Running head: ERROR ANALYSIS: ARABIC SPEAKERS’ ENGLISH WRITINGS

An Analysis of Errors in Arabic Speakers’ English Writings

Nada AbiSamra

American University of Beirut

Instructor: Dr. Kassim Shaaban

Second Language Acquisition

Education 345

Fall 2003

(As a word document)

_____________________________________________________

Table of Contents

A- Introduction:

1. Importance of communication

2. Communicative competence

3. Oral & Written communication

4. Emphasis on written communication, the more difficult component

5. Native Speakers of English vs. Non-Native Speakers (Arabic speakers)

6. Mistake vs. Error => self-correctability factor

7. Rationale of study: Problems relating to the teaching of English as a First language to Arabic speakers are understudied.

8. Aim of paper: Attempt to identify, describe, categorize, and diagnose Arabic speakers’ errors in English essay writing + suggest some solutions.

9. Research Question: Is L1 transfer/interference the major cause for errors in the English writings of Brevet students at ACS?

B- Theoretical Background:

1. Error Analysis

2. Models for Error Analysis

3. Sources of Errors

C- Procedures

1. Error/Data Collection

2. Error Identification and Categorization & Taxonomy Adopted

D- Results

E- Implications

F- Limitations & Suggestions for future research

G- Conclusion

H- References

I- Appendixes

1. General List of Abbreviations

2. American Community School (ACS): Mission Statement

3. Student Survey

4. Arabic: General Language Characteristics

5. ESL Tip Sheet 1: Arabic (Sofer & Raimes, 2002)

6. Table 1: Error Categories & Sources + Abbreviations

7. Table 2: Categorizing & Diagnosing Errors

8. Table 3: Categorizing & Diagnosing Errors- Interlingual / Transfer Errors

9. Table 4: Categorizing & Diagnosing Errors- Intralingual/Dev. errors

10. Table 5: Error Sources & Numbers Compared

11. Oral & Written Presentations: Guidelines & Expectations

12. Error Analysis Exercises & Objective Tests for Remediation

____________________________________________________________

Introduction

“My purpose in being Part in the goverment is Change. I want to change the world. Change in the means of War, Freedom, and equalness. Also as being part of the government, One should have self-confidence, can stand-up for self, and others, and at the same time have a degree in a great proffession.Then How am I working now, I’am participation in every activity Possible, that has to do with improving our community today. On top of that, I always keep in mind that to work hard, and keep my self on the right track.”

Written by a Brevet student at ACS.

December 2002

Communication, "a process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or behavior" (Merriam-Webster Online, 2003), is at the heart of all human interactions; it is the basis of life.

No one can live alone. By the word "live" I don't just mean "survive" or "subsist", but "have a life rich in experience." (Merriam-Webster Online, 2003). "Communicative competence involves communicating in accordance with that fundamental system of rules that adult subjects master to the extent that they can fulfill the conditions for a happy employment of sentences in utterances." (Habermas, 1979) As we all know, we communicate orally and/or in writing. Our focus in this paper is on the written part. "In spoken conversations with others, we make sense of the dialogue in a complex back-and-forth process of negotiation of meaning between speakers. In written texts, this back-and-forth negotiation is not possible; there is only 'one passÃ.' The sentence is written and it is read. Because there is no possibility of negotiating meaning of written documents, the inevitable problems of misunderstandings are exacerbated." (Penman, 1998)

Hence, we can say that writing is an “intricate” and complex task; it is the “most difficult of the language abilities to acquire” (Allen & Corder, 1974, p. 177). Its level of difficulty varies between native speakers (NS) who think in the language used (in our case it will be English) and non-native speakers (NNS) who think in their own native language (in this case it will be Arabic). While writing, non-native speakers have to think about all those rules they need to apply, rules that native speakers are supposed to have automatized. Therefore, non-native speakers are more prone to making mistakes and/or committing errors.

It is essential here to make a distinction between mistake and error; both Corder (1967, 1971) and James (1998) reveal a criterion that helps us to do so: it is the self-correctability criterion. A mistake can be self-corrected, but an error cannot. Errors are “systematic,” i.e. likely to occur repeatedly and not recognized by the learner. Hence, only the teacher or researcher would locate them, the learner wouldn’t (Gass & Selinker, 1994). And it is in this light that I choose to focus on students’ errors not mistakes.

As an English teacher at the American Community School at Beirut, I am well aware of the fact that my Arabic speaking students in grade 9, brevet section, commit a lot of errors in essay writing. You can tell from the quotation with which I begin this paper. These students have been studying English their whole lives and still, their errors are numerous. Hence, I have decided to conduct an error analysis--the best tool for describing and explaining errors made by speakers of other languages (Johanson, 1975)-- in order to know the sources of these errors and the reasons behind their continued occurrence year after year with different groups of learners. I need to familiarize myself with the types of errors that my students make in order to determine the sequence and emphasis of instruction.

“Very surprisingly there are few published descriptions of how or what children learn. (There... is) little about what mistakes the children made and how these can be explained, or what generalizations and learning strategies the children seem to be developing.” (Richards, 1974, p. 181)

After having reviewed the literature, I noticed that no study had been done (that I knew of, at least!) which involves Arabic speaking students who have been studying English in an American school since nursery; students who are studying English integratively, as a FIRST language. However, it is essential here to mention the fact that the language these students speak at home is mainly Arabic, not English  (see appendix 3); hence, we can venture to say that they are ESL students, however immersed in English they might be at school.

“To use two languages familiarly and without contaminating one by the other, is very difficult,” said Samuel Johnson in 1761.

 Can this fact account for our problems? Is my students’ native language (L1) “contaminating” their English (L2)? If this were to be true, then we could say that the reason behind all those errors is L1 Transfer/Mother Tongue interference. And the best way to discover such a transfer is through error analysis (Sridhar, 1980). However, can transfer alone justify all the errors made?

Our research question is then:

“Is L1 transfer/interference the major cause for errors in the English writings of Brevet students at ACS?”

This paper will attempt to do the following:

1. Provide a theoretical background for: a) Error Analysis, b) Models for Error Analysis, & c) Sources of Errors. (It will also examine related terms such as interlingual errors, L1 transfer/interference, interlanguage, and intralingual errors);
2. Identify, describe, categorize, and diagnose Arabic speakers’ errors in English essay writing in order to find the sources of those errors and a way for remediation;
3. Cover the implications of the findings for teaching ESL/English to Arabic speaking students; and, finally,
4. Discuss the limitations of this study and propose future areas of research.

Theoretical Background

Error Analysis

Systematically analyzing errors made by language learners makes it possible to determine areas that need reinforcement in teaching. (Corder, 1974)

Error analysis is a type of linguistic analysis that focuses on the errors learners make. It consists of a comparison between the errors made in the TL and that TL itself. Pit Corder is the “Father” of Error Analysis (the EA with the “new look”). It was with his article entitled “The significance of Learner Errors” (1967) that EA took a new turn. Errors used to be “flaws” that needed to be eradicated. Corder presented a completely different point of view. He contended that those errors are “important in and of themselves.” For learners themselves, errors are 'indispensable,' since the making of errors can be regarded as a device the learner uses in order to learn. In 1994, Gass & Selinker defined errors as “red flags” that provide evidence of the learner’s knowledge of the second language.

Researchers are interested in errors because they are believed to contain valuable information on the strategies that people use to acquire a language (Richards, 1974; Taylor, 1975; Dulay and Burt, 1974). Moreover, according to Richards and Sampson (1974, p. 15), “At the level of pragmatic classroom experience, error analysis will continue to provide one means by which the teacher assesses learning and teaching and determines priorities for future effort.” According to Corder (1974), error analysis has two objects: one theoretical and another applied. The theoretical object serves to “elucidate what and how a learner learns when he studies a second language.” And the applied object serves to enable the learner “to learn more efficiently by exploiting our knowledge of his dialect for pedagogical purposes.”

The investigation of errors can be at the same time diagnostic and prognostic. It is diagnostic because it can tell us the learner's state of the language (Corder, 1967) at a given point during the learning process, and prognostic because it can tell course organizers to reorient language learning materials on the basis of the learners' current problems.

Before we proceed, it is essential here to define a few terms that we shall use in this paper:

Interlingual/Transfer errors: those attributed to the native language (NL). There are interlingual errors when the learner’s L1 habits (patterns, systems or rules) interfere or prevent him/her, to some extent, from acquiring the patterns and rules of the second language (Corder, 1971). Interference (negative transfer) is the negative influence of the mother language (L1) on the performance of the target language learner (L2) (Lado, 1964). It is 'those instances of deviation from the norms of either language which occur in the speech of bilinguals as a result of their familiarity with more than one language' (Weinreich, 1953, p.1)

Error analysis emphasizes “the significance of errors in learners’ interlanguage system” (Brown 1994, p. 204). The term interlanguage, introduced by Selinker (1972), refers to the systematic knowledge of an L2 which is independent of both the learner’s L1 and the target language. Nemser (1974, p. 55) referred to it as the Approximate System, and Corder (1967) as the Idiosyncratic Dialect or Transitional Competence.

Intralingual/Developmental errors: those due to the language being learned (TL), independent of the native language. According to Richards (1970) they are “items produced by the learner which reflect not the structure of the mother tongue, but generalizations based on partial exposure to the target language. The learner, in this case, tries to “derive the rules behind the data to which he/she has been exposed, and may develop hypotheses that correspond neither to the mother tongue nor to the target language” (Richards, 1970, p. 6).

Models for Error Analysis

Corder (1967 & 1974) identified a model for error analysis which included three stages:

1. Data collection: Recognition of idiosyncracy
2. Description: Accounting for idiosyncratic dialect
3. Explanation (the ultimate object of error analysis).

