Abstract
This research paper aims to explore the usage of the English Auxiliary “Be” Present Tense Verb, using corpus based method among Malaysian form 4 and form 5 students. This study is conducted by identifying and classifying the types of errors in the Auxiliary “Be” Present Tense verb in students’ compositions from the MCSAW corpus developed by (Mukundan&RezvaniKalajahi, 2013). 273 Form 5 sample essays and 295 Form 4 sample essays were taken from four different national schools where the schools were from four different states. The errors made in the written usage of the English Auxiliary “Be” Present Tense verb were evaluated and analyzed using the Wordsmith software version 4. The findings revealed that there are three types of errors which are the “Tense shift, Agreement and Misuse”. The results show that there were more errors made by the form 4s compared to the form 5s even though the difference of the frequencies of errors produced by both the levels were not of much difference. Therefore, the findings of this study can be used as a guide in enabling secondary school teachers to revise and be more prepared in their teaching instructions, materials and procedures. It will help teachers look into the possible remedial actions which could be taken into consideration to overcome the problems faced by Malaysian secondary school students in using the Auxiliary “Be” Present Tense verb.
Highlights
Learning the English language has always been the driving force for many students as it is widely used as the "Lingua Franca" around the world
The errors made in the written usage of the English Auxiliary “Be” Present Tense verb were evaluated and analyzed using the Wordsmith software version 4
It will help teachers look into the possible remedial actions which could be taken into consideration to overcome the problems faced by Malaysian secondary school students in using the Auxiliary “Be” Present Tense verb
Summary
Learning the English language has always been the driving force for many students as it is widely used as the "Lingua Franca" around the world. David and Naji (2000) and David and Nambiar (2001) pointed out that “many of urban children who use English as their First Language (L1) or dominant language at home were able to master the language well compared to the majority of children, especially those from the rural areas, who were predominantly ethnic Malay. These rural students come from English as Foreign Language (FL) settings and start school with hardly any knowledge of English”
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