THE COMMON LANGUAGE MISTAKES MADE BY LEARNERS IN WRITING AND
SPEAKING IN ENGLISH.
Done by: Mamura Karimjonova
5230 Case Study
Karimjonova-5230-case study
Introduction
Mistakes in a language are unavoidable in the learning process. Those errors in the language
provide valued insights on approaching towards success for the researchers and teachers.
Investigating the errors that perpetrated by the learners allows to achieve in capable pedagogical
oversimplifications advantageable in the teaching programs of foreign languages. As Corder stated,
learners of a foreign language apply optimal system of studying the language based on their own
mother tongue, and all learners make mistakes or errors on the development stage of obtaining the
new language. And Brown noticed that mistakes done by the learners can be referred to be a sort of
the error created on the performance stage that is possible to have been resulted in the learner’s
instructiveness although a mistake is considered as structured divergent from the standard
implementation of a language, even though it reflects the barrier in the ability of interlanguage.
Mistakes that involve less implication is measured as the method of learning. However, a learner’s
mistakes often bargain the proof of the system that the language exploited at a selected purpose
within this course. They are important in the following 3 other ways, which are suggested on by the
research: First approach is to the teacher, if he or she undertakes a scientific analysis over the
language teaching and learning process towards the international learner, who would have
progressed, thus the result remained to be achieved. The second tactic, which they can supply to the
researcher works, could prove that whether the language is learned or nonheritable, the methods
those possible to be procedure the learner is in using on their discovery of the language. The third
and final approach is towards to student’s indispensability to learn the language, as a result their
mistakes can be the tools that are possible to be implemented on teaching process. As Cordon states,
there are two main immersions of thought in the respect of learners’ errors: The behavioristic
involvement, which maintains the tendency to attain an ideal pedagogics embody, and thus the
prevalence engrossment that applied errors could be a sign of this inadequacy of our teaching
techniques. The second one is the cognitivist aptitude, on the opposite hand, claims that we tend to
sleep in associate imperfect world and errors can forever occur in spite of our greatest efforts. It
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seems that not solely is that the error associate inevitable the learner’s output however it’s quite
presumably a necessary part too.
The purposes of the current research, accordingly, were to examine the common language
mistakes made during writing and speaking in English by a bilingual student and to explore the
sources of the errors whose mother tongue is Uzbek, however speaks fluently in Russian, and she
had been individually learning English in a particular Study Centre in Tashkent. This study is
focused mainly on the sentences and their structure as the researcher identified that mistakes in the
student’s sentence construction would mislead to implementation of the language. In order to check
and analyze the most potential causes on the sentence construction process and the possible ways of
averting them, it was chosen an Uzbek schoolgirl, who is being schooled in Russian. As the girl was
bilingual, her abilities could allow the researcher to approach on the target over the point of both
different languages (Uzbek and Russian). After having several testes on the basis of English
grammar, the essential committed errors were observed on articles, capitalization, punctuation,
spelling, subject-verb agreement and verb tenses, correspondingly. Moreover, the researcher
implied several experimental lessons with different techniques after which, the student was again
examined accordingly. During the experimentations, the individual was described the English
tenses through Uzbek into English and vice versa, through Russian into English and vice versa, and
through English into English. There interlingual interference and inactive usage of the vocabulary
of the students were found as the foremost sources of the mistakes perpetrated. Having taken into
account all the results of the tests and experiments, it is recommended that the student should have
been taught intensive English grammar and active English vocabulary not through by a particular
foreign language, yet basing on the fundamental English knowledge, it should be developed for her
the instructive rules and conventions of the fluent and proper language . Moreover, during the
teaching, it must be taken into account the negative transfer and interference of students’ first
language.
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Background of the Study
Writing process in English has been considered as an apparent that the most difficult skill
among the other four ones in the language (Othman, 2015). As Kukurs (2012) claimed, even a
native speaker is also possible to fail on writing a good piece of writing in any language. It is, thus,
a really difficult assignment for English learners, and it is unavoidable to discover mistakes made
by this bunch of learners since they have a constrained chance to compose in English. The taking
after sentences composed by English learners outline the troubles they have experienced.
•
Everybody love her.
•
I see beautiful flowers in garden.