Brown (1994, pp. 207-211) and Ellis (1995, pp. 51-52) elaborated on this model. Ellis (1997, pp. 15-20) and Hubbard et al. (1996, pp. 135-141) gave practical advice and provided clear examples of how to identify and analyze learners’ errors. The initial step requires the selection of a corpus of language followed by the identification of errors. The errors are then classified. The next step, after giving a grammatical analysis of each error, demands an explanation of different types of errors.

Moreover, Gass & Selinker (1994, p. 67) identified  6 steps followed in conducting an error analysis: Collecting data, Identifying errors, Classifying errors, Quantifying errors, Analyzing source of error, and Remediating for errors.

Sources of Errors

In 1972, Selinker (in Richards, 1974, p. 37), reported five sources of errors:

Language transfer

Transfer of training

Strategies of second language learning

Strategies of second language communication, and

Overgeneralization of TL linguistic material.

In 1974 Corder (in Allen & Corder, p. 130) identified three sources of errors: Language Transfer, Overgeneralization or analogy, & Methods or Materials used in the Teaching (teaching-induced error).

In the paper titled “The Study of Learner English” that Richards and Simpson wrote in 1974, they exposed seven sources of errors:

1. Language transfer, to which one third of the deviant sentences from second language learners could be attributed (George, 1971).
2. Intralingual interference: In 1970, Richards exposed four types and causes for intralingual errors:
1. overgeneralization (p. 174): it is associated with redundancy reduction. It covers instances where the learner creates a deviant structure on the basis of his experience of other structures in the target language. It may be the result of the learner reducing his linguistic burden.
2. ignorance of rule restrictions: i.e. applying rules to contexts to which they do not apply.
3. incomplete application of rules
4. semantic errors such as building false concepts/systems: i.e. faulty comprehension of distinctions in th TL.
3. Sociolinguistic situation: motivation (instrumental or integrative) and settings for language learning (compound or co-ordinate bilingualism) may affect second language learning.
4. Modality: modality of exposure to the TL and modality of production.
5. Age: learning capacities vary with age.
6. Successions of approximative systems:  since the circumstance of language learning vary from a person to another, so does the acquisition of new lexical, phonological, and syntactic items.
7. Universal hierarchy of difficulty:  this factor has received little attention in the literature of 2^nd language acquisition. It is concerned with the inherent difficulty for man of certain phonological, syntactic, or semantic items or structures. Some forms may be inherently difficult to learn no matter what the background of the learner.

James (1998, p. 178) exposed three main diagnosis-based categories of error:

1. Interlingual: interference happens when “an item or structure in the second language manifests some degree of difference from, and some degree of similarity with the equivalent item or structure in the learner’s first language.” (Jackson, 1987: 101)
2. Intralingual:
1. Learning strategy-based errors:

false analogy

misanalysis

incomplete rule application

exploiting redundancy

overlooking cooccurrence restrictions

hypercorrection (monitor overuse)

overgeneralization or system simplification

2. Communication strategy-based errors:

holistic strategies: e.g. approximation, language switch, calque

analytic strategies: circumlocution (expressing the concept indirectly, by allusion rather than by direct reference.

3. Induced errors: they “result more from the classroom situation than from either the student’s incomplete competence in English grammar (intralingual errors) or first language interference (interlingual errors) (Stenson, 1983, p. 256)
1. Material induced errors
2. Teacher-talk induced errors
3. Exercise-based induced errors
4. Errors induced by pedagogical priorities
5. Look-up errors

According to Dulay & Burt (1974), there are four types of “goofs”:

1. Interference-like goofs
2. L1 Developmental goofs
3. Ambiguous goofs (either interference-like or L1 developmental goofs)
4. Unique goofs (neither interference-like nor L1 developmental goofs)

The studies relating to the process of language transfer, and overgeneralization received considerable attention in the literature. Swan and Smith (1995, p. ix) gave a detailed account of errors made by speakers of nineteen different L1 backgrounds in relation to their native languages.  Diab (1996) also conducted a study in order to show through error analysis the interference of the mother-tongue, Arabic, in the English writings of EFL students at the American University of Beirut. Okuma (1999) studied the L1 transfer in the EFL writings of Japanese students.

Work on over-generalization errors, on the other hand, is reported by Richards (1974, pp. 174-188), Jain (in Richards, 1974, pp. 208-214) and Taylor (1975). Furthermore, Farooq (1998) identified and analyzed two error patterns in written texts of upper-basic Japanese learners, in an EFL context. He focused on both transfer and overgeneralization errors. Habash (1982) studied common errors in the use of English prepositions in the written work of UNRWA students at the end of the preparatory cycle in the Jerusalem area and found out that more errors were attributable to interference from Arabic than to other learning problems.

All these studies focused on Transfer &/or Overgeneralization errors, however, none of them dealt with “ESL” students who have been studying English as a First Language in an American school. The reason why I called them ESL students is that, at home, they speak mainly Arabic.

Procedures

1- Error/Data Collection:

For the selection of a corpus of language, following the guidelines offered by Ellis (1995, pp. 51-52), a sample of written work was collected from 10 students. Those students are in grade 9, Brevet section at the American Community School at Beirut, Lebanon (cf. appendix 2). They have been studying English since nursery (cf. appendix 3), and have been taught English mainly by American & Canadian teachers. However, there is a point that needs to be mentioned here, and it is the fact that most of them speak Arabic at home with their parents and at school with their friends. (cf. appendix 3).

These students were provided with the topic ‘What are your plans for the future?’ and were asked to write on it in 200 to 250 words. They were given sufficient time to write (Ellis 1997, p. 114). They had to start with an outline, then a first draft and a final draft. This was their mid-term examination at school, in December 2003.

2- Error Identification & Categorization:

As a first step, we developed, based on the literature (Corder, 1974; Richards, 1974; James, 1998; Selinker, 1972 in Richards, 1974; Richards & Sampson, 1974), a Taxonomy for Error Analysis including the following categories and sub-categories: grammatical (prepositions, articles, reported speech, singular/plural, adjectives, relative clauses, irregular verbs, tenses, and possessive case), syntactic (coordination, sentence structure, nouns and pronouns, and word order), lexical (word choice), semantic, & substance (mechanics: punctuation & capitalization, and spelling). As for the organizational/discourse errors, we shall mention them but will not quantify them, since, first, it is difficult to do so, and, second, we had trained our students, prior to the exam, to write a well-organized essay (thesis statement, restatement of the thesis, and the use of transition words).

After setting the categories, we chose, also based on the literature, the error sources that we wanted to study, and they are mainly Interlingual (L1 Transfer) & Intralingual (Developmental).

Please refer to table # 1 in the appendix for further details.

So, the errors were explained in grammatical terms, and thoroughly examined to find their sources, paying particular attention to negative L1 transfer, since we needed to address our research question: “Is L1 transfer/interference the major cause for errors in the English writings of Brevet students at ACS?” Being myself a native Arabic speaker holding a master’s degree in translation (from/to Arabic, French, & English) and based on the literature (refer to appendix 5), I was able to perceive and pinpoint the errors due to L1 (Arabic) Transfer. (However, we should not forget that some errors are caused by interference from standard Arabic and others by interference from colloquial Arabic.)

In addition, since I have been teaching English as a second language for over 12 years, and since I have finished the coursework for my second master’s in Teaching English as a Foreign/Second Language, I was able to detect the developmental errors in my students’ essays, and these are listed in detail in table # 2 in the appendix.

Results:

The total number of errors that we found in the 10 essays we studied was 214.  Here they are, in the graph below, divided according to the different categories:

29 grammatical, 35 syntactic, 26 lexical, 3 semantic, and 120 substance (mechanics & spelling) errors.

Graph number 2 shows the percentage of Transfer Vs. Developmental errors for each category. The total percentage of Transfer/Interlingual errors was 35.9%, whereas the total percentage of Developmental/Intralingual errors was 64.1%. Based on this graph we can tell that the highest percentage of Transfer errors was in Semantics & Lexis, respectively 100% & 73% (refer to table 3 in the appendix). As for the highest percentage of Developmental errors, it was, by far, in Substance (mainly spelling; refer to table 4 in the appendix).

Graph number 3 shows the number of Transfer Vs. Developmental errors for each category. The total number of Transfer/Interlingual errors was 77, whereas the total number of Developmental/Intralingual errors was 137.

Based on these findings we can tell that Brevet students do commit errors because of L1 Transfer, however, their biggest number of errors is due to Developmental/Intralingual reasons.

Examples of L1 Transfer Errors: (table # 3 in the appendix)

1. Grammatical errors:
1. I would like to follow in my father’s footsteps. (على خطى أبي)

Prepositions pose a great difficulty for an ESL learner since there are various prepositions in English that have the same function. As a result, when students are not sure which preposition to use in a certain sentence, they often compare that sentence with its Arabic equivalence, giving a literal translation of that Arabic preposition in English. However, "prepositions seldom have a one to one correspondence between English and Arabic. An Arabic preposition may be translated by several English prepositions while an English usage may have several Arabic translations" (Scott and Tucker, 1974, p. 85).

