Data Analysis of Motivational Factors Related to Students...

Data Analysis of Motivational

Factors Related to Students' Performance

in LSRW Skills at Linguistic Level

Chapter IV

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CHAPTER FOUR

DATA ANALYSIS OF MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS RELATED

TO STUDENTS' PERFORMANCE IN LSRW SKILLS AT

LINGUISTIC LEVEL

This chapter gives an insight into the learning process of the language skills.

Acquisition of these skills is always a complex one for the learners of second language.

Without being competent in these skills, the common competence level is incomplete.

Languages are of four Skills. English language is not no exception. It consists of four

skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Here, listening and reading are classified

as receptive skills, because, the listeners do not need to produce language to do these.

They just receive and understand it. The remaining two skills, speaking and writing, are

termed as productive skills because the learners must actively involve in the usage of the

language. Therefore, production becomes impossible without reception. This relationship

between receptive and productive skills is a complex one, with one set of skills naturally

supporting the other.

Brown (2000) explained that in order to master the English language, learners

have to be exposed to all of the four basic skills. When students try to practice these

skills, they commit many errors because of their incompetency in the language. It is here

that the field of error analysis comes to the rescue of teachers as well as learners.

4.1. Error Analysis

Error Analysis is an attempt to analyze the errors learners make in relation to the

target language (Corder,1971). It is a systematic procedure which attempts to collect,

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identify, describe, explain and evaluate errors from a collection of language learner data,

by analyzing learner error and comparing it to that of the target language. It does take

into account however, that some errors are made that can be attributed to the learner‘s

first language. James (1998) admits that the analysis of errors attributed to transfer is ‗a

sub-procedure applied in the diagnostic phase of doing [error analysis]‘. According to

Corder (1974), there are

Five steps in an error analysis

Collecting a sample of learner language,

Identifying errors,

Describing errors,

Explaining errors, and

Evaluating errors.

Error analysis is a branch in applied linguistics. Scholars like Stephen Pit Corder

(1967:161) advocated the importance of error analysis in language learning process in

English language teaching. Error analysis in language acquisition process stimulated

major changes in teaching practice. The errors committed by second language learners

help the teachers to frame a systematic way of teaching.

4.2. On Defining Error

Error is defined as a mistake or inaccuracy in speech, opinion or action. Kacher

(1965:394) states: ―It may contain deviations from the varieties of English and those

formations which are considered as mistakes or sub -standard formations". Slips and

lapses are distinguished from errors. They are self-correlative. They are otherwise called

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‗mistakes‘. They are unsystematic. Ghadessy (1980:96) defines errors as deviations

which reveal the learners' knowledge of the language. The second language learner may

not be able to correct his own errors.

According to J.C.Richards (1972:96 -113) the errors are classified into three

types: interlingual, in tralingual and developmental errors.

Interlingual errors are caused by the interference of learner‘s mother tongue,

Intralingual errors are the errors which originate within the structure of the target

language itself, and

Developmental errors are caused due to the learners‘ limited exposure to the

target language.

Sercombe (2000) insisted that EA is of three purposes. Firstly, it can be used in

finding out the level of language proficiency the learner reached. Secondly, it can be used

in obtaining information about common difficulties in language learning, and thirdly, it

can be used in finding out how people learn a language. Vahdatinejad (2008) mentioned

that error analyses are fruitful in determining what a learner needs to be taught because it

provides the necessary information about what is lacking in the linguistic competence.

He made distinction between errors and lapses .In fact, he sees that lapses are produced

even by native speakers, and can be corrected by themselves. In the view of the stated

value of errors and error analysis, the researcher uses it to find out the errors in the

LSRW skills committed by the first year students of Government Arts College,

Coimbatore.

Chapter III enumerates the views expressed by the learners on the motivational

factors in learning English as well as their anxiety in acquiring the same. On analyzing

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the problem areas, it becomes indispensable to find the causes of their anxiety in

committing errors. Thus, analysis of these errors linguistically, throws light on the field

called error analysis. With Pit Corder's article entitled ―The significance of learner errors‖

(1967) Error Analysis took a new turn. Errors used to be ―flaws‖ that needed to be

eradicated. Corder (1967) presented a completely different point of view. He contended

that those errors are ―important in and of themselves‖. In his opinion, systematically

analyzing errors made by language learners makes it possible to determine areas that

need reinforcement in teaching. Hence, a linguistic level search was done in finding the

learners' errors in the LSRW to identify their comprehensive ability of the components of

language skills at the following levels:-

Phonological Structure: This is a system of the sound segments that human beings use

to build up words. Each language has a different set of these segments or phonemes and

children quickly come to recognize and then produce the speech segments that are

characteristic of their native language.

Morphological Structure: This is a system of rules by which words and phrases are

arise to make meaningful statements. It is the identification analysis and description of

the structure of a language‘s linguistic units such as words, parts of speech, affixes,

intonation and stress. The children must know how to use ordering of words to mark

grammatical functions such as subject or direct objects.

Syntactic: This is a system of patterns that determine how human beings can use

language in particular social settings for particular conversational purposes. The language

has two fundamental aspects namely form and attributed meaning associated with it.

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The second language learner has to be familiar with these components in order to have a

successful learning.

Semantic: It is a system of meanings that are expressed by words and phrases.

In order to serve as a means of communication between people, words must have a

shared or conventional meaning. Picking out the correct meaning for each new word is a

major learning task for children.

This linear arrangement of linguistic components facilitates the students

understand English language in a scientific manner. Hence, the primary focus is on the

Listening skill. Listening is the ability to identify and understand what others are saying.

Among communicative language skills, the most basic and important communication

skill is the ability to listen impartially (Krashen and Terell (1983) and Rivers 1981).

Hence, the errors committed by the students at phonological level in listening and

speaking are dealt with in order to focus on the difficulties faced by the students in

English pronunciation including sounds, stress and intonation related to phonetic and

phonological level which in turn include, vowels, consonants ,chart for consonant

symbols, vowel symbols and diphthongs.

4.3. Listening

Listening is the act of hearing attentively. Research shows that 45% of our time is

spent on listening. We listen more than we speak. If this listening skill is used in a proper

way we can master the tools of communicative skills. Listening is difficult, as human

mind tends to distract easily. A person who controls his mind and listens attentively

acquires various other skills and is benefited.

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Listening skill can be defined as ―the act of hearing attentively‖. It is also a

process similar to reading which should possess knowledge of phonology, syntax,

semantics and text understanding. Thomlison (1984) defines listening as, ―Active

listening, which is very important for effective communication‖. Listening can be also

defined as ―more than just hearing and to understand and interpret the meaning of a

conversation. Present context has been undergoing a paradigm shift from the traditional

grammar translation approach to the Communicative Language Teaching framework

since the 1990s. Unfortunately, though the reorientation has led to some changes in

syllabus and material design, most classes still focus on the literacy skills, reading and

writing. This goes against the principles of CLT where Diane Larsen-Freeman (2000)

mentions: ―Students work on all four skills from the beginning.‖ Moreover, this method

adopts a functional view of language in order to facilitate the ability to use language for

different purposes. The neglect of the listening skill, in language classes, has meant that

learners continue to be weak in understanding and producing spoken language, thereby

failing to attain the goal of communicative competence. The importance of listening has

been long recognized in the history of English language teaching.

Marc Hegelson (2003) writes that the emphasis on listening began in the late

1800s with the Direct Method in Gouin‘s Series and the Berlitz School. This was

continued by the Audiolingual Method where language was presented orally before being

presented in the written form. With the introduction of CLT, listening was given further

prominence, because, it was believed that learners learn through the act of

communication. Tricia Hedge feels that there is an overall emphasis on listening since

―Contemporary society exhibits a shift away from printed media and towards sound, and

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its members therefore need to develop a high level of proficiency in listening‖

(2001: 229). Hedge cites statistics from research on the actual use of different skills in

everyday life. She reports that ―Of the time an individual is engaged in communication,

approximately 9 percent is devoted to writing, 16 percent to reading, 30 percent to

speaking and 45 percent to listening‖ Hedge (228).

This has resulted in added importance being given to oracy, the ability to communicate

through spoken language (both speaking and listening), in education where she has noticed ―a

stronger focus on listening in the classroom‖ (2001: 229). She thinks this is due to findings

from second language acquisition research, particularly the impact of input on learning.

According to Krashen‘s 'Input Hypothesis', ―For language learning to occur, it is necessary for

learners to understand input language which contains linguistic items that are slightly beyond

the learner‘s present linguistic competence‖ (Richards et al, 1985 , in Helgeson, 26). So, the

development of listening skill becomes important not only for communication but also for

learning language through comprehensible input. Second language research also suggests that

learners be given a ―silent period‖ in the early stages of learning while they are in the process of

acquiring language, which again underscores the importance of listening.

Given the research findings and methodological emphasis on listening, it is

surprising and shocking that language classes are not giving due importance to this area.

The most commonly offered rationale for the neglect of listening is the difficulty of

teaching listening in the context of large classes with almost no logistical support.

This has led to the absence of testing listening in final exams which in turn result in

further neglect of this skill. While the resource constraints and administrative difficulties

at SSC and HSC levels make the integration of listening in those classes problematic,

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listening can be effectively and successfully introduced at the tertiary level. Hedge (2001)

has pointed out that training second language learners in listening to English is

particularly important at the tertiary level, because, they need to comprehend the

language of classrooms and lecture halls.

In most colleges, classes are conducted in English and students need to be able to

understand spoken English in order to participate in the class and to follow teacher‘s

instructions, feedback, talk and listening at the college level which will develop listening

strategies to facilitate the listening of both academic and general English.

4.3.1 Difficulties in Listening

Listening requires considerable training because it is a difficult skill requiring

multiple sub-skills and stages, which have to be undertaken simultaneously. Anderson

and Lynch (1988:4) have identified the following stages in the process of listening:

1. The spoken signals have to be identified from the midst of surrounding sounds,

2. The continuous stream of speech has to be segmented into units, which have to be

recognized as known words,

3. The syntax of the utterance has to be grasped and the speaker‘s intended meaning

has to be understood, and

4. We also have to apply our linguistic knowledge to formulate a correct and

appropriate response to what has been said.

Shelagh Rixon (1986), like Anderson and Lynch (1988), considers listening to be

a complex process requiring interdependence of different skills. She remarks that

listening is not synonymous with hearing, ―the recognition of sounds‖ because listening

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―implies conscious attention to the message of what is said.‖ She puts forward the idea

that listening comprises three levels—global message, grammar and vocabulary and

finally the sound system.

Listening, therefore, requires the ability to understand phonology, syntax, lexis

and information content within real time. Apart from time pressure, there are also

problems stemming from inexplicit information given by the speaker, and environmental

obstructions such as distracting noise in the background, unclear voice or sound of

recording, and lack of visual support to assist listening. Brown and Yule (1983) have also

listed some factors that complicate oral language. First of all, the speaker, his/her style,

accent and even number of speakers affect the spoken text. The listener‘s role also has an

impact on listening, whether it is participatory or non-participatory, whether response is

required or the listener is an eavesdropper.

Another factor is the content of the text whether or not it is accompanied by visual

aid for support. Richards (1985) registers the following features of oral/spoken language

that makes listening difficult: the clausal basis of speech as opposed to the sentence unit

of written discourse; reduced forms which appear in spoken language to express meaning

quickly; the frequent occurrences of ungrammatical forms; the component of pauses in

spoken language, consisting of hesitations, false starts, corrections, filler pauses or silent

pauses that make it difficult to follow a text; the rate of delivery affects understanding;

rhythm and stress of the English language; the information content, which in interactive

texts, involve the participation and cooperation of the listener making listening even more

challenging; and, finally even the interactive quality of spoken discourse, verbal and

non-verbal signals and/or formality/informality create further hurdles for the listener.

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Besides shortcomings in grammar and vocabulary, the non-native ear has to face

the alien quality of the sound system itself. Rixon (1986:36) argues that the sound of

English is a major problem for the L2 learner making listening the most difficult skill.

She lists four sources of difficulties arising from pronunciation:

1. The weak relationship between English sounds and the way they are spelt in the

written language,

2. Changes in sounds when they occur in rapid, connected speech,

3. The rhythm pattern of English speech, and

4. Different ways of pronouncing the ‗same‘ sound.

The problem with sound is that, when English is spoken, the words are not very

clear or emphatic since natural talk is unrehearsed; full of pauses, repetition,

hesitation and it is swift, slurred or even unclearly articulated. Rixon (1986)

shows that words sound different depending on whether the word is spoken in

isolation or in connected speech. For instance, some words are very clear when

pronounced in isolation, such as ―you‖ / ‗ju:/ but when it is part of connected

speech it is unstressed so that: ―Will you come?‖ becomes /wi jƏ ‗kΛm/. Another

problem is that of elision, the loss of sounds that occurs in rapid speech.

Rixon gives the example of the word ―probably‖ which becomes ―probly‖ and the

word ―discussed ― transforms into /diskΛt/. Finally, there is assimilation, which

refers to changes speakers make to pronunciation in order to save effort.

Thus ―ten bikes‖ becomes ―tem bikes / tem baiks" (Rixon, 40).

Hedge (2000) lists some problems which are internal to the listener such as

―lack of motivation towards the topic, negative reaction to the speaker or to the event;

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anxiety to rehearse one‘s own contribution to a debate or the next part of a conversation,

to the extent of missing what the current speaker is saying; or distraction by the content

of a talk into thinking about a related topic thereby losing the thread of the argument‖.

She also mentions that lack of topic knowledge can lead to mishearing or misunderstanding.

While native speakers, L1 learners, have to deal with the difficulty of processing

information and message quality of the listening text, L2 learners confront added

challenges of language and cultural unfamiliarity.

4.3.2. Linguistic Problems in Listening

The following tests were given to the students:-

Spelling,

Listen to a dialogue and answer,

Identifying the pronunciation,

Listening to find the odd man out, and

Listen to sentences and spot the errors.

The students listened keenly and answered. Analyzing their answers revealed the

following difficulties at phonological level .They tend to substitute [p] for [f] in many

places as shown here, To them this kind of replacement happens unconsciously.

4.3.2.1 Errors in the use of Consonants

Original Word Replacement Derived Form

Film /p/ Pilm

Follow /ai/ Pailo

Final /p/ Pinal

Fire /p/ Pire

Fold /p/ Pold

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The labio dental voiceless fricative/f/ is not available in the Tamil phonological

system, but in English this sound has a phonemic stance and plays a major role in various

semantic function. The learners, while listening and pronouncing this sound, especially at

the word initial and final positions alternate [ f ] with the bilatial voiceless plosive [ p ]

as the frequency of this word in Tamil and it has the phonemic status. This type of [ f ]

becoming [ p ] is mostly observed with [ f ] in the final position when followed by the

vowels i, and [ ] and in final position when preceded by the vowel [ i ].

