Exploring Errors in The English Essays of Senior High School Students

Running Head: EXPLORING ERRORS IN THE ENGLISH ESSAYS OF SENIOR HIGH
SCHOOL STUDENTS: BASIS FOR A WRITING PROGRAM
Exploring Errors in the English Essays of Senior High School Students:
Basis for a Writing Program
Alyssa D. Pinpin, Shaira A. Liwanag, Krystel Joy O. Soliman, Roger M. Henzon,
Michelle A. Dizon, and Mary Jaine D. Reyes
A Research Proposal Presented to the Faculty of College of Education
Don Honorio Ventura State University
Mexico Extension Campus
June 2021
EXPLORING ERRORS OF SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
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Chapter I
THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND
Introduction
Writing is crucial to the way we live today; without it, our society would simply not exist.
Writing is necessary for the functioning of our society. There may not be a single field or
cultural environment that doesn't use writing in some way. (Bywater, M.E, 2013).
According to Neville (2015) Writing helps us to communicate and grow on our thinking
skills. It is significant to every writer to place ideas in social, geographical, cultural text and
history. Moreover, as stated by Weigle and Keisha (2015) The very essence of writing is to
spread the knowledge of information, it equips the communication and thinking skills. Through
writing people can express their own self with the piece they are making. This being the case,
given that English is the universal language, this remains one of the hardest. Some students they
still experience rough times doing academic writing as well as speaking the language. That said,
according to Fadda A., (2012) Academic writing serves as an activity to students’ mind, as this
enables the writer to improve their critical thinking.
Clearly, academic writing is a major tool for the students to be able to master English
language and enhancing student’s thinking skill in most discipline. Furthermore, this has a huge
impact on learners to master second language; it is a challenge for students to master academic
writing because it is not easily learned by everyone. As mentioned by Sidman-Taveau, R. (2015),
one of the popular types of tests that teachers conduct to their students is an essay type test, this
obliged each student to construct ideas, where they are required to put it in words and write it on
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a piece of paper. Knowing that students are still on the process of learning, errors on their papers
are always expected. In a research made in Zimbabwe, since 2013 they found out that the
academic writings of both teachers and students are weak. Some schools are having a hard time
to exercise academic writing especially in Asian countries because they are non-anglicized and
the other reason is from their cultural backgrounds (Mupa, P., 2015). With this, one of the main
aspects to consider in an academic writing is, it must be understood by the perspective of the
society not only a single individual. From the past definitions they concluded that the academic
writing could be a very difficult process (Abdulkareem, M. 2013).
Second language is any language acquired or to be acquire lather than the native
language. That said, English as a second language was considered as lingua franca of academic,
economic, political and technical communication of result with increasing of demand of English
instruction in global contexts. L2 writing needs to focus with practicing that enables the
improvement of the mastery. Additionally, the learners of second language are considered as the
source of errors in writing presenting the learners’ competence in the target language. In writing,
errors are often seen where, most of the writers make mistakes and all are willing to change and
enhance their mistakes from writing (Horner, et. al. 2011). Basically, the errors that writers have
made could influence the progress in their writing learning process.
Errors are used in determining the improvement that has been made (Wolfe-Quintero, et.
al. 2016). By Understanding the influences of learners’ second language, it allows the writing to
be effectively comprehended. Besides this, learning instructors marks their teaching to develop
and enhance the writing process. From the perspective of ameliorating the quality and
transparency of L2 writing, prescribing a language variety that is befitted for academic and
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professional purposes will be beneficial for ESL learners (Malicsi, 2019). If people could see a
way into allowing learners to use English as a second language, students and teachers academic
text will reflect and enrich the developmental skills in writing.
On the other hand, error analysis is a method that determines the learner’s error in their
writings, to know the possible causes or source of their errors (Ellis and Barkhuizen, 2005). In
fact, English as international language has a lot of challenges and difficulties especially for non-
native speakers. According to Kukurs, (2012), even native speakers are also experiencing
difficulties in having a good piece of writing. In some cases, even the above-mentioned speaker
are not aware in grammar, distinction is also not important for them.
Similarly, errors are crucial in developing skills in acquiring language. Analyzing errors
displays insights and helps learners to understand the process and the area of language better
(Coder, 1976). Ellis and Barkhuizen, (2005), illustrated steps in analyzing error: a) collect
sample b) identify the errors c) errors description d) explaining errors. Consequently, this study
will be exploring the errors of senior high school students in writing English and what are the
