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A Grammatical Error Analysis:, A Descriptive Non-Experimental Study Of

Libyan EFL Learners / Faculty Of Languages & Translation / Azzaytuna
University

Article · July 2020

DOI: 10.35778/1742-000-030-017

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A grammatical error analysis: a descriptive non experimental study of Libyan EFL
learners / Faculty of languages & translation/ Azzaytuna university…………… (293-315)

A grammatical error analysis: a descriptive non- experimental study of

Libyan EFL learners / Faculty of Languages & Translation/ Azzaytuna
University

Abdelhakim. M. Belaid Mustafa. F. S. Almrtdi

Faculty of Languages & Translation, Faculty of Education,
Azzaytuna University Azzaytuna University
E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected]

‫ُملخص البحث‬

‫ خصوص ًا إذا كانت اللغة اهلدف هلا‬، ‫مما ال شك فيه أن تعلم لغة أخرى ليس باألمر السهل‬
‫ فهذه الورقة ما هي إال حماولة للبحث يف األخطاء‬،‫تراكيب حنوية ختتلف كثريًا عن اللغة األم للمتعلمني‬
.‫النحوية بني متعلمي اللغة اإلجنليزية من خالل حتليل أوراق امتحاناتهم النهائية يف مادة النحو املتقدم‬
‫وعينة هذه الدراسة هم جمموعة من الطالب الذين يدرسون اللغة اإلجنليزية كلغة أجنبية بقسم اللغة‬
‫ وهو العدد الكلي املوجود يف الفصل‬، ‫( طالب‬9( ‫ جامعة الزيتونة وعددهم‬،‫اإلجنليزية بكلية اللغات والرتمجة‬
‫ حيث إن اهلدف هلذه الدراسة هو معرفة األخطاء‬.‫م‬9102/2018 ‫الدراسي الثامن لربيع العام اجلامعي‬
،‫ وظائف العبارات اإلمسية‬:‫النحوية األكثر شيوع ًا بني طالب الفصل الثامن بقسم اللغة اإلجنليزية يف‬
‫ وأظهرت نتائج‬.‫ وأيض ًا يف معرفة احملددات يف اللغة اإلجنليزية‬،‫األخطاء يف معرفة األنواع املختلفة للعبارات‬
‫هذه الدراسة أ ن الطالب يف هذه املرحلة املتقدمة من تعلم اللغة اإلجنليزية كلغة أجنبية مازالوا يرتكبون‬
‫ فإنه مت اقرتاح عدد‬، ‫ و بناءً على هذه النتائج‬.‫العديد من األخطاء يف فهم الرتاكيب النحوية يف اللغة اهلدف‬
.‫من التوصيات كمحاوله لعالج هذه االخطاء النحوية بني الطالب‬

Abstract

Without doubt, learning another language is indeed not an easy task to be

accomplished by learners, especially if learners' own language has a very
different structure and grammar rules of the target one. The current paper
explores the EFL learners' syntactical errors in their final exam scripts. They are
studying English as a foreign language in the English Department at Faculty of
Languages and Translation, Azzaytuna University. The study sample was 9 EFL
learners who were the total number of the eighth semester students in spring

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A grammatical error analysis: a descriptive non experimental study of Libyan EFL
learners / Faculty of languages & translation/ Azzaytuna university…………… (293-315)

semester in the academic year 2018/2019. The main purpose of the research is to
identify the most common syntactical errors in: errors in the function of noun
phrases; errors in types of phrases; and errors in determiners committed by
Libyan EFL learners in the Faculty of Languages and Translation. Therefore, the
current study is a non-experimental one in which researchers describe and
analyze learners' errors in their final exam scripts in advanced grammar course.
The elicited data revealed that the majority of senior EFL learners still commit
many errors in the L2 grammar, which were clearly reflected on their exam
scripts. A number of recommendations will be outlined at the end of the research
just as remedial measures for the most common mistakes within the current
research.

Key words: error analysis, Libyan EFL context, senior learners. Syntactical
errors,

Introduction

English nowadays has become the language of communications

worldwide in business, trading and education as well. English is seen as
the language of science and technology in Libya, in which it is taught and used in
Libyans' daily activities and such a trend has doubled since the 2011 uprising.
One of the most significant purposes of teaching English in Libyan educational
institutions is to enable learners to master the target language and in order to do
so, Libyans have to learn and master the target grammar so that they can
understand, and communicate in L2 effectively.

