Error analysis in the written texts of pre-service teachers

Abstract

Objectives This study analyzes the errors found in the written texts of BSED English Major Pre-Service Teachers of Central Philippine University, Iloilo City. Specifically, this seeks to identify the errors found in the written texts in terms of the following categories: omission, addition, selection and misordering and also the interlingual and intralingual sources of such errors. Furthermore, this develops an intervention program and designs a monograph that can be used in teaching writing specifically on eliminating errors. The College students especially those Pre-Service Teachers are expected to be proficient in their writing skills even though writing is considered to be the most difficult of all the other macro skills such as listening, speaking and reading. Considering that writing errors are innate part of learning, teachers are expected to continuously evaluate errors to find out how learners learn and what difficulties they experience in learning the second language. This analysis of the written texts of PreService Teachers, specifically focusing on errors, their categories and their sources serves as a valuable contribution to the growing body of knowledge of linguistic studies especially in the University. Methodology The linguistic method used in this study is Corder’s Error Analysis, a qualitative research design. Error Analysis is a set of procedures for identifying, describing and explaining learners’ errors. This constitutes a set of procedures that begins with the (1) collection of Pre-Service Teachers’ written production, (2) identification of errors in the written texts (3) describing or categorizing the errors into omission, addition, selection, and misordering, and (4) explaining where these errors come from. After which, an Intervention Program is developed to give the students the opportunity to discover their writing difficulties, and review them with the fundamentals of writing. Finally, a monograph with the title, “Writing Fundamentals for Pre-Service Teachers" is designed to serve as a learning material to help the future teachers understand the essentials of reflective texts and also assist them to improve their writing. This study has utilized its verbal data from the written texts which are part of the required portfolio or logbook of the 11 BSED English Major Pre- Service Students of Central Philippine University, in Iloilo City. Findings This study yields the following analytical data in response to the sub problems raised: (1) The Written Texts of the BSED English Major Pre-Service Teachers contain errors and they are categorized into: omission, addition, selection, and misordering. The following omissions are observed: past tense marker “d”, auxiliary “be”, plural noun marker "s”, articles “a” and “the”, prepositions “to” and “of’, pronoun “it” and some conjunctions that caused the incorrect structure of the sentences. As regards addition, the following are identified: “be” verb, verb phrase, plural noun marker “s”, article “a”, the preposition "to”, modifiers, and prepositional phrases. As to selection, the following are preferred: present tense instead of past tense, plural noun marker "s”, articles “a” as a substitute of “the”, pronoun “you” as an alternative of “I” , preposition “to” in place of “for”, and some wordy expressions that contributed to the contrasting meaning of the expressions. The following misorderings are observed: run-ons or fused sentences, comma splices, and dangling modifiers which contributed to the ill-formed structure of the sentences; (2) The errors are attributed to two sources: interlingual and intralingual. The types of intralingual errors made are divided into (a) omission of past tense “d” marker, auxiliary "be”, and plural noun marker “s”, (b) addition of verb auxiliary “be”, verb phrase, plural noun marker “s”, and article “a”, (c) selection of present tense instead of past tense, plural noun marker “s”, article “a” as an alternative of “the”, “the” instead of the determiner “that”, pronoun “you” in place of “I”, preposition “to” as an alternative of “for”, and some verbose expressions. Specifically, these intralingual errors are produced by the Pre-Service Teachers as they make use of their different learning strategies such as: overgeneralization, ignorance of rule restrictions, incomplete application of rules, and false hypothesis of concepts. On the other hand, interlingual errors found in written texts are divided into 3 subcategories, they are: omission of articles “the” and “a”, prepositions "to" and "of" pronoun “it” and dependent clauses, addition of prepositions “to”, modifiers, prepositional phrases, and misordering of sentence structure such as run-ons, comma splices and, dangling modifiers. Generally, these interlingual errors are caused by negative transfer, native language interference, and literal translation; (3) The study develops an intervention scheme or program to help the Pre-Service Students improve their writing skills; and also (4) This designs a monograph that will be used in teaching or improving the Pre-service Students’ Writing Skills. Recommendations Based on the findings of the study, the following are recommended: (1) Error analysis is a valuable tool that must be used by English teachers to identify students’ particular errors or writing weaknesses; (2) Students must be allowed to compare their L1 from L2 through a series of translation activities so that they will be able to see the difference between two languages plus a direct feedbacking should follow to assist them in their writing deficiencies; (3) There is a need to conduct an intensive intervention session with the students to address their grammatical problems and to assist them in their writing problems particularly in the appropriate use of verbs, nouns, articles, vocabulary, and sentence structure; and (4) Design an appropriate, and of high quality teaching materials such as monograph that contains learning exercises to address students’ writing needs.