An
analysis of English writing errors of Kurdish EFL post-graduate students
Idrees Muhi Ali
University
of Zakho, Kurdistan Region - Iraq. (Adris.zaxoy30@gmail.com)
Received: 05/ 2023
/ Accepted: 08/ 2023 / Published: 01/ 2024 https://doi.org/10.26436/hjuoz.2024.12.1.1270
ABSTRACT:
This study aims to recognize, categorize, and assess the
errors in English writing done by Kurdish post-graduate learners enrolled at
Language Center (LC) of the University of Zakho, Kurdistan Region of Iraq. This
is conducted via applying the error analysis technique, which is considered a
vital part of EFL research. By using a quantitative and qualitative method, the
researchers limited their literature review and data analysis to the writing
errors by several scholars from various angles, excluding types of writing
errors (i.e., interlingual and intralingual errors are the two main
classifications of errors.) according to Brown (2000). Thirty-two (32)
postgraduate students from different disciplines took part in this study. The
major data collection tool was the students' answer sheets from the elementary
and pre-intermediate academic English curriculum at different English language
levels (cutting edge). The current study seeks to address the type of writing errors
and how frequently such writing errors occur in Kurdish EFL students’ writing. The
researchers implemented process of coding for finding out writing errors,
and tabulated their frequencies and percentages on bar charts. According
to the findings of this study, the participants made fourteen different types
of writing errors: grammar, punctuation, spelling, capitalization, literal
translation, misuse of verbs, articles, unnecessary prepositions, misuse of
pronouns, subject-verb agreement, misuse of prepositions, apostrophes, misuse
of conjunctions and sing of wordiness. The findings of this study also revealed
that the most common errors committed by the Kurdish learners were in grammar,
punctuation, using of wordiness, spelling, and capitalization. Such results are
important for EFL teachers because they encourage them to pay careful attention
to their students' writing errors and utilize them as pedagogical guidelines
while designing activities.
KEYWORDS:
Writing Skills, EFL, English Writing Errors, Sources of Writing Errors.
1.
Introduction
One of the four language skills, writing, is
generally thought to be the most challenging to master, particularly in a place
like the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, where English is taught as a foreign
language in schools around the area. Although writing is taught in English at
all school levels, students still struggle with it from kindergarten to
university. Students gain receptive and
productive skills during their academic careers including reading, writing,
speaking, and listening. All four of these language skills must be considered
by learners in order to acquire the language, since they are interdependent. It
is well acknowledged that teaching English writing to EFL students and
non-native English speakers alike may be extremely challenging (Richards &
Renandya, 2002). However, according to Krashen (1982), adult learners are
typically exposed to more comprehensive input that helps them learn the
language more easily and quicker (cited in Murad, 2015).
Kurdish EFL teachers must concentrate on all
language skills without prioritizing any of them, but they must give particular
attention to their students' writing (Amnuai, 2020). However, according to
Schmitt (2000), teaching an infinite number of chunks is neither feasible nor
desirable, but it is advantageous for language learners to be exposed to
lexical chunks and develop skills in analyzing them (cited in Abdulqader et al., 2017).
As the Arabic script is used in schools rather than
the Latin alphabet, the Kurdistan Region of Iraq is distinct in writing
ability. As a result, improving a learner's writing skills requires more time,
effort, and experience. Several studies have been done on the writing mistakes
made by Kurdish students (Ahmed, 2017; Omar, 2019; Abdullah & Muhammad,
2020; Aljaf et al., 2021).
The studies examine written corrective feedback,
error correction, and the writing issues encountered by Kurdish EFL learners.
Additionally, the studies that Kurdish learners' English writing proficiency is
quite low, despite years of study. More intriguingly, it is surprising to find postgraduate
students majoring in the English language have the same difficulties with
English writing abilities as their peers from other departments.
Kurdish EFL learners' poor writing abilities are
partially attributed to technology since the majority of the learners write
messages, emails, assignments, and projects using electronic devices like
smartphones, tablets, and computers. Furthermore, teachers should feel awful
about their learners' poor writing performance since they can at the very least
recognize the learners' mistakes and concentrate on them for correction. Even
though a little amount of research has been conducted on this topic in the
Kurdistan Region of Iraq, none of these studies have been able to accurately
identify Kurdish learners' English writing errors, this study aims to shed
light on the writing abilities of Kurdish EFL learners from English Language center
at Zakho University, as well as to identify and categorize their most frequent
writing errors. More precisely, the current study seeks to address the
following questions:
1. What type of writing errors do Kurdish EFL
students often make?
2. How
frequently such writing errors occur in Kurdish EFL students’ writings?
2. Literature Review
2.1 Error Analysis
Error
analysis is a technique used to assess the speaking and writing abilities of
foreign or second language learners. According to Crystal (2008), error
analysis is a “technique for identifying, classifying and systematically
interpreting the unacceptable forms produced by someone learning a foreign
language, using any of the principles and procedures provided by linguistics”
(p.165). Many scholars have presented arguments from a variety of perspectives.
