Error Types in Malaysian Lower Secondary School Student Writing: A Corpus-Informed Analysis of Subject-Verb Agreement and Copula be

Leng Hong Ang, Kim Hua Tan, Guang Yang Lye

Abstract


The issue of English language proficiency among Malaysian students has always been a subject of ongoing discussion among educators. While English is taught as a second language in primary and secondary schools, many students, especially those from rural areas, have problems using the language correctly. Also, it has been said that students' English language proficiency in most rural contexts takes on the quality of a foreign language rather than a second language. The current study addresses this problem by examining the use of Subject-Verb Agreement and copula be in essays written by 32 Malay lower secondary school students from a rural school in Kedah state, Malaysia. Using corpus-linguistic approach, this study compiled 128 essays and tagged them with online part-of-speech (POS) UCREL CLAWS tagger. This is a novel attempt in integrating Error Analysis (EA) framework with a corpus tagging approach to examine error patterning in learner writing. Using corpus-based techniques, this study identifies and analyses errors associated with SVA and copula be in Malaysian lower secondary school student writing. The findings showed that student writings were riddled with various types of errors, namely misselection, omission, blends, and overinclusion. Based on these findings, this study offers pedagogical suggestions for improving the teaching and learning of the language.      

 

Keywords: learner writing; Error Analysis; Subject-Verb Agreement; copula be; part-of-speech tagging


Full Text:

PDF

References


Ang, L. H., Hajar, A. R., Tan, K. H., & Khazriyati, S. (2011). Collocations in Malaysian English learners’ writing: A corpus-based EA. 3L: The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies, 17 (Special Issue), 31-44. http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3043/

Ang, L. H., Tan, K. H. & He, M. (2017).A Corpus-based Collocational Analysis of Noun Premodification Types in Academic Writing. 3L: The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies, 23(1), 115-131. https://doi.org/10.17576/3l-2017-2301-09

Ang, L. H. & Tan, K. H. (2018). Specificity in English for Academic Purposes (EAP): A corpus analysis of lexical bundles in academic writing, 3L: The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies, 24(2), 82-94. https://doi.org/10.17576/3l-2018-2402-07

Ang, L. H. & Tan, K. H. (2019). From Lexical Bundles to Lexical Frames: Uncovering the extent of phraseological variation in academic writing. 3L: The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies, 25(2), 99-112. https://doi.org/10.17576/3l-2019-2502-08

Anthony, L. (2018). AntConc (3.5.8) [Computer Software]. Tokyo, Japan: Waseda University. Available at: www.laurenceanthony.net/

Candling, R. B. (2001). Vocabulary and language teaching. New York: Longman Publishers.

Cheong, K. C., Hill, C., Fernandez-Chung, R., & Leong, Y. C. (2016). Employing the ‘unemployable’: employer perceptions of Malaysian graduates, Studies in Higher Education, 41(12), 2253-2270. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2015.1034260

Corder, S. P. (1974). Techniques in Applied Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Corder, S. P. (1981). EA and Interlanguage. London. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Dahlmeier, D., Ng, H.T., Wu, S.M. (2013). Building a large annotated corpus of learner English: The NUS corpus of learner English. Proceedings of the Eighth Workshop on Innovative Use of NLP for Building Educational Applications. Stroudsberg: Association for

Computational Linguistics, 22-31.

Dulay, H., Burt, M., & Krashen, S. (1982). Language two. New York: Oxford University Press.

Ellis, R. (1994). The Study of Second Language Acquisition. New York: Oxford University Press.

Flowerdew, L. (2010). Using corpora for writing instruction. In A. O’Keeffe, & M. McCarthy (Eds.). The Routledge Handbook of Corpus Linguistics (pp. 444-457). New York: Routledge.

Government of Malaysia (GoM) (2016). Strategy Paper 10: Transforming Education System, 1-36. Putrajaya: Economic Planning Unit. Available at: http://www.rmk11.epu.gov.my/pdf/strategy-paper/Strategy

Hamilton, C. E. (2015). The contribution of systemic functional grammar to the EA framework. TESOL International Journal, 10(1), 11-28.

Hazita Azman. (2016). Implementation and challenges of English language education reform in Malaysian primary schools. 3L: The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies, 22(3), 65-78. https://doi.org/10.17576/3l-2016-2203-05

Ilhaamie Abdul Ghani Azmi, Rosmawani Che Hashim, & Yusmini Md Yusoff (2018). The employability skills of Malaysian university students. International Journal of Modern Trends in Social Sciences, 1(3), 1–14.

http://www.ijmtss.com/PDF/IJMTSS-2018-03-09-01.pdf

James, C. (2013). Errors in language learning and use: Exploring EA. Harlow: Addison Wesley Longman Limited.

