CORRECTING VERB ERRORS IN ERROR ANALYSIS QUESTIONS USING

TRAFFIC LIGHT

AHMAD SAFWAN BIN SULAIMAN

SEKOLAH TINGGI KLUANG
429 JALAN SEKOLAH, 86000 KLUANG, JOHOR

ABSTRACT

This classroom action research was conducted with the aim

to help 19 Form 3RK3 students of Sekolah Tinggi Kluang (STK) to
improve their skills and performance in answering the Error
Correction questions. The research was carried out on 19 Form
3RK3 students of my own class. During the early observation, Item
Analysis, interview and Pretest were used to get the insights on
students’ problems. The early observation showed that students
faced difficulties in answering the Error Correction questions
because they do not have proper strategy to answer the
questions, although they have the knowledge on grammar,
particularly in verb forms and functions. To overcome this
problem, the Traffic Light method was introduced to equip the
students with the proper strategy to answer the Error Correction
questions. The results showed improvement in terms of students’
abilities to locate verb errors in the text and provide the corrections
to the verb errors. Students showed good understanding on the
types of verb errors most commonly tested in the Error Correction
question. The Posttest results compared to the Pretest also
showed great improvement as all students scored higher in the
Posttest than the Pretest. The research suggests that the method
to be further tested on students from other classes and with
different background, and also tested on other grammatical
aspects in the question.

1.0 TEACHING AND LEARNING REFLECTIONS

One of the five classes that I teach this year is the 3RK3 class. The class
consists of 28 students, with mixed English linguistic abilities ranging from average
to good. They are going to sit for the PT3 examination in few months time and one
of the sections in the examination paper that has stirred the anxiety in my students’
feelings is the Error Correction. In the question, students have to identify 10
underlined errors from ten lines in a text provided and they have to make the
correction to the grammatical errors. Generally, 7 errors are on verbs, and the
other 3 errors are on articles, prepositions and conjunctions.

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 I noticed the problem after I did the Item Analysis of the students’
performance for the English mid-year examination results. I found out that out of
28 students in the class, 19 students scored 6 marks and lower out of the 10 full
marks. The analysis also showed that the errors they made were on verb error.
From that, I confirmed that they need more practices on identifying verb errors in
sentences.

Thus, in the next class, I gave the students exercises focusing more on verb
usages in sentences and the 19 students who scored lower than 6 marks were
able to complete the exercises at ease. From that, the results supported my claim
that students are on the average to good level of English proficiency and I strongly
believe they should not have problems answering the Error Correction questions.

Then, I interviewed the 19 students and all of them said that they know all
the verb rules like singular, plural and tenses. For example, they know how to
change the verb from present to past tense, and they understand the type of verb
they have to use with singular and plural subjects. However, they are not sure on
how to locate the verb errors in sentences. When there is a verb error in a
sentence, they are not sure why the use of the verb is wrong and how to correct
the error.

2.0 RESEARCH FOCUS

From these early reflections, I found out that although students know how
to use the verbs correctly in sentences, students do not have proper strategies to
correct the verb errors in sentences. As a result, students were not able to answer
all 10 questions correctly and gained better marks in the Error Correction.
Therefore, I strongly believe that I need to equip them with proper strategy to
identify and correct the verb errors. I am sure that if this problem faced by my 19
students is not corrected soon, they would not be able to score in this type of
question, and even worst, they would not be able to write better English.

The focus of this research is to help students to use their knowledge on verb
functions and usages in sentences to answer Error Correction questions by
equipping them with a proper strategy to analyse and correct the errors. Vann &
Abraham (1990) strongly suggest that many language learners are unsuccessful
because they do not have proper strategy in learning and using the language.
Hence, I strongly believe that students’ knowledge on verb functions and usages
in sentences combined with proper technique and strategy to locate and correct
verb errors can help students to answer the Error Correction questions correctly
and improve their overall performance in the examination.

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3.0 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

The general objective of this research is to correct verb errors in Error

Analysis questions using Traffic Light. Specifically, the research attempts to fulfill
the following objectives:

i. To identify the type of verb errors using the Red Light

ii. To use the words before and after the underlined words as clues to correct
the errors using the Yellow Light

4.0 TARGET GROUP

This research involves 19 students from the 3RK3 class that I currently
teach this year. They are chosen based on the item analysis conducted after the
first mid-term assessment, as their scores in the Error Correction question were
very low which affected their overall scores (among the lowest of all PT3
candidates in the school). Among the 19 students, there were 10 boys and 9 girls
that I identified as the subjects for this research.