4.3.2.2. Dilution of Consonant Clusters

The students commit many errors in this form. They include a vowel in between

consonant clusters like gr/kr/bl/vv/kl/lm/tr, etc.

Original Word Interference Derived Form

Pose F Fose

Beggar K Bekkar

Distribute P Distripute

Campus B Cambus

Original Position Inclusion Derived Form

Grammar /i/ Girammar

Crack /ka/ Karaik

Blade /du/ Bileidu

Distinct /ir/ Distirikt

Every day /ei/ Eviridret

Uncle ^ ^ukul

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4.3.2.3. Vowel Lengthening

The learners commit errors when the vowel with a glide or a diphthong in English

is pronounced differently. They have a tendency to lengthen the word final vowels,

mainly the diphthongs, where the English vowel is an upward back glide. Following

example shows the lengething of the vowels as there are no gliding sounds in Tamil:-


No U no:

Go U go:

So U so:

Crow U kro:

4.3.2.4 Errors in Diminishing Diphthongs

These errors occur when two vowels are reduced into a single vowel creating

contraction, Hence the learns tend to pronounce the words thus:

The learners tend to substitute [f] in place of [p], [k] in the place of [g], [p] in the

place of [d], [p] in the place of [b].

4.3.2.5. Variability between Letter and Sound

The learners commit errors in differentiating between the letter and the sound.

In the sound system of Tamil the learner learns some sounds which helps him to find the


No U no:

Go U go:

So U so:

Crow U kro:

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sound differences based on the function. As there are no letters like [s] and [dz] in Tamil

the learner finds very difficult to find an equivalent. Hence the following errors are

committed by the students:-

4.4. Overall Performance of the Students in Listening Skill

Question

Tamil Medium English Medium

Boys Girls Boys Girls

CA WA NR CA WA NR CA WA NR CA WA NR

Vocabulary 18

(10.7)

67

(39.9)

0

(0)

12

(7.1)

71

(42.3)

0

(0)

16

(50)

4

(12.5)

0

(0)

8

(25)

4

(12.5)

0

(0)

Dictation 8

(4.8)

71

(42.3)

6

(3.5)

6

(3.5)

68

(40.5)

9

(5.4)

18

(56.3)

2

(6.2)

0

(0)

12

(37.5)

0

(0)

0

(0)

Spelling Identification

6

(3.5)

67

(39.9)

12

(7.1)

4

(2.3)

71

(42.4)

8

(4.8)

19

(59.4)

1

(3.1)

0

(0)

11

(34.4)

1

(3.1)

0

(0)

Word Identification

8

(4.8)

65

(38.7)

12

(7.1)

6

(3.5)

69

(41.1)

8

(4.8)

20

(62.5)

0

(0)

0

(0)

12

(37.5)

0

(0)

0

(0)

Concept Identification

8

(4.8)

65

(38.7)

12

(7.1)

6

(3.5)

69

(41.1)

8

(4.8)

20

(62.5)

0

(0)

0

(0)

12

(37.5)

0

(0)

0

(0)

Average 9.6

(5.7)

67

(39.9)

8.4

(5)

6.8

(4)

69.6

(41.4)

6.6

(4)

18.6

(58.1)

1.4

(4.4)

0

(0)

11

(34.4)

1

(3.1)

0

(0)

Original word Confusion between sound & letter Derived Word

Share Sh Chare

Wash Sh Was

Zero S/C Cero

Show Sh Sow

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It is found from the table that 42.4% of the girls and 39.9% of the boys from

Tamil medium have given wrong answers in spelling identification.

Conclusion

While testing the listening skill, the problem areas were identification of

vocabulary, lack of phonological knowledge resulting in wrong identification of spelling

and word concept. The listening skill has to be enhanced by providing the students with

minimal pair exercises ship/sheep, pin/bin, leave/leaf, bow/bough, farmer/former, etc.

5.7

39.9

54

41.4

4

Listening- Boys & Girls (Tamil Medium)

BCA

BWA

BNR

GCA

58.1

4.4

0

34.4

3.1 0

Listening- Boys & Girls (English Medium)

BCA

BWA

BNR

GCA

GWA

GNR

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and the teachers can insist on role-play activities to practice effective development in

listening between the peer groups .Listening to group activities helps students in two

ways. In addition to the development of the listening skill of the students, the student who

comes forward to talk develops the speaking skill and also sets a role model to other

students. As these activities are within their own classroom environment, the students

will not have hesitation or anxiety to talk. If such activities are regularly practiced, the

students can achieve success in developing their listening as well as speaking skills.

4.5. Speaking

To successfully assess how language learners enhance their performance and

achieve language learning goals, the four macro skills of listening, speaking, reading and

writing are usually the most frequently assessed and focused areas. However, speaking,

as a productive skill, seems intuitively the most important of all the four language skills,

because, it can distinctly show the correctness and language errors that a language learner

makes. As English speaking tests, in general, aim to evaluate how the learners express

their improvement and success in pronunciation and communication, several aspects,

especially speaking test formats and pronunciation need to be considered.

In the teaching of English, as one of the productive skills, speaking activity must focus

on how to assist students to use and to communicate in English (Richard, 2008). This is

important, as Richard further says, most students often evaluate their success in language

learning as well as the effectiveness of their English course on the basis of how much they feel

they have improved in their speaking proficiency. That is why teachers‘ efforts should be

focused on developing students‘ ability to speak as learning to speak is considered as the

greatest challenge for all language learners (Pinter, 2006). In this sense, teachers have to give

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more opportunities to their students to express themselves by providing them with speaking

activities that enable them to speak English (Brown, 2001). Regarding this, it is found in the

literature some psychological factors such as shyness and anxiety are considered as the main

causes of students‘ reluctance to speak (Brown, 2001). This is also in line with Gebhard (2000)

who says that the students‘ problem in speaking is caused mostly by their shyness or anxiety.

All these indicate the importance for teachers to help students reduce those feelings to

maximize their learning to speak in English.

4.5.1. Features Involved in English Pronunciation

As English increasingly becomes the language used for international

communication, it is vital that speakers of English, whether they are native or non-native

speakers, are able to exchange meaning effectively. In fact, in recent discussions of

English-language teaching, the unrealistic idea that learners should sound and speak like

native speakers is fast disappearing (Burns, 2003).

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As the figure above illustrates, pronunciation involves features at

• The segmental (micro) level, and

• The supra-segmental (macro) level.

In former English learning approaches, segmental features were the major focus

for pronunciation teaching (for example, minimal pairs such as ship/sheep). While these

features are important, more cent research has shown that when teaching focuses on

supra-segmental features, learners‘ intelligibility is greatly enhanced. It is important,

therefore, to provide activities at both levels (Burns, 2003).

Suprasegmental Features

Suprasegmental features relate to sounds at the macro level. Advances in research

have developed descriptions of the suprasegmental features of speech extending across

whole stretches of language.

Linking

Linking refers to the way the last sound of one word is joined to the first sound of

the next word. To produce connected speech, we run words together to link consonant to

vowel, consonant to consonant, and vowel to vowel.

Intonation

Intonation can be thought of as the melody of the language – the way the voice

goes up and down according to the context and meanings of the communication.

For example, note the differences in:

• Can you take the book? (rising pitch) – request

• Can you take the book (falling pitch) – command

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Word Stress

Word stress relates to the prominence given to certain words in an utterance.

These focus words are stressed (made long and loud) to convey:

• The overall rhythm of the utterance, and

• the most meaningful part of the utterance.

At the meaning level, some words are given more prominence than others to

foreground which meaning is important. For example, compare

• Can YOU take the book? (not someone else), and

• Can you take the BOOK! (not the paper).

Recent approaches to teaching pronunciation in computer-based contexts follow

the communicative approach in teaching pronunciation. Harmer (1993) stresses the need

for making sure that students can always be understood and say what they want to say.

They need to master ―good pronunciationl, not perfect accents. That is, emphasis should

be on suprasegmental features of pronunciation—not segmental aspects—to help learners

acquire communicative competence

Segmental Features

According to Seferoglu (2005), segmental aspects of the sound system include

individual vowels and consonants. Because segmental phonology is relatively more

easily explained and taught than the supra-segmental features (Coniam, 2002), some

studies focus on studying segmental phonology in preference to suprasegmental features.

Segmental features relate to sounds at the micro level. They include specific sounds

within words (for example, l as in lamp, r as in ramp, a as in hat). The sound systems of

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consonants, vowels or their combinations are called phonemes. Phonemes are sounds

that, when pronounced incorrectly, can change the meaning of the word (Burns, 2003).

Compare the changes of meaning in:

pet / pat

lamp / ramp

about / abort

Consonant sounds can be voiced (a part of the mouth is closed and the air behind

it is released suddenly – for example, v as in van, b as in bun) – or unvoiced (air is

pushed through a narrow part of the mouth – for example, f as in fan, th as in thin).

Vowel sounds are articulated as single sounds. They can be short (for example, ae as in

cat) or long (a as in cart). Diphthongs are two vowel sounds put together (for example, ei

as in Kate or as in boy) (Burns, 2003).

4.5.2. Linguistic Problems in Speaking

The following tests were conducted to test their speaking skill:-

1. Speak about yourself,

2. Speak about your favourite game,

3. Speak about your favorite flower,

4. Speak about your strength and weakness, and

5. Speak about your hobby.

4.5.3. Errors in Producing Consonant Sounds

While testing the speaking skill, the students were asked to speak on their

favourite game, pet animal or their favourite flower. While the learners made attempts to

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convey their ideas, certain consonant sounds seemed to create difficulty in pronunciation.

There were also many phonological deviations which resulted in the utterance of a wrong

or misspelt word. The phonological errors committed by the English learners in

producing some consonantal sounds is worth consideration.

4.5.4. Phonological Level

At the phonological level, the English sounds have the distinction between /s/,/ʃ/

and /z/;/k/, /g/ and /h/; /t/ and /d/.

Some of the errors which the students committed are listed below:-

Correct

Incorrect Word

/ʃi/ /si/ she

/seup/ /ʧop/ soap

/zu:/

/ʧu:/or

/su:/ zoo

/geut/ /keut/ goat

/kͻ:t/ /gͻ:t/ caught

/teibl/ /deibl/ table

/bæg/ /pæk/ bag

4.5.5 Lack of Distinction between /s/, /ʃ/ and /z/

The fricatives which are articulated with a stricture of close approximation in the

English words are wrongly pronounced by the rural students. In Tamil, we do not have

the sounds such as /s/, /ʃ/ and /z/.

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Correct Incorrect Word

/sin/ /ʧin/ sin

/diʃ/ /dis/ dish

/zi:bra/ /si:bra/ zebra

Most of the students pronounce /s/ for all these three /s/, /ʃ/ and /z/sounds.

They commit error in pronouncing as well as writing. The problem lies in hearing also.

Most of our students are hearing only those sounds that their ears are accustomed to hear

and that their minds are accustomed to receive and respond to. They are not aware of

foreign sounds.

4.5.6. Lack of Distinction between Voiced and Voiceless Sounds

The students from rural background lack the distinction between voiced and

voiceless sounds. In Tamil, voiced and voiceless sounds are in free variation. So a

Tamil speaking student from rural background finds it difficult to hear and pronounce

these /k/ and /g/; /t/ and /d/ sounds.

A few students wrongly pronounce and listen to these sounds wrongly. Once the

teacher was pronouncing the word ‗coat‘ in the class, the student misunderstood that it

was ‗goat‘. When the student asked clear his doubt, the teacher came to understand that

students have problems in listening also.


/kæp/ /gæp/ cap

/ten/ /den/ ten

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Interchange of /p/, /b/ and /f/ sounds as there is no /f/ sound in Tamil, a Tamil

student who learns English finds this sound strange and often gets confused of the usage

of /f/ sound. So, there rises a tendency to interchange /f/ sound with /p/ or /b/ sounds.

/fænts/ intead of /pænts/

/fisi/ instead/ bizi/or /pisi/

/peil/ instead of / feil/

/propessor/ instead of /prәfesәr/

/ͻ:pis/ instead of /ͻ:fis

Many times, the students have the difficulty to pronounce properly without

making any distinction between sounds. They are not able to pronounce properly,

because they are not able to listen to the distinction between sounds p, b, t, d, etc.

4.5.7. Consonant Clusters

The students commit errors in pronouncing consonant clusters. They find it

difficult to pronounce because of the influence of mother tongue. In Tamil, non- identical

consonant clusters are very few.


/iŋgliʃ/ /iŋgilis/ English

/sleit/ /sileittu/ slate

/sku:l/ /iskool/ school

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4.5.8 Diphthongs

The students get confused in using diphthongs in appropriate places.


/hʌlәu/ /hallo/ hello

/pripεәriŋ/ /pripæriŋ/ preparing

/kͻ:s/ /keis/ cause

They are not aware of the point of articulation. This is due to the mother tongue

interference. In Tamil, /әu/ is not found. Instead of /әu/, /o/ is there in Tamil. The minds

of the students automatically listen to the sound which is present in their native language

and which leads them to pronounce the sounds wrongly. Upto twelfth standard, most of

the students had received inadequate teaching. So at the collegiate level, they find it hard

to understand and to rectify their errors.

Dropping of consonants:-

Moden for modern

Exciment for excitement

Change of consonants:-

Propeser for professor

Supjet for subject

Fose for pose

Cambus for campus

Depit for debit.

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4.5.9. Errors in Producing Vowels

In vowels, three types of difficulties are identified. First, certain diphthongs are

replaced by other sounds due to L1 interference for

/e/ →/e/; / / → /u:/;/

/ → /:/; and //→ /:/.Second, the distinction between certain pairs of vowels as in // and /e/

as in ‗sit‘ and ‗set‘; // and // as in ‗luck‘ and ‗lock‘; /

/ and /:/ as in ‗coat‘and ‗caught‘ (Kharma and Hajjaj 1989: 16).

4.5.10. Insertion of /I/

The high front short vowel is inserted in final clusters as well. In each of the

following words, the final cluster consists of two members. What is interesting here is

that all the examples are derivatives in which the vowel is inserted before the inflectional

suffix.

/stbd/ ‗stopped‘ (*)

/dvlbd/ ‗developed‘ (*)

/l:fd/ ‗laughed‘ (*)

/:skd/ ‗asked‘ (*)

/w:kd/ ‗walked‘ (*)

/gru:bz/ ‗groups‘ (*)

Dallar instead of dollar

Arrange instead of orange

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Vowel change :

In the above examples, intralingual and interlingual influences are visible.

4.5.11. Gliding Errors

Gliding refers to the process of moving from one vowel sound to another during

the articulation of word. Again, these rules are generally flouted by second language

learners. As proposed by Selinker (1972), these errors occur due to either the interlingual

error or the language transfer. Sometime these errors are described as ‗performance

errors‘.

