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The Investigation of Grammatical Errors in Grade 10 Students' Expository Essays

at Ura Central School, Bumthang District in Bhutan

Article · January 2018

DOI: 10.26666/rmp.jssh.2018.2.2

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 Journal of Social Science and Humanities, 1 (2): 07-13, 2018
e-ISSN: 2600-9056
© RMP Publications, 2018
DOI: 10.26666/rmp.jssh.2018.2.2

The Investigation of Grammatical Errors in Grade 10 Students’ Expository Essays at Ura

Central School, Bumthang District in Bhutan

Tshen Tashi
Ura Central School, Bumthang District, Ministry of Education, Bhutan

Abstract: Errors are common and inevitable for foreign language learners. Errors are committed either because
the learner failed to learn or educators missed the opportunity to teach their learners. In this study, the researcher
considers discovering the causes of grammatical errors in expository writing. This particular study adopted the
surface strategy taxonomy of Krashen, Dulay and Burt [1] following the error analysis procedure of Ellis [2], [3].
The result of the study showed that the Bhutanese foreign language learners committed errors both intralingually
and interlingually. The analysis from this study aims to help teachers to include error correction strategies in their
daily teaching lesson plans to deal with the problems believing in the reduction of errors in foreign language
learners. In particular, the findings of this research will be helpful to English language teachers who focus on the
common field of grammatical errors of the learners in classroom teaching. This study’s findings are similar to the
findings of previous studies in many ways and concluded that the students’ errors are inevitable because of the
complexity of the English language, or that learners are not aware of or inept in their knowledge of English
grammatical rules, and the interference of the mother tongue.

Key words: error, intralingual, interlingual, foreign language, Bhutanese foreign language learners

INTRODUCTION stated that English has already assumed the status of the
L2 in Bhutan before 1998 although the term ‘second
The purpose of this study is to investigate and analyze language’ is not used officially even now. The
grammatical errors committed by Bhutanese students in importance of English in Bhutan is more than merely a
acquiring English as a foreign language (EFL). EFL means of FL communication. English is used as a
learners around the world commit errors such as lexical, medium of instruction to teach different subjects in
grammatical, discourse, and pragmatic errors. schools, colleges and training institutes while
Grammatical errors are seen frequently in the academic Dzongkha, the national language subject is taught in the
writing and other work of Bhutanese English learners. national language, thus maintaining bilingualism.
The main intention of this study is to investigate However, the performance of Bhutanese students
common grammatical errors and their sources in in English is relatively poor and this affects their overall
expository essay writing of Bhutanese learners. academic result. Students tend to produce many
English is truly a global language and its grammatical errors while they write essays and do other
importance in international communication is academic work. Gajmer and Maxwell [5] conducted an
unquestionable. In many countries, English is used action research study on enhancing the use of articles,
either as a second language (L2) or as a foreign language prepositions, and tenses from the Trainees of Primary
(FL) beside their own mother tongue (MT). English is Bachelor of Education in English for Communication
used primarily as a FL in Bhutan. Rennie and Mason [4] Module. They found the trainees have maximum
Corresponding Author: Tshen Tashi, Ura Central School, Bumthang District, Ministry of Education, Bhutan

