Common Errors Made in Learning English Prepositions While Writing Essays by Iraqi Students

Ali J Alwan ,Fahainis Bt Mohd Yusof

doi:10.7176/jep/10-32-04

Abstract

This study examines the most important commonly errors made in learning English prepositions while writing essays by Iraqi students of English as a foreign language. It suggests some solutions to help them recover and overcome their errors. All the students come from non-English speaking background and hardly communicate in English outside school. The study was carried out at preparatory schools in Diwaniya governorate in Iraq. Seventy essays were collected from two secondary schools and analyzed in relation to the theories of Contrastive Analysis and Error Analysis. A detailed classification of the most common errors, their analysis, and the comparison of the total number of inter-lingual and intra-lingual errors are given place in this study. The study aims to find out answers to the following research questions: 1.What are the types of prepositional errors committed while writing English Essays by Iraqi final year EFL senior secondary school students? 2.What are the causes/sources of prepositional errors committed while writing English Essays by Iraqi final year EFL senior secondary school students? 3.What is the effect of Arabic language interference on learning English language prepositions as used by Iraqi final year EFL senior secondary school students in Iraq? 4.What should be the appropriate method in teaching English prepositions to Iraqi EFL senior secondary school students? This study intends to use a qualitative content analysis of the students’ written essays in accordance with the Error Analysis approach. For this, the researcher intends to explore and analyze the written productions of the final year students’ essays. Thus, the results of the study identify the kinds of prepositional errors Iraqi students commit in writing as well as their sources and causes in Dewaniyah governorate in Iraq. This study has shed light on the manner in which students internalize the rules of the target language. Such an insight into language learning problems is useful to teachers as it provides information on common troubles confronted in language learning which can be used in the preparation of effective teaching materials. Keywords: error analysis , contrastive analysis DOI : 10.7176/JEP/10-32-04 Publication date: November 30 th 2019

Highlights

1.1 Background of the Study Writing is among the four basic skills of language use and the other three include speaking, listening and reading (Huddleston, 2008)
AND DISCUSSION 4.1 General Findings of the Iraqi EFL Prepositional Errors The analyzed data with the aid of Nvivo 10 software shown the results derived from the Iraqi final year EFL senior secondary school students English written essays and teachers’ interviews revealed five main themes: the types of English prepositional errors, sources of English prepositional errors, causes of English prepositional errors, Arabic Language interference effect on English prepositional errors, and Appromethods for teaching English prepositions in Iraq
This section has been concerned with the identification of the various types of prepositional errors committed by Iraqi EFL students while writing English at senior secondary school in Iraq

Summary

Introduction

1.1 Background of the Study Writing is among the four basic skills of language use and the other three include speaking, listening and reading (Huddleston, 2008). It falls under the productive part of mastering a language known as grammar (Ronald & Michael, 2006). Writing is among the basic and essential skills for effective communication. Writing is the most complex of all the four types of language skills, yet it remains the essential skill to learn by the learners of English as a foreign language (Saravanan, 2015). There is a common principle that erroneous speech should be corrected; yet, this is not an easy issue because it depends on several factors such as lack of reinforcement and feedbacks which affect the learning of a foreign language (Al-Bayati, 2013)

Methods

Results

Conclusion