2. Evil is▼ force that can enter a person’s soul and conquer it. (الشرّ قوّة) => omission of the article in Arabic ( refer to appendix 5)
3. When the evil comes (عندما  يأتي الشرّ => use of article in Arabic)

In English, abstract words referring to ideas, attributes, or qualities are used without the article 'the' to refer to that idea or attribute, etc. which belongs to everybody or everything. In Arabic, however, such abstract words are preceded by a definite article equivalent to 'the' in English. Hence, errors pertaining to the misuse of the article 'the' occur. (Diab, 1996)

4. I wonder what god has written for me, what’s my destiny?
   (أتساءل ما هو مصيري)
5. Calling others kids to come (مناداة الأولاد الآخرين)

“In Arabic, adjectives agree in number with the nouns they modify. As a result, agreement errors of this type occur in the English writings of Lebanese students.” (Diab, 1996)

2. Syntactic errors:
1. For, them not to hate me they need to respect me and realize how much I love them and how hard I work for them. (repetition of “wa”)

“In English, items in a series are separated by commas, and the coordinate conjunction 'and' is used just before the last word. On the other hand, in Arabic, each item in a series is preceded by the conjunction 'wa' which is equivalent to 'and'.” (Diab, 1996)

2. I have learned a lesson in my life, that you should never ever give up تعلّمت درساً في حيا تي ، وهو ...))
3. What I want to be?  (ما أريد أن أكون ؟)
4. I have a lot of people in my family that are computer engineers. (colloquial Arabic)
5. That, I have been doing since a long time ago. (منذ وقتٍ طويلٍ)
6. ...most people when they grow up (معظم الناس حين يكبرون ...) (also colloquial)

In Arabic, personal pronouns are often added to verbs.

3. Lexical Errors:
1. If I hit an animal it would loose trust in me and stay on irritating me while curing it. (colloquial)
2. Some animals are nice pets to have, when they have the right health and medications. (الصحّة الجيّدة )
3. They should have veterinarians around them in case they get sick or any strong disease stricked them. (حولهم)
4. They should have veterinarians around them in case they get sick or any strong disease stricked them. (مرضٌ شديدٌ )
5. Animals are usually very afraid of high sounds. (أصواتٌ عالية )
6. For me acheiving these goals makes me happy. (بالنسبة لي ...)
7. How ever each person must succeed to his ability. (حسب قدرته)
8. You never know what god has installed for you.  (وضع لك )
9. For me to be counted as a one of a kind mother I need to take (أُعَدُّ ...)
10. In my free time I will practice on improving my basketball fundamentals.(أتمرّن على  )

4. Semantic Errors: (Literal translation)

When I secure a job my goal is to become partner and have a quarter office.

عندما أؤمّن عملا

By accomplishing these plans I will insure myself an outstanding life.

أؤمّن لنفسي

Architecture works my brain.تشغّل عقلي))

5. Substance (Mechanics + Spelling):
1. Punctuation

· However▼evil has its shapes and forms. (لكنّ الشرّ...)

· As a result, I intend to get a good education, and job, which will allow me to raise a family in a suitable enviroment.و عملآ

· Obtaining a good job will be a crucial part of my life for various reasons. One of which, is that it enables me to have a stable income.

· It is known to be, that a person would be more appreaciated, and treated better▼ if he were an educated individual than a failure. (من المعروف أنّ...)

· Personally▼ I beleive that you can never be sure. (شخصيا أظنّ...)

· When I get to university▼ I will try my best to get high honors in architecture. (حين أدخل الجامعة سأبذل جهدي ل ...)

2. Capitalization (No capital letters in Arabic)

· last but not least, if I was giving an animal a shot I have to make sure that I am giving it in the right place.

· Afterwards I want to get a university level education in the united states.

· Next I move to wall street.

· arabs

Lack of capitalization in the Arabic alphabet and very different punctuation conventions. No distinction is made between upper and lower case (Sofer & Raimes, 2002)

Examples of Interlingual / Transfer Errors:

(Please refer to table # 4 in the appendix where all the error sources are mentioned)

I would just like to mention here the problem of spelling. It has nothing to do with L1 transfer since Arabic is extremely different from English.

“The general question of how bad or good English children are at spelling was investigated by the National Foundation for Educational Research (Brooks et al, 1993), who looked at essays written by 1492 secondary school children in England at the two ages of 11 and 15. One measure was how many mistakes children made in the first ten lines of an essay. At the age of 11, only two children out of ten had no mistakes; two out of ten had five or more. By 15, four children out of ten had no mistakes; one out of ten had five or more. To quote the report, 'A good deal of improvement occurs between the ages of 11 and 15. However, even by age 15 there is still a minority of pupils who have relatively severe problems with spelling, to the extent that their ability to communicate in writing is seriously handicapped.'
The NFER research classified spelling mistakes into five major categories:- -

- insertion of extra letters, such as the <l> added to 'untill';
- omission of letters, such as the <r> missing from 'occuring';
- substitution of different letters, such as <a> instead of <i> in 'definate';
- transposition of two letters, such as <ei> for <ie> in 'freind';
- grapheme substitution involving more than two letters but only a single cause, for example when an equivalent according to sound correspondence rules is substituted for the usual form, as in 'thort' for 'thought'.” (Cook, 2002)

Hence, we can say that our students are not the only ones to make so many spelling mistakes. However, this does not mean that we should not train them to write properly.

Implications:

“We cannot really teach language, we can only create conditions
in which it will develop spontaneously in the mind in its own way.”
Von Humboldt (Corder, 1967)

Brevet students at ACS are, according to this study, facing two kinds of problems in essay writing: Translation from Arabic, their mother tongue & Incomplete learning of essay writing rules and conventions. What should we, teachers, do then?

First, it would be very useful to increase the number of assignments for the sake of which the students would have to do a lot of research during their free time, hence they would be reading a lot of English material and thinking in English, especially if they have to make oral presentations for their work. (cf. appendix 11 for “Oral & Written Presentations: Guidelines & Expectations”). In addition, if we implement Team Work in class (http://nadabs.tripod.com/team.html --there are some useful guidelines on this site) and we get the students to work in groups on their projects, they would have to practice together for their oral presentations, and speak English with each other instead of Arabic. Besides, they would, hopefully, correct each other’s mistakes.

As for the writing rules and conventions, these need to be “enforced” much earlier. All teachers (from grade 1 and on) would need to get together in order to try to solve this problem. In the meantime, I can suggest a few error analysis exercises and objective tests (Appendix 12) that would help the students be more accurate, but still, nothing can replace Essay Writing itself in order to improve writing. The aforementioned project/presentation assignments are good, but they are not enough. The students need to write in class, at home, in their journals... They need to be given some well defined Essay Writing Rules (for the thesis statement, introduction, conclusion, transition words, etc...), and some samples of their writings need to be transcribed and distributed to them for correction and analysis: they would be learning from their mistakes!

In brief, we definitely have to adapt ourselves and our curriculum to their needs.

Limitations & Suggestions for Further studies

 “We should be aware that different types of written material may produce a different distribution of error or a different set of error types.” (Corder, 1974, p. 126)
“The recognition of error ... depends crucially upon the analyst making a correct interpretation of the learner’s intended meaning of the context.” (Corder, 1974, p. 127)
“It has already been noted that learners often appear inconsistent in their production of errors.” (Corder, 1974, p. 131)

We need to keep all these facts in mind when conducting an error analysis and reaching conclusions on which we would base all our teaching. Besides, this study was conducted on a small number of student, and also on a very limited number of essays. Therefore, the conclusions reached are far from being decisive.

We consider this study a preliminary one that just “gives an idea” of those brevet students’ sources of errors. It should set the pace for other studies which would be much more comprehensive, covering a bigger number of students and a wider range of materials; we hope to be able to conduct one ourselves in the near future.

Conclusion

“Humans are prone not only to commit language errors themselves but also to
err in their judgements of those errors committed by others.”

(James, 1998, p. 204)

<=> We need to be careful when conducting an error analysis study. <=>

This study attempted to identify, describe, categorize, and diagnose the errors in English essay writing of the Arabic speaking Brevet students at ACS. Just as George (1972), Lance (1969), Richards (1971), and Brudhiprabha (1972) found that only one-third of the second language learner’s errors can be attributed to NL language transfer, this is what this study came up with.  Most of the errors are caused by an overapplication of L2. We do need to incite our students to speak English at home and with their friends in order to reduce the number of mistakes due to L1 transfer, but we also need to try to teach more effectively the rules and conventions of writing.

However, when trying to solve these problems, we need to bear in mind that

“L2 users’ knowledge of a second language is not the same as that of native speakers even at advanced levels. L2 users’ knowledge of their first language (L1) is not the same as that of monolingual native speakers. L2 users think in different ways to monolinguals. ... Trying to get students to be like native speakers is ineffective; their minds and their knowledge of language will inevitably be different. The benefits of learning a second language are becoming a different kind of person, not just adding another language. The main obstacle to setting the successful L2 user as the goal is the belief that the native speaker speaks the true form of English. This implies the comparison of one group with another: the language of non-natives has always to be compared with that of natives; anything that deviates is wrong. For other areas of language study, William Labov established that it is discrimination to treat one group in terms of another group that they can never belong to, whether women as men, black Americans as white Americans, or working-class as middle-class. People must be allowed to be what they are when this is an unchangeable effect of birth or of early up-bringing.

An appropriate goal for many students is then using the L2 competently for their own purposes and in their own ways, which may very well not be the same as those of a monolingual native speaker and indeed may not involve native speakers at all. Students can become successful L2 users rather than forever ‘failing’ the native speaker target.” (Cook, 1999)

______________________________________________________________________________

References

1. Abdulmoneim, M.M. (1997). Learner-Centered Grammar Instruction- Forum Oman, 35, 1, January - March 1997 Page 50. Retrieved January 14, 2002 from http://exchanges.state.gov/forum/vols/vol35/no1/p50.htm
2. Brooks, G., Gorman, T. & Kendall, L. (1993). Spelling It Out: the spelling abilities of 11- and 15-year-olds, NFER, Slough
3. Brown, G. & George, Y. (1993). Discourse Analysis. Cambridge University Press.
4. Brown, D.B. (1994). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. Third Edition. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Regents.