possible causes of their errors. According to an article from the Philippine Institute for
Development Studies (PDIS) on Monday, April 20, 2020 said that the Senior High school
student are having difficulties in writing English, evident seen in research project.
Moreover, the aforementioned students still commit grammatical errors that they
encountered every time they come up an English writing and this must be corrected (Gardner
et.al, 1985). On the report of Midraj, O’Neill, & Sellami (2008), The simple instructions may
not be the easy solution to these errors, but there is still a follow up exercises and activities,
because they still commit the same errors despite the same lessons were taught to them. So, this
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must be taken into consideration by the teacher or the content of the curriculum, but the process
of transferring that knowledge, and articulating to the students the uses of what they have
acquired, the application of the second language in their everyday lives. As the K-12 Program
emerged to help students to choose what strand to learn to help them in their college level. This
program may have benefits to all the senior high, because before they come in their college level,
they have a background of their courses to choose, this background learning helps to pursue their
dream and to become successful. And this program has different strand where you can choose
what fits your course in college, the BAM stands for Business Accountancy Management,
Humanities, Education, Social Sciences (HESS); and Science, Technology, Engineering,
Mathematics (STEM). All of these helps student to build their learning and undergo immersions
to test if they really learn after the 2 years in their Senior High School. By having the process of
transferring that knowledge, and students practice what they acquired in their everyday lives.
This was limited to the identification of the errors committed by the students in writing and some
common errors that included and the other errors in using forms and writing process (Estacio
et.al, 2018)
In writing using the second language, errors are inevitable specially on the process of
learning it. Ferris (2014), agreed that errors committed in writing using the second language are
naturally normal in the learning stage of each individual. Ferris also adds that teachers usually
see these errors because when they are in process of checking, English teachers are actually
looking for the errors, and not because these errors are obviously seen.
According to the study of Ozkayran and Yilmaz (2020), usually, students in higher
education committed an error on the spelling or the formation of the original words. Among all
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the three hundred and eighty-one (381) students, there are almost fifty percent (50%) of them
who committed the said error. In addition to this, most committed errors were seen on the
omission of words, the absence of a word that makes a sentence whole. A study from Turkey
discovered that students usually commit an error in the usage of preposition because of the
different structure used in Turkish and English language. The different grammar structure of the
first language from the second one greatly affects the error committed when using the second
language or the L2.
In the study of Divsar and Heydari (2017), students who took English as foreign language
(EFL) had perform errors mostly on their word choice or the diction used in a sentence and using
these words in verb form. The problem seen in the study was the students’ lack of vocabulary in
expressing their ideas that leads to redundancy and misuse of words in different forms. Another
error that is usually seen are in spelling errors, noun errors, punctuation and the usage of linking
words.
Theoretical Framework
This study is supported by the Interlanguage Theory of Selinker (1972). This theory
refers to the evolution of learners’ language rules that is influence by different processes
including their acquisition in first and second language. The rules of their first language are
incorrectly applied in their second language which can cause errors and that is called
fossilization. Selinker claims that interlanguage is always fossilize, the development stops at
some point and rules from the first language is incorrectly applied in the target language. It
became identical with the system of target language, which means that the second language will
never acquire accurately like native speakers. One of the reasons why interlanguage fossilization
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happen is because of adults learning style, learning language as an adult, studying rules and
grammar can make learning language easier for them (Selinker, 1972). Adults are influenced by
their first language. Therefore, the rules from their first language are incorrectly applied in their
new language and it cause errors.
Over the years, many studies about interlanguage theory have continued, different studies have
been conducted and to describe the system. Marin Serrano (2013) conducted an analysis to
identify the different errors of 200 written text from the second year and third year students,
future EFL teachers in Universidad Pontificia in Salamanca, Spain. He claims that the possible
causes and sources of their errors are Omission and L1 interference. To conclude, he considered
that interference is the main reason of errors in L2 acquisition. Interference affects the
development of L2 cause by the learners first language.
According to the study of Ozkayran and Yilmaz (2020), students in higher education had
