Learning English for an Academic Purpose: The Errors of an English Learner

Abstract

The English Language can be taught to learners for a more general cause – for communication – or for a specified and special reason – for academic purposes. The latter is characterized by meeting specific needs of the learners; hence a different methodology from that of general English is employed. At a university whose medium of instruction is English, students form non English speaking countries learn intensive English in order to equip themselves with the English skills that are necessary for their academic studies. This research studied the errors that are made by such learners at Solusi University and made recommendations in order to improve English writing skills. The researcher obtained data by observation and diary recording of errors made by all the 2014 Intensive English class N= 7 (from Portuguese speaking countries) throughout that year of learning. Study and error noting of the students’ progress exercise books was also done. A modified Ellis (1985)’s Error Analysis procedure was employed, that is: 1. A corpus of language was defined. 2. The errors in the corpus were identified. 3. The errors were classified. 4. The errors were explained. 5. The errors were evaluated. The study also attempted to explain the probable causes of the committed errors. Findings: The study revealed Lexicon and semantics errors (vocabulary and meaning); Syntax and morphology errors (words inflections, punctuation, capitalization and grammar) and Orthography errors (spellings). The study further showed that the respondents committed these errors because of mother tongue interference, incompetency in English language skills, limited English Language vocabulary, overgeneralization as well as oversimplification of grammar rules. The study finally recommended incorporation of explicit grammar instructions by lectures in the teaching of intensive English language to these new English learners so as to improve grammatical proficiency in English writing.