5. Brudhiprabha, P. (1972). Error analysis: a psycholinguistic study of Thai English compositions. Thesis (M.A.)--McGill University

6. Clyne, S. (2002). Psychological Factors in Second Language Acquisition: Why Your International Students are Sudando La Gota Gorda (Sweating Buckets).Retrieved January 5, 2003 from http://www.bhcc.mass.edu/newsite/GI/DiversityandInclusion/TFOT_PsychFactors2ndLang.doc
7. Connor, U. (1996). Contrastive Rhetoric: Cross-Cultural Aspects of Second-Language Writing. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 201.

6. Connor, U. (2002). New directions in contrastive rhetoric. Retrieved on January 10, 2003 from http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~silvat/symposium/2002/cr/connor_tq.pdf

7. Cook, V.J. (1992). Evidence for multi-competence. Language Learning, 42, 4, 557-591
http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~vcook/multi-competence%20evidence.htm

8. Cook, V. (1993). Linguistics and Language Learning. Modern Linguistics. New York: St. Martin's Press.

9. Cook, V.J. (1997). L2 users and English spelling. Journal of  Multilingual and Multicultural Development,18, 6, 474-488

10. Cook, V.J. (1999). Going beyond the native speaker in language teaching. TESOL Quarterly, 33, 2, 185-209,  http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~vcook/OBS19.htm

11. Cook, V. (2002). English Writing System. Retrieved January 2, 2003 from
http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~vcook/EWSChap5.htm http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~vcook/EWSChap1.htm

12. Corder, S.P. (1967). The significance of learners' errors. Reprinted in J.C.Richards (ed.) (1974, 1984) Error Analysis: Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition. London: Longman, pp. 19 - 27 (Originally in International Review of Applied Linguistics, 5 (4)).

13. Corder, S.P. (1971). Idiosyncratic errors and Error Analysis. IRAL, 9, 2, 147-159. Reprinted in Richards (1974)

14. Corder, S. P. (1974). Error Analysis. In J. P. B. Allen and S. Pit Corder (eds.) Techniques in Applied Linguistics (The Edinburgh Course in Applied Linguistics:3), London: Oxford University Press (Language and Language Learning), pp. 122-154.

15. Corder, S.P. (1981). Error Analysis and Interlanguage. O.U.P.

16. Cumming, A. (1989). Writing expertise and second language proficiency. Language Learning, 39, 81-141.

17. Diab, N. (1996). The transfer of Arabic in the English writings of Lebanese students. Retrieved January 5, 2003 from http://lael.pucsp.br/especialist/181diab.ps.pdf

18. Dulay, H. & Burt, M. (1974). You can't learn without goofing. In Error analysis. ed. J. C. Richards. London: Longman.

19. Ellis. R. (1994). The Study of Second Language Acquisition. Oxford:Oxford University Press.

20. Ellis, R. (1995). Understanding Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

21. Ellis, R. (1997). SLA Research and Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

22. Farooq, M.U. (1998). Contrastive and error analysis based teaching strategies. Aichi Women’s Junior College- Retrieved December 30, 2003 from http://www.cels.bham.ac.uk/resources/essays/farooq2.pdf

23. Ferris, Dana, & Hedgcock, John. (1998). Teaching ESL composition.  Mahwah, NJ: Laurence Erlbaum Associates.

24. Ferris, D. (2002). Treatment of error in second language student writing. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

25. Flower, L. S., & Hayes, J. R. (1981). A cognitive process theory of writing. College Composition and Communication, 32, 365-387.

26. Fries, C.C. (1945). Teaching and Learning English as a Foreign Language. Ann Arbor. University of Michigan Press.

27. Gass, S. and Selinker, L. (2001). Second language acquisition: an introductory course. Mahwah, NJ: LEA, chapter 3.2.

28. George, H.V. (1971). English for Asian learners: Are we on the right road? English Language Teaching, XXV, 270-277

29. George, H.V. (1972). Common errors in language learning. Rowley, Massachusetts.

30. Grabe, W., & Kaplan, R. B. (1996). Theory & practice of writing. New York: Addison Wesley Longman.

31. Habash, Z. (1982). Common Errors In The Use of English Prepositions In The Written Work Of UNRWA Students At The End Of The Preparatory Cycle In The Jerusalem Area. Retrieved January 2, 2003 from
http://www.zeinab-habash.ws/education/books/master.pdf

32. Habermas J. (1979). What Is Universal Pragmatics? trans.Thomas McCarthy, Communication and the Evolution of Society, Boston: Beacon, 1-68.

33. Hatch, E. (1992). Discourse and Language Education. Cambridge University Press.

34. Hendrickson, J.M. (1980). The Treatment of Error in Written Work. Modern Language Journal 64 (2)

35. Hubbard, P., Jones, H., Thornton, B. and Wheeler, R. (1996). A Training Course for TEFL. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

36. Hull, G. (1987). Constructing taxonomies for error (or can stray dogs be mermaids?). In T. Enos (Ed.), A Sourcebook for Basic Writing Teachers. (pp. 231-244). New York: Random House.

37. Jackson, H. (1981). Contrastive analysis as a predictor of errors, with reference to Punjabi learners of English. In Contrastive linguistics and the language teacher, J Fisiak (ed). Oxford: Pergamon.

38. Jain, M. (1974). Error Analysis: Source, Cause and Significance. In Richards, J. (Ed.). Error analysis: Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition. 189-215. Essex: Longman.

39. Johanson, S. (1975). The Uses of Error Analysis and Contrastive Analysis I. English Language Teaching, 29, 3: 246- 253.

40. Kachru, V. (1988). Writers in Hindi and English. In A.C. Purves (Ed.), Writing across languages and cultures (pp.109-137). Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.

41. Kaplan, R. (1966). Cultural thought patterns in inter-cultural education. TESOL Quarterly, 1, 10-16.

42. Kinneavy, J. & Warriner, J. (1993). Elements of writing. Orlando: Holt, Rinehart and Winston

43. Kobayashi, H., & Rinnert, C. (1994). Effects of first language on second language writing: Translation versus direct composition. In A. H. Cumming (Ed.), Bilingual performance in reading and writing (pp. 223-255). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Language Learning/John Benjamins.

44. Krashen, S. (1982). Principles and practice in second language acquisition. Oxford: Pergamon Press.

45. Kroll, B. (Ed.). (1990). Second language writing: Research Insights for the Classroom. New York: Cambridge University Press.

46. Kubota, R. (1997). A reevaluation of the uniqueness of Japanese written discourse: Implications for contrastive rhetoric. Written Communication, 41, 460-480.

47. Kubota, R. (in press). An investigation of L1-L2 transfer in writing among Japanese university students. Implications for contrastive rhetoric. Journal of Second Language Writing.

48. Lado, R. (1957). Linguistics Across Cultures. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor

49. Lado, R. (1964), Language Teaching: A Scientific Approach. McGraw-Hill

50. Larsen-Freeman, D. & Long, M. (1991). An Introduction to Second Language Acquisition Research. New York: Longman.

51. Leki, I. (1991). Twenty-five years of contrastive rhetoric: Text analysis and writing pedagogies. TESOL Quarterly, 25, 123-143.

52. Lengo, N. (1995, September). What is An Error? Forum, (33), 3, July - Page 20-
http://exchanges.state.gov/forum/vols/vol33/no3/p20.htm

53. Long, M. & Porter, P. (1985). Group work, interlanguage talk, and second language acquisition. TESOL Quarterly, 19, 207 - 228.

54. McCarthy, M. (1991). Discourse Analysis for Language Teachers. New York: Cambridge University Press.

55. Meyer, B. J. F., & Rice, G. E. (1984). The structure of text. In P. D. Pearson (Ed.), Handbook of reading research (pp. 319-351). New York: Longman.

56. Mohan, B., & Lo, W. (1985). Academic writing and Chinese students: Transfer and developmental factors. TESOL Quarterly, 19, 515-534.

57. Murray, D. (1970). The interior view: One writer's philosophy of composition. College Composition and Communication, 21, 21-26.

58. Nemser, W. (1974). Approximative Systems of Foreign Language Learners. In Richards, J. (Ed.). Error analysis: Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition. 55-63. Essex: Longman.

59. Nemser, W. (1991). Language contact and foreign language acquisition. In: V. Ivir & D. Kalogjera (Eds.) Languages in contact and contrast. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

60. Nystrand, M. (1989). A social-interactive model of writing. Written Communication, 6, 66-85.

61. Okuma S. (1999). Indices of L1 transfer in EFL writing: A study of Japanese learners of English. Retrieved January 15, 2003 from http://www.surrey.ac.uk/ELI/sakaeo.pdf

62. Oldin, T. (1989). Language Transfer. Cambridge University Press

63. Oldin, T. (1992). Transferability and linguistic substrates. Second Language Research, 8, 3: 171-202.

64. Penman, R. (1998). Communication and the Law, Communication Research Institute of Australia, CRIA  http://www.communication.org.au/html/paper_23.html

65. Reid, J. (1992). A computer text analysis of four cohesion devices in English discourse by native and nonnative writers. Journal of Second Language Writing, 1, 79-107.

66. Reid, Joy M. (1993). Teaching ESL writing. Englewood Cliff, NJ: Regents/Prentice Hall. (ISBN: 0-13-888215-0)

67. Reid, J.M., & Byrd, P. (1998). Grammar in the composition classroom: Essays on teaching ESL for college-bound students. New York: Heinle & Heinle. (ISBN: 0-8384-7210-9)

68. Richards, J.C. (ed.) (1974) Error Analysis. Perspectives on second language acquisition. London: Longman.

69. Richards, J. (1974). A Non-Contrastive Approach to Error Analysis. In Richards, J. (Ed.). Error analysis: Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition. 172-188. Essex: Longman.

70. Richards, J.C. and G.P. Sampson (1974). The study of learner English. In J.C. Richards (ed.) Error Analysis. Perspectives on second language acquisition, pp. 3-18.