committed an error, usually on the spelling or the formation of the original words. Most
committed errors were seen on the omission of words, the absence of a word.
This research will use the steps in error analysis such as collect sample, Identify the errors,
Errors description and explaining errors (Ellis and Barkhuizen, 2005).
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Collection of Identification of
Sample Errors
Explanation of Description of
Errors Errors
Figure 1: Error Analysis
Data will be collected from 2 different school in Pampanga total of 38 essayss will be
identified under what kind of errors are they. In this study, the errors will be defined into:
Omission Error (OE) Misformation Error (MFE) Addition Error (AE) and Misordering Error
(MOE). Errors will be define using surface structure taxonomy. After the identification and
description, Errors will explain and their corrections.
Statement of the Problem
This research will determine the common errors in English writing of Senior high school
student and what writing program can be designed based on their errors.
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Thus, this paper will answer the following research questions:
1. How may the Common Errors in the English Essays of Senior High School Students be
described in terms of their surface structure?
2. Based on the result of the study, what writing program can be designed based on the Common
Errors in the English Essays of Senior High School Students?
Significance of the Study
Exploring Errors in the English Essays of Senior High School Students: Basis for a
Writing Program is about the usual errors committed and seen in the English Essays of Senior
High School students that would serve as basis for a writing program that may aid the
researchers in determining factors to enhance writing skills. Moreover, analyzing errors could be
a crucial aspect in learning a language wherein it denotes the capacity of knowledge that a writer
has. Errors reflect gaps in a learners’ capacity of knowledge; it occurs to the particular reason
that a learner does not know how to determine what is correct, Gayo and Widodo (2018.) It is
essential that errors could be a way to use a systematic analysis to determine and assess how it
improves the learning goals. In addition, it could provide as evidence to the researchers
regarding with how the language impact is learned or acquired. Errors are vital to the learners, to
the particular reason that it serves as a device in order to exert effort in learning process and
improving skills in writing. Furthermore, these errors are sign of progress in identifying the type
of difficulties of a learner is available for the teachers to assess in order to determine what
appropriate methods to use in language writing.
The result of the study will provide substantial benefit to the following:
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To the students, the data given will provide knowledge and information about the
different types of possible errors committed in writing an essay. It will help them to determine
and be aware of the errors they committed and how it affects their writing.
To the teachers, the result of the study will stratify an evaluation of essays rendered by
the students. It will help them to assess the students’ learning on where improvement is in need.
To the school, this study will improve the development of skills of the learners in terms
of writing an essay using the English language. It will foster new ways in enhancing knowledge
and skills, thus preparing globally competitive students in the future.
To the future researchers, this study will provide them knowledge and information about
the importance of the study in learning. Also, it will serve as their basis whether they want to
explore more related with this study.
Scope and Delimitation
The endeavor of the study will be consisting of thirty (38) learners corpus that are from
two (2) schools in Pampanga. In order to be qualified for the research study, it is extremely
important that they are currently in the senior high school level and are taking up a subject where
they are having an essay writing in English as an output. The researchers have chosen senior high
school students as participants in this study because they wanted to explore the errors that they
are still committing as they undergo different subjects focusing on the development of their
writings. In addition to that, SHS offers a course entitled Reading and Writing to further enhance
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students’ skills, this subject contains lessons that allows the student to examine and create
different types of writing. (DepEd, 2013).
Definition of Terms
The researches defined the following words that are essential in this study:
Error analysis – a method used to document errors that appear in the learning language, it focuses
on errors that are systematic violations of patterns in the input to which the learners have been
exposed.
L2 Writing – it is the application or usage of the second language of individual in writing. In this
study the second language of the participants is English.
Fossilization – this happens when the development stops and rules from the first language are
incorrectly applied in the target language, which may be a source of error.
Surface Structure Taxonomy –
Interference – is a transfer of elements such as lexical, grammatical and phonological transfer
from L1 to L2.
Omission – the absence of a word that makes a sentence whole
Addition – are errors caused by adding element which is not necessarily in the structure of
sentence
Misinformation – an error when the morpheme or structure is incorrectly used
Misordering – Any improper positioning of morphemes in sentences is known as misordering.