Since the 1970s, the field of analyzing learner errors has witnessed a great
progress and despite all such a progress, many EFL/ESL learners still commit
errors within the process of language learning. The field of error analysis was
indeed initiated by Corder and his colleagues in the 1970s, which to him has two
aims: applied and theoretical one. The applied aim is to enable language learners
to learn more through using their knowledge in educational purposes,

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learners / Faculty of languages & translation/ Azzaytuna university…………… (293-315)

and the theoretical one is to recognize and understand how language learners
learn a language.

Errors and Mistakes

As highlighted by Corder (1967), within the field of second language

teaching and learning, error analysis played and is still playing a significant role
indeed. One of these significant roles is that errors assist language teachers
understand their learners’ weak points in learning the target language.

Many researchers such as (Richards 2015; Jabeen, Kazemian & Mustafai

2015, and Vahdatinejad 2008) referred to the importance of error analysis in the
field of language learning and teaching. Richards (2015), for instance, states that
error analysis works as a significant method of designing corrective curriculums
for a language learning. Moreover, he adds that error analysis assists in selecting
suitable techniques for better teaching and learning processes. In addition, other
researchers such as Jabeen, Kazemian & Mustafai (2015) clarify that error
analysis offer a perception of the process of language learning. However,
and despite the significance of error analysis within the process of second/
foreign language learning, there is a necessity to recognize the differences
between errors and mistakes.

A significant distinction should be made between errors and mistakes

Libyan EFL learners commit. In fact, two main things need to be identified on
errors and mistakes, first, errors refer to structures only, while mistakes refer to
something that do not need a special treatment since they are assumed to be
recognized. Corder (1971, and James 1998) for instance, state that there is
a criterion to help language learners recognize the difference between mistakes
and errors. They state that errors are systematic in which they are likely to

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happen regularly and not recognized by the language learner. While a mistake
can be self-corrected, but not the error. Therefore, only the researcher or
the teacher can locate them, but not the learner. Norrish (1983) explains a clear
difference between mistakes and errors saying that errors are systematic
deviation when a learner has not learnt something and consistently gets it wrong.
Norrish, moreover, clarifies that when a language learner commits errors
steadily, this means that he has not learnt the correct form. Mistakes, to Norrish
are inconsistent deviation, where a language learner has learnt the correct forms,
and he uses them incompatibly, which is known as a mistake.

Brown (1994) offers another distinction between errors and mistakes in

a language learning. He states that errors are ‘a noticeable deviation from
the adult grammar of a native speaker, reflecting the interlanguage competence of
the learner’ and mistakes to him as a failure to utilize a known system correctly’
(p.205).

Within the current research, researchers have decided to put an emphasis

on errors rather than mistakes. As highlighted by Corder (1967) before, errors
are significant in three different ways; first, errors are very important to
the language teachers in which they tell how much students have learnt and how
far they are to the given goal. Second, errors are essential to language learners
themselves, since they are devices that learners are making a progress. Third,
which is the most important of the three errors present the researchers a solid
evidence or an indication of the way a language is learnt or acquired.

An empirical evidence has been proven from many researches on

the significance of learners’ errors in learning the target language grammar,
Al-Khasawneh, 2014 White et al 1991; Carter 1997; Sawalmeh 2013 and Caroll
and Swain 1993). Carter (1997) for instance, highlights that to know more about

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how grammar works, one should know about what is acceptable and not
acceptable as a correct structure.

There is a shortage of research on analyzing the Libyan EFL learners’

errors in mastering the target language. The present research is indeed an attempt
to shed an extra light on the issues under investigation, in which both researchers
will carefully scrutinize errors committed by undergraduate students studying
English as a foreign language in the Faculty of languages in Azzaytuna
University.

Literature Review

There is indeed a dearth of studies on analyzing the grammar errors

committed by Libyan EFL learners learning English as professional language
users. To the best of the researchers' knowledge, only few studies conducted on
this regard. However, there are many studies on analyzing syntactical errors
conducted in many different EFL contexts.

A number of studies have been conducted on EFL learners worldwide.

