Error Analysis in the Written Texts of Pre-Service Teachers

Abstract

The errors in the written texts of eleven (11) BSED English Pre-Service Teachers from a private university in Iloilo City, Philippines, are investigated in this study. The Error Analysis framework of Stephen Pit Corder was chosen to analyze errors of omissions, additions, selections, and misordering, as well as the sources of these errors, both interlingually and intralinguistically. The omission of past tense markers, auxiliary words, plural noun markers, and conjunctions revealed that the sentences were incorrectly structured. Written texts were complex and grammatically inappropriate due to the addition of verbs, plural noun markers, and articles. The inclusion of the present tense, the plural noun marker, articles, and other wordy expressions resulted in the expression's contradictory meaning. Furthermore, the presence of run-on or fused sentences, comma splices, and dangling modifiers resulted in sentence disorder and ambiguous meaning. There are a variety of reasons why English language learners make mistakes when learning a foreign language, one of which is Interlingual source, which occurs when they utilize their first language as a framework and then transform their ideas into English word for word. Intralingual, on the other hand, developed as a result of overgeneralization and the inability to apply rules in specific contexts, preferring simple grammatical combinations to intricate rules. In students' written texts, errors are widespread, indicating issues with writing processes. Pre-service teachers must be proficient in writing; thus, their English teachers must regularly review errors and conduct an intensive intervention session using appropriate instructional techniques to address their writing issues and needs.