71. Richards, J.C. (ed.). (1992). Error Analysis: Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition. Longman Group Limited.

72. Richards, J.C. et al. (1992). Dictionary of Language Teaching & Applied Linguistics. Second Edition. Essex: Longman Group UK Limited.

73. Sa'adeddin, M.A.M. (1989). Text development and Arabic-English negative interference. Applied Linguistics, 10, 36-51.

74. Sasaki, M., & Hirose, K. (1996). Explanatory variables for EFL students' expository writing. Language Learning, 46, 137-174.

75. Scott, M. & Tucker R. (1974). Error analysis and English language strategies of Arab students. Language Learning, 24: 69-97.

76. Selinker, L. (1974). Interlanguage. In Richards, J. (Ed.). Error analysis: Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition. 31-54. Essex: Longman.

77. Selinker, L (1992). Rediscovering Interlanguage. New York. Longman.

78. Silva, T, & Matsuda, P.K. (Eds.). (2001). Landmark Essays on ESL Writing.  Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. (ISBN: 1-880393-18-2)

79. Silva, T, & Matsuda, P.K. (Eds.). (2001). On Second Language Writing. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. (ISBN: 0-8058-3516-4)

80. Smith, Larry. 1987. Discourse Across Cultures. Prentice Hall

81. Sofer N.Z. & Raimes, A. (2002). Keys for writers, A brief handbook- Third ed.- Houghton Mifflin Company. Retrieved January 2, 2003 from http://college.hmco.com/english/raimes/3e/fmraimes.pdf http://college.hmco.com/english/raimes/3e/12raimesi.pdf

82. Sridhar, S. N. (1980). Contrastive analysis, error analysis, and interlanguage. IN: J. Fisiak (ed.) Contrastive linguistics and the language teacher. Oxford: Pergamon Press.

83. Swan, M, & Smith, B. (Eds). (1995). Learner English: A teacher’s guide to interference and other problems. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

84. Tayli, M. & Al-Salamah, A.I. (1990). Building bilingual microcomputer systems. Communications of the ACM (33), 5, (May), pp.495-504.

85. Taylor, B. P. (1975). The use of overgeneralization and transfer learning strategies by elementary and intermediate students of ESL. Language Learning, 25, pp. 73-107.

86. Weinreich, U. (1953). Languages in Contact. The Hague, Mouton

87. Zamel, V. & Spack, R. (Eds.). (1998). Negotiating academic literacies: Teaching and learning across languages and cultures. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Additional References: Web Pages

Athabasca University- Canada- Distance learning education

http://www.athabascau.ca/

Athabasca University- Canada
Distance learning education- English language support- If English is not Your First Language
http://www.athabascau.ca/courses/engl/155/support/if_english_is_not_your_first_language.htm

Cairo Demographic Center
http://www.cdc.eun.eg/en.htm

Egyptian Demographic Center, 2000

http://www.frcu.eun.eg/www/homepage/cdc/cdc.htm

English-Arabic Translation Guidelines for Nominal Compounds
by Zouhair Maalej- University of Tunis I- Tunisia
http://simsim.rug.ac.be/Zmaalej/syncom.html

Learning the English writing system 15-Oct-02

Vivian Cook

http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~vcook/EWSChap5.htm

Modern and Classical Languages- 1997

State of Maine Learning Results
http://www.state.me.us/education/lres/mcl.pdf

On Arabic-English Cross-Language Information Retrieval: A Machine Translation Approach

Mohammed Aljlayl, Ophir Frieder, & David Grossman

Information Retrieval Laboratory- Illinois Institute of Technology
http://www.ir.iit.edu/publications/downloads/073_aljlayl_m.pdf

Problems in Learning English
http://www.culturalorientation.net/iraqi/ienglish.html

Research on secondary schools and literacy
http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/Research/secondaryindex.html

The Punctuation Project Home Page
Directors: Nigel Hall and Anne Robinson
http://www.partnership.mmu.ac.uk/punctuation/punctuation.html

Transfer/Cross-linguistic influence

Cathy Benson- ELT Journal Volume 56/1 January 2002 © Oxford University Press

http://www3.oup.co.uk/eltj/hdb/Volume_56/ Issue_01/freepdf/560068.pdf

What is the Role of Transfer in Interlanguage? Powell, G.

Centre for Research in Language Education (CRILE)

Department of Linguistics and Modern English Language

LAMEL- Lancaster university- UK

http://www.ling.lancs.ac.uk/groups/crile/crile33Powell.pdf

http://www.ling.lancs.ac.uk/groups/crile/workingpapers.htm

APPENDIXES

Appendix 1: LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

1. Amb : Ambiguous

2. Av : Avoidance

3. BL : Blend

4. CAss : Cross-Association

5. Cl : Clarity

6. Cohr : Coherence

7. Cohs : Cohesion

8. Conf : Confusable

9. DC : Deceptive cognate

10. Dev: Developmental

11. Devt : Development

12. Dist : Distortion

13. Dys : Dyslexic error

14. EFL: English as a Foreign Language.

15. EL: English Language.

16. ELT: English Language Teaching.

17. ESL: English as a Second Language.

18. FA: False Analogy

19. FC: False concepts/systems

20. FF : False friend

21. IE: Induced errors

22. Ign: Ignorance

23. IncompR/: Incomplete application of rule

24. InterL: Interlingual

25. IntraL: Intralingual

26. Inv : Inversion

27. L1: First Language (i.e. Arabic).

28. L1T : Native language transfer

29. L2: Second Language (i.e. English).

30. LS : Letter shape

31. Mat : Material induced error

32. Misord : Misordering

33. Missel : Misselection

34. Mor: Morphology

35. MT: Mother Tongue.

36. MTI: Mother Tongue Interference (i.e. native language which Includes both colloquial and standard Arabic).

37. NL : Native language

38. OG: Over-generalization

39. OLP: Other Language Learning Problems.

40. Om : Omission

41. Orig : Originality

42. PhNM : Phonetic near-misses

43. Phono: Phonological

44. Rel : Relevance

45. SdSp : Sound spelling

46. SpConv : Spelling conventions

47. TE : Teacher explanation

48. TL : Target language

49. Typo : Typographic

50. UG: Under-generalization

51. UL : Unnecessary letter

52. Un : Unique

Appendix 2: ACS Mission Statement

http://www.acs.edu.lb/ACS/

The American Community School at Beirut provides an American-style education for Lebanese and international families, and fosters a lively and stimulating atmosphere of learning in its community. ACS seeks to educate the whole person, to foster technological proficiency and to lay the foundations for life-long learning. The faculty sets standards of excellence and integrity in academic and co-curricular areas including the Lebanese, American, and International Baccalaureate Programs, and prepares students to meet the rigors of university education. Students are challenged to do their best in all areas and are asked to reach further.
ACS seeks to nurture the qualities of respect for self and for others, and to cultivate the desire to serve the community. Students are encouraged to take responsibility for their thoughts, words, and deeds, to act with honor and purpose, and to make a difference in the complex global society they have inherited.
Accreditations
Chartered: State Regents of New York
Accredited: Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools
Registered: Lebanese Ministry of Education

Appendix 3: Student Survey

When asked the question “How long have you been at ACS?” 9 of the 10 students whose essays were studied answered “Since nursery.” The remaining student answered “since grade 2.”

When asked the question “Which language do you speak the most at home?” most of the students answered “Arabic.” They do speak some English, but very little.

When asked the question “Which language do you speak the most with your friends?” 3 students answered “English.”

Student #	Language spoken at home	Language spoken with friends
1	English & Arabic	Arabic
2	English & Arabic	English & Arabic
3	Arabic	Arabic/English
4	English & Arabic	Bulgarian
5	Arabic	Arabic
6	Arabic	English
7	Arabic	Arabic
8	Arabic	Arabic
9	Arabic	English
10	Arabic	English

How reliable these answers are, we do not know!

Appendix 4:

Arabic: General Language Characteristics

The Arabic language is one of the world's most widely used languages. According to Egyptian Demographic Center (2000), it is the mother tongue of about 300 million people. Arabic is the official language of many Arab nations in the Middle East and northern Africa, including Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen (Sofer & Raimes, 2002 & World Book Encyclopedia, 1997). It is one of the six official languages of the United Nations.

There are two types of Arabic, spoken and written. Spoken Arabic consists of dialects. Arabic is the descendant of the language of the Koran, the sacred book of the Islamic religion. The orientation of writing is from right-to left, and the Arabic alphabet consists of 28 letters. The Arabic alphabet can be extended to ninety elements by writing additional shapes, marks, and vowels (Tayli & Al-Salamah, 1990). Most Arabic words are morphologically derived from a list of roots; it can be tri, quad, or pent-literal. Most of these roots are three constants. Arabic words are classified into three main parts of speech: nouns (adjectives, and adverbs), verbs, and particles. In formal writing, Arabic sentences are delimited by commas and periods as in English, for instance. Many English words come from Arabic: alcohol, algebra, check, magazine, and tariff.

Standard Arabic: is the formal language of literature and written expression.

Colloquial Arabic: is the ordinary familiar language used in everyday conversation among Arabic speakers.

When discussing MTI from Arabic it should not be forgotten that some errors are caused by interference from standard and others by interference from colloquial Arabic.

Appendix 5: ESL Tip Sheet 1: Arabic (Sofer & Raimes, 2002)

(In green is what applies to this study)

Spoken in Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.

The written language

_ Arabic is written from right to left.

_ Spelling is phonetic.

_ No distinction is made between upper and lower case.

Sentence structure and word order

_ Under the influence of the Qur’an (Koran), writers aim at rhythmical balance and

coordination, with the split between subject and predicate occurring midway in a sentence.

_ Arabic favors coordination over subordination; sentences often begin with And or So.