5.0 IMPLEMENTATION OF THE RESEARCH

This research was conducted based on the action research model, which
begins with the observing the cause of the problem, analysing the causes of the
problem, planning the strategy, applying and observing strategy applied, and finally
the reflecting the outcome of the research.

5.1 PROBLEMS OBSERVATION

Before the strategies were planned and actions were carried out, I
first conducted the observation of the causes of the problem to understand
the root of the problems deeper. I used the results from the Item Analysis
from mid-term examination and conducted interview and pretest to identify
the causes of the problem that I want to overcome.

5.1.1 ITEM ANALYSIS

Item Analysis conducted based on the mid-term examination

result was used to identify students’ strengths and weaknesses in
answering the questions, specifically on the targeted Error
Correction question (refer Table 2). The Item Analysis shows that 19
students scored 6 or lower than 6 from the total 10 full marks. Then,
to identify the area of weakness, I analysed the type of errors that
the 19 students could not answer correctly and discovered that out
of minimum 4 errors they made, 3 errors were on verb usage and
function. For instance, one of the mistakes made by all 19 students
was whether to use singular or plural present tense.

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5.1.2 INTERVIEW

To strengthen my findings from the Item Analysis, I

interviewed the 19 students in a group interview session. I prepared
a set of 10 questions to find out their level of understanding on verb
usage and function. The questions that I asked are as follows:

1. What is verb?

2. Where do you put the verb in a sentence?

3. What are the verbs’ functions in a sentence?

4. What do you know about tenses?

5. What are differences between simple present, past

and continuous tense?
6. In what situation do you need to use present, past
and continuous tense?
7. Do you understand the rules to change the verb from
present tense to past tense?
8. Do you know the basic order of subject-verb
agreement in a sentence?
9. Is it hard for you to find and identify the verb errors in
a sentence?
10. Do you have any strategy to find and identify the
verb errors in a sentence?

TABLE 1 Interview Questions

Students’ responses from the interview were recorded as

evidence to support the findings of the research. The interview
generally indicated that they understand the forms and functions of
verbs and ways to use them in sentences. They can explain the
different types of tenses and ways to use them in different contexts
of the sentence. However, when there are errors in the sentences,
they indicated that they were not sure on proper strategy and ways
to analyse and correct the errors the right way. As a result, they find
it difficult for them to answer the Error Correction questions correctly.
From here, I concluded that the students have difficulty in answering
the Error Correction questions because they do not have proper
strategy to identify and correct the errors.

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 5.1.3 PRETEST

Before the method was taught, a set of Error Correction

questions was distributed as the pretest to collect the information on
the students’ abilities before the Traffic Light method was introduced
(refer Appendix A) and the results were compared with the results of
the posttest conducted after the treatment. The set consists of 10
underlined errors that they have to correct. The question was taken
from a book of sample PT3 questions and I modified the underlined
errors so all the underlined errors were related to verb forms and
functions. Students were given 10 minutes to answer the questions.

Based on the results of the test, 3 out of 19 students answered

6 questions correctly, 8 students answered 5 correct answers, 6
students answered 4 questions correctly and 1 student answered 3
and 2 questions correctly respectively. The results clearly showed
that these students lacked the strategy to answer the Error
Correction questions.

5.2 ANALYSIS OF THE PROBLEMS OBSERVATION

5.2.1 ITEM ANALYSIS

From the overall Item Analysis of the 3RK3 English mid-year

examination, the scores for the Error Correction were tabulated and
presented as below:

NUMBER OF
CORRECT 10 - 9 8-7 6-5 4-3 1-2 TOTAL
RESPONSE
NUMBER OF
1 8 10 7 2 28
STUDENTS

TABLE 2 Item Analysis on 3RK3’s Error Correction Answers

5.2.2 INTERVIEW

After the Item Analysis was conducted, a set of 10 interview

questions was developed to gain deeper insights on the 19 students’
understanding of verb forms and functions. The feedback was
recorded to support other findings and presented like in the table
below:

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 Q9: Is it hard for you to find and identify the verb errors in a sentence?

STUDENTS RESPONSE

Student A Quite hard, because I don’t know how to find the errors
Student B Hard. I am not sure how.