Rahimi and Taheri (2016) for instance, conducted a study on the grammatical
errors committed by different level students in Iranian universities. Their study
group was selected according to the results of the Oxford Proficiency Test, which
aims to verify student levels. The obtained results revealed that students have
major difficulties in using prepositions such as "of/ from". The researchers
rendered such difficulties to inter-lingual and intra-lingual interferences.
In another study conducted by Abdul-Fattah and El-Hassan (1993) investigating
the syntactic errors committed by intermediate level students in ten Jordanian
schools. The study sample consisted of 320 male and female students and
the data were collected through an objective test requiring students to select an

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answer from four alternative options. The obtained results demonstrated that
the students committed several syntactic errors including word order (3.95%),
comparative and superlative adjectives (3.5%), lexis (7.48%), prepositions and
temporal specifies (7.00%), concord (6.75%), verbal forms (14.3%), intensifier,
determiner, and quantifier (7.8%), interrogative (9.66%), pronouns (10.4%), and
also tense related forms with (20.4%). These types of errors appeared as
a consequence of a number of factors as overgeneralization, intricacy of
the target language, inadequate learning, lack of concentration and a native
language interference.

Usha and Kader (2016) carried out a study on the syntactic

and morphological errors from the perception of teachers in secondary schools.
Data were collected from 280 students in Kerala through using language
acquisition and questionnaire. The findings showed that word order, articles,
auxiliaries, tenses and prepositions were the most common and prominent errors
among the study group. The teachers’ perception reveal that learners' attitudes,
methods of teaching, inter-lingual and intra-lingual were the main causes behind
such errors. Another study carried out by Hourani (2008) who researched
the types of grammatical errors committed by Emirati secondary male students in
their writing assignments. The researcher used two separate questionnaires and
results revealed that the majority of grammar errors were in the subject-verb
agreement (25%), prepositions (15%), articles (10%), tenses (22%), passivization
(6%), plurality (8%), and auxiliaries (3%).

Gedion, Tati, and Peter (2016) examined syntactic errors committed by

Malaysian students in their compositions. The study sample consisted of 50
students whose mother tongue is Malay, which is a second language and English
is taught as a foreign language. Data were elicited from the students' descriptive

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essays, and results revealed that the study group had many difficulties in
the target language grammar. The students had difficulties in verbs, spelling,
and sentence punctuation and with sentence fragments. Moreover, findings
revealed that students' errors were as a result of mother tongue interference
and insufficient knowledge in L2 grammar.

Parvaiz and Khan (2010) aimed to identify the errors made by

the undergraduate science students and provide some remedial measures to
correct these errors. The data were collected from 30 samples of papers
conducted in an internal examination of Bachelor of Science degree students
from the University of Sargodha. Findings revealed that most problems for
the students are related to verbs, articles and punctuations while mistakes
regarding adverbs and pronouns are few (i.e. 1% for each one). The researchers
observed that all errors were due to unsatisfactory knowledge in the English
grammar.

A study by Ridha (2012), in college of Education at the University of

Basrah, addressed EFL learners' writing difficulties through analyzing the nature
and distribution of students' writing errors and investigated the relationship
between their mother tongue and their writing in English. She examined English
writing samples of 80 EFL college students, and the errors are categorized into
grammatical, lexical/ semantic, mechanics, and word order types of errors.
The findings showed that most of the students' errors were the result of the L1
transfer, and most of learners expressed their ideas depending on their first
language.

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learners / Faculty of languages & translation/ Azzaytuna university…………… (293-315)

Abushihab's study (2014), moreover, diagnosed grammatical errors in

writing committed by students at the department of English in Gazi University of
Turkey. The study participants were instructed to write about the difficulties that
they confronted in EFL learning. The errors were classified into five categories:
errors in tenses; in the use of prepositions; in the use of articles; in the use of
active and passive; and morphological errors. The findings illustrated that
the students made 179 grammatical errors: 27 errors in tenses, 50 errors in
the use of prepositions, 52 errors in the use of articles, 17 errors in the use of
passive and active voice and 33 were morphological errors.

In another study conducted on Pakistani EFL / ESL leaners, Mehmood,

Farukh and Ahmad (2017) observed that most learners’ errors appeared because
of intra-lingual factors in their EFL/ESL learning. In addition, Zafar (2016) while
working on a functional English course observed that the majority of learners
committed errors because of the first language interference. such an interference
of the mother tongue in L2 learning, as she highlighted, could be lessened
through applying remedial teaching measures, which she accomplished
successfully applying remedial measures on Pakistani language learners.