For instance, Corder (1967) and Brown (2000) underline the importance of
analysing learners' mistakes since they may help identify EFL learners'
strengths and weaknesses in English writing abilities. Similarly, Al-Saudi
(2013) believes that errors might assist language teachers in determining their
students' progress. The concept of error analysis in the context of teaching
and learning FL or SL dates all the way back to the 1970s. Over the last
several decades, error analysis has attracted a large number of researchers to
collect and explain language learners’ errors made in writing and speaking.
Many have misinterpreted the concept of error analysis in relation to learners'
writing performance, although errors are seen as an integral element of the
process of teaching and learning a language (Khansir, 2012); some even argue
that they are an essential part of the language learning process (Corder,
1974). However, writing errors cannot be eliminated, they may assist language
teachers in placing a greater emphasis on the learners' writing abilities,
analyzing their errors, identifying the causes for their errors, and proposing
an applicable remedy. Therefore, writing errors must be taken into account and
should not be overlooked as they help learners develop their writing abilities.
According
to Ellis (2008), the analysis of errors may aid language teachers in
identifying their students' writing errors and dealing with them in a
reasonable manner, and they also assist them in paying more attention to the
construction of resources for learners in the future. Aljaf, Ahmed, and Salim
(2021), on the other hand, believe that learners' writing errors are seen as a
stumbling block in the process of language acquisition and that they must be
addressed quickly.
2.2
Sources of Errors
According to Lado (1957), the most common causes of
mistakes are due to the learners' first language interfering with the target
language learning process during the target language learning process.
Typically, EFL learners discover that certain components of the target language
are simple for them to learn, while other elements are difficult for them to
acquire. In the case of these aspects being identical to those in their native
language, they will be easy for them to learn. However, if the characteristics
of the target language vary from those of their native language, it is assumed
that they will find it challenging. In addition, this is true for Kurdish EFL
students since several aspects of the Kurdish language are distinct from those
of the English language. As a result, it takes a significant amount of time and
effort for individuals to master the aspects of the language that are distinct
from their native tongue. One such cause for making errors is
overgeneralization, which occurs when learners believe that a pattern or norm
in English functions without taking into account irregularities or exceptions.
Another kind of learner's writing error that has been more prevalent in recent
years is the use of technology, namely electronic gadgets that hinder the
development of the learners' writing skills in English.
2.3
Types of Errors
Brown
(2000) states that errors are classified into two broad categories:
interlingual errors and intralingual errors. The former refers to errors that
are obvious and attributable to first language interference, which is referred
to as negative interlingual transfer. The latter refers to errors caused by
wrongly applying target language rules. Based on the researcher's observation
of Kurdish writing and the findings of studies, Kurdish EFL Learners often make
errors with plural nouns, third-person singular (s/es), capitalization, tenses,
prepositions, and word order (Aljaf et al., 2021). Despite the problems that
Kurdish EFL learners face in the classroom, EFL teachers cannot avoid the
reality that they are not paying attention to their students' low performance
in English language writing.
2.4
Previous Studies
Recently, academics have been increasingly
interested in the issue of writing mistakes among EFL learners. Many
investigations and evaluations of learners' English writing errors have been
conducted all around the world. There have been a few studies focused on
Kurdish EFL learners' writing errors in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, but none
have been able to show the precise kinds of errors the learners make when
writing English. For instance, Chen (2004) looked at the English writing
mistakes made by Chinese ESL students. His study found that students brought
grammatical elements from the Chinese language to the English language. Ridha
(2012) conducted a study to identify the essay writing mistakes made by Iraqi
EFL students. The statistics showed that students produced a range of mistakes,
with grammatical, word order, and grammar problems being the most frequent
ones. The results of his analysis also showed that Arabic language interference
was the main cause of the learners' blunders. Using the writings of 23 students
at Gazi University, Köroglu (2014) assessed the syntactic mistakes committed by
Turkish EFL learners in Turkey. The study demonstrated that students frequently
overgeneralized and violated grammatical conventions while using prepositions,
among other intralingual and interlingual mistakes. Abdullah (2020) conducted a
study to determine the kind and frequency of errors made by Kurdish EFL
students. The researcher collected data for the study by administering a
composition exam to participants. The study discovered that the most often made
errors by participants were in punctuation and capitalization. Aljaf, Ahmed,
and Salim (2021) performed the most current research on writing error analysis
in the Kurdistan Region. Their research sought to investigate the types and
frequency of errors made by students in their writing. 80 writing examples from
their students were randomly selected to identify and determine the most
frequent errors. Their study discovered that the majority of students'
compositions had spelling, punctuation, grammatical, and lexical problems.
3. Methodology
3.1
Research Design
A corpus design and qualitative approaches were
combined to create the mixed-methods design that was used to collect the data
for this study. According to McCarthy and Sampson (2005), corpus design is the
study of language is created in a scenario representative of the actual world,
such as students' responses to writing assignments. Creswell (2012) claims that
qualitative research is a form of academic research and that in order to carry
it out, researchers must rely on the opinions of participants, ask in-depth questions,
collect data that is primarily made up of texts written by participants,
describe and analyze the words used by participants in the texts, and carry out
formal analysis of the collected data.