_ Basic word order in Classical Arabic is V-S-O: the verb precedes the subject: *Hoped the committee to solve the problem. Colloquial Arabic is S - V - O .

_ Arabic uses a that clause where English uses infinitive: *I want that you stay.

Nouns and pronouns

_ Personal pronouns are often added to verbs: *My father he lives in California.

_ Relative pronoun makes no human/nonhuman distinction, and pronoun object is retained in a restrictive relative clause: *Here is the student which you met her last week.

_ Singular noun is used after a numeral above ten: *He has eleven cousin.

Verbs and verbals

_ No equivalent of auxiliary do: *You have a brother?

_ No verb be in present tense: *They going to the movies. *Where the post office?

_ No modal verbs.

_ No gerund or infinitive forms.

_ Perspective of tense and time is very different from English.

_ Past perfect is formed with be: *They were eat.

_ Reported speech retains tense of original: *She said she is leaving.

_ Simple present tense covers meaning of simple and progressive in English: *She working now. *She working every day.

Adjectives and adverbs

_ Adjectives follow noun: *a book interesting long.

Articles

_ No indefinite article: *He is student.

_ Definite article is used for days of the week, some months, some place names, and in many idiomatic expressions: *He went to the Peru. *He is still in the bed.

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Appendix 6- Table 1:

Error Analysis: Scope of Study

Topic: What are your plans for the future?

Brevet Students @ ACS || Ten 250-word essays studied

Error Categories & Sources + Abbreviations

Error Category	Error Sources	Error Sources / Abbreviations
Grammatical Errors	A- INTERLINGUAL: L1 (negative) Transfer / interference B- INTRALINGUAL: Developmental/ analogical errors [Corder, 1974; p. 130] or over-generalization or of TL rules (Selinker, 1972 in Richards, 1974) = redundancy reduction (Richards, 1974; p 175) Ignorance of rule restrictions Incomplete application of rules = under-generalization e.g. nobody knew where was Barbie (Richards + James, 1998; p 185) Building of false concepts/systems (Richards, p 174) Morphology => 3^rd pers sing “s”, “ed”, “ing” <=> Concord + Phonological error (James p 154) False analogy => childs (James p 185) Induced errors (James p 178): from classroom situations cross-association teacher explanation material induced errors Omissions/avoidance because of ignorance (James p 176) C- AMBIGUOUS: Both interlingual/interference and intralingual/developmental D- UNIQUE: Neither interlingual nor intralingual <=> not in L1 and not developmental (Richards p 115- Dulay & Burt)	InterL/L1T IntraL Dev OG Ign IncompR/ UG FC Mor Concord/Phono FA IE CAss TE Mat Om/Av Amb Un
Syntactic errors	A- INTERLINGUAL: L1 (negative) Transfer / interference B- INTRALINGUAL: (James p 157) Phrase structure errors = Misselection / Misordering Clause errors = Omitted, Misordered, Misselected, Blend Sentence errors = Discourse <=> Coherence Intersentence errors = Cohesion	InterL/L1T IntraL Missel / Misord Om BL Cohr Cohs
Lexical Errors (word choice)	A- INTERLINGUAL: L1 (negative) Transfer / interference <=> False friends / Deceptive Cognates B- INTRALINGUAL/Developmental: Confusables (James p. 145-147) Distortions -  form nonexistent in TL (James p 150)	InterL/L1T FF / DC IntraL/Dev Conf Dist
Semantic errors	INTERLINGUAL: L1 (negative) Transfer / interference	InterL/L1T
Organization (claim/thesis, transition words (TW), support, process, logical progression, flow of ideas) + Discourse/Process	A- INTERLINGUAL: L1 (negative) Transfer / interference B- INTRALINGUAL / Developmental: Relevance, clarity, development, originality (James p 161) Coherence/content = value as a message Cohesion = value as a text/product (Das, 1878; in James p 161)	InterL/L1T IntraL/Dev Rel/Cl/Devt Orig Cohr Cohs
Substance (Mechanics + Spelling)	A- INTERLINGUAL: L1 (negative) Transfer / interference B- INTRALINGUAL / Developmental	InterL/L1T IntraL/Dev
	Pronunciation: sound spelling, unnecessary letters Convention of spelling: omissions, inversion, letter shape (Corder p 138) Dyslexic errors, phonetic near-misses (e.g. course/coarse), confusables, typographic errors (James p 130)	SdSp UL SpConv Om/Inv/LS Dys/ PhNM Conf/ Typo

Sources: Corder, 1974; Richards, 1974; James, 1998; Selinker, 1972 in Richards, 1974; Richards & Sampson, 1974.

Appendix 7- Table 2:

Error Analysis: Scope of Study

Topic: What are your plans for the future?

Brevet Students @ ACS || Ten 250-word essays studied

Categorizing & Diagnosing Errors  

“A single word may show more than one error and appear, therefore, in more than one list.” (Corder, 1974, p. 132)