Kim, M. (2010). Translation EA: A systemic functional approach. In C. Coffin, T. Lillis, & K. O.’Halloran (Eds.), Applied Linguistics Methods: A Reader (pp. 84-94). London: Rouledge.

Kong, Y. W. (2013). A study of verb errors in written English by Chinese ESL students. [Unpublished MA dissertation]. Universiti Malaya.

Lim, Y. M., Lee, T. H., Yap, C. S., & Ling, C. C. (2016). Employability skills, personal qualities, and early employment problems of entry-level auditors: Perspectives from employers, lecturers, auditors, and students. Journal of Education for Business, 91(4), 185-192.

https://doi.org/10.1080/08832323.2016.1153998

Manokaran, J., Ramalingam, C., & Adriana, K. (2013). A corpus-based study on the use of past tense auxiliary ‘be’ in argumentative essays of Malaysian ESL learners. English Language Teaching, 6(10), 111-119. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v6n10p111

Marlyna Maros. Tan, K. H. & Khazriyati, S. (2007). Interference in learning English: Grammatical errors in English essay writing among rural Malay secondary school students in Malaysia. Jurnal e-Bangi, 2(2), 1-15. http://journalarticle.ukm.my/1539/

Martin, J.R. (2013). Systemic functional grammar: a next step into the theory – axial relations. Beijing: Higher Education Press.

Matthiessen, C. M., & Halliday, M. A. (2009). Systemic functional grammar: A first step into the theory. Beijing: Higher Education Press.

McDowell, L. (2020). EA: A methodological exploration and application. In P. Clements, A. Krause, & R. Gentry (Eds.), Teacher efficacy, learner agency. Tokyo: JALT. https://doi.org/10.37546/JALTPCP2019-53

Nadzrah Abu Bakar, Norsimah Mat Awal, & Nor Hashimah Jalaluddin. (2011). Investigating Malay Language Writing Proficiency Level Among Upper Secondary School Students. GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies, 11(2), 39-51.

http://ejournal.ukm.my/gema/article/view/55/49

Rohani Salleh, Md Anwar Md Yusoff, Haryanni Harun, & Mumtaz Ali Memon. (2015). Gauging Industry’s Perspectives on Soft Skills of Graduate Architects: Importance vs Satisfaction. Global Business and Management Research: An International Journal, 7(2), 95-101. Available at: http://gbmrjournal.com/pdf/vol.%207%20no.%202/V7N2-12.pdf

Roslina Abdul Aziz, & Zuraidah Mohd Don. (2019). Tagging L2 Writing: Learner Errors and the Performance of an Automated Part-of-Speech Tagger. GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies, 19(3), 140-155. https://doi.org/10.17576/gema-2019-1903-09

Satake, Y. (2020). How error types affect the accuracy of L2 error correction with corpus use. Journal of Second Language Writing, 50, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2020.100757

Selinker, L. (1972). Interlanguage. International Review of Applied Linguistics, 10, 201- 231.

Siti Hamin Stapa & Mohd Mustafa Izahar. (2010). Analysis of errors in subject-verb agreement among Malaysian ESL learners. 3L: The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies, 16(1), 56-73. http://ejournals.ukm.my/3l/article/view/1005/917

Siti Zaidah Zainuddin, Pillai, S., Dumanig, F. P., & Phillip, A. (2019). English language and graduate employability. Education + Training Journal, 61(1), 79-93. https://doi.org/10.1108/et-06-2017-0089

Tarone, E. (1988). Variation in interlanguage. London: Arnold.

Tribble, C. (2015). Teaching and language corpora: Perspectives from a personal journey. In A. Leńko-Szymańska, & A. Boulton (Eds.). Multiple affordances of language corpora for data-driven learning (pp. 37–62). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.69.03tri.

Ting, S. H., Ernisa Marzuki, Chuah, K. M., Jecky Misieng, & Jerome, C. (2017). Employers’ views on the importance of English proficiency and communication skill for employability in Malaysia. Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 7(2), 315-327.

https://doi.org/10.17509/ijal.v7i2.8132

UCREL (n.d.). POS CLAWS Tagger. [online] Lancaster University. Available at: http://ucrel.lancs.ac.uk/claws/trial.html.

Wong, B. E. (2012). Acquisition of English tense and agreement morphology by L1 Malay and L1 Chinese Speakers. 3L: The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies, 18(3), 5-14.

Xie, Q. (2019). EA and diagnosis of ESL linguistic accuracy: Construct specification and empirical validation. Assessing Writing, 41, 47-62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asw.2019.05.002




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17576/3L-2020-2604-10

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


 

 

 

eISSN : 2550-2247

ISSN : 0128-5157