3.2
Participants
In the present study, a sample of 32 post-graduate
participants specializing in different disciplines (11 females and 21 males) participated.
These participants are enrolled at the Language Center of the University of
Zakho. The participants are enrolled at
the language center to finish three or four levels of English proficiency
courses for different academic purposes, such as applying for postgraduate
studies (M.A. or PhD) as well as some of them in order to amend their
certificates in their postgraduate studies. Prior to their enrollment in the English proficiency
course, the participants have to take an official English language placement
test conducted by the ministry of higher education and scientific research in
the Kurdistan region. It is worth mentioning that all participants were of
Kurdish origin and were between the ages of 23 and 35.
3.3
Instrument
The test sheets from both elementary and
pre-intermediate academic English students enrolled at Language Center at the “University
of Zakho” served as the main instrument for gathering data for this study. The
test takers were required to write at least fifteen lines, which were about one
hundred and fifty words to write a composition. In light of this, their
responses had to be expressive in nature. More specifically, the questions were
as follows: Write more than one hundred and fifty words on one of the following
topics:
1-
Kurdish
Nawroz Festival.
2-
Your
Childhood Ambitions.
3.4
Procedures
The participants were given the question sheets and
informed that the responses would be gathered and examined for research
purposes. The time was free for them to finish their writing. After collecting
them, the researcher reviewed and revised the answers on the participants’
answer sheets. The trustworthiness of the articles was then determined by
having two more experienced academics review them. The researcher made it a
point to highlight any flaws he saw and document them in a notebook as he
checked and marked the articles.
3.5
Data analysis
In order to analyze the data collected for this
study, the investigator utilized the procedures established by Corder (1974) in
his research. First and foremost, every word and phrase the students wrote in
their responses was carefully reviewed to see what writing errors they had
produced. Second, coding was used to categorize the different error types into
separate portions, which were then converted into a percentage to show how
frequently they occurred. Finally, the results of this study were contrasted
with those of a few other earlier investigations that had been carried out with
a similar aim. The category of writing errors created by Chanquoy (2001), which
was based on the findings of a prior study, was used to examine the data of
this study. These errors include the following examples:
1. Spelling
errors: This category includes errors that are connected to orthography.
2.
Grammatical errors are divided into four categories: gender errors, number
errors, agreement of nouns, verbs, and adjectives, and subject-verb agreement.
3. Punctuation
mistakes: capitalization and punctuation problems fall under this category.
4. Results
and Discussion
4.1 Types
of English Writing Errors Made by the Kurdish EFL postgraduate Students in
their Answers:
Results of this study showed that Kurdish EFL students
from language center (LC) at Zakho University of Zakho, Iraq, made a variety of
errors in their writings, including: grammatical errors, punctuation,
wordiness, spelling, capitalization, literal translation, misuse of verbs,
articles, unnecessary prepositions, misuse of pronouns, subject-verb agreement,
misuse of prepositions, apostrophes, and misuse of conjunctions, as shown in
Table 1.
Table 1: Classification of error types
No.
|
Type of Errors
|
Example
of error identified
|
Definition
of error type
|
1
|
Spelling
|
toked, plaing, aluawes, selebration.
|
The students misspelled the
words "talked," "playing," "always," and "Celebration."
|
2
|
Capitalization
|
on the other hand, people
celebrate it one day before.
I knew that the thing that allah gives you is
always the best thing.
|
At
the start of the sentence, the first letter of the word “on” is the small
letter “lowercase.”
“allah”
is a proper noun. So, the initial
letter is not capitalized.
|
3
|
Grammar
|
I always played with my little sister.
|
The correct form: I always play with my little
sister.
|
4
|
Punctuation
|
one day there
were man called kawa decided to kill the king to do that he chosed fire to be
a symbol for killing the king.
“When
kawa killed zohak, who killed many young people, and used their bone marrow
for his treatment”.
|
A full
stop must be used to end each sentence. The correct form is:
(One
day, there was a man called kawa, who decided to kill the king. To do that,
he chose fire to be a symbol for killing the king.)
Comma must
be used between (one day and there was) as well as between (To do that, he
chose fire …), as well as a full stop must be utilized to mark the end of the
sentence.
(who
decided to kill the king.)
Hyphen
is missing; the sentence must be as: (When kawa killed zohak who
killed many young people and used their bone-marrow for his treatment.)
|
5
|
Misuse
of pronouns
|
Before
21st march going to mountain.
All
people go out from home to picnic to make happy day with our family and
making food.
Many research
about update disease and trying the best for my community.
When
kawa killed zohak because of killing many young and use their bone-marrow for
his treatment.
|
The
pronoun is missing, and the sentence must be
(Before
21st of march, people go to the mountains.)