Error Category + Conclusion / Inference	Error sub-category	Number of Errors	Examples & Error Sources	Error Sources / Abbre- viations
Grammatical Errors 29 E 14 T			A- INTERLINGUAL: L1 (negative) Transfer / interference B- INTRALINGUAL: Developmental/over-generalization or analogical errors [Allen & Corder, 1974; p. 130] of TL rules= redundancy reduction (Richards, 1974; p 175) Ignorance of rule restrictions Incomplete application of rules = under-generalization e.g. nobody knew where was Barbie (Richards + James, 1998; p 185) Building of false concepts/systems (Richards, p 174) Morphology => 3^rd pers sing “s”, “ed”, “ing” <=> Concord + Phonological error (James p 154) False analogy => childs (James p 185) Induced errors (James p 178): from classroom situations cross-association teacher explanation material induced errors Omissions/avoidance because of ignorance (James p 176) C- AMBIGUOUS: Both interlingual/interference and intralingual/developmental D- UNIQUE: Neither interlingual nor intralingual <=> not in L1 and not developmental (Richards p 115- Dulay & Burt)	InterL/L1T IntraL Dev OG Ign IncR/UG FC Mor Concord Phono FA IE CAss TE Mat Om/Av Amb Un
	Prepositions/ particles	5 Errors (2 T)	I have trouble in school because▼ the lack of skills in sciences. Getting an early start about the future can help by expanding our knowledge about our plans. That is so because I would like to follow in my father’s footsteps. You get a load of your chest every time you make a basket.	IntraL/Dev InterL/L1T Dev InterL/L1T Dev/UG/ Collocational
	Articles	4 E (3 T)	Evil is▼ force that can enter a person’s soul and conquer it. My plans for the future is to become a professional basketball player, a good father, and▼ successful architect. ▼Most important thing here is that I never become a couch potato. When the evil comes.	InterL/L1T InterL/L1T Dev/OG InterL/L1T
	Reported sp.	1 E (1 T)	I wonder what god has written for me, what’s my destiny?	InterL/L1T
	Sing/Plural	1 E (1 T)	I am obsessed with money; it is just the way they smell.	InterL/L1T
	Adjectives	2 E (2 T)	Calling others kids to come. Many others ways.	InterL/L1T InterL/L1T
	Relative clauses	Ø E	--
	Irregular verbs	1 E	They should have veterinarians around them in case they get sick or any strong disease stricked them.	Dev/FA/ Concord
	Tenses (wrong tense) + omission of 3rd pers. "s" + agreement of tenses	12 + 2 E (5 T)	What ever path a person choose. I have planned my future a long time ago. last but not least, if I was giving an animal a shot I have to make sure that I am giving it in the right place. They should have veterinarians around them in case they get sick or any strong disease stricked them. I am caring mainly because an animal doesn’t have the same mental abilities as humans do. Without a complete and proper education, you got nothing. My plans for the future is to become a professional basketball player, a good father, and successful architect. Hopefully if I become a professional basketball player, I would have enough money to maintain a good life. That, I have been doing since a long time ago. In both of the plans for my future I clearly stated, that I began working on them from the beginning of my life	Dev/Concord Dev/Concord InterL/L1T InterL/L1T Dev/Concord InterL/L1T Dev/Concord/ OG Dev/Concord Dev/Concord/ UG Amb InterL/L1T
	Possessive case	1 E	That is so because I would like to follow in my fathers footsteps.	Dev/Concord
Syntactic errors 35 E 16 T			A- INTERLINGUAL: L1 (negative) Transfer / interference B- INTRALINGUAL: (James p 157) Phrase structure errors = Misselection / Misordering Clause errors = Omitted, Misordered, Misselected, Blend Sentence errors = Discourse <=> Coherence Intersentence errors = Cohesion	InterL/L1T IntraL Missel / Misord Om BL Cohr Cohs
	Coordination (+ Beginning with “and” or “so”)	5 E (3 T)	For, them not to hate me they need to respect me and realize how much I love them and how hard I work for them. All my life I’ve really enjoyed the game and played it all my life and of course it is my favorite sport. I can’t say much here besides that playing ball gives me a good workout and I stay in shape; and architecture works my brain.	InterL/L1T InterL/L1T InterL/L1T
	Sentence structure	27 E (11 T)	Animals have to be not acted hard on. Consequently one must plan his life ▼ to be successful. A good education will help increase my self-esteem because it makes me happier, feel smarter, and feel more successful than without an education. It is known to be, that a person would be more appreaciated, and treated better if he were an educated individual than a failure. I have learned a lesson in my life, that you should never ever give up. Living your life owning a beatiful mansion, and amazing cars is a relative way of my lifestyle in the future. My essay has covered up my plans for the future: to be educated, feeling content, and having your family and your close friends stand by your side all the time. (parallelism! coherence) When I secure a job my goal is to become partner and have a quarter office. I have to be determined heading off to a foriegn country. I also sacrifice a lot most of all seeing my family. All for money and respect (fragment). This result will give me a positive attitude of authority over life. I have many goals that I hope I will acheive. I also have noticed something that most people when they grow up they Forget their Family and Friends because of work and all that stress But, I intend to still have a very close relationship with my family and friends. I don’t just want to be a parent but a mom who is proud and deserves that position as well as an interesting lawyer. What I want to be? My plans are for three things: future work, future family, and sport I want to play. I will help my children with any problems they are facing whether these problems are emotional, with friends, with a teacher, in school, etc... (parallelism!) This image is very important, because I will be able to establish a good early start concerning my future. The plans for my future are being a successful basketball player & to get a job as a computer engineer. (parallelism) All my life I’ve really enjoyed the game and played it all my life and of course it is my favorite sport. I have a lot of people in my family that are computer engineers. That, I have been doing since a long time ago. In both of the plans for my future I clearly stated, that I began working on them from the beginning of my life. That is so because I would like to follow in my fathers foot steps, I love playing ball and because I would like to be healthy in the mind as well as the body. I can’t say much here besides that playing ball gives me a good workout and I stay in shape.	InterL/L1T Dev/Om Missel/BL/ Cohr Amb InterL/L1T Cohr Cohr Om/Cohr/ Missel Cohr BL Cohr InterL/L1T Cohr BL/Cohr Cohs/Cohr/BL InterL/L1T Cohr Cohr Amb Cohr/Missel BL/Cohr InterL/L1T Amb Cohr InterL/L1T InterL/L1T InterL/L1T
	Nouns & pronouns e.g. My father he lives ...	2 E (2 T)	I also have noticed something that most people when they grow up they Forget their Family and Friends because of work and all that stress But, I intend to still have a very close relationship with my family and friends. when the evil comes, it is hard to defy it.	InterL/L1T InterL/L1T
	Word order	1 E	I also have noticed something that most people when they grow up they Forget their Family and Friends because of work and all that stress But, I intend to still have a very close relationship with my family and friends.	Dev/Misord
Lexical Errors (word choice) 26 E 19  T			A- INTERLINGUAL: L1 (negative) Transfer / interference <=> False friends / Deceptive Cognates B- INTRALINGUAL/Developmental: Confusables (James p. 145-147) Distortions -  form nonexistent in TL (James p 150)	InterL/L1T FF / DC IntraL/Dev Conf Dist
		24 E (17 T)	If I hit an animal it would loose trust in me and stay on irritating me while curing it. Some animals are nice pets to have, when they have the right health and medications. They should have veterinarians around them in case they get sick or any strong disease stricked them. They should have veterinarians around them in case they get sick or any strong disease stricked them. Animals are usually very afraid of high sounds. For me acheiving these goals makes me happy. How ever each person must succeed to his ability. When I secure a job my goal is to become partner and have a quarter office. You never know what god has installed for you. For me to be counted as a one of a kind mother I need to take care of my kids thus they will be successful in the future. I don’t just want to be a parent but▼ a mom who is proud and deserves that position as well as an interesting lawyer. In my free time I will practice on improving my basketball fundamentals. Planning for the future gives an image for our future life. Thus I will need to put a good concentration of time, practicing my basketball skills. Hopefully if I become a professional basketball player, I would have enough money to maintain a good life. I need to get outside help. That outside help is provided by my family members. Like I’ve said before. Getting an early start about the future can help by expanding our knowledge about our plans. Well you know what, I’ve given this a lot of thought I think I’m sure of what I want to be. it rises problems.	InterL/L1T InterL/L1T InterL/L1T InterL/L1T InterL/L1T InterL/L1T InterL/L1T Dev InterL/L1T InterL/L1T Dev Dev Dev InterL/L1T InterL/L1T InterL/L1T InterL/L1T InterL/L1T InterL/L1T Amb InterL/L1T Dev/Conf
Semantic errors 3 E 3 T			INTERLINGUAL: L1 (negative) Transfer / interference	InterL/L1T
		3 E (3 T)	When I secure a job my goal is to become partner and have a quarter office. By acomplishing these pans I will insure myself an outstanding life. Architecture works my brain.	InterL/L1T InterL/L1T InterL/L1T
Organization (claim/thesis, transition words (TW), support, process, logical progression, flow of ideas) + Discourse/Process			A- INTERLINGUAL: L1 (negative) Transfer / interference B- INTRALINGUAL / Developmental: Relevance, clarity, development, originality (James p 161) Coherence/content = value as a message Cohesion = value as a text/product (Das, 1878; in James p 161)	InterL/L1T IntraL/Dev Rel/Cl/Devt/ Orig Cohr Cohs
5 good theses 5 good support 2 good TW			incorrect thesis- poor support- no transition words- no logical progression. good thesis- good support- TW used incorrectly (“therefore” at the beginning of the body; “as a result” in the thesis.) poor thesis- off topic- few TW- but good mechanics. incorrect thesis- good TW- logical flow. good thesis + support- few TW- third paragraph off topic. good thesis- poor support- shallow- incorrect TW good thesis- no respect for order of thesis components- poor TW- good flow. good thesis but no parallelism- too many repetitions- too long- very few transition words. thesis but no parallelism- good support- good TW- good flow. thesis but no narrowing down.	Cohr/ Cohs/ Cl/Devt 2. Cohs 3. Cohr/Cl/ Devt 4. Cl 5. Devt/Cohs 6. Devt/Cohs 7. Devt/Cohs 8. Devt/Cl/ Cohs 9. Devt Devt
Substance (Mechanics + Spelling) 120 E  25 T			A- INTERLINGUAL: L1 (negative) Transfer / interference B- INTRALINGUAL / Developmental	InterL/L1T IntraL/Dev
	Punctuation	64 + 11 E (21 T) (28%)	However▼evil has its shapes and forms. There are two paths▼evil and good. Once I am a veterinarian▼the most important thing is that I give the right medication to my animals which are sick. First of all▼ in order to do that I have to give the sick animal the most benifitial medicine. last but not least, if I was giving an animal a shot▼ I have to make sure that I am giving it in the right place. Consequently▼ one must plan his life to be successful. As a result, I intend to get a good education, and job, which will allow me to raise a family in a suitable enviroment. Obtaining a good job will be a crucial part of my life for various reasons. One of which, is that it enables me to have a stable income. This factor will allow me to focus on different aspects of my life,  which make me happier and,  help me improve my life. It is known to be, that a person would be more appreaciated, and treated better▼ if he were an educated individual than a failure. Living your life owning a beatiful mansion, and amazing cars is a relative way of my lifestyle in the future. How ever▼ each person must succeed to his ability. My plan is to succeed. To do that▼ I want to get a good education, become a lawyer, and have positive values. To get a start on my good education▼ the first stepping stone is highschool graduation. Afterwards▼ I want to get a university level education in the united states. There▼ I want to get a PhD in law. When I accomplish that▼ I earn a certain level of respect. Next▼ I move to wall street. When I secure a job▼ my goal is to become partner and have a quarter office. I have to be determined▼ heading off to a foriegn country. I also sacrifice a lot▼ most of all▼ seeing my family. My plan is difficult, to acheive it I have to work hard at school, become a famous lawyer, and finally carry positive values. No matter who you are▼ try your best to beat life. If money is an issue▼ apply for financial aid, or use resources at home▼ just dont let life get the best of you. Personally▼ I beleive that you can never be sure. For, them not to hate me▼ they need to respect me and realize how much I love them and how hard I work for them. I also have noticed something▼ that most people▼ when they grow up▼ they Forget their Family and Friends because of work and all that stress▼ But, I intend to still have a very close relationship with my family and friends. I don’t just want to be a parent▼ but a mom who is proud and deserves that position▼ as well as an interesting lawyer. To become all this is really hard▼ but if I set my mind to it▼ I know that I will acheive it. I hope that this is forfilled▼ I wonder what god has written for me, what’s my destiny? I have many plans for the future that, if accomplished▼ will insure me a successful life full of hapiness and joy. When I get to university▼ I will try my best to get high honors in architecture. After I finish university▼ I will not start working because I also want to get a master’s degree in architecture. I will help my children with any problems they are facing▼ whether these problems are emotional, with friends, with a teacher, in school, etc... I will support my children in any activity they choose to join▼ whether it is Fine arts, or sports. In my free time▼ I will practice on improving my basketball fundamentals. My advice to everyone is to have many plans for the future▼ instead of only one plan▼ because if one plan fails▼ you can try to achieve another plan. An image, is just a vision about my future life. The plans for my future are▼ being a successful basketball player & to get a job as a computer engineer. Thus▼ I will need to put a good concentration of time, practicing my basketball skills. Of course▼ I will need a lot of people’s assistance. All my life▼ I’ve really enjoyed the game. Hopefully▼ if I become a professional basketball player, I would have enough money to maintain a good life. Of course▼ I do not have a lot of experience as a computer engineer. On the other hand▼ I gain a little bit of experience by messing around with computers. I really do agree, that planning for the future is essential for a person to have a good life. In both of the plans for my future▼ I clearly stated, that I began working on them from the beginning of my life. Well▼ you know what, I’ve given this a lot of thought▼ I think I’m sure of what I want to be. That is so because I would like to follow in my fathers foot steps, I love playing ball▼ and because I would like to be healthy in the mind as well as the body.	InterL/L1T Dev Dev Dev Dev Dev InterL/L1T InterL/L1T Dev InterL/L1T Dev Dev InterL/L1T InterL/L1T Dev InterL/L1T Dev Dev Dev Dev InterL/L1T Dev Dev InterL/L1T Dev Dev InterL/L1T Dev Dev Dev Dev Dev Dev Dev Dev Dev Dev Dev Dev Dev InterL/L1T InterL/L1T Dev Dev InterL/L1T InterL/L1T Dev Dev Dev Dev InterL/L1T Dev InterL/L1T InterL/L1T InterL/L1T InterL/L1T Dev InterL/L1T InterL/L1T Dev Dev Dev Dev
	Capitalization	9 E (4 T) (44.4%)	last but not least, if I was giving an animal a shot I have to make sure that I am giving it in the right place. Afterwards I want to get a university level education in the united states. Next I move to wall street. I also have noticed something that most people when they grow up they Forget their Family and Friends because of work and all that stress But, I intend to still have a very close relationship with my family and friends. I will support my children in any activity they choose to join whether it is Fine arts, or sports. + arabs	InterL/L1T InterL/L1T InterL/L1T Dev Dev Dev Dev InterL/L1T
	Spelling		Pronunciation: sound spelling, unnecessary letters Convention of spelling: omissions, inversion, letter shape (Allen & Corder p 138) Dyslexic errors, phonetic near-misses (e.g. course/coarse), confusables, typographic errors (James p 130)	SdSp UL SpConv Om/Inv/LS Dys/ PhNM Conf/ Typo
		36 E (0%)	If I hit an animal it would loose trust in me and stay on irritating me while curing it. Veterenarians are very important to have around, especially in the ergent times. … which will allow me to raise my family in a suitable enviroment. Belive/beleive - - - - What ever To conqere Gentel Bieng happy Necassary Benifitial -- Acheive/acheiving - - - - - Appreaciated Beatiful How ever reuslt foriegn dont forfilled hapiness - succesful - acomplishing foot steps	UL/OG/ SdSp SdSp SdSp SpConv/ SdSp OG SdSp/UL SdSp Dys SdSp SdSp SpConv SdSp Dys/Typo? SpConv Dys Dys Om SdSp SdSp/Om SdSp/Om SdSp/Om SdSp
TOTAL			214 Errors 77  Transfer Errors 35.9%

