methodology of the research -...

Methodology of the

Research

Analyzing Students‟ interlanguage Chapter three 105

Chapter 3 Methodology of the Research

3.1 Introduction

In Chapter Two, the researcher has maintained the fact that language

learners, when writing or speaking a second language, will certainly commit

errors and that a ―systematic analysis of errors‖ can help understand the process

of language acquisition by breaking it into smaller parts. The ―systematic

analysis‖ approach has also proved to be of great benefit. As stated by Corder

(1973 as cited by Ellis, 1997), it allows feedback of techniques and teaching

materials, at the same time making known certain parts of the syllabi that have

been ineffectively taught and thus necessitate an in depth study. The errors

committed by foreign/ second language learners serve to give a sight at the

inner working pattern of the so-called ―built in syllabi‖ (Corder, 1971) of the

students. In addition, this information helps the language teachers understand

the level of the student‘s knowledge at any particular stage of learning or lack

of it, thereby allowing the teacher to devise student-generated syllabi instead of

teacher-generated syllabi. If the teacher becomes aware of certain errors, prone

to occur due to mother tongue interference or target language interference, the

teacher has the capability to bring these potential problem areas to the notice of

the student and subsequently correct them with the fundamental knowledge of

non-contrastive errors. This sort of knowledge is highly instrumental in

allowing the teachers to objectively select target materials for their students to

render the whole process of learning more beneficial and effective.


It is necessary to understand the methods adopted by the researcher for

collection relevant data, which leads to findings, recommendations and

conclusion. The description of the methods used to collect and analyse the data

of the present study are enumerated in this chapter. The following topics are

addressed:

1. Restatement of the research questions

2. Description of the research population and participants

3. Description of the research approach

4. Description of data collection procedures

5. Description of the data analysis procedures

The procedures used in this study provide the answers to the following

research questions:

Q1- What kinds of errors do the University students commit in their writing?

Q2-What are the sources of errors committed by Yemeni students?

Q3-Are there any differences between the first and fourth levels interlanguage?

Q4- Is there any improvement in the language of level four?

The research examines the following hypothesis:

1. There are deferent types of errors committed by Yemeni learners.

2. There are many sources of errors committed by Yemeni learners.

3. There are differences between level one and level four interlanguage.

4. There is an improvement in the language of level four students.


3.2 Population

The population of the study comprises the university students of the

academic year (2009/2010).

3.2.1 Hodeidah University, College of Education

Education college was established in the academic year 1987- 1988 as

an institution of Sana‘a University where it was the only one in the northern

part of ROY before unification of the two parts of the country on 22nd

May,

1990.

This college became one of the institutions of the Hodeidah University

in 1997. In this college, there are four departments. English department is one

of them. It began with two teachers, one Yemeni and one from Pakistan. Now

there are many Yemeni teachers and few Indian teachers holding BA, MA, and

Ph.D degrees, working in English department. The syllabi of English

department follow the syllabi of Sana‘a University with few changes in some

courses.

3.2.2 Education College, Hajjah, Amran University

This college was established in the academic year 1989- 1990 as an

institution of Sana‘a University. It began with few departments. The primary

objective of the English department is to prepare Yemeni English teachers for

schools. This department follows the same syllabus of Sana‘a University. In

2007, Amran University was established and this college became one its


colleges. Only Yemenis teach in this department, one with PhD, two with MA

and the rest with BA degrees. This college suffers from a significant deficiency

of faculty members.

3.3 Participants

The participants for this study were selected from among the university

students of English majors. They were randomly drawn from levels one and

four from two public universities in Yemen. A total of 200 first and fourth

levels students were involved in the study. The following table shows the ratio

of male participants to female participants. The female participants were more

than male participants, as males could go to other colleges.

Table 3.1 Frequency and percentage of the participant according to their

gender

Gender

Frequency Percent Valid Percent

Valid

Male 80 40% 40.0

Female 120 60% 60.0

Total 200 100.0 100.0

In addition to the above, the table shows the number of participants from

the two universities. In each university, the female participants were more than

males because girls prefer to study English more than other subjects like Maths

or Chemistry.


Table 3.2 Frequency of the participants according to the university

University Gender Total

Male Female

Amran University 47 53 100

Hodeidah university 33 67 100

Total 80 120 200

Percentage 40% 60% 100%

Figure 3.1 Frequency of the participants

While the following table shows the background of the participants

according to their ages, most of the participants began learning English in their

preparatory stage, during which it is official and compulsory.