Here,
the pronoun “they” is missing, and the sentence must be
(All
people go out from home to picnic to make happy day with our family, and they
make food.
The
pronoun “my” is missing, and the correct sentence should be
Many
researches about update disease and try my best for my community.)
The pronouns “who” and “people” are missing, and
the correct one must be: (When kawa killed zohak who killed many young
people and used their bone-marrow for his treatment.)
|
6
|
Prepositions
|
When I
was in high school, I wanted to complete my studies.
at the
21st, march the first day of Nawroz.
In
addition, on Nawroz kurd go to outside to picnic.
|
The
preposition "in" cannot be related to the noun "school"
in this example. The correct preposition is:
(at high
school).
When I
was at high school, I wanted to complete my studies.
The
preposition “at” doesn’t match with the number
“21”. The correct one is (on the 21th of March).
On 21st of March is the first day of Nawroz.
Here,
the preposition “on” must be changed into “in”. The sentence must be
In
addition, in Nawroz kurds go outside “outdoors” to have picnic.
|
7
|
Articles
|
Nawroz
holds special meaning Kurdish people.
Its
Kurdish new year start from it.
|
The article "a" is not included in this
sentence.
The
proper sentence is: (Nawroz holds a special meaning for Kurdish people.)
The
article “the” is missing. The correct form is (The Kurdish new year starts
from it.)
|
8
|
Subject
verb agreement
|
There
were several ambition for me when I was at the age of teenager.
My
childhood ambitions is when I was 12 years old.
|
The
subjects and verbs of these two sentences do not match.
The first one “s” is wrong, and in the second one “is” is wrong,. The correct forms must be:
There
were several ambitions for me, when I was teenager.
My
childhood ambitions are when I was 12 years old.
|
9
|
Wordiness
|
All people come
back to home.
Among the kurds
families spend the day in the countryside
I didn’t get the enough grades.
|
Unnecessary
words, such as (to, among the, and the) are
found in the sentences. The correct sentences are:
All people come
back home.
Kurds families spend the day in
the countryside.
I didn’t get enough grades.
|
10
|
Misuse of conjunctions
|
So that I could
collect money so that I could be successful.
|
In this
sentence the conjunction “and”
is missing. The correct form must be:
So that, I could collect money, and so that, I could be successful.
|
11
|
Apostrophes
|
I always played
with my little sisters and brothers with my doctor toys and pretended myself
as a doctor.
|
The possessive
apostrophe for the word “doctor” is missing. The correct form must be:
(I always played with my little sisters and brothers with my doctor’s
toys and pretended myself as a doctor.)
|
12
|
Misuse of prepositions
|
I could be successful and not depend on anyone in my life.
|
The preposition
“to” is missing
and the accurate sentence must be:
I could be successful and not to depend on anyone in my life.
|
13
|
Literal translation from Kurdish to English
|
It located on
21st march.
When I child my ambition I wanted player football.
|
The word “located” derives from
Kurdish. So, the sentence in English is:
It is on 21st
march.
“I wanted
player football” is a Kurdish expression. The English must be:
When I was a child, my ambition was that to be a football player.
|
14
|
Misuse of verbs
|
When I was a
child my great ambition become a physician.
|
The word
"was" is missing, the first verb phrase started with the past tense and
the correct form must be:
(When I was a
child my great ambition was to become a physician.)
|
Table
1 shows that the Kurdish postgraduate EFL students at Zakho University language
center “LC” produced
a variety of writing errors. Their text had problems in Grammar, Punctuation,
Wordiness, Spelling, Capitalization, Literal translation from Kurdish to English, Misuse of verbs,
Articles, Unnecessary preposition, Misuse of pronouns, Subject-verb agreement,
Misuse of prepositions, Apostrophes, and Misuse of conjunctions.
4.2 Frequency of Writing Errors Made by the post-graduate Kurdish EFL Students
Current study aimed to identify the most frequent
errors made by Kurdish postgraduate learners by looking at the mistakes they
made when writing. According to the findings of the study, the participants
frequently committed the same errors when they write, Look at Table 2 below and
Figure 1.
Table 2 Frequency and percentage of the
writing error types
|
Type of error
|
Frequency
|
Percentage %
|
|
Grammar
|
212
|
19.57
|
|
Punctuation
|
193
|
17.82
|
|
Wordiness
|
171
|
15.78
|
|
Spelling
|
170
|
15.69
|
|
Capitalization
|
88
|
8.12
|
|
literal translation
|
71
|
6.55
|
|
Misuse of verbs
|
53
|
4.89
|
|
Articles
|
32
|
2.95
|
|
Unnecessary preposition
|
29
|
2.67
|
|
Misuse of pronouns
|
22
|
2.03
|
|
Subject verb agreement
|
17
|
1.56
|
|
Misuse of prepositions
|
9
|
0.83
|
|
Apostrophes
|
7
|
0.64
|
|
Misuse of conjunctions
|
7
|
0.64
|
|
Total
|
1083
|
100
|
Figure 1 Kurdish EFL Postgraduate students’
writing errors
According to Table 2, grammatical mistakes were the
most common kind of writing error committed by the
students (frequency = 212; percentage = 15.69). Punctuation errors were the
second most common form of mistake (frequency:
193; percentage: 17.82%). Wordiness was the third most common type of mistake
made by the learners (frequency: 171; percentage: 15.78%). Spelling mistakes
were the fourth most common form of error (frequency: 170; percentage: 15.69%).