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difficulty in articles, prepositions, and tense usage and came to be known as the father of this theory. EA theory
discovered none from ten participants secured pass emerged to identify, describe and explain errors in the
percentage (40%). process of acquiring an FL. As Corder[8] noticed that
Bhutanese children start to study the English errors of learners are noteworthy for the researcher as it
language and grammar when they are first admitted to gives how learners learn a dialect and procedures they
the formal school. Students at middle secondary school include learning it.
level are expected to produce academic writing with Errors are normal and unavoidable to the FL
fewer grammatical errors, but it has been observed that learners. Therefore, to uncover the learner’s concept of
many students commit various grammatical errors in language, errors are considered as an important tool in
their academic writing which leads to them scoring the language learning. Analyzing of errors was found
lower marks in examinations. Yet, none of the on the advantage side for both teachers and researchers.
Bhutanese researchers or teachers have conducted Teachers can use errors as a device to understand the
research to analyze the causes of these grammatical problem with the learners and to design suitable
errors in the academic writing of Bhutanese students. teaching-learning techniques to suit their learning. On
the other hand, errors provide a platform for researchers
Purpose of Study to analyze the kinds of errors made by English learners
This study aims to examine Bhutanese learners’ in different situations and come to the conclusions,
common grammatical errors and their causes in the proposing effective teaching-learning measures.
expository essay writing. In order to fulfill the purposes
of the study, the researcher uses following questions to Definition of Error Analysis
analyze errors found in expository essays: Gass and Selinker [2001, p. 67, as cited in 9] define
1. What are the common grammatical errors errors as “red flags” which symbolize the signal of
produced in expository essay writing by Bhutanese warning about the status of FL learners’ knowledge in
learners? the target language (TL). Likewise, James [2001, p. 62,
2. What is the explanation of the common as cited in 10] refers to EA as “errors reflect gaps in a
grammatical errors? learner’s knowledge; that is to say, those errors may
occur because the learner does not know what is
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK accurate”. Thus, EA is the investigation of linguistic
unawareness, the examination of what learners are
Error and Mistake ignorant of and how they effort to handle their
Errors can be systematic errors and nonsystematic ignorance. In short, errors are systematic for EFL
errors. Brown [6] and Richards [7] pointed out that learners as it is not their first language or they failed to
systematic errors are expected from anyone learning learn everything about English.
English as FL. Errors under the category of systematic
errors seem to occur in the case of which learners reveal Procedure of Error Analysis
more incorrect language consistency in producing the Ellis [2], [3] proposed the procedure of EA. According
foreign language because they are not sure about the to the model, errors should be first identified, described,
correct forms. On the contrary, FL learners also seem to explained and evaluated. He explains the analysis of
make non-systematic errors. Errors are sometimes errors in following five successive steps.
confused with the term mistake in foreign language
learning. Mistakes can happen as a result of intense 1. Learner Language Sample Collection
excitement or tiredness respectively in different As the researchers are not same to each other in their
conditions though they are aware of correct forms and methods of data collection for their study, Ellis[2] states
patterns. It can be considered as carelessness and is sign that this factor is very important in gathering a definite
of non-systematic error. example of language from learners, so that particular
explanations can be made in regards to the sorts of errors
Error Analysis created by the learners in different situations.
Stephen Pit Corder and his colleagues established a new
theory called error analysis (EA) in the 1970s and he

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2. Identifying Errors differences in grammatical forms and structures of L1