Conventionally, station must be pronounced as /steIәnʃ/. the eI part is known as

―diphthongization‖ or gliding. Instead of saying /steIәn/ʃ the learners produced /steәn/ or

for other speakers pronounced ʃlike /Isteen/ or /stIәn/.

4.5.12 Use of Fillers

The use of fillers by learners is yet another problem. Many students tend to use

fillers in an attempt either to speak fluent English or to cover up the inadequacy of their

lexicon. It is interesting to find that many factors are responsible for the use of fillers.

One of the foremost reasons is mother tongue influence, as the tendency of human brain

is to give first priority to mother tongue as a choice for the thought process itself. While

using a second language for communication, the brain translates the thought to be

expressed from mother tongue to the second language which results in a time gap that is

filled by mostly meaningless and impertinent fillers. Further, there is primary influence of

mother tongue on the subconscious, and therefore, an individual automatically retorts to

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use of mother tongue/fillers while attempting to speak fluently or when the mind cannot

conceive of the equivalent word in target language. The other reasons include teaching by

grammar-translation method at the primary stage which reinforces this tendency

4.6. Overall Performance of the Students in Speaking Skill

Question




Fluency

0

(0)

65

(38.7)

20

(11.9)

0

(0)

58

(34.5)

25

(14.9)

18

(45)

2

(5)

0

(0)

16

(40)

4

(10)

0

(0)

Pronunciation

3

(1.7)

59

(35.1)

23

(13.7)

2

(1.2)

55

(32.8)

26

(15.5)

16

(40)

4

(10)

0

(0)

15

(37.5)

5

(12.5)

0

(0)

Clarity

2

(1.2)

62

(36.9)

21

(12.5)

2

(1.2)

58

(34.5)

23

(13.7)

18

(45)

2

(5)

0

(0)

16

(40)

4

(10)

0

(0)

Spontaneity

2

(1.2)

63

(37.5)

20

(11.9)

1

(0.6)

60

(35.7)

22

(13.1)

20

(50)

0

(0)

0

(0)

14

(35)

6

(15)

0

(0)

Accuracy

2

(1.2)

63

(37.5)

20

(11.9)

1

(0.6)

60

(35.7)

22

(13.1)

18

(45)

2

(5)

0

(0)

16

(40)

4

(10)

0

(0)

Average 1.8

(1.1)

62.4

(37.1)

20.8

(12.4)

1.2

(0.7)

58.2

(34.6)

23.6

(14.1)

18.0

(45)

2.0

(5)

0

(0)

15.4

(38.5)

4.6

(11.5)

0

(0)

It is found from the table that 35.7% of the girls and 37.5% of the boys from

Tamil Medium have given wrong answers in Spontaneity.

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1.1

37.1

12.4

0.7

34.6

14.1

Speaking- Boys & Girls (Tamil Medium)

BCA

BWA

BNR

GCA

45

5

0

38.5

11.5

0

Speaking- Boys & Girls (English Medium)

BCA

BWA

BNR

GCA

GWA

GNR

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4.7 Psychological Factors that Hinder Students from Speaking

4.7.1. Fear of Mistake

As argued by many theorists, fear of mistake becomes one of the main factors of

students‘ reluctance to speak in English in the classroom (Nunan, 1999; Robby, 2010).

With respect to the fear of making mistakes issue, this fear is linked to the issue of

correction and negative evaluation. In addition, this is also much influenced by the

students‘ fear of being laughed at by other students or being criticized by the teacher.

As a result, students commonly stop participating in the speaking activity .Therefore, it is

important for teachers to convince their students that making mistakes is not wrong or

bad because students can learn from their mistakes.

4.7.2. Causes of Fear of Mistake

The primary reason of fear of mistake is that students are afraid of looking foolish

in front of other people and they are concerned about how their peer will see them.

In addition, the students feel afraid of the idea of making mistakes as they are worried

that their friends will laugh at them and receive negative evaluations from their peers if

they commit mistakes in speaking English. Students‘ fear of making mistakes in speaking

English has been a common issue. As argued by Middleton (2009), most students are

afraid to try to speak in English language. In this context, as he adds, students do not

want to look foolish in front of the class. In some other cases, they also worry about how

they will sound, and are scared of sounding silly.

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Possible Solutions to Overcome Fear of Mistake

In terms of possible solution to overcome students‘ fear of mistakes, Zua (2008)

gives several suggestions. First, she suggests that emotional bonds between students and

teachers should be build. This way, the students are expected to feel comfortable with

their teacher and believe that the teacher will help them if they make mistakes. Second,

she states that the teacher should improve the students' concentration when learning

English. This can be done, as she suggests, by creating a supporting learning atmosphere.

Finally, the last suggestion is that the teacher creates a harmonious atmosphere that can

reduce students‘ nervousness. In this context, how to deal with errors in conversational

English of students is worth discussing and emphasizes that mistakes in communication

are keys to carry out a communication.

4.7.3. Shyness

Shyness is an emotional thing that many students suffer from when they are

required to speak in the English class. This indicates that shyness could be a source of

problem in students‘ learning activities in the classroom, especially in the class of

speaking. Therefore, paying attention to this aspect is also quite important in order to help the

students do their best in their speaking performance in the classroom (Gebhard, 2000).

In line with this, Baldwin (2011) further explains that speaking in front of people is one

of the more common phobias that students encounter and feeling of shyness makes their

mind go blank. This theory is also supported by the result of this research in which most

students fail to initiate the speaking activity. As they say, their inability to show their

ability in speaking is also influenced much by their feeling of shyness. In other words, it

can be said that shyness plays an important role in speaking performance of the students.

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Possible Solutions to Overcome Shyness

In terms of possible solution to overcome shyness, Pesce (2011) says that it is

urgent that teacher creates a friendly and open classroom environment. By doing this, shy

students are hoped to feel fine of making mistakes in their learning. This way, students

will not worry of their imperfect pronunciation and grammar. As a result, they dare to

speak in their speaking class. Solving the shyness problem, Chinmoy (2007) suggests that

in order to help students to be more confident in their speaking, convince students to look

upon shyness as a thing to overcome and not to fear failure or success. The above

solutions to reduce shyness are worth doing. In this case, they need guidance. It is a

feeling of tension, apprehension and nervousness associated with the situation of learning

a foreign language. Horwitz et al cited in Nascente, 2001 write that, among other

affective variables, anxiety stands out as one of the main blocking factors for effective

language learning. In other words, anxiety influences students in learning the English

language. Therefore, paying attention to this factor of learning should also be taken into

consideration. The fact that anxiety plays an important role in students‘ learning is also

shared by other researchers like Horwitz (1991). He believes that anxiety about speaking

a certain language can affect students‘ performance. It can influence the quality of oral

language production and make individuals appear less fluent than they really are.

This explanation suggests that teachers should make an attempt to create a learning

atmosphere which gives students more comfortable situations in their learning activity.

4.7.4. Causes of Anxiety

Regarding the causes of anxiety, Horwitz and Cope (1986) found out three main

causes of students‘ anxiety, i.e., communication apprehension, test anxiety and fear of

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negative evaluation. The communication apprehension refers to the students‘ ability to

communicate in the target language. Their low ability in this aspect, in many cases,

causes anxious feeling among many students. The second cause which is test anxiety

deals with students‘ fear of being tested. The last cause has to do with other students‘

evaluation. In this case, as mentioned above, very often the other students‘ evaluation

causes anxiety among students themselves. In addition, fear of being evaluated by their

teachers is also another factor affecting students‘ anxiety. All these show that

understanding students better and being skillful in managing classroom should be part of

the teachers‘ concern. As suggested by Harmer (2007), to reduce this anxiety, teachers

need to pay attention to each students‘ strengths and weaknesses so that they can create a

learning method which accommodates all students in the classroom.

Possible solutions to Overcome Anxiety

In order to overcome anxiety, the teachers should be more careful about anxiety

which can be intense in students and find techniques that allow students to participate

more in oral activities. In addition, providing students with positive reinforcement,

motivating students and creating an easy environment in class are important to be noticed

by the teacher since it can lower students‘ anxiety, increase their confidence and

encourage their willingness to communicate. Dealing with anxiety in students‘ learning,

Nunan (1999) explains that to deal with the reluctant students, teachers should accept a

variety of answers. This way, the students can feel more confident in answering the

teachers' questions and participating in every activities of the class.

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4.7.5. Lack of Confidence

It is commonly understood that students‘ lack of confidence usually occurs when

students realize that their conversation partners have not understood them or when they

do not understand other speakers. In this situation, they would rather keep silent while

others do the talking showing that the students suffer from lack of confidence to

communicate. In response to this, Nunan (1999) says that students who lack confidence

about themselves and their English necessarily suffer from communication apprehension.

This shows that building students‘ confidence is an important part of teacher‘s focus of

attention. This means that the teacher should also learn from both theories and practical

experience on how to build the students‘ confidence.

Causes of Lack of Confidence

The main cause of students‘ lack of confidence is their low ability in speaking

English. Many students think that their English is bad and feel that they cannot speak

English well. The other cause of students‘ lack of confidence is lack of encouragement

from the teacher (Brown, 2001). In this context, many teachers do not think that

convincing students that they are able to speak English is important. As a result, as

Brown adds, students find the learning demotivating rather than motivating.

This suggests that encouragement becomes a vital thing in order to build the students‘

confidence. Therefore, giving students encouragement and showing that they will be able

to communicate well in English plays a role in students‘ success of learning.

Possible Solutions to Overcome Lack of Confidence

With regard to possible solution to overcome the students‘ lack of confidence,

the strategy to build students‘ confidence can be adopted. The students‘ exposure to

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English is a good way to build the students‘ confidence. To speak English, teachers can

provide regular opportunities to practice proper pronunciation and intonation, and to

converse freely. By doing this, students will experience a greater sense of ability to speak

English. Therefore, teacher should create a comfortable atmosphere in which learners are

encouraged to talk in English and are praised for talking.

4.7.6. Lack of Motivation

It is mentioned in the literature that motivation is a key to students‘ learning

success (Songsiri, 2007). With regard to the issue of motivation in learning, Nunan

(1999) stresses that motivation is important to notice that it can affect students‘

reluctance to speak in English. In this sense, motivation is a key consideration in

determining the preparedness of learners to communicate for motivation is an inner

energy. No matter what kinds of motivation the learners possess, it will enhance their

study interest. It has been proven in many studies that students with a strong motivation

to succeed can persist in learning and gain better scores than those who have weaker

motivation of success showing that building students motivation to learn is the need of

the hour for every teacher.

Causes of Lack of Motivation

With respect to the causes of lack of motivation, Gardner in Nunan (1999)

elaborates the causes of students‘ lack of motivation (e.g. uninspired teaching, boredom,

lack of perceived relevance of materials and lack of knowledge about the goals of the

instructional programme). These four, as he further says, very often become sources of

students‘ motivation. Uninspired teaching, for example, affects students‘ motivation to

learn. In this context, a monotonous teaching, in many cases, reduces the students‘

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motivation due to their feeling of boredom. This shows that paying attention to those four

factors is vital. In response to the issue of motivation, it is clear that lack of motivation in

learning causes students‘ hesitation to speak English in the classroom. The background of

this situation is that students are not motivated by the teachers towards communication in

English. In line with this, Siegel (2004) and Aftat (2008) a believe that motivation is a

product of good teaching. In his further explanation, Aftat emphasizes that to motivate

students to learn well and actively communicate in English, teachers should have passion,

creativity and interest in their students. In other words, students‘ motivation is really

influenced by the teachers‘ teaching performance. Therefore, it is important that teachers

also show enthusiasm in their teaching performance.

Conclusion

The results of speaking test indicate much of physiological factors involved.

The students were very much reluctant to come forward and express their views. As their

thinking process is in their mother tongue, they search for the right equivalent to

substitute. Their lack of vocabulary input resulted in poor performance, exhibiting poor

language, struggle for new words and very poor pronunciation. Thus, it is a clear

indication that the Tamil medium students found very difficult to cope with the situation.

Their medium of instruction, till the completion of schooling, had a major role to play in

acquiring the speaking skill. Once again, it is the teacher who has to bring such students

to the main stream and motivate them to come out of their shells.

4.8. Reading

Reading skill is the next important skill to be considered. Having analyzed the

phonological error inducing environments in both listening and speaking skills, its impact

130

is reflected on the reading skill too. The students encountered difficulty at different levels

while undertaking the reading test. The problems encountered were at word level,

comprehension level and in retention level. They found it difficult sounding out words

and recognizing words out of context due to phonological incompetence. They had

confusion in identifying the relation between letters and the sounds they represent.

This lead to the next level difficulty in understanding the meaning of words and

sentences. The phonological incompetence laid the basis for the students' lack of

concentration while reading. Hence the students found it difficult to remember what is

read and had difficulty in connecting what is read to previous knowledge and in applying

content of a text to personal experience.

From psycholinguistic point of view reading is a problem-solving behavior that

actively involves the reader in the process of deriving and assigning meaning (Papalia

Anthony, 1997; 125). Diane Henry Leipzig (2001) takes this definition a bit further by

including fluency and motivation with meaning. He says that reading is a multifaceted

process involving word recognition, comprehension, fluency and motivation. He adds

that to develop word recognition, learners need to learn phonemic factors. For example,

food has three sounds #7, /u/ and /d/ and the corresponding letters are―F‖, ―u‖ and ―d‖.

If a learner can get himself/herself familiarized with the sound, only then he/she can

identify a word. To develop reading comprehension skill, learners need to improve their

background knowledge and formulate strategies for decoding meaning from text.

Learners should develop high level of accuracy in word recognition, and thereby attain

proficiency in reading. To develop and maintain the motivation level to read a text,

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readers need to get the pleasure of reading books and view reading as a social act, to be

shared with others.

a) The text: The text is used as a reading material. To build up a reading habit,

reading materials play a very crucial role. A text should be written in authentic

language (real language used in real life) because it helps the reader to feel that

they are reading a language which is alive. A text is the meeting place of creative

minds where they ultimately blossom.

b) The reader: The readers are the most important part of the process of reading.

A reader is the one who gets himself involved with a text; while reading, he/she

develops fluency and applies various strategies to read effectively.

c) Fluency: Fluency in reading is important to enjoy a text. A good command over

reading is totally impossible without fluency. The fluency rate depends on the

fluency of a reader to read a text. Fluent reading is the capacity of a reader to read

and comprehend a text within proper time. H.Douglas Brown in 'Teaching by

Principles' (l994, 292-296) talked about a number of reading skills: Skimming,

Scanning, Semantic mapping, Guessing, Vocabulary analysis, Distinction

between literal and impelled meaning, Capitalizing on discourse markers to

process relationship and Schema theory or the use of background knowledge.