•
I watching movie.
•
It a big house.
•
Sara very happy.
•
She is smile.
•
She sleep at the moment.
•
The eggs is cooked.
•
There have many trees on a hill.
The sentences provided above demonstrate a lot of misuses of English on the way of grammatical
rules which result in grammatically incorrect sentences. Some sentences are not possible to convey
as the writers would like to express. The errors in each sentence reduce the effectiveness of the
learners in writing sentences.
Statement of the Problem
Studied the advantage of mistake examination, the analyst accepts that the approach that is
being accommodated for her students and it is expected to be composed the alternatives since for a
period of time an instructor, by introducing the type fruitful communication in English. The analyst
found that English sentences composed the student contained different sorts of mistakes, such as
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article usage, incorrect spelling, off-base utilize of tenses, off-base word choice, and subject-verb
differentiation. During cross-cultural communication, several of those mistakes may lead to
misconception the language. For example, “At the moment I speak with you in English” (it must be
in the correct form of “I am speaking English at the moment”) or “She learn English since two
month” (it must be in the correct form of “She has been learning English for two months ”) which
was a sentence written by one of the students who enrolled in the IELTS preparation course and
was ineffective due to the student’s weakness in English and her interlingual interference. And the
student had been attending to the English courses of mine for more than 2 months. As I identified,
she had different mistakes related with Grammar Issues, Pronunciation, Adjectives, Articles, Literal
translation from Russian language, Parts of speech, Punctuation, Spelling, Subject-verb agreement,
Word choices, Word order studying and other. Thus, it was born the idea behind studying “the
common language mistakes made by learners in writing and speaking in English” and the student
who was mostly comprised was voted to be learned. Consequently, the analyst would like to
analyze mistakes in English sentences composed. The think about chose to center on sentences
since they are the little comprehensible units of dialect shapes that student can deliver for their
successful composed communication. These discoveries may result in a more fitting lesson arrange
and more viable instructing materials and educating strategies which can contribute to the student’s
composing advancement. More critically, it is trusted that the discoveries emerged from this ponder
will offer assistance both instructors and understudies in other composing classes to attain a
standard of creating composed writings.
Literature Review
Numerous of investigates consider, as a result, that they have been conducted both to
discover out causes of composing issues and to assist learners overcome throughout the troubles in
their communication in English. For occasion, a few deliberates attempted to distinguish the sorts of
mistakes in learners’ while different sorts of writings, sentences, passages, papers, and abstracts,
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and other categorized those mistakes so that they can be precisely adjusted (Huang, 2006; Lui,
2013; Zheng & Park, 2013). A few contemplates endeavor to look at the sources of mistakes that
are coincided knowing the sources that lead to those learners’ making onto the mistakes is a
successful way to assist on diminishing problems (Penny, 2001; Hinnon, 2014). Furthermore, an
impressive number of considers a few approaches to move forward to the learners’ communication
abilities (Presada & Bradea, 2014). Some scholars (Corder, 1967; James, 1998) point out that errors
made by learners are very significant as they are the indicators of how learners acquire the
language. Concurring to Corder (1967), mistakes stepped by learners are advantageous for
instructors, learners, as well as analysts as for the instructors, problems prove of learners’ advance
of the communication learning. Teachers are supposed to allude in arrange to assist the strides
which learners undertook during the communication in the tongue. For learners, those problems can
be served as assets for their performance. Finally, those problems deliver demonstrate to examiners
on how learners learn and secure the tongue. To help these learners, Corder (1967), James (1998),
and Hinnon (2014) provided that the investigation of mistakes found in learners’ pieces of
communication can be exceptionally accommodating. After examining and analyzing the inquire
about almost mistakes committed by the learner, Hinnon (2014), another scholar, in an unexpected
way proposes that there are three sources of mistakes: Negative concertation of the mother tongue,
limited information of the targeted language, and the contrast between words and sentence
structures interacting between both native and learning languages.