(Kuntjara & Limengka, 2013)
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Acronyms
SHS - Senior High School
PIDS - Philippine Institute for Development Studies
L2 - Second Language
EFL - English as Foreign Language
BAM - Business Accountancy Management
HESS - Humanities, Education, Social Sciences
STEM - Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics
OE – Omission Error
AE – Addition Error
MFE – Misformation Error
MOE – Misordering Error
Chapter II
METHODOLOGY
Research Design
The researcher will be conducting this study –to identify errors in English essay writing
of the Senior High School Students and to address the said specific errors. By the same token,
the said study is qualitative in nature since it draws meaningful information from a person and it
is designed to gain an in-depth data about the errors of Senior High School in writing essays.
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The researchers will be conducting a case study, wherein the researchers will be able to
have an in-depth knowledge of the errors committed by the Senior high school students with the
aim to understand the root cause behind these errors. (Corner A., 2016)
Participants/Key-Informants
The study will be conducted in two (2) school in Pampanga, with a total number of thirty-
eight (38) Senior High School Students from different sections. In terms of data collection, the
researchers will gather and evaluate each of the output of the said participants in their English
essay writing subject.
The researchers have chosen senior high school students as participants in their study,
since SHS offers a course entitled Reading and Writing to further enhance students’ skills, which
contains lessons that allows the student to examine and create different types of writing. (DepEd,
2013). That said, the researcher would like to see how well the they write. Also, in order to
identify the issues or errors committed by the aforementioned participants.
Instruments
The researchers will be using different learners’ corpus of senior high requested from
their respective teachers, as their data. The essays will be thoroughly analyzed using error
analysis design to determine the errors committed. Furthermore, the errors that will be seen by
the researchers will be defined using the surface structure taxonomy of errors to ensure the
correctness of the analyzation of data that will be gathered. Also, the researchers will utilize error
tagging system as their instrument in determining the errors on the essays of the students.
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Data Collection
With the on-going qualitative research, the researchers will be collecting the essays of
selected Senior High School (SHS) students, which the researcher will be then observing errors
in line with surface structure taxonomy namely: ommision errors, addition errors, misformation
errors and mirordering errors. Along with this, the researchers will be gathering senior high
school learner corpus through the help of a teacher who handles the said students for a
convenient way of collecting. The researchers will be analyzing 38 learner’s corpuses collected
of the senior high school students – all of whom are natives of Pampanga and uses English as
their second language.
Ethical Considerations
The researchers are expected to set in place ethical protocols and standards for the study
in compliance with the directives of the research ethics of American Psychological Association.
The teachers whom will coordinate with the researchers will be obliged to sign an informed
consent specifying the study’s basic procedures and protocols. With this, the researchers shall
obtain informed consent from the coordinating teachers.
The researchers have then the responsibility to protect all information revealed and seen in the
learners’ corpora.
Data Analysis
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In this study, the researchers will utilize error analysis as their design in determining the
errors in the essays of the selected senior high school students. Thus, Ellis and Barkhuizen
(2005) cited some guidelines in conducting the abovementioned matter. The figure below
shows the steps on how to utilize the error design analysis.
Collection of Identification of
Sample Errors
Explanation of Description of
Errors Errors
Figure 1: Error Analysis
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According to the Ellis and Barkhuizen (2005), the following steps are needed in error
analysis. Firstly, the collection of samples. The researchers will be collecting data from the
selected respondents of the study. These data are the essay made by the selected senior high
school students’ participant. After collecting the data, the second step is the identification of
errors. In this step, the researchers will identify the overall underlying errors in the essay of the
respondents. The third step is the description of errors. Once the errors were identified, the
researchers will give description to the errors made by the respondents. The description can be
categorized based on the common errors of their writing. After the description were categorized,
the researchers then will give valid explanation on the common mistakes made by the
participants.
Along with these, after the analyzation of data, the researchers will come up with a
writing program design based on the essays of the Senior High School Students. By this, the
teachers will be able to identify the common errors of students in their writing, which will serve
as their guide in teaching, especially in reading and literature program.
Chapter III
FINDING AND DISCUSSION
This chapter will be focusing on the discussion of findings that the researchers have seen