4.8.1. Skimming

To get a general idea about a text, a reader uses skimming skill. Skimming gives

readers the advantage of being able to predict the purpose of the passage, the main topic

or message and possibly some of the developing or supporting ideas. This gives them a

―head start‖ as they embark on more focused reading. For example, when a person goes

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to buy a book, s/he mainly reads the title of the book, back cover of the book and may be

a few passage of the book. It gives the reader an idea about the book. In Brenda

Thompson‘s 'Reading Success', he talks about skimming with reference to John

M.Hughes‘s 'Reading and Reading Failures'. John said: "It is extremely important that

primary skills are well developed before a child starts reading, in order that the habits of

regular, rhythmic, horizontal eye movements can be established" (1979: 11-12).

4.8.2 Scanning

The ‗most valuable‘ category is scanning, or quickly searching for some particular

piece of information in a text. The purpose of scanning is to extract certain specific

information without reading through the whole text.

Scanning is used to get specific information about a text. For example, when a

person wants to know about sports news from a newspaper, he usually sees the particular

page where sports news is available.

4.8.3. Semantic Mapping or Clustering

Reader can easily be overwhelmed by a long string of ideas or events.

The strategy of semantic mapping or grouping ideas into meaningful clusters, helps the

reader to provide some order to the chaos. Clustering is a very good activity for building

students‘ vocabulary skills. It is mainly grouping the simpler words. For example, when

the phrase ―rainy day" is said by a teacher, a learner can easily remember different words

which have a relation to this phrase like mud, music, sleep, umbrella, etc. It helps a learner to

learn new words. Neil Anderson (2003: 80) named it as ―Cultivate vocabulary‖. He added

that it is a very good activity for building students‘ vocabulary skills.

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4.8.4. Guessing

With the help of this skill, a learner mainly keeps guessing the meaning of a word,

the starting of the book by reading the title or predicting the ending of the book. It is like

a ―guessing game‖. Mainly at the advance level this strategy is used. In 'Teaching by

Principles', H.Douglas Brown (1994) talks about some advantage of using guessing.

These are:

Guessing the meaning of the word, guessing a grammatical relationship, guessing

a discourse relationship, inferring implied meaning (―between the lines‖)

Vocabulary analysis: Knowledge of word meaning is the most important single

factor in reading comprehension. Learners must be able to interpret the meaning

of most of the words in a text in order to make sense of it.

Learners mainly analyse a word by looking at the prefixes, suffixes or the root

words. H.Douglas Brown talks about the following techniques that help a reader

to analyze the vocabulary:-

These are:

Looking for prefixes (co-, inter-, un-, etc)

Looking for suffixes (~tion, —tive, -ally, etc)

Looking for roots that are familiar.

Looking for grammatical contexts that may single information

4.8.5. Schema Theory

―The mental structures which store our knowledge are called schemata, and the

theory of comprehension based on schemata is called schema theory.‖(Deanne Spears;

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2000:25). The word 'Schema' was first used by Bartlett in 1932. According to the theory,

background knowledge is very important for reading. Schemata, a part of human brain stores

our knowledge. Schema theory is based on the comprehension of schema. It is a combination

of the readers‘ previous knowledge and the writer‘s idea, which he wrote in the book. Reader

gets a chance to relate his own idea with the text, which increases the interest of a reader to

read a book. According to Nunan (1988) ―Schema theory is more effective for the second

language learner.‖ Simon Greenall and Michael Swan in 'Effective Reading' (2001:2-4) also

talked about a number of reading skills. Those are, Understanding text organization,

Checking comprehension, Inferring, Linking ideas, Understanding writer‘s style, Reacting to

the text, Understanding multiple layers of meaning and Writing summaries. These reading

skills can be used to improve a reader‘s comprehension level.

They are discussed here briefly:

1. Extracting main ideas: Sometimes, it is very difficult to find out the main idea from

a passage or from a text, because, there may be blended too many relevant and

irrelevant ideas. In this case, a reader should read a text for the general sense rather

than for the meaning of every word.

2. Understanding text organization: Sometimes, readers may have problems in

understanding how a passage has been organized. If a reader has a clear concept

about text organization, it will be easy for him/her to get the main points of the text.

3. Checking comprehension: Sometimes, a reader needs to read a passage very closely

to find the answer to a question. It helps students know what they understand or do

not understand while reading a text. It also helps them use some reading skills for

example: scanning, skimming etc.

135

4. Inferring: Inferring is the process of deducing (inferring) new information from

information in the text, which a reader already knows. Sometimes authors talk about

some events in an indirect manner. Readers have to find out the meaning of those.

It increases readers‘ ability to think.

5. Linking ideas: In any passage or in an article, the main idea may be expressed in a number

of different words or expressions. Sometime the ideas are not expressed in sequence

organized. A skilled reader knows how to link different ideas in an organized way.

6. Understanding writer’s style: An important part of getting the pleasure in reading is

being able to find out the reasons of the writer‘s word choice or the way s/he plays

with words.

7. Reacting to the text: Sometimes a passage may be interpreted according to the

reader‘s own views on the subject being dealt with. Sometimes what a reader thinks

about an issue is totally different from the author‘s point of view.

8. Understanding multiple layers of meaning: A reader should develop the skill of

understanding multiple layers of meaning. In literature, it is a very common tendency

for an author to describe some things in an indirect manner.

4.8.6. Linguistic Difficulties in Reading Skill

The following tests were conducted:-

Read the passage and answer[ mcq pattern]

Read the passage and answer [True/False ]

Read the following and match with the right word

Read the following and spot the errors

Read the sentences and mark the parts of speech

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Students face difficulties while reading, because, they lack specific skills

necessary for proficient reading and commit reading errors because they lack necessary

skills to read the word correctly. The struggling student‘s errors are the symptoms of the

underlying deficiency in a specific skill. However, the student does not understand why

they are making reading errors. For them, reading is just hard and they make mistakes.

The struggling reader does not recognize what they are doing incorrectly or realize the

specific skills they need to acquire to develop proficient reading. Therefore, it is the job

of the teachers and researchers to learn from their mistakes, identify the specific

deficiencies and help them build the necessary skills.

Individuals who struggle with reading vary greatly in the specific skills they are

lacking. They can be listed as follows:-

1. One student may have poor phonemic awareness, not know the sounds and not be

processing print phonetically. So, proper instruction is needed to directly establish all

the fundamental skills to develop the proficient phonologic pathways,

2. Another student may be ‗sounding out‘ words but struggling with some of the

complexities because their code knowledge was incomplete. This student would need

to learn the complexities and strengthen phonologic processing,

3. Another student may only have difficulty with multisyllable words, and

4. Another individual may decode perfectly but not pay attention to or understand what

they read so would need direct work on developing comprehension strategies.

So, based on the difficult areas encountered by the learners, analyzing the cause

of such errors and classifying of actual errors, grouping of error patterns and the specific

reading problems these types of errors is a smooth process.

137

The following examples show common errors made by the students who

struggled with reading and the types of problems these errors indicate. Once again, it is

not a single error but the patterns of repeated mistakes that are informative. All these

examples came from actual experiences with students who struggled with reading.

While each student is unique, these types of errors are common with struggling readers.

These listed example illustrate how valuable information can be gained from student‘s

errors. For descriptive purposes, the errors are grouped into categories. These are not

clear-cut categories and overlap is common. For examples ‗whole word‘ readers often are

not tracking and often do not know their sounds.

4.8.6.1. “Whole Word” Errors

These types of errors occur when the student is attempting to ‗see‘ or ‗visually

recognize‘ entire words as a unit instead of processing the print by sound. The student

tries to recognize the overall visual appearance of the word. Often the words ‗look

similar‘ to words the student has already learned as ‗sight‘ words. Words usually contain

some visually similar letters or structure. Frequent ‗whole word‘ type errors indicate the

student is not processing print phonetically. ‗Whole word‘ errors include:

Original Word How it is read by the

Students

Exit Next

Every Very

Simple Smile

Spourt Poured

Van Have

Years Yours

138


Students

Value Volume

Afraid After

Include Locating

Lord Rod

Speed Sleep

Cork Clock

Text Next

Navy Very

Will While

Shift Finish

Since Nice

Scrapea Escape

Swallowed Shallow

Prolong Program

Pilgrima Program

Balcony Balance

Enact Enchant

4.8.6.2. “Word Guessing” Errors

‗Word guessing‘ errors are somewhat similar to ‗whole word‘ errors because the

student is not processing the print phonetically. In ‗word guessing‘ the student often only

looks at the first letter and then guesses a word. Frequently, errors are completely ‗off‘.

Sometimes a recently used word will be used or a word will be guessed from an

illustration. Sometimes the student looks at the teacher (instead of the print) and in quick

succession chants several options. Word substitutions are considered ‗word guessing‘

errors as the student is not reading the print but instead guessing. These types of word

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guessing errors are closely associated with students who do not process print phonetically

and instead are relying on ‗whole word‘ visual recognition techniques. There is usually

overlap between ‗whole word‘ errors and ‗word guessing‘ errors.


Students

Pencil Pear

Spoil Special

Hound Hundred

Gentle Great

Graft Giraffe

Command Compute

Detest Dentist

Vitamin Vacuum

Chart Chimp

Value Valentine

Shell Shark

Never Nurse

Stir Shirt

Class School

4.8.6.3. Tracking Errors

These errors can sometimes appear similar to ‗whole word‘ errors. The distinction

is that the student appears to be attempting to sound out words. However, they are not

properly tracking left-to-right. The words they say often contain the same sounds but are

out of order. These tracking errors are closely related to ‗whole word‘ processing. If the

student looks at the word as a ‗whole‘ instead of processing correctly in an orderly left to

right manner, they frequently ‗mix up‘ the sounds within the word. Improper tracking is a

symptom of whole word processing. Students can also make tracking errors if they are

140

‗hopping‘ around looking for familiar bits and pieces that they ‗recognize‘. These types

of errors indicate the student need to develop proper left to right directional tracking.

Examples of tracking errors include


Students

Slip Spill

Left Felt

Step Pest

Lots Lost

Slot Lots

Form From

Miles Smiles

Balk Black

Last Salt

Tired Tried

Act Cat

Persist Preset

Tarnish Tranish

4.8.6.4. Lack of Code Knowledge/Difficulty with Complexities

When the student makes frequent errors or has difficulty with words that contain

vowel combination and r-controlled vowel combinations, it often indicates they lack

knowledge of the complete phonemic code. If the student did not know the complexities

in isolation and has difficulty reading words that contain these sounds, often the student

needs is some direct instruction and practice in these sounds. These students sometimes

read correctly and accurately with the basic sounds and are attempting to sound out words

141

but lack the complete code knowledge and therefore struggle with the complexities.

Examples of difficulty with code knowledge include

--an example of lack of code knowledge is exhibited by many when they learn

t=/t/, h=/h/ but are not yet taught th=/th/. They frequently make errors, reading

‗that‘ as /t/ /h/ /a/ /t/ or ‗the‘ as /t/ /h/ /e/.

Similarly they read ‗sh‘ as /sss/ /h/ instead of /sh/.

--mispronunciations where the sounds of vowel combinations are sounded out

separately such as

sound à /s//o/ /u/ /n//d/

tease as /t/ /ee/ /a/ /z/

compete as /k//o//m//p//e//t/ /ee/

--difficulty with words that contain complexities when simple code is read

accurately and easily.

--lack of knowledge of the alternate sounds, for example every time the student

comes across ‗ow‘ they use the /ow/ sound and do not know and apply the /oa/ sound

--student will start sounding out the word and then ‗word guess‘ because they do

not have knowledge to sound out correctly

4.8.6.5. Consonant Cluster Errors

These errors occur primarily with common ‗blended clusters‘ such as s-st, st-str,

d-dr, c-cl, c-cr, t-tr, g-gr, f-fr and ending clusters p-mp, and d-nd. In these types of errors

the student inserts the ‗blended cluster‘ sounds into words even when it is not present.

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These type of errors occur frequently in students who were taught consonant clusters as a

unit (student learned the consonant cluster as a unit such as st, str, tr, mp, gr, fr, dr…)

The students consequently ‗sees‘ and processes the blended sounds even when they are

actually not present in a word. Often the student will look at the word several times

repeating the same error. Examples of ‗consonant cluster‘ errors include


Students

Flip Flimp

Clip Climp

Cap Camp

Stiff Striff

Gaba Grab

Tying Trying

Dip Drip

Cop Crop

Speak Spreak

Sand Stand

Tide Tride

Fog Frog

Chat Chant

Teasea Trease

Stout Strout

Steak Streak

Widest Windest

Taper Trapper

Tendency Trendency

143

4.8.6.6. Attention to Detail Errors

These types of errors occur when the student does not pay close attention to

detail, carefully processing all the letters in order. Attention to detail is closely associated

with proper tracking and correct phonologic processing. The ‗attention to detail‘ errors

are when the student misses bits and parts of the word. Consonant cluster errors are a

type of attention to detail error. Sometimes, the student will be sounding out the words

correctly but misses parts. The ‗fast and sloppy‘ readers often make frequent errors with

the details. Examples of attention to detail errors include


Students

Inspect Insect

Father Farther

Must Most

Explain Exclaim

Explore Explode

Invent Invert

Powder Power

Retorted Reported

Adapt Adopt

+ missing details with plural words (inaccurately leaving off or adding /s/ /es/)

+ changing or missing other endings (such as ing, ed)

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4.8.6.7. Word Family Errors

These errors occur when the student inappropriately ‗pulls‘ common word

families out of words when they are reading. Hopping around, looking for ‗word

families‘ that they recognize also confuses proper tracking. Often in these errors, the

inappropriate use of ‗word family ‘is seen. Examples include


Students

Train Into

Page /p/ag/ee/

Training /tr/in/ing/

Manager /Man//ag//er

Stream /St//ee//am/

Explore /in/dic//at//ee

4.9. Difficulty with Multisyllable Words

These types of errors occur when the student appears to sound out and accurately

read the shorter words without problem and yet struggles with multisyllable words.

If fundamental reading skills are established (processed phonologically, knows sounds,

tracks correctly) then often the student simply needs instruction in handling these more

complex multisyllable words. Errors with multisyllable words tend to include missing or

changing parts of the word, dropping or adding sounds inappropriately, difficulty in

putting the words together and general trouble handling the longer words. Examples of

multisyllable errors include:

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Students

Inconcistent Inconstant

Opportunity Oppority

Eliminate Elimate

Committed Commititated

Determine Deterimmine

Objective Objectactive

Representative Repestive

Fundamental Funmental

Encoutering Encounting

4.10. Slow Processing

If the student is ‗sounding out‘ words but the phonetic decoding is slow and

difficult, it may be that the reader is relying on indirect processing to phonologically

process the print. For efficient reading, the student needs to automatically convert print to

the correct sound. If the student must first recall another word that contains the sound,

extract the correct sound and then apply it to the new word. It involves slow indirect

‗long way‘ processing pathways. While the student is able to extract the necessary sound

knowledge, it takes lots of effort. In this case, the student needs to practice the direct

print=sound relationship so that the print can be processed rapidly and efficiently.