According to Corder [8], the identification of error in and L2 results in committing errors, and it is claimed as
every sentence is regarded as idiosyncratic. His interlingual errors.
framework makes a distinct amongst “overt and covert”.
It is regarded as overtly idiosyncratic if it is ill-formed Related Research Studies
sentence as per the rule of TL whilst it is called covertly Barzanji [12] conducted a study to identify the most
idiosyncratic if the sentence is well-formed superficially common errors in 58 English major Saudi University
according to the rule. undergraduate students’ persuasive and comparison or
contrast essay. The findings showed missing or
3. Describing Errors unnecessary errors (17.86%) was frequent, followed by
After the identification, a researcher has to distinguish errors of spelling (15.66%), wrong choice of words
the errors before making any interpretations. As (14.00%), article (7.68%), and wrong noun forms
indicated by Ellis [3], omission shows up when a learner (6.68%).
leaves something required out of a sentence, whereas the Khan and Khan [13] conducted a study on error
addition is the inclusion of avoidable components, analysis in English paragraph writing (answer scripts of
ultimately, misordering appears when the learners place a final examination) of 120 students of four leading
elements in wrong places or losing elements that are colleges of Jazan University. The findings suggested
necessary in a sentence. that verb tense and form were the most common errors
followed by word order, subject-verb agreement,
4. Explaining Errors articles, prepositions, auxiliaries, and spellings. The data
In general, FL/L2 learners’ errors may be ascribed to proved that the Saudi students’ prominent errors were
various causes or linguistic issues that influence the due to intralingual transfer than interlingual factors.
procedure of learning English, such as the impact of L1 Jobeen, Kazemian and Shahbaz [14] studied the
(interlingual) or the TL itself (intralingual). These role of error analysis in the teaching and learning of L2
linguistic variables are considered noteworthy that may and FL. In this study, the writing assignments of
adversely influence acquisition of FL/L2 [6, 7, 11]. Pakistani ESL and Iranian EFL university students and
intermediate English learners were analyzed. The result
5. Error Evaluation indicated that errors in writing were committed because
Since the reason for the error investigation is to help of students’ lack of confidence and accuracy in English
learners to learn a FL, it is extremely important to assess grammar. The study concluded that the rules of L1
the errors. A few errors can be viewed as more genuine highly influenced L2 and FL learning.
than others since they could obscure the meaning that Sawalmeh [15] analyzed errors in English essays
the writer/speaker intends to put across. written by 32 Arabic speaking learners. The researcher
identified verb tense, word order, singular/plural form,
Grammatical Error subject-verb agreement, double negatives, spellings,
Grammar is the base of a language that decides the capitalization, articles, sentence fragments, and
organization of a set of words and phrases into a prepositions were the ten most common errors
complete sentence to give meaning. English grammar committed by Arabic speakers.
narrows down to different areas that has different sets of In conclusion, the findings of these studies
rules to produce correct forms of usage by learners. To conclude that FL and L2 learners committed errors in
produce standardized forms and structures in FL similar linguistic areas either caused by intralingual or
writing, learners have to understand the basic rules and interlingual interference.
usages of English grammar. The failure to apply the
rules and usage of English grammar makes learners RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
commit errors, and researchers categorize it as
intralingual errors. The forms and structures of grammar In this study, the researcher employed purposeful
are different in different languages. It informs learners sampling to collect data for the error analysis. A
how languages work in their own system and English technique of purposeful sampling is used commonly in
learners have to pay attention to it. Missing to find qualitative research to identify and select information-

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rich cases that the researcher thinks will serve the Data Collection and Analysis
purpose of the study [16]. After the collection of data, the essays were read thrice
by the researcher and were scrutinized for grammatical
Participants errors. Errors in the same sentence were counted as one
The participants for this study were 57 grade 10 students base on its serious impact on the whole sentence for
of Ura Central School in Bumthang District who were analysis in this research.
from two sections comprising 25 males and 27 females. The common grammatical errors were
Ura Central School in Bumthang district is located in the categorized, counted the number of frequencies
central region of Bhutan. It is a government school and appeared in the essays and converted into percentages as
English is taught by the national teachers with different shown in table 1. Further, with the use of “surface
years of experience. These students studied the same strategy taxonomy” by Krashen, Dulay and Burt[1] , as
national curriculum developed by the Royal Education shown in table 2, the sources of errors were classified
Council of Bhutan when they started their formal into omission, addition, misformation, and misordering.
schooling. They learned to write an essay since they Each classification is explained with examples of the
were in upper primary level (fifth year in the school). errors from the participants’ essays.