after undergoing the learner’s corpus in error tagging and defined the seen errors using surface
structure taxonomy. Below are the types of errors seen
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There is a total of 38 learner corpus” analyze through Error Analysis. The errors were
described through the use of Surface Structure Taxonomy, where four major classifications
appeared: Omission error (OE), Addition Error (AE), Miformation Error (MFE) and Misordering
error (MOE).
Table 1 :
Types of Errors
Table 1 reveals that the most committed error was seen on misformation errors (40.7%),
almost half of the tagged error. Then, mission error with 31% followed by addition error
(23.1%). Garnering the smallest percentage is misordering errors with only 5.1%. This implies
that Senior High School students have major difficulties in word forms.
Misformation Errors
Misformation is the kind of error when the morpheme or structure is incorrectly used,
Nuraini (2019). In figure 2, the researcher found one hundred twenty-seven (127) errors with the
result of 40.7% of misformation error that is markedly seen in the 38 essays collected by the
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researcher from the selected senior high school students. It is usually because of lack of
knowledge and understanding about changing of past participle or in constructing sentences in
accordance with its tense form. Therefore, it can be concluded that because of having a limited
vocabulary, most of the students have done such error.
1. I see her yesterday.
(I saw her yesterday.)
Misformation 1 is an example of error that can be categorized as misformation produced
by students. In this sentence, the learner committed an error in using irregular verb which
marked by using the wrong form see to be replaced by saw.
2. He is a woman.
(She is a woman.)
Misformation 2 is another example of error that can be categorized as misformation
produced by students. In this sentence, it can be seen clearly that the learner used the
wrong structure. The woman is identically considered as a female that the correct
pronoun is not he but she.
3. I leaved my wallet when I was out of the class.
(I left my wallet when I was out of the class.)
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Misformation 3 is another example of error that can be categorised as misformation
produced by students. In this sentence, there is no word leaved for the past verb it should
be left instead of leaved.
4. I decided to enrolled myself in ABM.
(I decided to enrol myself in ABM.)
produced by students. In this sentence, the writer wrote the verb enrolled as past tense
while contradicting to linguistic rule that the verb must be in root form when it is
followed by infinitive marker to.
5. His songs have made he famous.
(His songs have made him famous.)
produced by students. In this sentence, after the verb the pronoun must be object not
subject.
6. I love studying the architecture and schoolpture. (sculpture) spelling/delete article the
(I love studying architecture and sculpture.)
produced by students. In this sentence, it is evident that misspelled word schoolpture was
committed by the learner.
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7. Her danced with my brother.
(She danced with my brother.)
produced by students. In this sentence, it should be she instead of her since it caused
when the learner represents the entire class of subject.
8. She made her dress tomorrow.
(She will make her dress tomorrow)
produced by students. In this sentence, it should use a simple future tense which is will
make because of the time signal tomorrow.
9. Rina who makes the cake and sells the cake is my cousin.
(Rina who makes the cake and sells it is my cousin.)
produced by students. In this sentence, the bolded words must be changed with object
pronoun to prevent redundancy.
10. In his talk, he narrated how he was able to help thousands of childrens.
(In his talk, he narrated how he was able to help thousands of children.)
produced by students. In this sentence, incorrect usage of pluralisation is visible wherein
it should be children instead of childrens.
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Misformation error has the highest number of error found in this study. This result is
similar to Nadia (2016) the writer found 35 errors from the students’ writing because of
omission, addition, misformation and misordering. It has 11 omissions, 3 additions, 15
misformation and 6 misordering. Most of the errors are in omission and misformation. In
addition, the findings of Nurmala (2017) shows that the highest is misformation with
errors of 216 out 375 or 57.6%. To be concluded that misformation is the most frequently
error committed by learners which cause is from lack or poor knowledge and
understanding about the appropriate usage of tenses and grammar.
Omission Errors
Table 2:
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Types of Omission.
Table 2 reveals most omission errors happen mostly on punctuations, garnering the total
percentage of 52%. Next in line, was omissions of verbs with 19% of the total count followed by
omissions of preposition comprising of 9%.
On punctuations
1. So instead of using their money to buy food they cook at home.
2. For some research is about gathering data.
3. Through her invention she has touched so many lives.
The former and later sentences start with an introductory phrase, which requires a comma after to
separate it from the main clause. In the second sentence, a comma is needed to prevent
misreading, as the word “some” here may refer to individuals or other researches. Some sentence
that lacks punctuation may not showcase an alteration of meaning within a context. U.S.