Learner’s Profile
For this study was chosen an Uzbek schoolgirl, who is being schooled in Russian. As the
girl is bilingual, (Uzbek and Russian). She is sixteen-year-old and is preparing to apply for an
IELTS examination. She has been learning English as a foreign language for at least a year and she
is motivated learning English language by watching movies and listening songs. Her favorite
subjects at school are English language and History. The reason why she is learning English
language is that she wants to enroll to a foreign university and study abroad. She was raised in a big
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family with her aunts and uncle by grand’s, however she is a single child. Interesting thing is that
she enjoys watching Korean movies only in English language. In her free time, she posting posts in
English in her social media, for increasing her knowledge and thoughts, as she is keen on sharing
ideas with others. At the present time, her language proficiency level is pre-intermediate, she is
working hard at her writing and speaking mistakes, that she makes time to time. It can be seen that
in the teaching progress she is getting progress step by step.
Research method
The current study aimed to point at finding the answers to the taking after questions. What kind
of mistakes are frequently observed during communication in English by the bilingual student?
Research Questions
1) What kind of mistakes are frequently observed during communication in English by the
bilingual student?
2) What are the causes of the mistakes?
Instruments
By the aim of obtaining the information concerning mistakes that frequently perpetrated by
the participant, a piece of her written work and the results of her English grammar tests were
obtained. In order to investigate for the causes of her mistakes, different questionnaires and
individual interview were implied. The previous studies regarding to the causes of the mistakes in
conversation were also compared and comprehended.
Data Collection
The following three stages were performed to collect data of the present study.
Stage 1: All of the expected data such as the piece of the students’ written work and grammar test
results were assessed by the researcher. All the sentences written and told by the learner were
examined word by word. All the mistakes were noted according to their type in an individual
mistake record form.
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Stage 2: The student was tasked to write an academic essay that could include the source of
mistakes that she would think led to make mistakes by her during the questionnaire.
Stage 3: the learner, individually, was interviewed to obtain in-depth information affecting to the
quality of the language she spoken.
The data achieved from the stages 2 and 3 was afterward transferred and analyzed to distinguish the
cause of the problems that are found in the learner’s conversation and implementation the l
Data Analysis
The information examination strategy comprised of two stages agreeing to the purposes of the
research.
Stage 1: All of the gathered mistakes done by the learner were analyzed and labeled according to its
grammatical types in order to achieve the percentage and the frequency on them. Then, in turn, each
error type was divided into two main groups according to the levels of sentential mistakes and the
word errors.
Stage 2: Aiming to explore major causes of the problems occurred during the conversation, the data
from the survey and the interview and questionnaire results were deciphered and analyzed. In
addition, past investigation results of scholars relating to the base of the mistakes had also been
examined.
Results
According to the two research questions proposed earlier, there the results and discussion of the
study are going to be offered in the following part: The frequent mistakes identified the works of
the participant on her performance for grammar test, writing task and on oral interview have been
analyzed after what, fifteen types of mistakes were pointed out. The types of the errors, which at the
significantly high level encompassed, are going to be listed below in the following alphabetical
order:
•
•
Adjectives
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Articles
Karimjonova-5230-case study
•
Capitalization
•
Spelling
•
Literal translation from
•
Subject-verb agreement
Russian language
•
Tenses
•
Nouns
•
Verbs
•
Parts of speech
•
Word choices
•
Prepositions
•
Word order
•
Pronouns
•
Punctuation
It is going to demonstrate the types of the mistakes comprised by the participant according to
their frequency, percentage and rank in the table below:
Table 1. The analysis of the errors of the student made (accounted using MS office: Excel)
№
Types of Errors
Frequency
Percentage
Rank
1
Tense
35
12%
3
2
Adjectives
23
8%
6
3
Capitalization
5
2%
13
4
Literal translation from Russian
42
15%
1
5
Nouns
24
8%
5
6
Parts of speech
39
14%
2
7
Prepositions
12
4%
10
8
Pronouns
12
4%
10
9
Punctuation
17
6%
7
10
Spelling
15
5%
8
11
Subject-verb agreement
3
1%
14
12
Tenses
14
5%
9
13
Verbs
3
1%
14
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14
Word choices
11
4%
12
15
Word order
29
10%
4
TOTAL
284
100%
According to the calculations, the frequent mistake, which the student comprised was distinguished
through the sorting feature on MS Office: Excel software.