The Instrument RESULT AND DISCUSSION

The research instrument is a measurement tool designed
to collect data on the specific topic of interest from the The researcher analyzed expository essays from the
participants in the study. The instrument was consisted students of Ura Central School and identified the most
of an open-ended question. It was administered to the common grammatical errors and their sources.
grade 10 students. A first draft expository essays of 200 Q1. What are common grammatical errors
to 300 words were written for their writing portfolio. produced in expository essay writing by Bhutanese
When the students reach grade 10, they already know learners?
how to write narrative, descriptive and expository
essays. Moreover, the teacher (researcher) explained the Grammatical Areas Frequency Percentage
outline and structure of the expository essay before they Verb 73 14.5
responded to the question that was given for this study. Misspelling 61 12.1
Word order 52 10.3
Expository Essay Writing Preposition 46 9.1
An introduction to the essay presents an opening remark Pronoun 43 8.5
to grab the reader’s attention with a sentence or two and Plural 35 6.9
set a clear thesis statement at the end of the introduction. Article 32 6.3
Here, readers will be informed about what is going to Adjective 32 6.3
happen in the latter part of the essay with a brief
Word choice 29 5.8
statement of organizational strategy.
Conjunction 29 5.8
Each body paragraph should have a topic
Adverb 25 5.0
sentence that develops a subtopic with enough evidence
Tense 24 4.8
supporting the thesis statement and a conclusion to wrap
Noun 23 4.6
up each paragraph. It is also necessary to have a good
Total 504 100.0
transition between paragraphs to demonstrate one idea
Table 1 Frequency distribution of common grammatical errors
links to another to support the writer’s position.
The conclusion normally re-asserts the thesis
As shown in the table 1, Bhutanese students’
statement summarizing the main points, citing a
most frequent common errors were the verb (14.5%)
remarkable quotation or leaving a question for the reader
followed by misspelling (12.1%), word order (10.3%),
and completes the essay. It is the part of an essay where
preposition (9.1%), pronoun (8.5%), plural (6.9%),
the writer should create a lasting impression on the
article and adjective (6.3%), word choice and
readers.
conjunction (5.8%), adverb (5.0%), tense (4.8%), and
noun (4.6%).
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Q2. What is the explanation of the common unnecessary addition of plural first person pronoun ‘we’
grammatical errors? as a subject of the sentence. We do not repeat the same
The researcher adopted “surface strategy pronoun in the second part of the sentence when we
taxonomy” of Krashen, Dulay and Burt [1] to investigate combine two sentences in English. “Root of education
the causes of errors. This taxonomy shows that learners is bitter but the fruit *of the education is sweet” (Root
omit essential elements, add needless items, and of education is bitter but the fruit is sweet). The
misform/misorder necessary items in sentences. The participant did not know the TL rule of skipping
analysis of errors from the perspective of this taxonomy repeated words in second part of sentence when they
embraces promising concerns for the researcher to join two sentences. “It is very wonderful *day and
underlie the identification of cognitive procedures in the interesting day” (It is a very wonderful and interesting
reconstruction of FL/L2 learners’ new language. Errors day). It is similar to the previous two errors, but with the
of TL learners are not the consequence of sloppy repetition of the object ‘day.’
thinking or laziness, but of the learners’ use of the
provisional principle of producing a new language. 3. Misformation
Either the incorrect usage of the morpheme or sentence
Classification of Frequency Percentage structure or both is characteristic of misformation errors.
Errors Misformation showed the highest number of errors
Omission 81 16.1 which consists 179 items (35.5%). Example:
Addition 147 29.2 “Departing from our parents is so *hardful to them”
Misformation 179 35.5 (Departing from our parents is so painful for us). The
Misordering 97 19.2 Bhutanese EFL learners committed errors because of the
Total 504 100.0 mismatch of the subject ‘our’ and object ‘them’, and
Table 2 Frequency distribution of sources of errors according inappropriate use of the preposition ‘to’ in place of ‘for’.
to surface strategy taxonomy The use of ‘hardful’ is not appropriate in this sentence.
“We *gained our happiness through family and friends”
1. Omission (We gain our happiness through family and friends). The
Errors of omission are characterized as a result of the wrong formation of regular verb ‘gained’ because the
lack of essential element that must present in a pleasing learner referred to happiness experienced in the past.
expression. Any grammatical item plays important role “Happy to *bron in this *beauty country” (Happy to
in their respective place at a particular time. The overall born in this beautiful country). The spelling of ‘born’
omission error consists of 81 items (16.1%). Example: could be a mistake because of some emotion. The error
“A special day * them” (A special day for them). In this in this sentence is misformation of the noun ‘beauty’ in
sentence, the participant omitted to mark the indirect the place of an adjective ‘beautiful’. This error is
object with the preposition ‘for’. “No * in the world is * committed because they did not know that they should
special person as our parents” (No one in the world is use an adjective which tells about the quality or
the most special person as our parent or No one in the describes noun (country).
world is a special person as our parent). Here, EFL
learner omitted to mention complete pronoun ‘no one’ 4. Misordering
and the superlative adjective ‘the most’ in the sentence. The characteristic of misordering is recognized when a
learner places a morpheme or group of morphemes in an
2. Addition incorrect place in an utterance. Misordering showed the
An addition is considered when there is inclusion of lowest error with 97 items (19.2%). Example: “There is
pointless item in a pleasing statement. According to such meaning like me getting my father's name to me”
Krashen, Dulay and Burt[1] , an error of addition (There is meaning in my nickname). “Some people in
typically occurs in the later phases of FL/L2 acquisition losar they are playing archery, khuru, etc” (some
when the learners already learned some rules of TL. In people play archery, khuru, etc. in Losar). Here, the
total there are 147 additional error items (29.2%). Bhutanese EFL learners committed misordering errors
Example: “Then we came back and *we ate lunch” because they forgot to apply rule of simple sentence like;
(Then we came back and ate lunch). There is an S+V+O, S+V+Adv, or S+Adv+V+O as it has in the TL.