Government Publishing Office (n.d) states that, in academic writing punctuations are necessary
to bring out clarity of text and guarantees identical interpretation of text between reader and the
writer.
On verbs
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1.Humans are the one who responsible for it.
2. So that in the future or college, I have my prior knowledge.
These sentences display the omission of verbs. In the first sentence the missing auxiliary verb is
“are”, which is a linking verb. On the second sentence the word “will” is missing after the word
“I”,it is needed to further clarify that the speaker doesn’t yet have the knowledge, but will have it
in the future. This finding supported in the study of Suhono S. (2021), who found out that 33 %
of these omission errors are of verbs.
Of preposition
1. They used social media communicating other.
2. I am fascinated with diving the world of Classical Sculpture.
The first sentence lacks the prepositions “in and to” before the words “communicating”
and “other” respectively. There is also the need to add the word “each” before the word “other”
to make the sentence correct.
On other omissions
1. Involving understanding of how the situation will change over time will help the business to
be organize.
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(In this sentence, there is an omission of conjunction” and” after the word” Involving”
that serves as coordinating conjunction that joins elements)
2. After long time, we were able to plant trees.
(Article “a” was omitted after the word after)
3, We all know that our nature is full of beautiful view, but “we” don’t compromise importance
to our nature
(In this sentence, the determiner “its” was omitted before the word importance,” its” is
needed here to clarify that the phrase is associated with the previous text.)
4. I learned the different elements in music. Also enjoyed learning the arts and craft of Luzon
(In here, the second sentence lacks the article I before the word also, this is needed to
give a clearer idea that it is still the writer who is also enjoyed leaning.)
These minor types are also seen in the study of Amiri and Puteh (2016), and Seitova (2016) who
show a large number of errors of article omission, and 5% errors on omissions of preposition.
Addition of Error
Addition errors are errors caused by adding element which is not necessarily in the structure of
sentence ( Tizazu, 2014). In figure 2, addition of errors is distinctly seen in the 38 essays
collected by the researchers from the senior high school students with the result of 23.1%
Addition of errors
1. We need the specific information that we can use in also our daily life.
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(In this sentence unnecessary conjunctive verb added. The conjunctive verb is only used to
connect independent clause for transitional expression).
2. A lot of students disagree and are complain about the continuation of classes.
(In this sentence, the auxiliary verb “are” is unnecessary and so it has to be deleted. Both verbs
“disagree and complain” observe parallelism.).
3. Be that as it. may, social media and real-life events are connected because people post things
on social media that in fact occur in their lives.
(In this sentence unnecessary period after the word it, and unnecessary words, the shaded part
can be deleted).
4. Humans are the ones destroying the earth.
(In this sentence additional punctuation added, there must be no period at the end because this is
just a dependent clause, specifically a noun clause used as a subject in the sentence.)
Findings of the same cases were also found to Savanna and Lakshmikantham (2016) The result
shows that student errors can classify as omission and additional error due to L1 and L2
interference. Additon and misordering were also found as consistent finding to (Muhamad et al,
2013).
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Misordering
1. Through her invention she has touched so many lives.
In this example, it is not clear whether the pronouns “her” and “she” refer to one or the same
person, or there are two persons involved. If the sentence runs like this: “She has touched so
many lives through her invention,” it is now clear that only one person is being talked about.
Here misordering is particularly misplaced modifier. Puno (2009) noted that a misplaced
modifier is a word, phrase, or clause that has landed in the wrong place in the sentence. When the
modifier is incorrectly placed, the sentence either gives a different meaning or makes no sense at
all.
2. Involving understanding of how the situation will change over time will help the business to be
organize.
Splitting a verb phrase is ineffective and results in an awkward construction. The sentence above
sounds better if it is revised as follows: “Involving and understanding of how the situation will
change over time will help organize the business.” There is also the need to use the coordinating
conjunction “and” between the words involving and understanding.
3. I learned some of the module in arts about the artifacts, sculpture, physical fitness and the
Dimensions of Holistic Health.
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The sentence above illustrates misordering error because some words are not logically arranged.
The revised sentence would be: From our module in arts, I learned something about artifacts,
sculpture, physical fitness, and the dimensions of holistic health. Also, in the sentence above the
beginning of the words “dimension,” “holistic,” and “health” are capitalized. In the context of the
sentence, such words need not capitalized.
Misordering error has the lowest number of errors found in this study. Similar result was noted in