In addition, once correct phonologic processing is established. It still takes repeated

practice of each word to develop fluency. Remember fluency is build word by word and

requires repeated phonologic processing. Practice is necessary to build this ‗fast‘ fluent

reading.

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4.11. Blending Difficulty

Difficulty in blending is evident by the ‗choppy‘ or ‗segmented‘ sounding out.

The sounds are said broken apart instead of being blended smoothly together.

The ‗choppy‘ sounding out is usually very noticeable. Sometimes the student says all

individual sounds correctly, but because they are segmented/separated they are not able

to combine them back together. The student needs to learn to smoothly blend sounds.

4.12. Fast and sloppy

This is where students appear to be rushing through the reading, moving so fast

and careless they miss entire words and sections. When they slow down their accuracy,

reading improves dramatically. They appear to have necessary skills but are in too much

of a hurry to apply them. These types of ‗going too fast‘ errors often correspond with the

personality of certain students. They are simply in too much of a hurry to be careful.

These types of students simply need training in careful reading! These students have the

necessary skills. They simply have to slow down and apply their skills. Guided reading,

where the student is stopped at every error is the best way to help these students develop

careful reading skills. Impatient individuals usually do not like to stop so, and forcing

them to stop and go back usually motivates them to improve their accuracy.

4.13. Letter Confusion

Letter confusion is most commonly encountered with the visually similar letters

b - d - and p. For example:

Big às dig drag à s br ag brown às drown

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Letter confusion with other letters can also be created by certain writing styles.

For example, loopy cursive cross over print can create confusion with additional letters.

The loopy cursive writing can create confusion between i-j-l. When curves and loops are

added, (i-j-l), these letters which are distinct under normal block print also become

visually similar. Loopy writing of k & h as k-h can create confusion not just between k-

h but also with ch-ck. As a result, some students who learn these loopy cursive cross over

styles will make errors such as:


Students

Hotel Hostel

Much Muck

Mash Mask

Racket Rachet

Basket Bashet

Hill Kill

Joint Loint

Remediation for these letter confusion errors is to have the student repeatedly

print the letters with proper formation in normal block style print. While print or font

style is usually irrelevant for skilled readers, it can create additional difficulty in students

who are learning the printed language.

4.14. To Evaluate Reading Skill

To evaluate reading/decoding skills, listen to the students read and record their

exact performance and then interpret the results. Although there are many established

reading tests, this informal evaluation of decoding accuracy, speed and ability is useful.

This reading performance evaluation of accurate decoding skills is particularly helpful in

148

establishing an effective remediation plan to build proficient reader skills in struggling

readers. He must be given some material the student has not previously read.

Avoid material where text can be guessed from the pictures or a book with repetitive or

predictable text the student can guess or memorize. It is helpful to make a copy of the

pages the student will be reading, so that the teacher can write notes directly on the copy

of the text as the student reads. Then have the student read the material out loud, making

sure the teacher can see exactly what he is reading. At this time, do not stop or correct the

student. Simply listen to the student read and record the student‘s exact reading

performance.

It is important to record every error, no matter how small. Be sure and record the

exact error the student makes (not just that he missed the word but precisely what he said

when he missed the word). Indicate all skipped words (even the little words ‗a‘, ‗an‘ and

‗the‘), incorrectly read words (write down precisely what the student says), replacing one

word for another , missing part of the word or difficulty with multisyllable words. While

you do not correct the student at this time, note any self correction the student does on his

own. In summary, record the student‘s exact reading performance must be recorded. Also

make notes on observations or overall impressions concerning reading skills such as

‗reading was slow and laborious‘, ‗reading was fast‘, ‗seemed to be rushing and missing

words‘, ‗student corrected self when made an error‘, ‗frequently student did not notice

errors‘, ‗student‘s reading was choppy and slow‘ or ‗difficulty with multisyllable words‘.

For evaluation purposes, carefully evaluate the exact errors the student made.

Identify common patterns in the errors and ask yourself, ―Why did the student make that

error?‖ Once again the precise errors and patterns of errors are enlightening. Frequent,

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persistent and repeated patterns of errors often indicate deficiencies in specific reading

skills and importantly in identifying the skills that you need to help the student develop

and targeting instruction to help the student acquire those skills and achieve proficiency.

Important: This type of reading evaluation is not a ‗test‘. The evaluation technique

described is only an informal tool for indicating possible gaps in reading skills. If you

have any concerns at all about the student‘s hearing, vision, development or other

medical concern, the student must be evaluated by a doctor or other appropriate

professional. These informal evaluations do not provide any medical information or

official diagnostic data. If the student has difficulty in hearing (for whatever reason from

an ear infection to a physical disability) it significantly impairs phonemic awareness and

the ability to tap into correct phonologic process.

Phonemic Awareness

Phonemic awareness is literally ‗sound‘ awareness. Phonemic awareness is

understanding that words are made up of sounds and being able to hear, recognize and

manipulate the individual sounds that make up a word. Phonemic awareness is primarily

an auditory skill of distinguishing and recognizing the sound structure of language.

For example, phonemic awareness is realizing the word ‗puppy‘ is made up of the sounds

/p/ /u/ /p/ /ee/ or the word ‗shape‘ is made up of the sounds /sh/ /ay/ /p/.

Many learners do not realize that the words they hear break apart into smaller

hunks of sound. Hearing the individual sounds within a word is difficult because spoken

language is so seamless. When we speak, we naturally and effortlessly blend all the

sounds together to say and hear the overall word. The natural ease of seamless speech

hides the phonetic nature of our spoken language. For example, the learner says and hears

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the word ―puppy‖ as one seamless word /puppy/ and does not recognize or distinguish the

separate sounds /p/ /u/ /p/ /ee/ that make up the word.

Learners vary greatly in their natural ability to hear the sounds within words. Some

individuals have a definite natural phonological weakness. Research has shown that children

with poor phonemic awareness struggle with reading and spelling. The child‘s natural

phonological abilities are not related to intelligence. In fact, many highly intelligent children

have phonological weakness that leads to reading difficulty. In addition, tendency for natural

phonologic weakness may be an inherited trait as it appears to run in families.

Importance of Phonemic Awareness

Phonemic awareness is important because it is critical to reading and spelling success.

A child‘s phonemic awareness is a powerful predictor of the likelihood of reading and spelling

success. Children who cannot distinguish and manipulate the sounds within spoken words have

difficulty recognizing and learning the necessary print=sound relationship that is critical to

proficient reading and spelling success. If a child has poor phonemic awareness, it is difficult

for them to discover the necessary link between print and sound.

Phonemic Awareness is the Only One Element of Reading Success

Phonemic awareness is only one critical skill for reading success. It is important

to realize that while phonemic awareness training provides an essential foundational

element of reading success, phonemic awareness alone does NOT insure your child will

learn to read proficiently. Phonemic awareness training teaches your child to hear,

recognize and distinguish sounds with a word. It is primarily an auditory skill. Proficient

reading requires many complex skills. To read, the child MUST not only recognize the

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sound structure of spoken language but be able to link the sounds to the correct printed

representation, know the printed phonemic code automatically, process printed letters

phonetically, track correctly from left to right, smoothly blend sounds together, pay

attention to detail and repeatedly practice correct phonologic decoding to begin building

fluency. These are all fundamental skills necessary to master proficient decoding.

These fundamental decoding skills are necessary before the child can advance and begin

to master the higher level skills including fluency, proficiently handling multisyllable

words, vocabulary and comprehension.

4.15. Overall Performance of the Student’s in Reading

Test




Vocabulary

36

(21.4)

49

(29.2)

0

(0)

28

(16.7)

55

(32.7)

0

(0)

20

(62.5)

0

(0)

0

(0)

10

(31.2)

2

(6.3)

0

(0)

Spelling

8

(4.7)

73

(43.4)

4

(2.4)

6

(3.7)

73

(43.4)

4

(2.4)

16

(50)

4

(12.5)

0

(0)

11

(34.3)

1

(3.2)

0

(0)

Punctuation

12

(7.1)

63

(37.6)

10

(5.9)

5

(3.0)

60

(35.7)

18

(10.7)

20

(62.5)

0

(0)

0

(0)

11

(34.3)

1

(3.2)

0

(0)

Sentence correction

10

(5.9)

69

(40.1)

6

(3.7)

5

(3.0)

68

(40.4)

10

(5.9)

18

(56.3)

2

(6.3)

0

(0)

12

(37.4)

0

(0)

0

(0)

Comprehension

8

(4.7)

62

(36.9)

15

(8.9)

19

(11.4)

56

(33.4)

8

(4.7)

20

(62.5)

0

(0)

0

(0)

12

(37.5)

0

(0)

0

(0)

Average 14.8

(8.8)

63.2

(37.6)

7

(4.2)

12.6

(7.5)

62.4

(37.1)

8.0

(4.8)

18.8

(58.8)

1.2

(3.7)

0

(0)

11.2

(35.0)

0.8

(2.5)

0

(0)

It is found from the table that 43.4% of the girls and 43.4% of the boys from Tamil

medium have given wrong answers in spelling.

152

The above table shows the students‘ performance in the reading test.

As far as the Tamil medium students are concerned, 15% of the students have

given the correct answer and 13% of the girls have given the correct answer.

Where English medium students are concerned, 19% of the boys and 11% of the girls

have given the correct answer.

8.8

37.6

4.27.5

37.1

4.8

Reading- Boys & Girls (Tamil Medium)

BCA

BWABNR

GCA

58.8

3.7

0

35

2.5 0

Reading- Boys & Girls (English Medium)

BCA

BWA

BNR

GCA

GWA

GNR

153

When coming to the wrong answers which were given by the Tamil medium

students 63% of boys and 62% of girls have given the wrong answer while the results of

English medium students were 1% of boys and 1% of girls. This shows a significant

difference between Tamil medium students and English medium students. Tamil medium

students were not upto the expectation in the Reading skill. The linguistic analysis

revealed the fact that the students have difficulty in reading.

Conclusion for Reading

The above results in the test of Reading reveal the difficult area the students face

while Reading are Vocabulary as they are not aware of the Phonemic difference in

identifying the words. Punctuation and spelling too are very difficult for the students to

identify, resulting in wrong comprehension. With so many drawbacks, reading is always

a Herculean task for the students. They always fall back and avoid the concept of

Reading. The errors identified as whole word errors, letter confusion errors, blending

difficulties, phonetic decoding and difficulties with multi-syllable words clearly indicate

their language deficit. The students with Tamil medium background also add to the fear

and anxiety of the students. Hence, the teacher has to facilitate a friendly atmosphere and

motivate the shy learners

4.16. Writing

Writing is one of the two most common channels of communication, the other

being speech. It is an activity of rendering the spoken language into its graphic form.

To quote Rivers (1968, 242), ―Writing can be an act of putting down in conventional

graphic form something which has been spoken.‖ In this sense, writing is nothing more

than the correct association of conventional graphic symbols with sounds. But it is not

154

merely the jotting down of the spoken language in black and white. It involves encoding

of a message of some kind of translating our thoughts into language in graphic form.

According to White and Arndt (1991), writing is far from a simple matter of transcribing

language into written symbols. It is a thinking process in its own. In its advanced form,

writing refers to the expression of ideas in a consecutive way according to the graphic

conventions of the language.

In fact, writing is the skill in which students produce sentences which are put in a

particular order and linked together in certain ways. But still, essays production is the

most difficult tiring task. Raimes (1983) explained that writing is an area in which

students commit errors and it is helpful in students' learning because of the following

reasons: "First, it reinforces the grammatical structures, idioms and vocabulary that have

been taught to students. Second, when students write, they also have a chance to be

adventurous with the language. Third, when they write, they necessarily become very

involved with the new language, the effect to express ideas and the constant use of eye,

hand and brain is a unique way to reinforce learning." There is a kind of agreement that

errors are significant in three different ways:" First, they tell the teacher when he

undertakes a systematic analysis how far toward the goals the learners have progressed

and what remains for them to learn. Second, they give researchers evidences of how

language is learned and what strategies and procedures the learners are employing in their

discovery of the language. Third, they are unavoidable to the learner himself, because we

can consider the process of making of errors as a devise the learner uses in order to learn.

In other words, it is a way of testing the learners' hypotheses about the nature of the

language they are learning.

155

4.16.1. Linguistic Errors in Writing

The following tests were given to the students:-

Exercises for testing the use of Articles

Exercises for testing the use of Tenses

Exercises for testing the use of Preposition

Exercises for testing the use of Auxillary Verbs

Exercises for testing the formation of Plural

Exercises for testing the formation of Prefixes and Suffixes

Exercises for formation of Question Tags

Exercises for the right use of Concord

Exercises for framing 'Wh' questions

Exercises for use of Voice

Morphological Errors

Morphological errors may be portrayed as those which result from the

misapplication of the morphological rules in the formation of words. Hsieh, Tsai, Wible

and Hsu maintain that "[m]orphological errors indicate the learner's miscomprehension

about the meaning and function of morphemes and about the morphological rules."

(quoted in Akande, 2005). These types of errors may include such errors as omission of

plurals on nouns, lack of subject-verb agreement, the adjective-noun agreement, verb

tense or form, article or other determiner incorrect, omitted or unnecessary.

Morphological errors are persistent in writing when the student violates the

grammatical rules in the formation of words, phrases and sentences. Hence, these errors are the

systematic and regular mistakes committed by the second language learners at competence

156

level due to linguistic reason. Every second language learner commits errors at any level or

area of language. Nevertheless, this is not a problem actually but a part of solution. To commit

errors is often a first step towards learning the correct form since those errors indicate the sign

of successive learning in any course of instruction. The making of errors is a strategy employed

by children in learning a new thing (here, a second language). If they are made aware of such

errors, it serves as a feedback for the language learners.

The study of errors is imperative for the language teachers to know how much the

learners have learned and consequently what remains for them to learn. Writing is found to be

the most difficult of the four skills and which is not a spontaneous activity either. The learners

may commit errors in spelling, punctuation, grammar and organization style. There are many

specific areas under each broad area of written discourse that the learners may commit errors of

different types. To exemplify, under grammatical errors they may commit errors in agreement,

tense, aspect, number, preposition, article, transformation and so on and so forth.

4.16.2. Identification and Explanation of Learner Errors

Explanation of errors is considered one of the important goals of errors analysis.

So, serious attempt was made to explain the plausible cause of the students' errors.

They could be attributed to many sources: mother tongue interference, intralingual

interference, teachers, false analogy and the familiarity of the appropriate collections.

Analyzing the collected data will indicate the sources of these errors.