TABLE 3 Pretest Interview Responses

5.2.3 PRETEST

Before the Traffic Light method was introduced, I conducted a

pretest to examine students’ current abilities to answer the Error
Correction questions (refer Appendix A) and to compare the results
with the posttest after the method was taught. The results of the
pretest are presented in a table as follows:

STUDENTS PRETEST POST TEST DIFFERENCE

Student A 5
Student B 6
Student C 5
Student D 5
Student E 4
Student F 5
Student G 4
Student H 4
Student I 5
Student J 3
Student K 4
Student L 5
Student M 5
Student N 6
Student O 4
Student P 5
Student Q 2
Student R 4
Student S 6

TABLE 4 Pretest Results

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5.3 ACTION PLANS

Based on the Problems Observation, I found that with only the

grammatical knowledge, particularly on verb forms and functions, students
have difficulties in answering the Error Correction questions because they
do not have proper strategy to identify and correct the errors. Therefore, to
overcome the problem, the Traffic Light method is introduced to the
students. Figure 1 below shows the explanation to the Traffic Light method.

FIGURE 1 The Traffic Light Method

The method uses the Traffic Light colours, consisting of Red, Yellow
and Green Light. Each colour represents different steps that students have
to do in order to identify and correct the errors successfully. I used colour
stickers to make it easier for students to remember, and use the method
when they answer the Error Correction questions during examination. This
view is strongly supported by researchers who claim that colours help to
improve information retention and memory (Olurinola & Tayo, 2015;
Gnoinska, 1998). The steps are shown in Table 5 below:

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ACTIONS EXPLANATION
 Collect data from Item Analysis, Interview and
Pretest
Problem  Inform to the 19 students who scored 6 marks and
Observation lower that they will be taught the Traffic Light
Analysis method
 The other 9 students will be given remedial
exercises in class
STEP 1: RED MEANS CHECK
 Introduce the two main types of verbs errors tested
in the Error Correction questions (tenses and
singular/plural)
 Use sample questions and test students
understanding
 Repeat until students manage to identify the types
of error of all 10 errors in the sample correctly
STEP 2: YELLOW MEANS CLUE
 Tell students to circle three words on the left and
right from the underlined errors. Tell them that those
Traffic Light words can be used as clues to correct the errors
Method  Use the sample questions and ask students to
identify and tell the words that give them clues
 Repeat until all students manage to identify the
clues
STEP 3: GREEN MEANS CORRECT
 Teach students that using the clues on the left and
right, they can now identify the type of error tested
and correct the error
 Use the sample questions as the continuation from
the previous steps
 Repeat until all students manage to correct all the
errors correctly
 The same set of questions administered during the
Pretest is used
Posttest
 After 20 minutes, answers are checked and
compare the marks

TABLE 3 Traffic Light Method

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5.4 IMPLEMENTATION AND OBSERVATION

After the problem observation was thoroughly analysed, I introduced

the Traffic Light method to help the targeted students to improve their error
correction skills. The method was taught in three separate parts based on
the colours of the traffic light and after the method was taught, the same set
of questions from pretest was distributed as posttest.

5.4.1 STEP 1: RED MEANS CHECK

Students were first introduced to the first colour of the traffic

light, which is red and explained that red means stop and recognise.
I told the students that verb errors are generally either about tenses
or about the subject-verb agreement. Students were then informed
on how to correct the verb based on the type of error.

For practice, students completed exercise where they had to

identify the type of errors for the verbs underlined in the exercise.
This exercise was repeated until they could identify all types of errors
from the 10 underlined verbs correctly. The number of correct
answers after each attempt and the number of attempts they took
were recorded in a table. The summary of the number of attempts
completed by each student is presented in Table 4 below:

NUMBER OF NUMBER OF
STUDENTS STUDENTS
ATTEMPTS ATTEMPTS
Student A 3 Student K 3
Student B 3 Student L 2
Student C 2 Student M 2
Student D 2 Student N 2
Student E 2 Student O 3
Student F 2 Student P 2
Student G 3 Student Q 3
Student H 3 Student R 2
Student I 2 Student S 2
Student J 3

TABLE 4 Number of Step 1 Attempts by Students

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 Table 4 shows the number of attempts completed by 19
students to identify the type of errors underlined in the sentences. 11
students attempted twice, while the other 8 students tried three times
before they can identify all 10 types of errors correctly. I strongly
believe that this supports the findings from the problem observation,
where the 19 students have good grammatical knowledge,
particularly on verb forms and functions. Therefore, they did not
really have much trouble to identify the types of errors for the verbs
underlined in the text provided in this first step.

5.4.2 STEP 2: YELLOW MEANS CLUES

After the students mastered the first step, I moved on to the

next step which was introducing them the second colour, yellow
which means look left and right. First, I explained to them that the
three words on the left and right would generally provide them the
clues to the correct answers to the errors.