the study of Nadiah (2016), where in there were a total of six misordering errors found
Proposed Writing Program
Based on the findings of this study, there is a need for an intensive writing program
because of the errors that has been tagged by the researcher from the 38 collected essays of the
selected senior high school students. Given the fact that, English language is a vital tool for
communication, it is also important to improve the writing skills of the learners. Thus, it is an
urgent need to implement the writing program that was designed to address the problem of errors
revealed in the study. (Nuraini, H. 2019)
The proposed writing program is Technical Writing Program in which misformation and
omission errors has the majority percentage in the error analysis that is in need of improvement.
It is said to be that it is crucial in the part where learners have difficulties in terms of constructing
a sentence using tenses and grammar. Technical Writing Program is essential to be implemented
for the senior high school students during every summer of the coming academic years for them
______________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________28
to be an effective writer before they will move through to tertiary level. Students should be able
to practice writing with knowledge to provide complex information to readers in a way they can
understand and apply it. It is a must that they need to accomplish 120 hours of attendance and
should have a minimum grade of 85 at the end of the course program to qualify for the
completion of the writing course in the senior high school.
This writing program is a 120-hour of intensive study on exploring errors in the English essays. It
is implemented at the end of the academic year for the Senior High School students. It deals with
the topics on structures of sentences, phrases, clauses, tenses, punctuations, part of speech,
subject-verb, grammar and manner and method of writing composition from the related study of
Ulla (2014).
Course Objectives:
At the end of the program, the students are expected to:
1. Discuss and determine the factors of difficulties
2. Understand the work with the rules of structure to be applied in sentences
3. Increase of consciousness with the importance of appropriate usage of grammar using an
English language
4. Boost the level of confidence in using the English language to support with their writings
5. Widen their vocabulary and knowledge about grammar through proper practice exercises
______________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________29
Course Requirements:
1. Compilation of written essays
2. Language research on English language topic
The program presented in this study can lend a major help for learners to improve their ways of
writing using the second language which is English. In line with this, they are able to determine
their difficulties that would engage them to write in an effective way applying the knowledge
they acquired from Technical Writing Program. The purpose of this writing program is for the
Senior High School students to learn the appropriate usage for clear and effective use in writing.
It is said to be that if this errors are ignored or not seriously dealt with, these will remain
fossilized or stagnant at their low proficiency level from the similar findings of Ulla (2014).
Chapter 4
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Conclusion
______________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________30
To conclude, SHS students in 2 schools in Pampanga encountered difficulties in writing essays in
English. This study analyzed that the highest percentage of their errors and t. Researchers found
that errors done are comprise of misformation with 40.7% and omission with 31.1%. In the sub
category of omission, punctuation has the highest percentage with 54% total, followed by the
verb 20% total errors.
With the said findings, a writing program focusing on misformation and omission could be made
since they are the highest percentage of errors. The reason for this problem is interference. It is a
transfer element such as lexical, grammatical and phonological transfer from L1 to L2.
In terms of the interference, Corder (1982) stated that the cause of interference is the learner's
first language
Recommendation
The researchers give a number of suggestions for possible writing error treatments based on the
findings of the current study:
1.Expand the number of teaching weeks because writing is a skill that takes time to reinforce
and practice grammatical principles and writing standards.
2. Address common writing faults repeatedly, either anonymously in a whole-class discussion or
directly, to erase fossilized errors. Individual remarks can be made in under a minute. Meet with
each student during the teacher's office hours. Both methods of feedback are extremely effective.
3. Use the peer correction method especially with pre-intermediate and intermediate students.
______________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________31
4. Encourage students to follow the writing process because brainstorming, reading a book, or
viewing a related video might assist students produce ideas they don't have.
According to Erdoğan (2005), errors are expected to include information towards researchers
that will help them in identifying areas of difficulty and possible causes of the errors. The
process of language learning can be better understood when language learners' mistakes and
errors are analyzed.
______________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________32
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Exploring Errors in The English Essays of Senior High School Students