Within the present study, the researchers will work on investigating errors
if any committed by Libyan EFL learners in their grammar examinations. The 9
exam scripts will be carefully studied for errors in grammar only. Within the
following, rationale of the current study, which highlights two main questions,
number of the study participants and the study procedures will be explained in
detail, reaching to the discussion of results and then recommendations.

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Rationale of the Study

The only reason behind conducting such an analytical non-experimental

study is the weak performance of the eighth semester students in the English
Department in their advanced grammar examinations. The learners’ poor
command over the target language grammar was frequently observed through the
researchers’ teaching experience within the Libyan third level for more than
twelve years. Learners’ incompetence in fully mastering the target language
grammar will indeed create obstacles in their future uses of the target language,
which will negatively reflect on their performance of the target language.
The current study ventures to find suitable and logical answers to the following
two questions:

1- What are the most common errors committed by senior EFL learners at
Faculty of Languages and Translation, Azzaytuna University in: functions
of noun phrases; types of phrases; and determiners?
2- What are the best and appropriate remedial measures that could be taken
to improve learners’ command over the target language grammar?
Methodology

A number of final grammar exam scripts of 9 EFL senior learners in the

eighth semester who are studying English as a foreign language at Faculty of
Languages and Translation, Azzaytuna University / Libya, were copied and
analyzed for errors in grammar. Consequently, the sole methodology here was
the final exam scripts of 9 EFL seniors, who were the total number of students of
the spring semester of the academic year 2018/2019.

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Data Collection

A verbal clearance was obtained from both the Faculty dean and
the English department head, who copied the exam scripts after removing
the students’ names. Removing students’ names was intentionally done to
guarantee the anonymity of the study participants.

Limitations of the Study

The present study is only limited to examine grammar errors

of 9 EFL senior students studying English as a foreign language at the Faculty of
Languages and Translation in Azzaytuna University. In their forthcoming paper,
both researchers will work on examining the currently used curriculum within
the university’ faculties, and will compare with curricula applied in neighboring
countries.

Results and Discussion

As clearly stated within the methodology, nine exam scripts were selected
from senior EFL students studying English as a foreign language in Azzaytuna
University in the academic year 2018/ 2019. The nine students were the total
numbers who were studying in that semester. The exam scripts were being
analyzed for errors in: a sentence function; phrases; and determiners. In spite of
the significance of mastering the L2 grammatical structures, the examined exam
scripts revealed that EFL senior learners have a poor command over grammar.
The unsatisfactory command over grammar was clearly seen through analyzing
their exam scripts.

As can be seen in the tables No: (1, 2, and 3) below, students committed
the highest number of errors in the first column (functions of noun phrases), with
63 errors. The second one in the number of errors committed was in determiners

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with 60 errors. The lowest number of errors was in the type of phrases with 28
errors. Such a high number of errors indicates the students’ poor command over
the target language grammar, despite they are seniors and are about to graduate.
The learners’ insufficient command over grammar could be attributed to many
reasons such as the complexity of the L2 structures; being distanced from a direct
contact with native language speakers; and traditional teaching methods which
are applied by some inexperienced language lecturers.

It can be seen that results obtained within the current study concur with
other previous studies conducted in different EFL contexts, such as,
Al-Khasawneh, 2014; Zawahreh 2012; Abdellatif 2007; and Hammad 2012).
Al-Khasawneh (2014), for instance, in his study on Ajloun National University
students found that the majority of errors committed by the study participants
were in grammar and the lack of knowledge in the target language structures.
He added that one of main reasons for such errors is the interference of the
students’ mother tongue in EFL learning.

It is almost the same within Libyan EFL learners as it is within Jordanian

EFL learners, as can been seen in the following tables No: (1, 2, and 3). Three
main types of errors could be sited within the exam scripts being analyzed;
namely: errors in recognizing the functions of phrases; errors in recognizing
the types of phrases; and errors in recognizing the different types of determiners.
These three main types will be scrutinized in detail in the following paragraphs.