Other errors included capitalization (frequency = 88; percentage = 8.12%),
literal translation (frequency = 71; percentage = 6.55%), verb misuse
(frequency = 53; percentage = 4.89%), article misuse (frequency = 32;
percentage = 2.95%), unnecessary preposition (frequency = 29; percentage =
2.67%), pronoun misuse (frequency = 22; percentage = 2.03%), subject verb
agreement (frequency = 17; percentage = 1.56%), and preposition misuse
(frequency = 9; percentage = 0.83%). Apostrophes (frequency = 7; percentage =
0.64%) and the incorrect use or missing of conjunctions (frequency = 7;
percentage = 0.64%) were also seen in the work of the Kurdish student.
Additionally, there were 3627 total words written by all participants, with
1083 of those words containing errors.
4.3
Discussions
This
study aimed at examining the writing errors made by Kurdish EFL students at
University of Zakho Language Center (LC). To consider the first question of
this study, the findings found that the students committed several different
types of errors in English writing. One of these types of errors was spelling.
The common misspellings that Zakho Language Center (LC) students made were: (1)
e instead of i and k instead of ck in the word *cheken as opposed to chicken.
(2) the letter i in the word *simbol instead of "symbol, (3) missing e in
the word *natur as opposed to nature, (4) s instead of c, i is unnecessary and
e is missing in the word *selebrait instead of celebrate, (5) missing l in the
word *finaly as opposed to finally, (6) missing a in the word *beutiful as
opposed to beautiful, (7) adding the letter e instead of y in the word *happe
instead of happy.
Kurdish EFL learners frequently make mistakes with
spelling, prepositions, plural nouns, regular and irregular verbs, third-person
singular (s/es), tenses, and word order, according to the researcher's
observations of Kurdish post-graduate writing and the results of studies. Full
stops, capital letters, colons, and apostrophes were parts of errors. I
see that all of this is due to the quality of the study and the teaching method
based on the theoretical side and the teaching staff's neglect of the practical
side.
It
is worth noting that the Kurdish students used their mother tongue in their
expressions in their writings in the target language, and sometimes this may
cause the creation of writings that may not fit into the target language. For
instance, "It located on 21st march". The word “located” derives from
Kurdish, which means “de kavita". So, the sentence should be in English as:
"It is on March 21st.” We note that this sentence contains errors in
sequencing the words in one sentence because of the mother tongue, so instead
of saying "It is on March 21st,” the
learner wrote “It is on 21st march”.
These findings supported Mahmood's (2016) claim that
spelling mistakes were a specific type of writing error. Additionally, the
research found postgraduate participants frequently failed to capitalize their
words in their writing. For instance, most of them did not capitalize the first
letter of a word that ought to be capitalized, regardless of the type of
function of the term.
Moreover,
the first letter of the first word after the full stop was not capitalized by
the majority of the students who took part in this research project, as *in 21
of March people go out instead of (In). The study's findings are consistent
with Körolu (2014).
The
findings of this research demonstrated that the learner's paper contained
grammatical errors. The expression*” I want _ have my own business” is an
example of this sort of mistake. It is clear that the learner did not utilize
the preposition (to) between the words "want" and "have". The
proper statement is “I want to have my own business”.
As
a result of the present study, it was discovered that Kurdish students also
frequently make errors in punctuation, pronoun usage, preposition usage,
missing conjunctions, articles, and verb tenses as well as wordiness. These
findings concur with those of various earlier investigations carried out by
Aljaf, Ahmed, and Salim (2021), and Abdullah (2020).
Kurdish students also frequently use wordiness,
which means using unnecessary words in the sentence. Particularly brief,
ambiguous terms that does not add much to the
content. Wordy phrases frequently use indirect language; the subject and verb
do not clearly state the sentence's main idea. For example, the phrase "at
that time" in learner number 30 is "when I was young in high school, at
that time I started thinking about my ambition". Here, the phrase above
does not add much meaning to the sentence, meaning
that the meaning wouldn’t be changed even if we removed it.
Regarding the second question, this study's results
revealed that the most common types of writing errors made by Kurdish students
were: grammar, punctuation, spelling, capitalization, and literal translation
from Kurdish to English as well as frequently uses of wordiness. These sorts of
writing errors are attributed to a variety of variables, including the
student's native language and the Arabic alphabet, due to the students' lack of
familiarity with the English alphabet. The findings of this research
corroborate those of Ridha's (2012) study.
