tarbiat Modares University in Field of Arabic language Teaching)

Abstract

Writing skill is one of the language skills in teaching Arabic in Iranian Universities. Some courses are dedicated to teaching this skill in Arabic. Nevertheless, students still face problems in writing in Arabic and experience linguistic and written errors at various educational levels. Therefore, in the present study, the authors tried to analyze linguistic and writing errors of 20 MA theses submitted to the Department of Arabic Language Teaching Tarbiat Modares University. The study was conducted to provide solutions for reforming the Arabic teaching curriculum, especially the writing skill in Iran, and reducing errors of students in the future. The descriptive-analytical and error analysis methods and statistical analyses were used. The results showed that the linguistic errors in these theses were 1005 errors. Syntactic errors were the most common language errors, and the errors related to the additional words (prepositions) were mostly grammatical. Other common errors were spelling errors, errors related to the humazat, alqate morphological errors, errors related to the detection of definite (marefah) from indefinite (nakarah), semantic errors, and the use of non-functional words and phrases in the Arabic language. Then, the interpretation of the errors revealed the traces of interlingual interference. Some of the most important causes for making errors by students in their theses were Arabic language teaching methods, educational environment, Arabic language difficulties and rules, the indolence of students, and lacking sufficient knowledge about some language rules.