- Errors in the function of noun phrases

The examined exam scripts revealed that the EFL students committed
the highest number of errors in identifying the functions of noun phrases with 63
errors in 9 exam scripts. This is considered a high number among senior students

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who are supposed to graduate soon and start their own careers as language
teachers. For instance, the S1 failed to identify the function of the following
adjective phrase: ‘He called her a clever girl ’. The function of the italicized
phrase within this sentence is an object complement, and not a direct object. S7
almost gave the same incorrect answer given by S1, when stating that the phrase
is a subject and verb.

In another insufficient command over the function of noun phrases,

the S 2 failed to recognize the differences between the indirect and the direct
object in the following sentence ‘The child drew his mother a picture’.
In a sentence like this, there are actually two objects; and when two objects
appear: the indirect object, which is usually a personal, always precedes
the direct object, which is usually non-personal. Another salient indication of
the learners’ incompetence of the target language grammar is clearly seen
through examining the (S4). The S4 failed to give the accurate syntactical
function of the following sentence: ‘All the children in that family have bad
manners’, the phrase in italics functions as the subject of the sentence, which is
the correct grammatical function. In another instance of the studied groups’ poor
command over the target language grammar was with S8 in analyzing the
following sentence ‘The story was interesting’. The S8 gave the following
function: * the story (sv), and was interesting (oc), which is grammatically
incorrect, and the correct syntactical is: the story (s) was (v) and interesting is
(sc).

It could be seen that Libyan EFL learners’ command over the target
language grammar is still very poor, and such an insufficient knowledge will
indeed create difficulties when being in-service EFL teachers.

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Table 1: Frequency of errors in function of noun phrases committed by the

participants
Student No 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Total
Errors in Function of noun Phrases 5 12 2 8 9 5 6 10 6 63

Figure 1: Distribution of errors in function of noun phrases for each participant

separately

Errors in types of phrases

During the analysis of the exam scripts, it has been observed the failure of
EFL students in recognizing certain types of phrases in the target language.
Some of the students are unable to differentiate the many types of phrases in
English language, which is clearly reflected on their exam scripts. For instance,
S1 identified that the phrase ‘very heavily’ in the following sentence “her father
smoke very heavily” *as an adjectival phrase, while the correct function is being
‘an adverbial phrase’. The same error was committed by the S4 referring to
the phrase ‘very heavily’ as an adjectival phrase the time the correct grammatical
function is an adverbial phrase.

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Certain sentences were left without identifying their syntactical functions.

S8 for instance, left the majority of the given sentences without identifying
the functions of the phrases. Similar to S8, S2 and S5 hardly identified
the syntactical functions of half of the given phrases.

Such an incapability among senior EFL learners could be attributed to

their failure to understand the different types of phrases, which will create several
difficulties in their future careers as L2 teachers. Not only in teaching the English
grammar as a separate school subject, but also in teaching other topics such as
essay-writing, advanced readings and many other topics as well. Understanding
the different types of phrases and their functions is an essential element for
a language learner. A language learner must know the various types of phrases
in their sophomore stage, and not in their senior stage. Within the senior stage,
EFL learners are supposed to have covered at least 85 to 90 percent of their
knowledge of the English language grammar including phrases, their functions
and positions.

Table 2: Frequency of errors in types of phrases committed by the participants

Student No 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Total

Errors in Types of Phrases 3 3 2 2 4 4 4 6 0 28

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Figure 2: Distribution of errors in types of phrases for each participant

separately

Students’ failure in understanding the different types of phrases and their

syntactical functions may be rendered to many reasons such as: the traditional
teaching methods applied by some recently graduated in-service lecturers. It has
been observed by both researchers that some lecturers are not experienced
enough to teach senior EFL learners within the Libyan universities. However,
they are being offered the opportunity to teach, due to a shortage of staff
members in English departments.

Errors in determiners

Determiners are a necessary part in learning English language, and they

should be mastered in early learning stages. During the analysis of the nine exam
scripts, it has been perceived that learners still commit many errors in knowing
the different types of determiners, whether they are restrictors, pre/ post or even
central determiners. S2 for instance, wrote that ‘only’ is a pre-determiner in “
only two dollars”, whereas, the correct syntactical function is a ‘restrictor’.