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Running Head: EXPLORING ERRORS IN THE ENGLISH ESSAYS OF SENIOR HIGH

SCHOOL STUDENTS: BASIS FOR A WRITING PROGRAM

Exploring Errors in the English Essays of Senior High School Students:

Basis for a Writing Program

Alyssa D. Pinpin, Shaira A. Liwanag, Krystel Joy O. Soliman, Roger M. Henzon,

Michelle A. Dizon, and Mary Jaine D. Reyes

A Research Proposal Presented to the Faculty of College of Education

Don Honorio Ventura State University

Mexico Extension Campus

THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

enables the writer to improve their critical thinking.

writing because it is not easily learned by everyone. As mentioned by Sidman-Taveau, R. (2015),

writing could be a very difficult process (Abdulkareem, M. 2013).

made could influence the progress in their writing learning process.

text will reflect and enrich the developmental skills in writing.

Humanities, Education, Social Sciences (HESS); and Science, Technology, Engineering,

language or the L2.

new language and it cause errors.

development of L2 cause by the learners first language.

Errors description and explaining errors (Ellis and Barkhuizen, 2005).

Figure 1: Error Analysis

description, Errors will explain and their corrections.

Statement of the Problem

Thus, this paper will answer the following research questions:

described in terms of their surface structure?

Errors in the English Essays of Senior High School Students?

Significance of the Study

appropriate methods to use in language writing.

and skills, thus preparing globally competitive students in the future.

explore more related with this study.

Scope and Delimitation

different types of writing. (DepEd, 2013).

study the second language of the participants is English.

incorrectly applied in the target language, which may be a source of error.

Surface Structure Taxonomy –

Interference – is a transfer of elements such as lexical, grammatical and phonological transfer

Omission – the absence of a word that makes a sentence whole

Misinformation – an error when the morpheme or structure is incorrectly used

Misordering – Any improper positioning of morphemes in sentences is known as misordering.

(Kuntjara & Limengka, 2013)

SHS - Senior High School

PIDS - Philippine Institute for Development Studies

EFL - English as Foreign Language

BAM - Business Accountancy Management

HESS - Humanities, Education, Social Sciences

STEM - Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics

MFE – Misformation Error

MOE – Misordering Error

essay writing subject.

identify the issues or errors committed by the aforementioned participants.

their second language.

obtain informed consent from the coordinating teachers.

shows the steps on how to utilize the error design analysis.

Figure 1: Error Analysis

as their guide in teaching, especially in reading and literature program.

FINDING AND DISCUSSION

structure taxonomy. Below are the types of errors seen

knowledge and understanding about changing of past participle or in constructing sentences in

vocabulary, most of the students have done such error.

1. I see her yesterday.

(I saw her yesterday.)

Misformation 1 is an example of error that can be categorized as misformation produced