Error types in Malaysian lower secondary school student writing: a corpus-informed analysis of subject-verb agreement and copula be
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 co...
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| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
2020
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| Online Access: | http://journalarticle.ukm.my/16542/1/43117-145062-2-PB.pdf http://journalarticle.ukm.my/16542/ https://ejournals.ukm.my/3l/issue/view/1364 |
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| Institution: | Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia |
| Language: | English |
| Summary: | 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. |
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