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S9 also failed to recognize the differences between either ‘your’ as a restrictor,

pre/central or even a post-determiner. While the correct syntactical function is
being a central determiner. Like S9, S5 failed to know that the function of ‘our’
in “especially our guests” is a central determiner. S=6 moreover, failed to
identify the syntactical function of ‘last’ in “Both these books were published
last year” as a post-determiner. Similarly, S7 failed to identify the syntactical
function of ‘new’ in “I really need a new computer”. Both S2 and S3 are still
confused about the syntactical function of ‘tea’ in the following sentence: “I’ll
just have a half cup of tea”. They both wrote that ‘tea’ is a post-determiner,
whereas the correct syntactical function here is being a noun.

Table 3: Frequency of errors in determiners committed by the participants

Student No 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Total

Errors in determiners 2 19 0 7 5 5 2 14 6 60

Figure 3: Distribution of errors in determiners for each participant separately

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Evidently, and through carefully analyzing the exam scripts of nine EFL
senior learners, the learners’ failure in recognizing the accurate syntactical
functions of the given sentences. Learners are unable to specify and or even
understand differences between restrictors, determiners either pre or post ones
and they are seniors and about to graduate. Understanding the syntactical
functions of phrases and their types and differences between determiners must be
clearly mastered within their sophomore stage, but not in their senior stage.

In referring back to one of the main questions of the current research, what
are the most common errors committed by EFL learners in grammar?, it can be
obviously stated and through analyzing exam scripts that Libyan EFL learners
still commit many errors in the target language grammar. Senior learners, for
instance, are obviously unable to distinguish the different types of phrases, and
their functions. Moreover, the exam scripts showed the failure of learners in
identifying the differences between types of determiners and whether they are
central, pre or post ones, which was clearly reflected in their final exam scripts.
Not only they were unable to recognize the different types of phrases and
determiners, but also, they were unable to recognize the syntactical functions of
certain phrases in given sentences. The learners’ failure, as mentioned before,
could be attributed to many reasons such as: the complexity of the L2 structures;
the interference of the mother tongue in L2 learning; and also the inexperienced
language recently graduated lecturers teaching English language to senior
learners.

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Conclusion

Researchers may initiate their conclusion here saying that errors are
central to language learners, as errors can be regarded as Selinker (1992) says
that: “a device the learner uses in order to learn” (p.150).

Within the current non-experimental study, both researchers worked on

analyzing EFL learners’ errors in their exam scripts. It was obvious the learners’
failure in mastering the target language grammar structures, which was reflected
on their final exam scripts being analyzed. The researchers analyzed the exam
papers from three points: errors in functions of noun phrases; errors in types of
phrases; and errors in determiners. The exam scripts were from senior students,
and were about to graduate as BA degree holders in EFL teaching. In spite of
the fact that those seniors spent at least seven semesters studying English as
professional language learners, they were still unable to understand and
recognize the many types of phrases and determiners in the target language. Such
an unsatisfactory level will definitely create many obstacles in front of them
the time being in-service EFL teachers.

In order to put probable solutions to such problems, both researchers

propose some remedial measures that maybe of any assistance in the process of
teaching and learning the target language.

Recommendations

As previously stated, errors are a significant element in the process of

learning languages, particularly if the target language has quite different
structures of learners mother tongue. The following is an outline of a number of
recommendations that may assist both language teachers and learners in

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mastering the target language structures. These recommendations will be divided

into two sections: for learners; and for language teachers.

- For EFL teachers

1- Mastering the target language structures requires a serious work

and commitment to the given outline of syllabus.

2- Teaching methods need to be updated from time to time and this can be
accomplished through attending some workshops held inside or outside
Libya.

3- Some in-service-language lecturers lack the proper experience in teaching

advanced senior students.

4- The taught curriculum should be revised continuously so that certain points

are taught in fresh and sophomore stages, but not in the senior stage.

5- It is necessary to explain in detail to students the differences in structures

between languages, and that such differences should not be interfered in L2
learning.

For learners:

1- Learning another language such as English requires much work particularly in

earlier stages.

2- Being in a direct contact with native speakers is available nowadays through

social media and live TV broadcasting channels. EFL learners should take
advantage of the availability of such media channels.

3- Understanding that errors are a very crucial element in the process of L2

learning will indeed help learners in their journey of language learning.

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4- Having positive attitudes toward the target language and its culture will help
students in mastering the English language.

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