Table 2. The sorted analysis of the errors of the student made (sorted using MS office: Excel)
№
Types of Errors
Frequency
Percentage
Rank
1
Literal translation from Russian
42
15%
1
2
Parts of speech
39
14%
2
3
Tense
35
12%
3
4
Word order
29
10%
4
5
Nouns
24
8%
5
6
Subject-verb agreement
23
8%
6
7
Punctuation
17
6%
7
8
Spelling
15
5%
8
9
Tenses
14
5%
9
10
Prepositions
12
4%
10
11
Pronouns
12
4%
10
12
Word choices
11
4%
12
13
Capitalization
5
2%
13
14
Adjectives
3
1%
14
15
Verbs
3
1%
14
284
100%
TOTAL
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As the Table 1 and Table 2 show that Literal translation from Russian was the most frequentlycomprised error type (15%). Other error types were Parts of speech (14%), Tense (12%), Word
order (10%), Nouns (8%), Subject-verb agreement (8%), Punctuation (6%), Spelling (5%), Tenses
(5%), Prepositions (4%), Pronouns (4%), Word choices (4%), Capitalization (2%), adjectives and
verbs were (1%).
Discussion
A deeper analysis of the errors revealed that the Literal translation from Russian and This type of
mistakes are possible to be divided into two groups: no verb and no subject. The errors occurred due
to the student’s native tongue interference. In the appendixes there given the examples of mistakes.
The sentence in the appendixes have no verbs because the participant literally translated Russian
sentences into English based on Russian sentence structure and thinking philosophy. The
underlined sentences in the Appendixes contain no subjects as the literal translation from Russian
did effect on the sentence structure of proper language. As it is obvious in the sentences, there are a
lot of mistakes it the tenses, especially in the continuous forms. In Russian, the subject of the
second sentence can be omitted without causing any errors, but in English, the omission of a subject
results in an incomplete sentence, and may fail to convey the full meaning of a sentence.
Articles were objected as errors in the ranking made by the student. This student misused zero
article, a, an and the. These mistakes have been grouped as the sensual ones. All of the given
examples can be appeared as a result of Russian language interference because of there aren’t any
articles in the language. Based on the sentences provided the Appendixes, it is possible to explain
that the participant could apply the rule of the English in the wrong way. This is also the issue
related with the native intralingual interference. And the analyst worked on the results and have
segmented each of the mistakes that the participant comprised and put it on the following
segmented pie chart
Pie chart 1. The segmented analysis of the errors of the student made (segmented using MS office:
Excel)
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The Segmented mistake types
2%, 2%
1%, 1%
4%, 4%
1%, 1%
Literal translation from Russian
Parts of speech
4%, 4%
4%, 4%
Tense
15%, 16%
Word order
Nouns
Subject-verb agreement
5%, 5%
14%, 14%
5%, 5%
Punctuation
Spelling
Tenses
6%, 6%
Prepositions
12%, 12%
8%, 8%
Pronouns
Word choices
8%, 8%
Capitalization
10%, 10%
Adjectives
Pronunciation
Verbs
Recommendations
The verdicts out of the current studying research have suggested to be organized some
pedagogical recommendations to be implicated. Initially, the mistakes comprised by the learner are
precious indicators of the language learning progress that undertaken by the student. Next, those
mistakes can discover vital troubles students of the language encompass during the writing and
communication. Any teacher is affordable to implement those mistakes to improve the quality and
effectiveness of the teaching process. Yet another advantage lies on defining the learners’ first
language vitality in the language implementation process as it has positive and negative impacts on
the influence made by their language manners. By indicating the distinguishes and the comparisons
between the learning language and their first language, it must be considered the aspects with
influence on proper usage of the targeted language. Subsequently, the outcomes indicate that
grammar and vocabulary skills of English is required to be comprehensibly implemented. Relying
on this project, it can be noted that the deficiency in English is more likely to be the main resource
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which barriers the effectiveness end fluency of students on using the tongue. Accordingly, it is
recommended that wide and well considered grammar and vocabulary lessons, which are organized
founded on the frequent mistakes that made by learners could be one of the most effective methods
in improving the quality of English communication.
Conclusion
The present work had put the aim of analyzing frequent mistakes comprised by the students who
learn and use English, accordingly, to find out for the sources which can be causes of those errors.
