Running head: ERROR ANALYSIS: ARABIC SPEAKERS' ENGLISH ...

Running head: ERROR ANALYSIS: ARABIC SPEAKERS' ENGLISH WRITINGS
An Analysis of Errors in Arabic Speakers' English Writings Nada AbiSamra
American University of Beirut
Instructor: Dr. Kassim Shaaban
Second Language Acquisition
Education 345 January 2003 Table of Contents
A. Introduction: p.3
1. Importance of communication
2. Communicative competence
3. Oral & Written communication
4. Emphasis on written communication, the more difficult component
5. Native Speakers of English vs. Non-Native Speakers (Arabic
speakers)
6. Mistake vs. Error => self-correctability factor
7. Rationale of study: Problems relating to the teaching of English
as a First language to Arabic speakers are understudied.
8. Aim of paper: Attempt to identify, describe, categorize, and
diagnose Arabic speakers' errors in English essay writing +
suggest some solutions.
9. Research Question: Is negative L1 transfer/interference the
major cause for errors in the English writings of Brevet
students?
B. Theoretical Background: p.6
1. Error Analysis
2. Models for Error Analysis
3. Sources of Errors
C. Procedures p.12
1. Error/Data Collection
2. Error Identification and Categorization & Taxonomy Adopted D. Results p.14
E. Implications p.20
F. Limitations & Suggestions for future research p.22
G. Conclusion p.22
H. References p.24
I. Appendixes p.32
1. General List of Abbreviations
2. School mission statement (soon)
3. Student Survey
4. Arabic: General Language Characteristics
5. ESL Tip Sheet 1: Arabic (Sofer & Raimes, 2002)
6. Table 1: Error Categories & Sources + Abbreviations
7. Table 2: Categorizing & Diagnosing Errors
8. Table 3: Categorizing & Diagnosing Errors- Interlingual /
Transfer Errors
9. Table 4: Categorizing & Diagnosing Errors- Intralingual / Dev.
errors
10. Table 5: Error Sources & Numbers Compared
11. Oral & Written Presentations: Guidelines & Expectations
12. Error Analysis Exercises & Objective Tests for Remediation
Introduction "My purpose in being Part in the goverment is Change. I want to change
the world. Change in the means of War, Freedom, and equalness. Also as
being part of the government, One should have self-confidence, can
stand-up for self, and others, and at the same time have a degree in a
great proffession.Then How am I working now, I'am participation in
every activity Possible, that has to do with improving our community
today. On top of that, I always keep in mind that to work hard, and
keep my self on the right track."
Written by a Brevet student.
December 2002 Communication, "a process by which information is exchanged between
individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or behavior"
(Merriam-Webster Online, 2003), is at the heart of all human interactions;
it is the basis of life.
No one can live alone. By the word "live" I do not just mean "survive" or
"subsist", but "have a life rich in experience" (Merriam-Webster Online,
2003). "Communicative competence involves communicating in accordance with
that fundamental system of rules that adult subjects master to the extent
that they can fulfill the conditions for a happy employment of sentences in
utterances" (Habermas, 1979). As we all know, we communicate orally and/or
in writing. Our focus in this paper is on the written part. "In spoken
conversations with others, we make sense of the dialogue in a complex back-
and-forth process of negotiation of meaning between speakers. In written
texts, this back-and-forth negotiation is not possible; there is only 'one
passÃ.' The sentence is written and it is read. Because there is no
possibility of negotiating meaning of written documents, the inevitable
problems of misunderstandings are exacerbated" (Penman, 1998).
Hence, we can say that writing is an "intricate" and complex task; it is
the "most difficult of the language abilities to acquire" (Allen & Corder,
1974, p. 177). Its level of difficulty varies between native speakers (NS)
who think in the language used (in our case it will be English) and non-
native speakers (NNS) who think in their own native language (in this case
it will be Arabic). While writing, non-native speakers have, in general, to
think about all those rules they need to apply, rules that native speakers
are supposed to have automatized. Therefore, non-native speakers are more
prone to making mistakes and/or committing errors. It is essential here to make a distinction between mistake and error; both
Corder (1967, 1971) and James (1998) reveal a criterion that helps us to do
so: it is the self-correctability criterion. A mistake can be self-
corrected, but an error cannot. Errors are "systematic," i.e. likely to
occur repeatedly and not recognized by the learner. Hence, only the teacher
or researcher would locate them, the learner wouldn't (Gass & Selinker,
1994). And it is in this light that I choose to focus on students' errors
not mistakes. As an English teacher, I am well aware of the fact that my Arabic speaking
students in grade 9, brevet section, commit a lot of errors in essay
writing. You can tell from the quotation with which I begin this paper.
These students have been studying English their whole lives and still,
their errors are numerous. Hence, I have decided to conduct an error
analysis--the best tool for describing and explaining errors made by
speakers of other languages (Johanson, 1975)-- in order to know the sources
of these errors and the reasons behind their continued occurrence year
after year with different groups of learners. I need to familiarize myself
with the types of errors that my students make in order to determine the
sequence and emphasis of instruction.
"Very surprisingly there are few published descriptions of how or what
children learn. (There... is) little about what mistakes the children
made and how these can be explained, or what generalizations and
learning strategies the children seem to be developing" (Richards,
1974, p. 181).
After having reviewed the literature, I noticed that no study had been done
(that I knew of, at least!) which involves Arabic speaking students who
have been studying English since nursery; students who are studying English
integratively, as a FIRST language. However, it is essential here to
mention the fact that the language these students speak at home is mainly
Arabic, not English (see appendix 3); hence, we can venture to say that
they are ESL students, however immersed in English they might be at school.
"To use two languages familiarly and without contaminating one by the
other, is very difficult," said Samuel Johnson in 1761.
Can this fact account for our problems? Is my students' native language
(L1) "contaminating" their English (L2)? If this were to be true, then we
could say that the reason behind all those errors is Negative L1
transfer/Mother Tongue interference. And the best way to discover such a
transfer is through error analysis (Sridhar, 1980). However, can transfer
alone justify all the errors made?
Our research question is then:
"Is negative L1 transfer/interference the major cause for errors
in the English writings of Brevet students?"
This paper will attempt to do the following:
1. Provide a theoretical background for: a) Error Analysis, b) Models for
Error Analysis, & c) Sources of Errors. (It will also examine related
terms such as interlingual errors, negative L1 transfer/interference,
interlanguage, and intralingual errors);
2. Identify, describe, categorize, and diagnose Arabic speakers' errors
in English essay writing in order to find the sources of those errors
and a way for remediation;
3. Cover the implications of the findings for teaching ESL/English to
Arabic speaking students; and, finally,
4. Discuss the limitations of this study and propose future areas of
research.
Theoretical Background Error Analysis
Systematically analyzing errors made by language learners makes it
possible to determine areas that need reinforcement in teaching
(Corder, 1974). Error analysis is a type of linguistic analysis that focuses on the errors
learners make. It consists of a comparison between the errors made in the
Target Language (TL) and that TL itself. Pit Corder is the "Father" of
Error Analysis (the EA with the "new look"). It was with his article
entitled "The significance of Learner Errors" (1967) that EA took a new
turn. Errors used to be "flaws" that needed to be eradicated. Corder
presented a completely different point of view. He contended that those
errors are "important in and of themselves." For learners themselves,
errors are 'indispensable,' since the making of errors can be regarded as a
device the learner uses in order to learn. In 1994, Gass & Selinker defined
errors as "red flags" that provide evidence of the learner's knowledge of
the second langu