Finally, there were 3627 total words written by all
participants, with 1083 of those words containing errors. And all participants
have advanced degrees, including doctorates, master's, and bachelor’s degrees
from different disciplines. But that did not stop
them from making errors, although they studied English for six years in
elementary school and six years in middle school, and some students studied
their postgraduate studies in English. This shows the need for the Ministry of
Higher Education to review the English language course requirements for
different levels at high and middle schools as well as the university fields of
study.
5. Conclusions
and Recommendations
5.1
Conclusions
One of the most important
obstacles that EFL students confront in the process of learning English is
writing skills, particularly in a place like the Kurdistan Region of Iraq where
English is taught as a foreign language. Due to the students' unsatisfactory
performance in writing especially in the places in which their alphabets are
different from the English letters, language educational experts are always
seeking to apply new techniques to discover, categorize, and evaluate the
writing errors. Therefore, this study aimed at assessing the sorts and
frequency of errors made by Kurdish EFL students studying at University of
Zakho in their answers.
The results of the study indicated that the students
made many kinds of errors including: grammar, punctuation, wordiness, spelling,
capitalization, literal translation from Kurdish to English, misuse of verbs,
articles, prepositions, pronouns, subject-verb agreement, apostrophes, misuse
of conjunctions as well as using of wordiness. The research also discovered
that there were 3627 total words written by all participants, with 1083 of
those words containing errors. The most typical mistakes learners made were in
grammar which refers to the lack of students' knowledge about the importance of
using tenses as well as how and where to use it in the sentences. Generally,
considering the table 2 we counted these four elements of Grammar mistakes,
Spelling, capitalization and using of wordiness as the most frequent errors
made by Kurdish learners in general. Despite greater efforts to identify and
assess the writing errors the participants make; more research is required to
develop the most efficient method for improving students' writing abilities.
5.2
Recommendations
The following are some suggestions made by the study
team:
1.
Curriculum designers should give greater emphasis to students' writing
abilities while developing their courses.
3.
Teachers must provide additional opportunities for their students to practice
their writing skills in the classroom by incorporating exercises into their
lessons.
5.
When students make grammatical mistakes, teachers should identify the errors
and correct them as quickly as feasible.
References
Abdullah, k. (2020). Kurdish students' writing
problems on the mechanics of english as a foreign language. International
journal of research and analytical reviews, 7(2), 698-712.
Abdullah, s., & muhammad, h. (2020). Spelling
errors in ma theses by non-native english speakers in kurdistan region of iraq:
a corpus-based study. Twejer journal, 3(1), 1007-1036.
Abdulqader, H. B., Murad, I. H., & Abdulghani, M.
I. (2017). The impact of the application of lexical approach on developing
students’ writing skills at a university level. European scientific journal,
13(32), 130-141. Canadian journal of language and literature studies, 1(2),
11-23.
https://doi.org/10.19044/esj.2017.v13n32p130
Ahmad, r. A., barzani, s. H. H., meena, r. S., &
ali, h. F. (2021). Common problems in translation of political texts: the case
of english and kurdish languages. Canadian Journal of Language and
Literature Studies, 1(2), 11-23.
Ahmed, i. A. (2017). Different types of spelling
errors made by kurdish efl learners and their potential causes. International
journal of kurdish studies, 3(2), 93-110.
Ali, f. S., & sarok, s. (2022). Students’
awareness towards using google docs in promoting writing skills in efl classes:
tiu-northern iraq. Canadian journal of language and literature studies, 2(2),
39–51. Https://doi.org/10.53103/cjlls.v2i2.39
Aljaf, p., ahmed, i., & salim, s. (2021).
Analyzing writing errors of kurdish efl students. Journal of garmian
university, 8(2), 293-307.
Al-saudi, j. (2013). Error analysis and spelling
mistakes of efl learners at tafila technical university: a case study. Frontiers
of language and teaching, 4, 99-107.
Amnuai, w. (2020). An error analysis of research
project abstracts written by thai undergraduate students. Advances in
language and literary studies, 11(4), 13-20.
Brown, d. (2000). Principles of language learning
and teaching. (4th ed). New york: longman
CARLA. (2021). OVERVIEW OF ERROR ANALYSIS. RETRIEVED
FROM. https://carla.umn.edu/learnerlanguage/error_analysis.html
Chanquoy, l. (2001). How to make it easier for
children to revise their writing. British journal of educational psychology
printed in great britain. The british psychological society. 71 (1). 15-
41.
Chen, h. C. (2004). Asymmetrical performances of
english null subjects and null objects for chinese college students. In
thirteenth international symposium on english teaching, taipei.
Chicho, k. Z. H. (2022). An analysis of factors
influencing efl learners’ writing skills. Canadian journal of language and
literature studies, 2(2), 28–38. Https://doi.org/10.53103/cjlls.v2i2.38
Corder, s. P. (1967). The significance of learners'
errors. International review of applied linguistics, 5(4), 5-13.
Corder, s. P. (1974). Error analysis. In p. B. Allen
& s. P. Corder (eds.), techniques in applied linguistics (pp.
122-154). London: oxford university press.