The results which were collected and calculated have shown different types of mistakes that
affected the effectiveness end prosperity of the language implementation were appeared since the
following main sources: native interlingual interference on the targeted language, limited
knowledge on grammar and vocabulary of English, and carelessness of the both students and their
teachers. These findings prove that knowledge limitation of the learning language would be the
create majority of resource which direct to other source of mistakes since it has huge reliance of
students on their native language during the implemention of English. This could result in the errors
that are possible to result in miscommunication. Tutors and other related personals, thus, should
take into their consideration the differences between vocabulary and grammar knowledge of
English comparing to their mother tongue.
Credits
I would like to express my thanks to the participant, who agreed and became a learning subject to
convey the current survey. Her help was absolutely precious on the success of the survey
accomplished. Moreover, I would like to device my respects to her mother Nargiza, as she not only
permitted us to deliver the experiments, however she supported and motivated us to reach the
targeted result. At last but most important of my refences are towards my SLA teacher, Mr.Sam as
he provided me valuable feedback on the works done by me and helped in the process.
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Reference
Sources
1. H. D. Brown, (2000). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching, England: Longman.
2. Hinnon, A. (2004). Common errors in English writing. Suggested solutions of Thai
university students., 165-180 p.
3. Huang, S. J. (2006). A case study of students’ writing errors on a web-based writing
program. Paper presented at International Conference & Workshop on English and Applied
Linguistics, Ming Chuan University, China.
4. James, C. (1998). Errors in language learning and use. Exploring error analysis. New York:
Routledge.
5. Othman, N. B. (2015). Understanding students’ errors in writing. Journal of
Education and Practice, 6(32), 99-106.
6. P. Corder. (2014) The Significance of Learners Errors in Error Analysis. J. C. Richards Ed.,
Essex: Longman, 2014.
7. P. Corder. (2014). Idiosyncratic dialects and error analysis in Error Analysis, J. C. Richards
Ed., Essex: Longman, 2014.
8. Penny, W. K. (2001). An analysis of student error patterns in written English: Suggested
teaching procedure to help. (Unpublished master’s thesis). University of Birmingham,
Birmingham, England.
9. Presada, D., & Badea, M. (2014). The effectiveness of error analysis in translation classes.
A pilot studies. Porta Linguarum, 22, 49-59.
Online sources:
1. Corder, S. P. (1967). The significance of learner’s errors. International Review of Applied
Linguistics in Language Teaching, 5(4), 161-170. Retrieved from:
https://doi.org/10.1515/iral.1967.5.1-4.161
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2. Istifci I. (2018, 3 September). A Case Study on Errors of Learners Retrieved from:
https://www.researchgate.net
3. Liu, M. (2013). An investigation of syntactic errors in Chinese undergraduate learners’
compositions: A cohort study. International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English
Literature, 2, 182-191. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel
4. Zheng, C., & Park, T. (2013). An analysis of errors in English writing made by Chinese and
Korean university students. Theory and Practice in Language Studies 1342-1351. Retrieved
from: https://doi.org/10.4304/tpls.
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Appendix 1
(Interview)
Speaker 1: Good afternoon!
Speaker 2: Good afternoon.
Speaker 1: Mikayla can you tell me about yourself and about your family?
Speaker 2: So I'm 16 year old, I study at 11th grade at school. I grow in big family with my
aunts, but I'm single child and have grandparents.
Speaker 1: Well, how long have you been learning English language?
Speaker 2: I'm learning English 2 years.
Speaker 1: OK, what's your favorite subjects at school?
Speaker 2: At school my favorite subjects is English and history.
Speaker 1: Well, what are you doing in your spare time? I mean in your free time.
Speaker 2: In my free time I like watch Korean movies with English subtitles and share
media in social media.
Speaker 1: OK, and why are you learning English language?
Speaker 2: Because I want to enter to the university or study abroad.
Speaker1. Thank you for participating in the interview
Speaker 2. You are welcome.
Appendix 2
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Appendix 3
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Appendix 4
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Appendix 5
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Appendix 6
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Appendix 7
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Appendix 8
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Appendix 9
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Appendix 10
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Appendix 11
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Appendix 12
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Consent form
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