The age of the participants ranges from 18 to 25. Snow and Hoefnogel-

Hohle (1978), Krashen, Long and Scarcella (1979); Scarcella and Oxford

(1992), have found that older learners enjoyed an advantage in the rate of


acquisition of syntax and morphology. However, fluency and pronunciation in

L2 were acquired better by children who started learning earlier. Adults were

better in the initial stages, but ultimately children surpassed adults. The

following table shows that most of the Yemeni learners began learning English

from grade seven. This is only in the public school where English has been

added to the curriculum by the Ministry of Education as a compulsory subject,

taught by Yemeni teachers.

Table 3.3 Distribution of the participant according to their stating learning

Starting Learning English

Total Percent before

school

primary school

(6 years)

preparatory

school (13years)

AGE

18 2 2 9 13 6.5%

19 1 3 25 29 14.5%

20 1 4 27 32 16.0%

21 1 6 16 23 11.5%

22 2 5 20 27 13.5%

23 2 4 21 27 13.5%

24 0 0 6 6 3.0%

25 2 2 4 8 4.0%

other 0 1 4 5 2.5%

no answer 2 7 21 30 15.0%

Total 13(6.5%) 34(17%) 153(76.5%) 200 100.0%


Thirteen participants started learning English before joining primary

school which essentially means that they began in the lower kindergarten or

upper kindergarten. These stages are only available in private schools. Thirty

four participants began learning English in the primary stage but the majority

of the participants i.e., 153 (76.5%) began learning in the preparatory stage.

Because of the importance attached to English as an international

language, taught in all the countries as first or second or foreign language, the

Ministry of Education in ROY is planning to introduce teaching English from

grade four or five, to help Yemeni learners acquire it better. So that after

graduation from grade twelve, they can communicate with others easily.

Table 3.4 Distribution of the participants according to university


Valid

Amran University 100 50% 50.0

Hodeidah university 100 50% 50.0

Total 200 100% 100.0

Table 3.5 Distribution of the participants according to their level


Valid

Level One 100 50% 50.0

Level Four 100 50% 50.0

Total 200 100% 100.0


Table 3.6 Distribution of the participants according to their age

Age Frequency Percent Valid Percent

Valid

18 13 6.5% 6.5

19 29 14.5% 14.5

20 32 16% 16.0

21 23 11.5% 11.5

22 27 13.5% 13.5

23 27 13.5% 13.5

24 6 3% 3.0

25 8 4% 4.0

Others 5 2.5% 2.5

No

answer 30 15% 15.0

Total 200 100% 100.0

The respondents were from two public universities comprising of 80

boys and 120 girls. In level one, there were a total of 100 participants

consisting of 42 boys and 58 girls. In the level four there were 38 boys and 62

girls. Most of the participants of level one and four had experience of

approximately six years of education through preparatory and secondary

schools education system. The participants of level four had experience of three

years of education through college education. Therefore, they had more

experience than those of level one. All the participants spoke Arabic as their

mother tongue.


3.4 Instrument

The main source of data used for finding answers to the research

questions, is the written essays of the 200 participants. The subjects were

chosen from first and fourth levels university students of two public

universities. 50 participants were chosen from each level. The following table

shows the number of the participants from each University according to their

levels.

Table 3.7 The frequency of the participant

University Level(1)

one

Level (4)

(1)four

Total

Hodeidah

University

50 50 100

Amran University 50 50 100

100 100 200

3.5 The reasons for choosing students of Level One and Four

The participants completed six years of learning English as a

compulsory subject in preparatory and secondary schools. In schools, English

is taught five times a week for 45 minutes each. Level one performance will

not be the same as performance of level four. Students of level one were fresh

in their first semester in the academic year 2009-2010, while level four students

had finished studying English for three years in the college.

3.6 Description of the Research Approach

This study is descriptive, in general terms and the problem is examined

with intense accuracy and is observed precisely for what the researcher is


looking for. In specific terms, it is called a ―focused description‖. A focused

descriptive methodology or approach is concerned with studying the

observations, with close scrutiny of the data recorded by the researcher.

To answer the research questions in this study, the focused descriptive

approach has been employed. This was to narrow the scope of the study to

investigate a particular issue such as native language influence on second or

foreign language learning (Larsen-Freeman & Long, 1991). It is limited in

scope as all aspects of SLA are not explained. It is possible to employ number

of procedures in this type of research to collect linguistic production data. The

one that was used here for collecting data was guided by written compositions.

To carry out the analyses of the compositions, two techniques – CA and

EA were used in the light of Selinker‘s interlanguage. These techniques have

been chosen because of their practical application in identifying the errors in

learning a foreign language, written or spoken. The CA and EA techniques

have been discussed in literature pertaining to teaching a foreign language.

It would be a good idea to give, a brief account about these two

techniques and why they were used. It was thought that the foreign language

learner‘s difficulties can be predicted from the differences of the two language

structures (El-Sayed, 1982). From such a thought, CA appeared in the 40s of

the last century. CA was considered by its proponents that what are to be

learned are the differences between the native and foreign language systems.