Creswell, j. W. (2012). Educational research:
planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (4th
ed.). Boston: pearson education.
Crystal, d. (2008). A dictionary of linguistics
and phonetics. (6th ed.). Oxford: blackwell publishing.
Ellis, r. (2008). The study of second language
acquisition. (2nd ed.). Oxford: oxford university press.
Https://carla.umn.edu/learnerlanguage/error_analysis.html
Hussein, s., meena, r. S., & ali, h. F. (2021).
Integration of literature in english language teaching: learners’ attitudes and
opinions. Canadian journal of language and literature studies, 1(1),
27-43.
Khansir, a. A. (2012). Error analysis and second
language acquisition. Theory & practice in language studies, 2(5).
Köroğlu, Z. Ç. (2014). An analysis of
grammatical errors of Turkish EFL students' written texts.
Electronic Turkish Studies, 9(12).Lado, r. (1957).
Linguistics across cultures. Ann arbor: university of michigan press.
Mahmood, D. K. (2016). An evaluation of
writing skills of EFL learners in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. International
Journal of Language and Linguistics, 4(1), 14-24.
Murad, I. (2015). The
effects of Kurdish learners’ characteristics on their English language learning. European
scientific journal, 11(10).
Omar, J. A. (2019). Kurdish EFL learners’ spelling
error types and sources. Journal of University of Raparin, 6(2),
111-120.
Richards, J. C., & Renandya, W. A. (2002).
Methodology in language teaching: An anthology of current practice. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Ridha, N. (2012). The effect of EFL learners' mother
tongue on their writings in English: An error analysis study. Journal of the
College of Arts, 60, 22-45.
Sampson, G., & McCarthy, D. (Eds.).
(2005). Corpus linguistics: Readings in a widening discipline. A&C
Black.
Zirak, K. H. C. (2021) Embodied Learning
Implementation in EFL Classroom: A Qualitative Study. International Journal of
Social Sciences & Educational Studies, 8(1), 51-58.
https://doi.org/10.23918/ijsses.
v8i1p51
Appendix 1
The Kurdish postgraduate EFL learners'
errors individually as numbers
|
Learners
|
Numbers of written words
|
Numbers of mistakes
|
Academic achievement
|
|
Learner 1
|
181
|
93
|
Bachelor degree
|
|
Learner 2
|
151
|
39
|
Bachelor degree
|
|
Learner 3
|
31
|
18
|
Master degree
|
|
Learner 4
|
144
|
62
|
Master degree
|
|
Learner 5
|
64
|
17
|
Master degree
|
|
Learner 6
|
190
|
30
|
Bachelor degree
|
|
Learner 7
|
108
|
63
|
Master degree
|
|
Learner 8
|
166
|
54
|
Bachelor degree
|
|
Learner 9
|
87
|
45
|
Bachelor degree
|
|
Learner 10
|
84
|
26
|
Bachelor degree
|
|
Learner 11
|
168
|
45
|
Bachelor degree
|
|
Learner 12
|
51
|
14
|
Bachelor degree
|
|
Learner 13
|
215
|
79
|
Doctoral
|
|
Learner 14
|
84
|
37
|
Bachelor degree
|
|
Learner 15
|
142
|
18
|
Bachelor degree
|
|
Learner 16
|
160
|
47
|
Bachelor degree
|
|
Learner 17
|
148
|
41
|
Bachelor degree
|
|
Learner 18
|
167
|
35
|
Bachelor degree
|
|
Learner 19
|
63
|
14
|
Bachelor degree
|
|
Learner 20
|
114
|
26
|
Bachelor degree
|
|
Learner 21
|
61
|
19
|
Bachelor degree
|
|
Learner 22
|
81
|
26
|
Bachelor degree
|
|
Learner 23
|
136
|
33
|
Master degree
|
|
Learner 24
|
25
|
9
|
Bachelor degree
|
|
Learner 25
|
80
|
21
|
Bachelor degree
|
|
Learner 26
|
72
|
17
|
Master degree
|
|
Learner 27
|
276
|
110
|
Bachelor degree
|
|
Learner 28
|
100
|
7
|
Bachelor degree
|
|
Learner 29
|
86
|
6
|
Master degree
|
|
Learner 30
|
143
|
38
|
Bachelor degree
|
|
Learner 31
|
62
|
34
|
Bachelor degree
|
|
Learner 32
|
87
|
6
|
Master degree
|
Appendix 2
Consent sheet
Appendix 3
A screenshot of scientific and literary
text coding
Appendix 4
A screenshot of scientific and literary
text coding
دراسة اخطاء
الكتابة في
اللغة
الانكليزية كلغة
اجنبية
للطلاب
الكورد في
الدراسات
العليا- تحليل
الاخطاء
الملخص:
تهدف
الدراسة
الحالية إلى
التحقق
والتقييم والتصنيف
في اخطاء
الكتابة في
اللغة الانكليزية
كلغة اجنبية
باستخدام
طريقة الكمية
والنوعية
لمجموعة من
طلاب الكورد
في الدراسات
العليا في
جامعة
زاخو(مركز
اللغة) بإقليم
كردستان
العراق. حيث
شارك في هذه
الدراسة اثنين
و ثلاثون من
طلاب و طالبات
الدراسات
العليا من
تخصصات
وشهادات
مختلفة. كانت
أداة جمع البيانات
الرئيسية هي
أوراق من
اجوبة الطلاب
للمناهج
الابتدائية
وما قبل
المتوسطة
لمستويات
اللغة
الإنجليزية
تحت عنوان (cutting edge) من
كتابة
الانشاء
المطلوب منهم
كتابتها لغرض
تحليل
البيانات
وايجاد أخطاء
في الكتابة وتصنيفها.