157

4.16.2.1. Verbs

Eg:

Error Correct Form

A dog can be able to kill a cat. A dog can kill a cat.

Why did not you take the university entrance

examination? You must have passed it

easily.

Why did not you take the university

entrance examination? You could have

passed it easily.

I can able to finish it by next week. I shall be able to finish it by next week

He is only a little boy, how could he knows

what to do ?

He is only a little boy; how should he

know what to do ?

A: Wrong form of modal used

A dog can be able to kill a cat. A dog can kill a cat.

Why did not you take the university entrance

examination? You must have passed it

easily.

Why did not you take the university

entrance examination? You could have

passed it easily.

I can able to finish it by next week. I shall be able to finish it by next week.

He is only a little boy; how could he knows

what to do ?

He is only a little boy; how should he

know what to do ?

B. Wrong form of auxiliary after “wish”

Mary wishes she can play the Piano well.

Mary wishes she could play the Piano

well.

2. Mary wishes she could to play the piano

well

Mary wishes she could play the Piano

well.

C. Future in past instead of future in past

perfect

If I had not shown her the way, she may get

lost

If I had not shown her the way, she might

have got lost

If I had not shown her the way, she might get

lost

If I had not shown her the way, she might

have lost

D. Wrong form of auxiliary

Either my father or I is mistaken. Either my father or I am mistaken.

Either my father or I were mistaken. Either my father or I am mistaken.

158

Error Correct Form

E. Present, past and future used instead of

present perfect continuous tense.

Before she came here, she will have to study

in England

Before she came here, she must have

been studying in England

Before she came here, may study in England

Before she came here, she must have

been studying in England

F. Wrong form of verb after auxiliary.

She did not know the first seven answers but

she do knows the eighth.

She did not know the first seven answers

but she did know the eighth.

She did not know the first seven answers but

she did not know the eighth.

She did not know the first seven answers

but she did know the eighth.

The type of errors revealed that the students did not know the proper use of

auxiliary verb. They need more practice in this area. As this study indicated, there is a

lack of knowledge of English auxiliary verb rules among the students. In order to remove

the errors in the use of auxiliary verb, the students need sufficient exercises to be

conducted in the classroom in order to increase their knowledge of English auxiliary verb

and reduce their errors.

4.16.2.2 Preposition

A preposition is a word or a group of words that shows the relationship of a noun

or pronoun to some other words in a sentence.

Errors in the use of prepositions

Redundant use of preposition.

Wrong use of preposition

Omission of preposition

159

Redundant Use of Preposition

Eg.

1. The students congratulated the captain for winning in the National series.

Ans: The students congratulated the captain for winning the National series.

2. Priya is very good in mathematics and in computers.

Ans: Priya is very good in mathematics and computers.

3. Latha wants to discuss about the problems with her boss.

Ans. Latha wants to discuss the problems with her boss.

4. Mary searched in the bag for the lost key.

Ans Mary searched in the bag for the lost key.

5. The police entered into the building with caution.

Ans. The police entered the building cautiously.

Wrong Use of Preposition

1. She is married with one of her classmates

Ans. She is married to one of her classmates.

2. I begin my day in a cup of coffee prepared with my mother.

Ans. I begin my day with a cup of coffee prepared by my mother.

3. He insisted in taking his car for the function.

Ans. He insisted on taking his car to the function.

160

4. He flies everyday through Bombay and Calcutta.

Ans. He flies everyday between Bombay and Calcutta.

5. I have not met him on last Monday.

Ans. I have met him since last Monday.

Omission of Preposition

1. We have been assured help.

Ans. We have been assured of help.

2. Tell me a way in which I can compensate the loss.

Ans. Tell me a way in which I can compensate for the loss.

3. Please inform me the results as soon as they are available.

Ans. Please inform me of the results.

4. The new teacher is able to explain us the concepts very well.

Ans. The new teacher is able to explain to us very well.

5. There was no difficulty locating the house.

Ans. There was no difficulty in locating the house.

As the students are not aware of where, what and when to use the preposition,

they tend to commit errors. Hence, they must be clearly taught about the position of

prepositions in a sentence. Prepositions normally come before nouns and pronouns with

exceptions at the end of the sentence. Until they are clear about the usage of prepositions

such redundancies, wrong usage and omissions will occur.

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4.16.3. Tenses

The tense of a verb shows the time of the action and degree of its completeness.

The following exercises were given to the students:

1. I______ all the work by Friday. [complete]

Ans: completed

2. Sheela _________ music for over a year. (learn)

Ans: is learning.

3. Satish and I ______ in the same class since last year. (study)

Ans. were studying.

4. When we return after ten years these plants _______ into big trees.(grow)

Ans. have grown

5. By tomorrow afternoon they ______ Delhi. (reach)

Ans. would have

The students must be taught the uses of various tense forms.

Learners have not mastered the past tense since they write ‗been‘ which is the

auxiliary used for passive and ‗were finished‘ is passive. In the next sentences the rule of

past tense formation has been over generalized by adding –ed (tried) and grade 11 –ed

(beated instead of –ied and beat. This is what Selinker (1972) refers to when saying,

some of the rules of the inter language system may be the result of the over generalization

of specific rules and features of the target language. Even grade 12 has not mastered

tenses since an auxiliary ‗are‘ has been wrongly used.

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4.16.4 Errors in Article

The following types of errors are committed by the students.

Omission of 'the'

Addition of the omission of 'a/an',

Addition of 'a/an',

Misuse of articles.

Exercises in articles:-

1.________ elephant is _______ wild animal.

2. ________ gold is _________ metal.

3.__________ Bramaputra is _________ river.

4. ___________ aeroplane is _________ very fast vehicle.

5. There are ________ dark clouds in _________ sky.

6. __________ man who won ________ gold medal was given _________ promotion.

7. ____________ rainbow is __________ thing of beauty in __________ nature.

8. __________ man is _________ intelligent creature in_________ universe.

9 _________ spade is ____________ instrument for farming.

10. Can I have __________ coffee and ________ few biscuits.

The learners are not able to understand these morphological changes and hence

they tend to create many errors.

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4.17. Syntactical Errors

Syntactic errors are those which disobey the phrase structure rules, and, by this

way, violate the formation of grammatically correct sentences. These errors can be

exemplified as word order, ungrammatical sentence constructions resulting from faulty

use of verbs, prepositions, articles and relative clauses in sentences. These types of errors

have captured the attention of a great number of researchers studying in different settings

with learners of different backgrounds. Surprisingly, their research, more or less, found

similar types of morphological and syntactic errors stemming from similar sources such

as mother tongue interference and inconsistency of the rules in the target language.

Errors in the use of tense, phase, aspect, voice, verb-formation, concord and finite

and non-finite verbs are some of the areas identified.

4.17.1. Tense

Three types were found:

Tense sequence,

Tense substitution, and

Tense marker deletion.

Tense sequence

The learners use present simple with past simple tenses, particularly with

compound and complex sentences.

Eg. They came late yesterday and go directly to the hospital.

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Tense substitution

Learners may use simple past tense instead of the simple present:

"The sun rose from the east". Or they may use the simple present instead of the simple

past.

"Yesterday I has a party that's why the house is in a mess". The errors instanced in and

above, which were most noticeable in compound and complex sentences, seem unlikely

to be due to negative transfer. Indeed, the linguistic contexts of these examples do require

the use of the simple present and the simple past, respectively.

Tense Marker Deletion

Deletion of the auxiliary have or has in forming the present perfect was the most

common error. Phase learners use erroneously non-perfective instead of the perfective or

avoid using it as a whole.

"He didn't come until now". One can admit here that the systems of time sense in the two

languages concerned.

4.17.2. Aspect

The literature reported cases where the learners failed to use the progressive and

used instead the non-progressive. Some subjects used the progressive aspect (-ing) of

certain verbs instead of the present tense: "Am not understanding the lesson". The errors

are examples of negative transfer from mother tongue. While the verb ‗cause‘ does not

occur in the progressive aspect in, "understand" is allowed to be used in the progressive

aspect.

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Consider the following

I'm understanding my lesson today.

1n the English translation ‗understanding' which is the progressive aspect of the

verb 'understand‗ in English, is not allowed to be used in this context.

4.17.3. Voice

The learners of English found active sentences less problematic than the passive

ones. This let some of these learners avoid using the passive on the other hand. Some

studies reported two types of deviations these learners encounter while constructing the

passive.

Auxiliary Deletion

The auxiliary was deleted in four different types of sentences.

The most problematic sub-category is wrong word form such as nouns instead of

verbs or adjectives instead of adverbs. The learners do not build the adequate competence

of the English language. They do not have sufficient knowledge of the forms of these

words. Some samples of this sub-category are as follows:

1. We live good without smoking. (adjective in place of adverb)

2. We live in India culture. (noun in place of adjective)

3. I am please. (bare infinitive in place of past participle)

4. Giving lectures about the harmful of smoking is a good idea for make smokers give up

smoking. (Base infinitive instead of gerund)

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Some other errors in this category are as follows:

5. One of the most important benefit. (lack of plurality)

6. Another benefits is saving money. (addition of the plural ending ―s‖)

7. It‘s importance leads to decrease in diseases. (it‘s instead of its)

8. Students' s ideas are very good. (misuse of possessive ―s‖)

9. This benefit is ---- important than others. (incorrect use of comparative adjective)

It is a well established concept that the sentence is the property of written

language and spoken language seldom avails sentences. Rather the spoken language uses

the chain of phrases or clause. It is really rare to experience sentences in the spoken

language. Therefore, all the complete meaningful chain of phrases or sentences are

designated as utterance. The expression used between two long pauses is called utterance

and the complete meaningful expression used between two full stops is called a sentence.

So as far as spoken English is concerned, the syntactical problem is utterance problem.

This portion tries to enlist some of the major areas where the present face difficulty.

4.17.4. Errors in Embedded Question

Certain errors are found to occur in embedded ‗Question‘ also. Consider the

following examples:

She wanted to know why was he late?

Tell me what are you doing?

Contrary to the above explanation, these two questions have been wrongly

constructed. Those expressions are correct if they are reconstructed in the following way.

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She wanted to know why he was late?

Tell me what you are doing?

This is an indirect question which should not be constructed as stated above.

4.17.5. Tag Question

This is another variety of question which is dominantly used in the spoken mode.

In the Tag question formation, the compatibility between the tagged element and the

interrogative sentence has to be maintained. This area will really be a troublesome area

wherein most of our students fail miserably. Here are some evidences by which the

students' problems can be understood.

He never smiles, isn‘t it?

It‘s no good, isn‘t it?

There is a problem, isn‘t it?

The students invariably avail ‗isn‘t it' as a feature of tag question. The tagged

item should coincide with the statement. Then only it attains the statement of question.

Those utterances should be redesigned as follows:

He never smiles, does he?

It‘s no good, is it?

There‘s a problem, isn‘t there?

The compatibility can be achieved between the tagged item and statement mainly

in one feature. i.e., if the statement is said in positive the tagging has to be framed in

negative and vice-versa.

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4.17.6. Change in the Order of Words

There is a grammar in selecting the vocabulary for a sentence / utterance.

Similarly, the order of sentence matters the meaning of the sentence or utterance or even

of the word.

I have a stolen book.

I have stolen a book.

Considering the above utterances, the word ‗stolen‘ occurs after an article ‗a‘.

It qualifies the noun ‗book‘ being an adjective. If the same word ‗stolen‘ occurs before

‗a‘ it gives the meaning that the subject has stolen a book. So, the placement of a word

decides not only the meaning of the word but also the grammatical category. The word

‗stolen‘ comes as an adjective in the first utterance and the same word functions as past

participle (rather verb) in the second sentence. It is needless to say that each of the

sentences gives one different meaning. So, the order of sentence is one of the important

rules to be followed for creating acceptable and meaningful expressions. The students

have committed some errors, because of the confusions in order. There are enough

evidences with regard to wrongly organized utterances. The main reason for this problem

is mother tongue influence. That is, the structure of one‘s mother tongue will help or

hinder the learning of L2. When there are similarities between the structure of mother

tongue and that of target language, the similarity will help the learners to produce

constructions in those areas where both mother tongue and target language have

syntactically shared features. If there is a dichotomy between the structures of these two

languages, this dichotomy enables the learners to create unacceptable structures in the

target language.

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4.17.7. Inversion Error

Here are some syntactic errors which occurred because of the inversion of certain

words in a sentence.

Eg. Never I saw him.

In Madurai I met her.

He killed a man with a stick.

The order of sentence is not correct. The first two sentences have to be corrected

by recasting them in the following way.

I never saw him.

I met her in Madurai.

The order followed in the above utterances may be the usual order which can

express the indented meaning. The final sentence, although the order is correct, will give

two different meanings, viz.

1. He killed a man using a stick.

2. He killed a man who possesses a stick.

So, the order has to be followed for two important purposes. That is, when

framing sentences, two things have to be kept in mind. They are,

1. Whether proper grammatical rules have been followed to construct utterance /

sentence, and

2. Whether, an order chosen for constructing a sentence / utterance opens a room of

opportunity to give more than one meaning.

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Confirming these two aspects, sentences or utterances have to be constructed.

Here are some examples in which proper order has not been followed by the students

under study.

Eg.

1. I like neither the cake nor the ice-cream.

2. I only take a walk when it is fine.

3. He quickly runs always to school.

4. An old man died at hundred years old.

In the first sentence, there is a confusion of construction. It should be

I neither liked the cake nor the ice-cream.

The second sentence has to be recast as follows:-

I take a walk only when it is fine.

The third construction has to be repaired as follows:-

He always runs quickly to school‘.

The last utterance should be uttered as stated below.

An old man died when he was hundred years old.

The repaired utterances alone exactly communicate the meaning as they have

been constructed following the rules. The former construction, although they

approximately express the meaning, they are ill formed constructions. They have to be

averted.

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4.17.8. Agreement Errors

In syntactic aspect of language, agreement and concord is considered to be a vital

phenomenon. The users of English language have to keep their eyes and ears on it in

order to exactly make meaning. Consider the following sentence:-

A boy has a toy which was gifted by his uncle.

In this sentence, the singularity is expressed throughout the construction. Almost,

eight elements carry the meaning of singularity. That is, A, boy, has, a , toy, which, was,

his, etc. The singularity of the noun ‗boy‘ and of ‗toy‘ is expressed by those eight

elements. If we change the subject as plural, i.e., ‗Two boys‘ we have to make two

changes, one in ‗has‘ (have) and another in his (their) and the word ‗uncle‘ may be used

as it is or the plural form of word uncle (uncles) will also suit well when the subject (two

boys have different parents). If the object is converted as plural (for example two toys)

then there will be changes in ‗was‘ and if both subject and object are treated as plural, all

the eight or nine (if needed uncle) items have to be treated separately. So, agreement is a

serious problem. Our utterances or sentences should contain agreement or concord

relationship among the words employed in a sentence / utterance. It is needless to say

that certain words in a construction will not carry an agreement / concord feature. In that

case, there will not be any problem to the user of language.

