Asia Proceedings of Social Sciences 4(1) 91-93

Asia Proceedings of Social Sciences

(APSS)
www.readersinsight.net/APSS

ERROR ANALYSIS IN ESL WRITING

Yasmine Liong Pui Kwan Abdullah*
Pejabat Pendidikan Daerah Kuala Pilah
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
Malaysia

Melor Md. Yunus

Faculty of Education
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
Malaysia

Harwati Hashim
Faculty of Education
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
Malaysia

*Corresponding author’s Email: rizulhisham@gmail.com

Author’s Biography

Yasmine Liong Pui Kwan Abdullah is a School Improvement Specialist

Coach (SISC+) currently based in Pejabat Pendidikan Daerah Kuala Pilah,
Negeri Sembilan. She holds a Diploma Perguruan Malaysia in English
Language Studies from Maktab Perguruan Ilmu Khas, Cheras and a
Bachelor of Education in TESL from University Kebangsaan Malaysia. She
has been in service since 1999. She has taught in both primary and secondary
schools.

Peer-review under responsibility of 3rd Asia International Multidisciplanry Conference 2019 editorial board
(http://www.utm.my/asia/our-team/)
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1
ResearchHighlights
Although writing is an important skill, it is not easy to be acquired (Fareed et al., 2016;
Raimes, 1983; Sa ’diyah, 2017). Therefore, if pupils were proficient in grammatical rules,
they should be able to write better. This quantitative study aims to identify grammatical errors
based on a short guided essay written by 77 Year 6 primary pupils from a suburban school in
one of the states of Malaysia. The focus is on four word classes: noun, verb, preposition and
article which have a higher frequency of errors. Findings showed these pupils made the most
errors in the usage of verbs. This study suggests teachers to plan an intervention to help
improve their pupils’ learning of the language based on a deep understanding of the problem
areas.

ResearchObjectives
Teachers can come up with practical and effective interventions to help their pupils learn the
English language after reflecting on their teaching methods (Ho Peng, 1976). Error analysis is
a useful way because it provides teachers with essential information on the types of errors
committed by their pupils when they write, and teachers can use this information to select
suitable teaching techniques to make pupils’ learning more effective (Talif and Edwin, 2015).
This study focuses on the types of errors made by Year 6 ESL pupils who will be sitting for
the Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) this year. This study aims to identify the types
of errors that these pupils frequently make when they attempted to write a short essay in
English. Teachers can plan for interventions to overcome these errors and to improve their
pupils’ writing skill when they know the areas of weaknesses of their pupils.

Methodology
This study is a quantitative study and subjects are based on purposive sampling. They are 77
Year 6 pupils from one of the suburban schools in one of the states in Malaysia. They are
grouped according to two groups: advanced and lower-intermediate. By doing this, the
differences in the frequency of errors made by these two groups can be clearly seen.
These two groups were asked to complete a writing task which was a guided essay during
their English language class within the limit of one hour. The writing task was similar to the
essay question in Section C of the UPSR English Language paper. The essay should be
between 80 to 100 words. The essays will then be marked and analysed by the researcher.
The findings are presented using three tables followed by a discussion of data. The researcher
only focused on four word class: noun, verb, preposition and article. Examples of errors taken
from the pupils’ essays are provided and discussed in the discussion of findings section.

Results
Results showed that both Group 1 and Group 2 has an equal number of frequency of errors of
thirty in the usage of nouns in their essays. Most of the pupils made errors in plurality and
pronouns. As for errors in the usage of verbs, Group 1 has a total of thirty-seven pupils
compared to Group 2 which has only thirty-six pupils. Most of the pupils made errors when
using tenses to write. They also made errors when using auxiliary verbs and modal verbs.
Some pupils misused participle tense. In the usage of prepositions, Group 2 tends to make
more errors compared to Group 1. Group 2 has nine compared to Group 1 which has only
three pupils. It could be due to Group 2 pupils tend to write longer sentences. In the usage of
articles, Group 1 unexpectedly made fewer errors compared to Group 2. Group 1 only have
six pupils
meanwhile Group 2 has thirteen pupils. Some of the pupils use the wrong article and some of
them did not add an article before the nouns.

Findings
Findings show that the percentage of errors made by the pupils in the four word class is 79
per cent and 77 per cent for nouns, 97.4 per cent and 92.3 per cent for verbs, 23.7 per cent
and 7.7 per cent for prepositions, and 15.8 per cent and 33.3 per cent for articles. From the
findings, it is obvious that verbs is a problem for these pupils especially in the use of tenses.
It shows that pupils’ knowledge in the use of tenses needs to be reinforced. Teachers should
plan an intervention to overcome this problem.

References
Fareed, M., Ashraf, A., Bilal, M., 2016. ESL Learners’ Writing Skills: Problems, Factors and Suggestions. J.
Educ. Soc. Sci. 4, 83–94. https://doi.org/10.20547/jess0421604201
Ho Peng, L., 1976. Errors and Error Analysis in TESL: The Malaysian Experience. RELC Journals 7, 23–29.
Raimes, A. (Ed.), 1983. Techniques in Teaching Writing, First Edit. ed. Oxford University Press, New York.
Sa ’diyah, H., 2017. Improving Students’ Ability in Writing Descriptive Texts Through a Picture Series- Aided
Learning Strategy. English Teach. XL, 164–182.
Talif, R., Edwin, M., 2015. Error Analysis of Form Four XVIII, 1–12.