وفقًا لنتائج
هذه الدراسة ،
تم التحقيق في
القواعد
النحوية
وعلامات
الترقيم والكلمات
الزائدة و
اخطاء
الاملاء
والكتابة بالأحرف
الكبيرة
والترجمة
الحرفية للغة
الام وإساءة
استخدام
الأفعال
والادوات
التعريف
وحروف الجر
غير الضروري
وإساءة
استخدام الضمائر
وتوافق الفعل
مع الفاعل
وإساءة استخدام
حروف الجر
والفواصل
وإساءة
استخدام كلمات
الاقتران.
حيث ان
مجموعهم
ثلاثة عشر
نوعًا
مختلفًا من اصناف
أخطاء
الكتابة. و
كذلك أظهرت
نتائج هذا الاستطلاع
أيضًا أن
القواعد
اللغوية ،
وعلامات
الترقيم ،
والكلمة ، و
اخطاء
الاملاء ، والكتابة
بالأحرف
الكبيرة كانت
في الغالب من
اكثر الاخطاء
التي يرتكبها
المتعلمين
الكورد. كذلك
أظهرت
النتائج أنه
من مجموع 3627 عدد
كلمات كان 1083خطا
يتم ارتكابها
كمجموع الكلي
للاخطاء في الكتابة.
هذه النتائج
مهمة لمعلمي
اللغة الإنجليزية
كلغة أجنبية
لأنها تحفزهم
على التركيز
على أخطاء
الكتابة التي
يرتكبها
طلابهم واستخدامها
كتوصيات
تربوية و ايضا
للمتعلمين
لتطوير
مهاراتهم
اللغوية عند
تعلم لغة ثانية.
شاشیێن د نڤیسینا
زمانێ ئنگلیزیێ
دا وهكو
زمانهكێ بیانی
ژلایێ قوتابیێن
خاندنا بلند ێن
كورددا
پوخته
:
ئارمانجا
ڤێ ڤهكولینێ
پشكنینا شاشیانه
د زمانێ ئنگلیزى
دا وهكو نڤێسین
ژلایێ قوتابیێن
كورد ێن
خاندنا بلند ڤه
وهكو زمانێ بیانى
برێكا نڤێسینا
دارشتنێ لسهر
دوو بابهتێن
ههلبژارتى
كو د هێته
هژمارتن بهشهكى
گرنك د ڤهكولینا
زمانێ ئنگلیزی
دا وهك زمانهكێ
بیانى برێكا
بكارئینانا شێوازى
چهندایهتى
و چهوایێ. ڤهكولین
و پێداچوونا
ئهدهبى و شیكاركرنا
زانیارییان
لسهر شاشیێن
نڤێسینێ
دزمانى ئنگلیزی
دا وهك (رێزمان
, خهلپهندن ,
پهیڤێن زێده
, شاش نڤێسین ,
كاپیتالكرن ,
وهرگێرانا
زمانێ دایكێ ,
شاشیێن بكارئینانا
كاران , ئامیرێن
ناسنامهیێ,
گوتنێن پێشیان
ێن نه پێویست
, چوانیا
بكارئینانا
جهناڤكان , پهژراندنا
كارى دگهل
بكهرى , شاش
بكارئینانا
گوتنێن پێشیان
, كوماس , و وشێن
ههڤگرتنێ )
هاتن دیاركرن
و دهست نیشـــــانكرن
وهك شاشی كو
تێكرایا وان
دبیته ( 1083) شاشی
ژ كوژمێ وشین
هاتین نڤێسین
كو ژمارا وان
دبیته (3627 ) و ئهف
چهنده لسهر
كوژمێ ( 13) شاشیان
ین هاتین شلوڤكرن
و دهستنیشانكرن
ژلائى پسپورین
زمانی ڤه
هاتبوو شلوڤهكرن
و دارشتن. ئهف
ڤهكولینه دێ
وێ چهندێ دیار
كهت كو پیته
بێدهدان د
زمانێ ئنگلیزى
دا ژلایێ
ماموستایان و
ههروهسا
پروسا خاندنا
سهرهتایى و
ناڤنجى و
خاندنا بلند ژ
بو پێشئێخستنا
شیانێن قوتابیا
لسهر ئاستێ
زمان و زانیێ.