Thus, CA tells something about the nature of the differences. For example,


word order for a basic sentence in Arabic is different from the one in English;

for example:

1- Arabic basic sentence starts as :

Verb + Subject + Object / Predicate.

2- English basic sentence starts as :

Subject + Verb + Object / Predicate.

This is an example showing the differences between the Arabic and English

languages in basic sentence structure. Another example of word order between

Arabic and English is Adjective – Noun word order; for example:

1- Arabic basic Noun Phrase starts as :

Noun + adjective.

2- English basic Noun Phrase starts as :

Adjective + Noun

EA is a process by which the teacher of foreign language tries to analyze

a learner‘s written or spoken production while he/she is learning an FL/SL. It

identifies, classifies, and explains the errors committed by the learner of FL/SL.

This is done by comparison of the two languages in question.

From this brief account, one can see that there is no contradiction

between the two techniques, CA in its weak version and EA. For this reason,

both CA and EA techniques were used in this study; the former one in its weak

form has helped in providing a linguistic explanation for known errors. The EA


has been the starting point for contrastive studies and not the method for

verifying hypothetical prediction (Wilkins, 1972).

3.7 Data Analysis Procedures

Only syntactic errors were analyzed for this study. The Syntactic errors,

in this study, refer to errors in the following grammatical categories: verb to be,

present progressive marker, definite and indefinite articles, modal verb, plural

marker, subject, negative, auxiliary verb, verb phrase, preposition, adverb, (all

these items are discussed under two types of errors i.e., addition and omission),

word order, fragment of sentence, structure of sentence, subject-verb

agreement, simplification, and selection of words (part of speech).

The data obtained from compositions written by the students were

examined to identify the syntactic interlingual or intralingual interference

errors in writing EFL. The Errors are defined as noticeable deviations from the

norm, which are considered as systematic and syntactically unacceptable

(Brown, 2007) .

In order to analyze the data collected, the following procedures were

applied: identifying errors; classifying the syntactic errors into linguistic

categories such as, addition, omission, fragment, simplification, structure,

selection, word order and subject-verb agreement and finally explanation of

these errors according to their source, interlingual or intralingual interference.

A total of 831 erroneous sentences were identified, sorted out using SPSS to


see the frequency of each type of error. Only syntactic errors were sorted out

and analyzed.

3.8 The source of Data

To conduct this study properly, two main sources of data collection were

utilized.

1- The questionnaire;

In order to elicit certain biographical and interlanguage

information from the subject, a nine item questionnaire was constructed.

The initial five items dealt with specific profiles of each student while

the last four items explored various linguistic backgrounds of each

student including the desire of studying English and the difficulties they

faced during learning.

2- The student‘s performance in English

The subjects in this study were asked to write free compositions

on any one of the topics they were provided.

3.9 Classification of Errors

Syntactic errors were found in all 831 erroneous compositions and

classified into the grammatical categories they violated. These were classified

into categories and subcategories. This classification is presented in the

following table.


Table 3.8 The classification of errors

No Type of Error Error

Freq. Subtypes Examples

1 Omission 262

linking verb English necessary to learn .

to I like plan for future.

indefinite article I will work as teacher.

subject The first time study english in city.

do/did I not study English..

ing form I want to complete study English.

main verb I couldn't any words.

pluarl marker My parent support me to study this

language.

to/ing I love study English.

ly I will communicate with the world easy.

definite article English is first language in the world.

of The importance English is an international

language.

2 Structure of

sentence 193 I plan in the future become teacher.

3 Subject-verb

agreement 110

Number agreement There is a lot of difficulties.

Person agreement It need hardworking.

4 Addition 104

Linking verb I will be go to college.

To I will to study English.

ing form I want to learning Arabic.

past marker He did not studied English.

indefinite article They will be a good speakers.

definite article The English is easy.

modal verb We must are learning this language.

plural marker I want to meet a lot of peoples

double negative I have not never studied english before.

Subject My father and mother they are very glad.

this/the I like this the language.

Does He does can speak english.

5 selection of

word 63 I want to learn English to students.

6 Simplification 45 I start learning English when I was 15.

7 word order 43 English is language important.

8 Fragment 11 When I knew meaning of Arabic.

Total 831


3.10 Explanation of Errors

The syntactic errors identified in this study were then explained in terms

of their sources interlingual or intralingual interference. Interlingual errors are

those which are caused by mother tongue (MT) interference, Arabic in this

study. Syntactic errors described and explained in this section are: omission of

linking verb, omission of indefinite article, omission of subject and word order

(adjective-noun order).