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The errors of omission, addition, misformation, Although this group of participants learned
and misordering are caused by the result of the TL itself English grammatical rules in their preceding years, they
and it is referred to as intralingual errors. MT does not lack in their proficiency because of lack of TL practice
play any significant role in the production of such errors and application other than classroom academic writing.
in L2. Jiang [17] mentions intralingual errors are There are some errors that indicated the participants’
independent of learners’ L1, rather they are caused by carelessness in writing an essay that showed their lack
the influence of negative interference within the TL. of motivation in English. Learners often feel
More specifically, Brown[18] stated that “it is now clear discouraged and develop a negative attitude to the TL
that intralingual errors, or intralingual interference – the and it is a common phenomenon in FL/L2 learning.
negative transfer of items within the target language, or, However, the findings from this study will be
put another way, the incorrect generalization of rules helpful to the Bhutanese English language teachers to
within the target language – is a major factor in second include corrective strategies in their daily teaching
language learning.” lesson plans focusing on the common field of
In this study, the participants also committed few grammatical errors of the learners in classroom teaching
interlingual errors. Richards [7] confirm that the to deal with the problems believing in the reduction of
interlingual errors are influenced by MT in learning TL. errors in FL learners.
In EA, interlingual transfer is not considered as the The findings of this research study are similar
perseverance of an old habit rather as a significant to the findings of the previous empirical studies in many
source for language learners because the learners ways. One reason for the learners’ errors is that they
investigate and internalize the new language system. inaccurately applied the rules of English grammar. This
The majority of interlingual errors are plural may be due to a lack of experience in the use of English
which led to misformation of sentences. This is because, as a medium of communication.
in Dzongkha, the plural is formed either by adding a In general, this study believed that the learners
number after the items or listing the items; “at dinner committed systematic errors while learning English.
the *dish was emadatsi, shakam, momo …” (at dinner The researcher concluded that the FL learners’ sources
the dishes were emadatsi, shakam, momo …), the plural of the errors were because of the complexity of the
cannot be formed by adding a morpheme at the end of English language, students’ incomplete knowledge of
the words; “she was not happy with her *mark” (she grammar, and the interference of their mother tongue in
was not happy with her marks), and Dzongkha do not learning English. FL learners’ errors are inevitable while
have the exact plural words; “that time all of my family learning the TL.
*are gether and enjoying eating and watching” (at that The results from this may not be promising to
time, all of my family gathered together and enjoyed generalize to all Bhutanese EFL learners due to the small
eating and watching sports). The past tense in Dzongkha sample. Further study using a similar test in more
cannot be formed either with a regular or irregular verb schools could indicate whether the results could be
like in English, rather is formed by mentioning time applied in other schools and what the outcome is likely
expression or adjective in front of the main verb; “we to be.
frist *meet at Tencholing” (we first met at Tencholing).
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CONCLUSION
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