When the concept was established, students then completed

the exercise locating the three words on the left and right and
identified the words that could give them the clues. Students practice
for several times until they could identify the correct words for the
clues correctly for all 10 errors in the question. The number of
exercises they completed to identify all 10 errors was summarised in
the table below:

NUMBER OF NUMBER OF
STUDENTS STUDENTS
ATTEMPTS ATTEMPTS
Student A 2 Student K 2
Student B 3 Student L 2
Student C 2 Student M 2
Student D 2 Student N 2
Student E 2 Student O 3
Student F 2 Student P 2
Student G 3 Student Q 3
Student H 2 Student R 2
Student I 2 Student S 2
Student J 2

TABLE 5 Number of Step 2 Attempts by Students

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 Table 5 shows the number of attempts done by the students
to complete Step 2 successfully. Out of 19 students, only 4 students
attempted 3 times while the majority of them managed to
successfully identify the clues using Step 2 after they attempted
twice. This shows that students actually understand the singular and
plural subject-verb agreement. After the students are ready with the
Red and Yellow Light steps, I strongly believe that students can
identify and correct the errors in the Error Correction questions
effectively.

5.4.3 STEP 3: GREEN MEANS CORRECT

After students had understood the methods in Step 1 and 2

using the Red and Yellow colour, I then moved them on to the next
colour which is green. Green means go, which in the method means
students should be able to correct the errors after they have identified
the type of error and the clue that leads to the error correction.

10

0
S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 S7 S8 S9 S10 S11 S12 S13 S14 S15 S16 S17 S18 S19

Pretest Posttest

FIGURE 2 Pretest and Posttest Comparison

The comparison of the pretest and posttest scores are

displayed in Figure 2 above. The same question sets used while
introducing Step 1 and 2 to the students were then used in this step,
where students correct the errors. Then, to test students’
understandings of the Traffic Light method, the question set used in
the pretest was then used in the posttest. The number of correct
answers scored by the students after the method was introduced was
recorded and tabulated with the scores from the pretest.

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5.4.4 INTERVIEW

After the posttest, I interviewed the students with the same set
of questions before the research began. The main focus of the
interview questions is Question 9 and 10, where students were asked
whether is it hard for them to find and identify the verb errors in a
sentence, and do they have any strategy to find and identify the verb
errors in a sentence. The success of the method will be supported
by their responses to the questions.

During the interview, students claimed that after they learned

the method, they find it is easier for them to identify what was the
error for the verb underlined in the sentence. One student claimed
that he did not know that detecting and correcting the verb errors can
be that easy. Another student also concurred by saying that after he
learned the method, he feels more confident to identify and correct
the errors. Table 6 below presents some of the feedback recorded
from the interview.

Q9: Is it hard for you to find and identify the verb errors in a
sentence?

STUDENTS RESPONSE
I was so surprised! It is so easy. Before this, I
Student A
think it was very difficult.
I feel more confident now because it was not that
Student B
difficult. I can do it faster now.

TABLE 6 Posttest Interview Response

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5.5 REFLECTION

5.5.1 REFLECTION ON STUDENTS

In the pretest and posttest results, I found out that students

have shown improvement in terms of their abilities to identify and
correct errors, and their overall strategy to answer the Error
Correction question. The results in the pretest showed that students
were struggling to answer the questions correctly, as there were
some of them only managed to answer 2 out of 10 questions
correctly. Progressively, after the Traffic Light method was
introduced, students became more aware of the verb forms and
functions in sentences and they can identify and correct the verb
errors in the sentences easily.

I found out that students’ background knowledge is the

helping factor contributing towards the success of this method.
Based on the pretest interview, all 19 students involved in this
research confirmed that they know and understand the grammar
forms and functions, particularly on verb forms and functions. They
were just not having enough exposure to the strategy on how to
identify and correct the error in sentences.

When students were introduced the first Red and Yellow

colours, students were able to complete the tasks after three
attempts. This shows that students already have the knowledge and
they just need to focus on specific strategy to identify the errors. After
they have become aware of the errors in the sentences, it has
become easier for them to correct the verb errors in the sentences
and it is proven by the posttest results. In other words, the Traffic
Light method helped the students to correct the verb errors in the
sentences effectively.

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5.5.2 REFLECTION ON TEACHER

The research has given me the opportunity to reflect and take

actions on my teaching practices in the class. As an English teacher,
I strongly believe the importance of giving grammar exercises to the
students so they will know the rules on how to use, say the past tense
verbs, in sentences. However, after the research was conducted, I
found out that students also need to be aware of the grammar forms
and functions so that they can identify and correct the errors
themselves. Annable (2015) suggested that students should be
equipped with strategies to become more successful at correcting
their own grammatical errors. Therefore, this research has given me
the opportunity to develop new strategy for me to teach my students
grammar forms and functions.