Intralingual (developmental) errors are those errors which are caused by

the following sources: overgeneralizations, simplification, lack of knowledge

of the target language rules. Errors of this type include the following

categories:

1) addition of linking verb, addition of indefinite and definite articles,

addition of present progressive marker ‗ing‘ addition of past marker ‗-ed‘,

plural marker and addition of ‗to‘ between modal verb and main verb.

2) omission of ‗to‘ between two verbs, auxiliary verbs, subject–verb

agreement (number and person agreements) and selection of appropriate words.

3.11 The Benefit of Analysis of Errors

The main areas of benefit of the analysis of errors are as follows:

1. The study of errors provides the researcher with evidence of how

language learning or acquisition takes place as well as the strategies and

techniques used by the individual to acquire the language.


2. The study reports the errors in the preparation of educational materials.

They can design appropriate educational materials for speakers of each

language in the light of their errors.

3. The study of errors helps in the development of appropriate curricula for

students both in terms of setting goals or choosing the content or

teaching methods or methods of evaluation.

4. The study of errors opens the door to other studies which explore the

reasons for the poor performance of students in second language

education programs and suggest appropriate remedies.

Studying the errors of students in writing assignments is called

dimensional analysis/studying because of its concentrating on what happened

and not what we expect to happen.

3.12 Background information

3.12.1 Difficulties Yemeni learners encounter

Arab EFL and Yemeni learners encounter many problems in English

language learning. These problems include the four language skills, i.e.,

listening, speaking, reading and writing. Furthermore, they keep committing

errors in syntax, semantics, morphology, pronunciation, and spelling. The

reasons that lie behind these problems are many such as: English is not their

mother tongue of the Arab EFL learners, they use Arabic as their formal

language of communication, and the lack of the target language exposure as

spoken by its native speakers, the EFL learners‘ preference towards using


Arabic in EFL classrooms rather than English, the lack and weakness of the

input in their language teaching context, the lack of the Arab EFL learners‘

personal motivation, the inappropriateness and weakness of the English

language curricula adopted by some academic institutions. The following table

shows the difficulties Yemeni EFL learners encounter.

Table 3.9 The difficulties Yemeni University students face during learning

English

No the difficulty frequency

1 the teacher / the way of teaching 68

2 Grammar 51

3 Pronunciation 33

4 spoken 26

5 Vocabulary 17

6 writing is different from spoken 14

7 Poverty 13

8 unqualified teacher at school 12

9 references not enough 12

10 English is not used between students 10

11 Listening 10

12 lack of teachers 7

13 mother tongue interference 7

14 Reading 7

15 sound of English is different from the alphabets/ 7

16 literature of English 6

17 no confidence during writing 6

18 no teaching aids 6

19 Reading 6

20 uneducated family 6

21 crowded of the classes 5

22 no lab for learning listening 5

23 no practice of English 5

24 shortage of books at schools 5

25 the behavior of teachers toward us 5

26 the crowded of the classes at schools 5

27 there is no motivation 5

28 spelling of English is different from writing 4

29 shortage of vocabulary 3


30 Family 2

31 Society 2

3.12.2 The reasons behind choosing learning a foreign language (English)

There are so many great reasons for learning a foreign language. New

research by the UK Subject Centre for Languages has identified more than 700

reasons to study languages. It concludes that the strongest of these reasons are

the personal benefits and enjoyment that people gain from learning a language

(Gallagher-Brett, n.d).

Yemeni students gave a variety of reasons for selecting the languages they

studied. The following table shows the overall frequency of each response, for

all the students surveyed. From the table we can notice that the desire to learn

English was the highest followed by choosing English for communication and

the third one is to be a teacher of English.

Table 3.10 The reasons behind YUS choose English department

The reasons behind choosing English

department

their

frequency

1 my desire to learn English 65

2 for communication 60

3 to be a teacher 44

4 to get a job 31

5 to know the culture of foreign countries 23

6 it is an international language 22

7 English is the language of the world 37

8 to speak English 15

9 for travelling 13

10 the language of computer 13

11 to talk about Islam and my country 13

12 the first language in the world 11

13 to be a good speaker of this language 6


14 to help people speak English 6

15 enjoying learning this language 5

16 to get more information 5

17 my family's desire 4

18 the language of the future 4

19 simple and easy language 4

20 books written in it 3

21 my favorite school subject 3

22 the important language 3

23 to be a guide for the tourist 3

24 attractive language 2

25 to be a good translator 2

26 modern language 1

27 to teach my family 1

In this chapter, a detailed description of the problem of the study

selection of subjects, universities etc., method of data elicitation were

discussed. A brief summary of the difficulties Yemeni University students face

during learning English is also presented.

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