Certain agreement problems with which the present students struggle are as follows:-

Eg.,

Her hairs are very long.

Ether my wife or I is going.

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In the above three constructions, there are some agreement problems. The first

sentence avails the noun ‗rice‘ which is a mass noun. This can always be used as a

singular form. It would be correct if it is recast as

The rice is not cooked.

In the second sentence, the plural form for the word ‗hair‘ can be averted. Instead,

the singular form can be used as it is a mass noun. In the third sentence, the auxiliary verb

‗is‘ does not agree with the immediate subject. Of course, it agrees with the first subject.

In this case, the immediate subject has to be considered to select auxiliary or modal verb.

So, the third sentence should be as follows:-

‗Either my wife or I am going‘.

So, not only the order but also the agreement has to be considered for proper

production of utterance or sentence.

4.17.9. Errors in the Use of Negative

Negative is also one of the areas to be carefully considered for effective use of

English. The present students encounter a lot of problems pertaining to the category of

negative. Here are some examples:-

Eg. Old men does not likes dancing.

My parents do not got no money.

I does not have any book.

Here there is not shape in this area.

Anyone cannot do this.

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I could not find nobody there.

I could not give him no reply.

In all these utterances, there are some errors in the form of negative. The first

sentence should be

“Not old man likes dancing”.

But other construction availed is in double negatives. Of course, in English the

double negative will give positive meaning. For eg.,

"It is not uncommon.”

In this case, it conveysthe meaning that ‗it is common‘. But the constructions

cited above say nothing. Therefore, when constructing negative sentences, the students

should be very clear about the meaning of the utterances/sentences they produce.

4.17.10 Errors in the Use of Noun

English, and other languages, will have a number of nouns. Nouns can be grouped

into different types, viz., concrete, abstract, countable, uncountable, mass, derived,

inherent, etc. Those classifications have not been done here for error analysis. In the

category of noun, there is always a problem in connection with the singular and plural

marker. There are different plural markers available in English. The language users have

to appropriately select a particular plural suffix to match a particular noun. If it is not

done properly, then, it would be wrong. This makes word grammar. In English there are

some nouns, which are ergative, which can be used as they are for verb. There are some

nouns which can be used as they are both for singular and plural.

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For example,

Study – noun as well as verb

Sheep – singular as well as plural

Fish – singular as well as plural

Fishes – plural

Here are some errors in using the word singular for plural and vice-versa.

Singular for Plural

Eg.

I need a new pant to go with this T-shirt.

Please take this spectacle now.

I will use your running shoe.

We lost all our saving.

He is a man of his words.

Among the five sentences, four sentences bear the noun, namely, trouser,

‗spectacle‘, ‗shoes‘ and ‗saving‘, respectively. All these forms should be in plural forms.

Then only they attain the compatibility or grammaticality. Otherwise, those constructions

are meaningless. But the last sentence has wrongly used the word ‗words‘. There, only a

singular form of the word, i.e., ‗word‘, is acceptable.

Plural for Singular

Sometimes the students under study use plural for singular.

Eg.

I understood many good point in the English class.

I have received more information‘s.

On those occasions mere singular form is enough.

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Omission of Noun

In certain contexts, the present students fail to use noun while speaking with a

hope that the listener can easily understand the meaning. Of course, elliptical utterances

are acceptable in spoken language. But avoidance of such noun makes no sense. Here are

some examples of that nature.

Eg.

I went with my elder.

She wished me.

In these two constructions, the speaker wants to say that he went with his elder

brother and someone wished him good morning. But, the sentence is an open ended one.

So there are some possibilities for the listener to wrongly guess that the speaker might

have gone with his elder sister and she might have wished him good evening. This type

of room of opportunity happens as those sentences have not been properly completed.

So, incomplete constructions or otherwise elliptical constructions are also erroneous if

they give more than one meaning.

Incorrect Use of Noun

The students of ‗Government Arts College‘ sometimes find problems in selecting

certain nouns which are suitable for certain constructions that create errors in the

utterances they produce. Here are some examples:-

Eg. We are leaving by 4.30 O‘ clock.

I mean an individual who came from your native.

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In these constructions, instead of ‗train‘ or ‗bus‘, the speaker simply said o‘clock.

It should be ‗We are leaving by 4.30 train/bus'. In the second utterance, the use of the

noun ‗individual‘ is not suitable. It should be replaced by a man or a person.

4.17.11. Errors in Article

Of course, spoken English is a diluted form wherein strict grammatical rules may

not be followed. The speakers will generally not pay due attention to the minute details of

grammar. However, the general grammatical rules will be followed considering the

intelligibility. But, while evaluating the competence of students it is very much

imperative to observe even the minute grammatical nuances in the utterances they

produce. Here are some examples to throw light on this matter:-

Eg. Tell truth.

We crossed Singapore.

I traveled by the bike.

Of these three utterances, the first two utterances came without the article ‗the‘ but in

the last utterance, the students have unwantedly employed ‗the‘ article. It is a known fact that

article does not affect the core meaning of the sentence seriously, but an advance level

English speaker should be aware of using articles in a proper manner so that his or her

utterances can gain acceptability, grammaticality and above all communicability.

4.17.12. Errors in pronoun

The students of Government Arts College also find problems in the use of

Pronouns in their speech. Here are some evidences.

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Eg. What can I tell you about me?

A friend of you phoned and wants you to call hers.

They want everything for their own.

In the above utterances, two utterances have not availed certain pronouns which

are very much essential. The third utterance has got extra reflexive pronoun. Therefore,

all these utterances are incorrect in a way. Those utterances have to appear in the

following manner:-

What can I tell you about myself?

A friend of yours phoned and wants you to call her.

They want everything for themselves.

4.17.13. Errors in the Use of Adjective

It is found that there are some errors in the aspect of adjectives while the present

students speak in English. Following are some of the evidences:-

He is better than any student.

LIC building is very huge.

I suffer from a big headache.

In all those utterances, there are some adjectival errors. In the first utterance, one

adjective ‗other‘ is found missing. In the second utterance, the adjective ‗very‘ has been

wrongly chosen instead of ‗absolutely‘. In this respect, the second utterance is wrong.

Third utterance has also availed wrong adjective ‗strong‘ instead of ‗massive‘. So, these

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utterances can be repaired by adding ‗other‘ in the first utterance and by replacing

‗absolutely‘ by ‗very‘ and ‗big‘ by ‗massive‘ in second and third utterances respectively.

4.17.14. Errors in Verb

The ‗Verb‘ is a major grammatical entity like noun. The English verb pattern is so

illogical and always troubles the learners or users of English. The students under study

will also experience a lot of bottlenecks in using the verb pattern. Here are some verb and

tense problems experienced by the students.

Eg.

1. Rama was shocking by the sight that I could hardly speak with Sita.

2. He is wanting to see you.

3. I came by walk.

4. She said to me to ask you to call her.

5. Old bikes are easier to mend.

6. I got out of bed and opened the radio to listen news.

7. I had been to mysore this weekend.

8. He likes that I should suffer.

Considering the first and second utterances, the verb employed in those two

utterances are static verbs which cannot be availed to express the continuous action.

So, these two utterances are wrong.

The third utterance, although it seems a well formed sentence, is wrong. We can

come by a car, train or even by bicycle, but not by walk. It would be right to say.

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I walked or I came on foot. So, in this respect, third utterance is also wrong. In the

fourth sentence, the speaker used the verb ‗told‘. It should be ‗said‘. Similarly, in the fifth

utterance instead of ‗mend‘, the speaker should have used the verb ‗repair‘. Similarly, in

the case of next utterance ‗opened‘ should have been used in the place of the word ‗switched

on‘. The seventh sentence will be right when it is reconstructed as ‗I went to Mysore this

weekend'; and the final utterance should be modified as ‗He wants me to suffer‘.

The above explanation highlights the fact that the students under study do not

have the knowledge for identifying the minute semantic variations existing in two related

verbs and some aspects of the intricacies of certain verbs.

4.17.15. Errors in Adverb

It is also found that some abnormalities in the utterances produced by the students

under study were especially in the aspect of adverb. English poses a lot of restrictions in

using adverbs in a sentence / utterance. The learners have to have clear knowledge of

this aspect so as to create error – free utterances. A close scrutiny of the data obtained

from the speech of U.G. students of Government Arts College yields the following

evidences wherein the students experienced hurdles related to the use of adverbs:-

Eg.

1. They rather violent films to comedy ones.

2. I am to glad to see you.

3. He never spoke to me to day.

4. This room is too much small for me.

5. She feels very weak to work.

6. I am somewhat well.

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In the first sentence, the speaker has unnecessarily employed an adverb (rather),

which signifies wrong instead ‗prefer‘. This utterance can be set right by removing the

word ‗rather‘ from it. The second utterance, the adverb ‗top‘ has to be replaced by the

word ‗very‘ to form the utterance correctly. The third sentence is wrong as it employs the

adverb ‗never‘ instead of ‗did not‘. The fourth utterance can be corrected by eliminating

the adverb ‗much‘ and in the fifth utterance the adverb ‗very‘ has to be replaced by ‗too‘

in order to make it correct. In the sixth utterance, the expression ‗somewhat‘ has to be

removed by placing either the word ‗fairly‘ or pretty.

Knowing adverbial forms is not enough to steer the language effectively, one

should have a clear idea of where to use those items for constructing grammatically

correct constructions.

4.17.16. Errors in Preposition

The use of preposition will be a difficult task to any user of English. Even the

native speakers of English find problems in using prepositions. The user of English, who

learns English as a second language will encounter a lot of problems in connection with

this category. When the students under study speak English, the following types of errors

are found to exist:-

Eg.

1. Have you enough of money?

2. She picked up a quarrel with me.

3. I ordered for a drink.

4. I enquired him.

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5. Will you fight this cause?

6. This resembles to that.

7. Open the tenth page.

8. They live at Delhi.

9. Telephone to me.

10. This necklace is made of graps.

11. He knocked the door.

Considering the above sentences, it is inferred that the students unnecessarily use

preposition. In certain utterances, prepositions have not been used and in certain other

utterances prepositions have been wrongly substituted.

The utterances where prepositions have been unnecessarily availed by the

speakers are:-

1. Have you enough of money?

2. She picked up a Quarrel with me.

3. I order for a drink.

4. Telephone to me.

5. This resembles to that.

These constructions by merely eliminating the underlined prepositions can be

corrected. The utterances where preposition have not been availed by the speakers are

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1. I enquired ____ him.

2. Will you fight _____ this cause.

3. Open ___ the tenth page.

4. He knocked _____ the door.

‗Of‘ for the first utterance, ‗for‘ for the second utterance and ‗at‘ for both third

and fourth utterances have to be used on the underlined slots in order to make them

grammatically correct utterances.

The utterances where prepositions have been wrongly used are as follows:-

1. They live at Delhi.

2. This necklace is made of grapes.

‗At‘ is used instead of ‗in‘ in the first utterance, and ‗of‘ is used instead of ‗from‘

in the second sentence. So, they find, as far as preposition is considered with regard to

spoken English problems in selecting the preposition and using the preposition and using

preposition where it is required and not using the preposition where it is not required.

This can be corrected by repeated usage of utterances and by taking conscious efforts to

look at the usage of others.

4.17.17. Semantic Errors

Defining Semantic Error

Lennon‘s (1991:182) defines ―error‖ in general as ―a linguistic form or

combination of forms which, in the same context and under similar conditions of

production, would, in all likelihood, not be produced by the speakers‘ native speaker

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counterparts‖ (emphasis ours). However, a semantic error as used can be defined as a

violation of the rules of semantic system particular to English language.

Some researchers (e.g. Obeidat, 1986; Khalil, 1985; James, 1998; Jiang, 2004)

classify semantic errors into three broad categories, viz. lexical, collocation and lexico

grammatical. As far as lexical errors are concerned, several researchers have ascertained

that a lexical error is the use of a wrong lexis (word) which has been inappropriately used

in an utterance. To take Llach‘s (2005: 49) definition, a lexical error is ―the wrong word

use of a lexical item in a particular context by comparison with what a native speaker of

similar characteristics as the L2 learner (age, educational level, professional and social

status) would have produced in the same circumstances.‖ A semantic error is the

violation of the rules of meaning of a natural language. One of the most obvious types of

forward cue transfer in the realm of semantics is the substitution of equivalent words for

English words.

Collocations are partly or fully fixed expressions that become established through

repeated context-dependent use. Such terms as 'crystal clear', 'middle

management', 'nuclear family' and 'cosmetic surgery' are examples of collocated

pairs of words.

Lexico-grammatical knowledge can be simply defined as knowledge of the words

and grammatical structures (Celce-Murcia & Lars en-Freeman, 1999). In other

words, lexico- grammatical knowledge refers to lexical and grammatical

knowledge.

Collocations can be in a syntactic relation (such as verb–object: 'make' and

'decision'), lexical relation (such as autonomy) or they can be in no linguistically defined

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relation. Knowledge of collocations is vital for the competent use of a language:

a grammatically correct sentence will stand out as awkward if collocational preferences

are violated. This makes collocation an interesting area for language teaching.

The semantic errors are classified thus:

4.17.17.1. Lexical errors or wrong word-choice:

(e.g. using "tease" instead of "harass", "reduce" instead of "slow", "produce" instead of

"create" or "cause")

Eg:

Lexico grammatical or synforms: (Using a word similar in form but different in meaning.

E.g. expect-except, store-restore, buttons-bottoms, tempt-attempt. Coined words:

Creating a word that does not exist in English.

E.g. acception,disobeymeny, moretheless, traitorous.

Iinformal words: E.g. stuff, kids, guys, wow

Eg:

Near-synonyms (assumed-synonyms)

*We can also make and delete our appointments. (cancel)

I wish everyone can use the mobile phone accurately. (correctly – properly)

People can carry it everywhere since of its light weight. (because)

The mobile phone may hurt us. (harm)

Bearing all these results in mind, car permits should be applied. (consequences)

The teachers give one gender more grades than the other. (marks)

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By studying at home we ignore culture shock. (avoid)

Culture shock is not a chronic illness; it can be defeated. (overcome)

4.17.17.2. Super-ordinate Vs Hyponym

A clarification of this is that there are many new English words.

Eg. If he wants to write a scientific journal. (article)

These rules are from the university department. (administration)

A car permit is a ticket for the students and academic doctors. (staff)

Buses take the students from the campus to the classes. (hostels)

…the words that have words like "unhappiness". (affixes)

The exams depend on things from outside the course. (information)

No Relationship

Technology brings a lot of devices that trigger our style of life.

The mobile phone is an extreme phenomenon that has entered every house.