Other than that, this research has also shown to me that

understanding and applying rules are two totally different skills.
According to the Bloom’s Taxonomy, humans’ thinking skills are
developed in two phases, starting from the low order to the high order
thinking skills. During the interview in this research, students clarified
that they understand the forms and functions of present and past
tense verbs. They know the rules and how to use them in sentences.
This can be categorised as the low order thinking skills. However,
when it comes to applying their understandings in context such as
identifying and correcting errors, they faced some difficulties.
Therefore, I strongly believe that students need to be taught on how
to apply what they have learned so that they can learn more
effectively and independently.

5.5.3 OVERALL REFLECTION

Overall, this research provides me with greater insights on

how the grammar should be taught in class. Firstly, students should
be taught on how to apply what they have learned in different context.
Normally, language teachers would give students drills and
exercises like fill in the blanks, true or false, and multiple-choice
questions, with the thought that more drillings mean more effective;
students learn when they are repeatedly exposed to the information.
However, for the case of my students, they already have that enough
input on the forms and functions of the language, and they need the
strategies to put the knowledge into practice.

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 Secondly, provided with proper teaching aids, students can
actually become more independent and can learn more effectively.
Alijanian (2012) suggested that teaching aids such as objects and
pictures are essential in helping students to learn grammar better. In
the research, all students agreed that they are able to tell the forms
and functions of the verbs in different rules like present and past
tense. However, they do not know the steps to identify and correct if
there are errors in sentences. After I introduced the Traffic Light
method to them, the students showed that they can actually identify
and correct the errors, with the help of the colour stickers. It was
further concurred by the students who said that the colour stickers
helped them to become more confident and felt that they can now
answer the Error Corrections faster and better than before.

6.0 SUGGESTION FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

Based on the analysis, reflections and observations of the research’s

findings, there are several recommendations that can be offered:

i. The research was conducted among students of different cultural and

educational background. Results may vary if it is conducted to students from
different types of schools. Further research may be conducted to study the
impact of this method towards students from different types of school, such
boarding school, science school or rural schools.
ii. This research also focused solely on correcting verb errors in Error
Correction questions. As mentioned in the research, other than verb forms
and functions, other grammatical features such as conjunctions,
prepositions and articles can also be tested. Therefore, the next research
can be done to test the effectiveness of the method when correcting
conjunctions, prepositions or article errors in the sentences.

All in all, the results indicate that this technique could help students to improve
their abilities to answer the Error Correction questions correctly and improve their
grammatical awareness. With further deepened research, this technique might
actually help other students and other aspects of the English language learning
might also be positively affected.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alijanian, E. (2012). An investigation of Iranian EFL teachers’ beliefs about grammar.

Mediterranean Center of Social and Educational Research, 2, 335.

Annable, J. (2012). Becoming self-editors: Using metacognition to improve students'

grammar knowledge. English Journal, 101(3), 89.

Gnoinska, A. (1998). Teaching Vocabulary in Colour. In Forum (Vol. 36, No. 3, p. n3).
Web site:..

Olurinola, O., & Tayo, O. (2015). Colour in Learning: Its Effect on the Retention Rate of
Graduate Students. Journal of Education and Practice, 6(14), 1-5.

Vann, R. J., & Abraham, R. G. (1990). Strategies of unsuccessful language learners.

TESOL quarterly, 24(2), 177-198.

Wilkins, D. A. (1972). Linguistics in Language Teaching. Cambridge: MFT Press.

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APPENDIX A

PRETEST AND POSTTEST QUESTION

I shall be coming to your house on Saturday in the afternoon after

my co-curricular activities. I will took the train from Kajang and should e.g. take

reach Kuala Lumpur by 3 o’clock if there is no delay. Please waiting for (a) __________

me. You know I does not like to come to Kuala Lumpur at my own and (b) __________

you know how nervous I get when I has to travel alone. Please be (c) __________

punctual and try not to keep me waiting. If you is not there by 4.30 pm, I (d) __________

will get on the first bus back to Kajang. Anyway, as I mention in my (e) __________

earlier e-mail, I planning to stay with you for two days only. I hope we (f) __________

will be able to doing many interesting things together during my stay. My (g) __________

science teacher has ask me to write about the National Planetarium in (h) __________

Kuala Lumpur and so I would like to going there. Can you please take (i) __________

me? I hope it is not too out of the way. I also hoping to spend some time (j) __________

with your siblings and parents too. I have not seen them for a long time.

I am really looking forward to this trip. See you soon.

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