Common Errors Made in Learning English Prepositions While Writing Essays by Iraqi Students

Abstract

This study examines the most important commonly errors made in learning English prepositions while writing essays by Iraqi students of English as a foreign language. It  suggests some solutions to help them recover and overcome their errors. All the students come from non-English speaking background and hardly communicate in English outside  school. The study was carried out at preparatory schools in Diwaniya governorate in Iraq. Seventy essays were collected from two secondary schools and analyzed in relation to the theories of  Contrastive Analysis and Error Analysis. A detailed classification of the most common errors, their analysis, and the comparison of the total number of inter-lingual and intra-lingual errors are given place in this study. The study  aims to find out answers to the following research questions:

1.What are the types of prepositional errors committed while writing English Essays by Iraqi final year EFL senior secondary school students?

2.What are the causes/sources of prepositional errors committed while writing English Essays by Iraqi final year EFL senior secondary school students?

3.What is the effect of Arabic language interference on learning English language prepositions as used by Iraqi final year EFL senior secondary school students in Iraq?

4.What should be the appropriate method in teaching English prepositions to Iraqi EFL senior secondary school students?

This study intends to use a qualitative content analysis of the students’ written essays in accordance with the Error Analysis approach. For this, the researcher intends to explore and analyze the written productions of the final year students’ essays. Thus, the results of the study identify the kinds of prepositional errors Iraqi students commit in writing as well as their sources and causes in Dewaniyah governorate in Iraq.

This study has shed light on the manner in which students internalize the rules of the target language. Such an insight into language learning problems is useful to teachers as it provides information on common troubles confronted in language learning which can be used in the preparation of effective teaching materials.

Keywords: error analysis , contrastive analysis

DOI: 10.7176/JEP/10-32-04

Publication date: November 30^th 2019