The mobile phone is a very useful commodity when we travel.

We should know how to impose the mobile phone in a good way.

The mobile phone has become an obvious technology used by many people.

Thus, most of the vocabulary errors detected were cases of choice of an incorrect

word due to both interlingual and intralingual association. Most of the word-choice errors

were cases of using an assumed-synonymy. Ranking second after word-choice errors were

word-formation errors, most of which were due to intralingual transfer. Another important

category was the use of synforms. (i.e. formally similar but semantically different).

186

Examples of Synforms

The fire might go to the adjust shops. (adjacent)

The device connects between far distinctions in the world. (destinations)

Scientists do their best to invite new equipment. (invent)

The latest virgin of mobile phones enable us to … (version)

Mobile phones cause the derivation of the youth. (deviation)

Mobiles are helpful especially if you are in an empty distinct. (district)

Defiantly, this invention shows human's genius. (definitely)

On occasion, you can send SMS and congregate anyone. (congratulate)

On campus, recommendation is already paid. (accommodation)

The cell phone causes diseases such as cancer and futility. (infertility)

The errors committed by using assumed-synonyms, super-ordinates/hyponyms,

and synforms are all due to the strategy known as message adjustment. When the student

attempts to convey a message but lacks the requisite word or expression, he tends to tailor

the message according to the words available to him. The above analysis of vocabulary

errors show that students use the super-ordinate strategy of association in learning and

using English words. They rely on interlingual as well as intralingual association.

The errors detected in the students' free written essays reveal two commonly used

strategies: translation from mother tongue and message adjustment. There were relatively

few cases of word coinage. The rare or non-use of strategies such as paraphrasing, defining,

code mixing, transliteration and foreignization could be attributed to the fact that the students

were free to use both monolingual and bilingual dictionaries and to ask for help.

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1. On the basis of their nature

a) Omission: There is dropping out of the necessary item(s), Eg. He is doctor.

(in this sentence, an article ‗a‘ is omitted in between is and doctor).

b) Addition: This is the case when unnecessary item(s) is /are added in a sentence,

e.g. They went on last Friday. (unnecessary addition of ‗on‘)

c) Substitution: When one element is used in place of the other, that will be the case

of substitution, e.g. She is looking to me. (use of ‗to‘ instead of ‗at‘)

d) Misordering: The order of words is broken down in this case, e.g. They asked her

where was she going. (‗was she‘ misordered)

4.18. Stress


Cricket

Vowel/i/ in between

consonant clusters Kiriket

Critical /i/ Kiritical

Crisis /i/ Krisis

Crowd /i/ Kirowd

Film /i/ Pilm

Fridge /i/ Biridge

Learners make mistakes in the stress of words and rhythm of sentence. Unlike

many other languages, English requires that one syllable in each word be stressed more

than others. The importance of putting the stress on the right syllable in English words

cannot be underestimated; putting the stress on the wrong syllable is more likely to make

a word unintelligible than is mispronouncing one of its sounds. The result can be

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certainly attributed to the mother tongue interference. For many students whose

pronunciations are especially hard to understand, misplaced syllable stress is one of the

main problems. A change in the stress pattern of a word will change its sounds as well.

One word that is stressed differently would have different grammatical functions and

different meanings.

For example, the word ‗subject‘ has the stress on the first syllable when it is a

noun and on the second when it is a verb. This makes a noticeable difference to the sound

of the vowels as well as the meanings of the word. English speech rhythm is

characterized by tone-units: a word or a group of words, which carries one central

stressed syllable (other syllables, if there are any, are lightened). In English sentences, not

all words are given equal emphasis. Key words (usually the words that contain new or

important information) are stressed and pronounced more slowly and clearly than other

words. Take for example, the question ―Are you going to go to Bangalore?‖ If the focus

of the question is on where the listener will go, the sentence will sound something like

―Ya going to Bangalore‖, the word ―Bangalore‖ will be pronounced clearly with more

emphasis. If, in contrast, the emphasis is on who is going, the sentence would sound like

―Are you going to Bangalore?‖ While students do not necessarily need to learn to reduce

the unimportant words in sentence, they should learn to stress key words. Other words

should receive less strength since they are only the words used to link the sentence

together. However, learners may stress on whatever word of a sentence, without the

knowledge of which words should be stressed.

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Read the following and mark the stress

Note: if it is a noun or an adjective mark the stress on the first syllable

If it is a verb mark the stress on the second syllable

1. His conduct was exemplary(noun).

You must conduct the programme. (verb)

In the above sentence when ‗conduct is used as a noun, the stress falls on the first

syllable and in the second sentence when con‘duct is used as a verb the stress is

marked before and above the syllable that is stressed.

2. He applied for the permit. (noun)

Permit him to the class. (verb)

In the above sentence when ‗permit is used as a noun, the stress falls on the first

syllable and in the second sentence when per‘mit is used as a verb, the stress is


3. This imported phone is too good. (adj)

The govt. imported petrol from middle east countries. (verb)

In the above sentence when ‗imported is used as a noun, the stress falls on the

first syllable and in the second sentence when im‘ported is used as a verb the

stress is marked before and above the syllable that is stressed.

4. It is interesting to watch a snake digest a dog.(noun)

Oats is easy to digest. (verb)

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In the above sentence, when ‗digest is used as a noun, the stress falls on the first

syllable, and in the second sentence when di‘gest is used as a verb, the stress is


5. The wheat production is increasing every year.(noun)

The accused was produced in the court. (verb)

In the above sentence when ‗production' is used as a noun, the stress falls on the

first syllable and in the second sentence when 'production' is used as a verb the

stress is marked before and above the syllable that is stressed.

In the above exercises given, the students marked the stress in the wrong place.

They are not aware of the fact that stress normally falls on the key words which carries

significance. Hence, they tend to stress on the weak syllable instead of strong and

vice versa.

4.19. Intonation

Intonation, the rises and falls in tone that make the ‗tune‘ of an utterance, is an

important aspect of pronunciation of English, often making a difference to meaning or

implication. Stress, for example, is most commonly indicated not by increased volume

but by a slight rise in intonation. Intonation patterns in English sentences primarily

indicate the degree of certainty of an utterance, i.e., whether it is a statement, question, or

suggestion. Wh- questions (who, what, where, when, why, and how) end with falling

intonation. It is important for students to learn these patterns not only in order to

communicate meaning, but also in order to avoid unwittingly sounding rude or

indecisive. Emotions like surprise, irony, sympathy, doubt or contempt can also be

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expressed. The function of a sentence also can be changed from declarative to a question

or an interrogative into an exclamation.

Thus, the learners must be taught about the usage of intonation, because, an error

in intonation can lead to a different interpretation.

Intonation variation

It is a well established fact that as far as spoken utterances are concerned, not only

movement of certain words or group of words within a construction changes the meaning,

but also the placement of intonation will also change the meaning. For example, a

common statement can be modified as an interrogative without changing the order in

spoken English. A mere intonation can do that.

You have gone there?

(Have you gone there?)

The students under study in most of the contexts generated interrogatives by

giving intonation alone, not by following the projection rule, i.e., moving the auxiliary

verb to the first slot of the sentence. Although this strategy of interrogation is acceptable,

formation of interrogative have to be followed. It is inferred from the data that the

students mostly avail the intonation for establishing the sense of interrogation by the

statement itself. Forming of interrogative expressions are very rarely handled by the

students.

Moreover, the students have very less exposure to the various strategies of

intonation. They are not able to speak English with proper suprasegmental features.

They spend most of their academic time in writing. The examination pattern does not

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duly consider the spoken skill of the students. Therefore, they evince no interest in

spoken English. Because of that, when they are to perform the spoken skill, they

encounter a lot of troubles. In the formal occasion, they literally struggle with English,

and make a very long quest for fetching vocabulary, and varying syntactical structure.

They often come up with some expressions that will appear with a lot of errors. Here are

some examples.

Eg. When you will go to bed?

What class you belong to?

These two utterances rather questions are mere addition of ‗when‘ and ‗what‘

which are essential features of questions. The students satisfy themselves by merely

putting those ‗wh‘ questions words. Those words available in a statement have to be

rearranged so as to form a question. Then only that utterance can be called as

'interrogative'. This is not uncommon in Indian English. This feature has to be overcome

in order to create error free construction.

4.20. Overall Performance of the Students in the Writing Skill

Test




Articles 15

(8.9)

58

(34.5)

7

(4.2)

38

(22.6)

39

(23.2)

11

(6.5)

18

(45)

2

(5)

0

(0)

20

(50)

0

(0)

0

(0)

Tenses 22

(13.1)

52

(31)

11

(6.5)

20

(11.9)

50

(29.8)

13

(7.7)

16

(40)

4

(10)

0

(0)

18

(45)

2

(5)

0

(0)

Preposition 41

(24.4)

30

(17.9)

4

(2.4)

36

(21.4)

40

(23.8)

17

(10.1)

16

(40)

4

(10)

0

(0)

19

(47.5)

1

(2.5)

0

(0)

Auxilary

Verb

21

(12.5)

58

(34.5)

6

(3.8)

23

(13.7)

51

(30.4)

9

(5.4)

16

(40)

4

(10)

0

(0)

18

(45)

2

(5)

0

(0)

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Test




Plurals 18

(10.7)

59

(35.1)

8

(4.8)

16

(9.5)

60

(35.7)

7

(4.2)

19

(47.5)

1

(2.5)

0

(0)

16

(40)

4

(10)

0

(0)

Prefix 20

(11.9)

59

(35.1)

8

(4.8)

18

(10.7)

57

(33.9)

6

(3.6)

20

(50)

0

(0)

0

(0)

19

(47.5)

1

(2.5)

0

(0)

Sufix 21

(12.5)

59

(35.1)

4

(2.4)

19

(11.3)

58

(34.5)

7

(4.2)

20

(50)

0

(0)

0

(0)

19

(47.5)

1

(2.5)

0

(0)

Question

on Tags

23

(13.7)

60

(35.7)

3

(1.8)

18

(10.7)

60

(35.7)

4

(2.3)

18

(45)

2

(5)

0

(0)

20

(50)

0

(0)

0

(0)

Concord 21

(12.5)

59

(35.1)

4

(2.4)

21

(12.5)

60

(35.7)

3

(1.8)

20

(50)

0

(0)

0

(0)

20

(50)

0

(0)

0

(0)

Wh.

Questions

25

(14.9)

58

(34.5)

0

(0)

23

(13.7)

58

(34.5)

4

(2.4)

20

(50)

0

(0)

0

(0)

19

(47.5)

1

(2.5)

0

(0)

Voice 28

(16.7)

56

(33.3)

1

(0.6)

26

(15.5)

57

(33.9)

0

(0)

19

(47.5)

1

(2.5)

0

(0)

20

(50)

0

(0)

0

(0)

Average 23.2

(13.8)

55.3

(32.9)

5.1

(3)

23.4

(14)

53.6

(31.9)

7.4

(4.4)

18.4

(46)

1.6

(4)

0

(0)

18.9

(47.3)

1.1

(2.7)

0

(0)

It is found from the table that 35.7% of the girls and 35.7% of the boys from Tamil

medium have given wrong answers in Question.

13.8

32.9

3

14

31.9

4.4

Writing- Boys & Girls (Tamil Medium)

BCA

BWABNR

GCA

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The linguistic analysis of the students’ writing skill

Has revealed the problem areas of the Tamil medium students as follows:

Tenses, preposition and Auxillary verbs pose a lot of problems. The students are

not aware of the function of the tense of a verb. The tense of a verb shows the time of the

action and the degree of its completeness.

Eg. I complete all the work by Friday.

Sheela learning music for over a year.

Sathish and I studying in the same class.

In all the above sentences, the students do not write 'completed', 'is learning' and

'are studying' which is the correct form of the Tenses.

Preposition

The next problem area faced by the students are Prepositions which show the

relation between a Noun or a Pronoun which is called as the Object of the Preposition and

46

40

47.3

2.7 0

Writing- Boys & Girls (English Medium)

BCA

BWA

BNR

GCA

GWA

GNR

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another word in the sentence. The students normally tend to omit, add or substitute a

wrong preposition without understanding the place of occurrence.

Eg: Telephone to me.

This necklace is made of graps.

He knocked the door.

Conclusion

Considering the above sentences, it is inferred that the students unnecessarily use

Preposition. In certain utterances, prepositions have not been used and in certain other

utterances Prepositions have been wrongly substituted.

The linguistic analysis reveals the most difficult problem areas encountered by the

students are Tenses, Prepositions and Verbs. Following this comes problems forming Prefixes

and Suffixes as well as Plural Markers. Hence, special emphasis has to be laid on these areas.

The students must be given more exercises like composition, dialogue writing, essay writing

and preparing summaries. The teacher, as a facilitator, should make them comprehend the

meaning of the grammatical items and also the exact place of occurrence. Thus, the learning

experience involves inductive training in the language skills with linguistic devices.

In learning language as a skill, all the four skills, namely LSRW, are interrelated and

in most situations one has to use more than one skill simultaneously. For instance, when one

is engaged in conversation one has to listen and speak at the same time. So also with reading

and writing. The common factor involved in all the skills is the ‗language code‘, i.e., the

different systems of the language which facilitate the learning of the skills. The basic problem

of learning a language is internalizing the language code. Hence the learners learn this code

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through the exercise of one skill, which would facilitate the learning of other skills. Hence, it

becomes imperative to classify the errors in the LSRW skills.

The morphological pattern of English is really a complex one which can be

acquired by understanding certain logicalities. There are some exceptional cases where

morphological conditioning has to be reasoned. However, in most of the contexts,

phonological condition that are in a way logical can be attributed.

When analyzing the morphological errors of the students, it is very much essential

to note that they cannot occur in isolation. The free morpheme errors can be dealt with

the lexical errors but to use lexical and syntactical data as a morpheme, other than free

morpheme, bound morpheme errors can be discussed only with word or sentence.

Moreover, the use of bound morpheme is not only governed by a lexical item but also by

the entire sentence structure. So, it is not possible to isolate a bound morpheme from a

word or a sentence. For the present analysis, all the morphological errors have been dealt

with taking samples from the sentence. Interaction through the written message is the

goal of writing. Motivating students to write is a challenging task for the teacher.

Language skills like any other skill can be acquired only through practice. In the case of

the mother tongue the child gets sufficient scope for this practice in his daily environment. He

uses the language at home, in the playground, at school. He has so many teachers-his parents,

other members of the family, friends, relatives and almost everyone with whom he comes into

contact in his day – to – day life. He has also the strongest motivation or urge to learn the

language, for his basic needs are likely to remain unfulfilled. And what is perhaps most

remarkable is that, the child practices a highly complex code. Similarly his teachers, his

parents, play mates and other – teach him the language without making any deliberate effort

Data Analysis of Motivational Factors Related to Students...

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