Sources: Corder, 1974; Richards, 1974; James, 1998; Selinker, 1972 in Richards, 1974; Richards & Sampson, 1974.

Notes:

· E = Error

· T = L1 Transfer

· The number that comes after the “+” accounts for the errors found but not transcribed.

Appendix 8 - Table 3:

Error Analysis: Scope of Study

Topic: What are your plans for the future?

Brevet Students @ ACS || Ten 250-word essays studied

Categorizing & Diagnosing Errors

Interlingual / Transfer Errors

Error Category	Error sub-category	Number of Errors	Examples
Grammatical Errors- 29 E- 14 T
	Prepositions/ particles	5 Errors (2 T)	Getting an early start about the future can help by expanding our knowledge about our plans. That is so because I would like to follow in my father’s footsteps.
	Articles	4 E (3 T)	Evil is▼ force that can enter a person’s soul and conquer it. My plans for the future is to become a professional basketball player, a good father, and▼ successful architect. When the evil comes.
	Reported sp.	1 E (1 T)	I wonder what god has written for me, what’s my destiny?
	Sing/Plural	1 E (1 T)	I am obsessed with money; it is just the way they smell.
	Adjectives	2 E (2 T)	Calling others kids to come. Many others ways.
Syntactic errors 35 E- 16 T
	Coordination (+ Beginning with “and” or “so”)	5 E (3 T)	For, them not to hate me they need to respect me and realize how much I love them and how hard I work for them. All my life I’ve really enjoyed the game and played it all my life and of course it is my favorite sport. I can’t say much here besides that playing ball gives me a good workout and I stay in shape; and architecture works my brain.
	Sentence structure	27 E (11 T)	Animals have to be not acted hard on. It is known to be, that a person would be more appreaciated, and treated better if he were an educated individual than a failure. I have learned a lesson in my life, that you should never ever give up. This result will give me a positive attitude of authority over life. What I want to be? This image is very important, because I will be able to establish a good early start concerning my future. I have a lot of people in my family that are computer engineers. That, I have been doing since a long time ago. In both of the plans for my future I clearly stated, that I began working on them from the beginning of my life. That is so because I would like to follow in my fathers foot steps, I love playing ball and because I would like to be healthy in the mind as well as the body. I can’t say much here besides that playing ball gives me a good workout and I stay in shape.
	Nouns & pronouns e.g. My father he lives ...	2 E (2 T)	I also have noticed something that most people when they grow up they Forget their Family and Friends because of work and all that stress But, I intend to still have a very close relationship with my family and friends. when the evil comes, it is hard to defy it.
Lexical Errors (word choice) 26 E - 19 T
		24 E (17 T)	If I hit an animal it would loose trust in me and stay on irritating me while curing it. Some animals are nice pets to have, when they have the right health and medications. They should have veterinarians around them in case they get sick or any strong disease stricked them. They should have veterinarians around them in case they get sick or any strong disease stricked them. Animals are usually very afraid of high sounds. For me acheiving these goals makes me happy. How ever each person must succeed to his ability. You never know what god has installed for you. For me to be counted as a one of a kind mother I need to take In my free time I will practice on improving my basketball fundamentals. Planning for the future gives an image for our future life. Thus I will need to put a good concentration of time, practicing my basketball skills. Hopefully if I become a professional basketball player, I would have enough money to maintain a good life. I need to get outside help. That outside help is provided by my family members. Like I’ve said before. Getting an early start about the future can help by expanding our knowledge about our plans. Well you know what, I’ve given this a lot of thought I think I’m sure of what I want to be.
Semantic errors 3 E - 3 T
		3 E (3 T)	When I secure a job my goal is to become partner and have a quarter office. By acomplishing these pans I will insure myself an outstanding life. Architecture works my brain.
Substance (Mechanics + Spelling)  120 E -  25 T
	Punctuation	64 + 11 E (21 T) (28%)	However▼evil has its shapes and forms. As a result, I intend to get a good education, and job, which will allow me to raise a family in a suitable enviroment. Obtaining a good job will be a crucial part of my life for various reasons. One of which, is that it enables me to have a stable income. It is known to be, that a person would be more appreaciated, and treated better▼ if he were an educated individual than a failure. How ever▼ each person must succeed to his ability. My plan is to succeed. To do that▼ I want to get a good education, become a lawyer, and have positive values. Afterwards▼ I want to get a university level education in the united states. I have to be determined▼ heading off to a foriegn country. No matter who you are▼ try your best to beat life. Personally▼ I beleive that you can never be sure. When I get to university▼ I will try my best to get high honors in architecture. After I finish university▼ I will not start working because I also want to get a master’s degree in architecture. In my free time▼ I will practice on improving my basketball fundamentals. My advice to everyone is to have many plans for the future▼ instead of only one plan▼ because if one plan fails▼ you can try to achieve another plan. Of course▼ I will need a lot of people’s assistance. Hopefully▼ if I become a professional basketball player, I would have enough money to maintain a good life. Of course▼ I do not have a lot of experience as a computer engineer. On the other hand▼ I gain a little bit of experience by messing around with computers. have a good life. In both of the plans for my future▼ I clearly stated, that I began working on them from the beginning of my life. Well▼ you know what, I’ve given this a lot of thought▼ I think I’m sure of what I want to be. That is so because I would like to follow in my fathers foot steps, I love playing ball▼ and because I would like to be healthy in the mind as well as the body.
	Capitalization	9 E (4 T) (44.4%)	last but not least, if I was giving an animal a shot I have to make sure that I am giving it in the right place. Afterwards I want to get a university level education in the united states. Next I move to wall street. arabs
TOTAL			77  Transfer Errors 35.9% Out of 214 Errors

Appendix 9 - Table 4:

Error Analysis: Scope of Study

Topic: What are your plans for the future?

Brevet Students @ ACS || Ten 250-word essays studied

Categorizing & Diagnosing Errors

Intralingual/Developmental Errors 

Error Category	Error sub-category	Number of Errors	Examples
Grammatical Errors   29 E - 14 T
	Prepositions/ particles	5 Errors (2 T)	I have trouble in school because▼ the lack of skills in sciences. Getting an early start about the future can help by expanding our knowledge about our plans. You get a load of your chest every time you make a basket.
	Articles	4 E (3 T)	▼Most important thing here is that I never become a couch potato.
	Irregular verbs	1 E	They should have veterinarians around them in case they get sick or any strong disease stricked them.
	Tenses (wrong tense) + omission of 3rd pers. "s" + agreement of tenses	12 + 2 E (5 T)	What ever path a person choose. I have planned my future a long time ago. They should have veterinarians around them in case they get sick or any strong disease stricked them. Without a complete and proper education, you got nothing. My plans for the future is to become a professional basketball player, a good father, and successful architect. Hopefully if I become a professional basketball player, I would have enough money to maintain a good life. That, I have been doing since a long time ago.
	Possessive case	1 E	That is so because I would like to follow in my fathers footsteps.
Syntactic errors  35 E- 16 T
	Sentence structure	27 E (11 T)	Consequently one must plan his life ▼ to be successful. A good education will help increase my self-esteem because it makes me happier, feel smarter, and feel more successful than without an education. It is known to be, that a person would be more appreaciated, and treated better if he were an educated individual than a failure. Living your life owning a beatiful mansion, and amazing cars is a relative way of my lifestyle in the future. My essay has covered up my plans for the future: to be educated, feeling content, and having your family and your close friends stand by your side all the time. (parallelism! coherence) When I secure a job my goal is to become partner and have a quarter office. I have to be determined heading off to a foriegn country. I also sacrifice a lot most of all seeing my family. All for money and respect (fragment). I have many goals that I hope I will acheive. I also have noticed something that most people when they grow up they Forget their Family and Friends because of work and all that stress But, I intend to still have a very close relationship with my family and friends. I don’t just want to be a parent but a mom who is proud and deserves that position as well as an interesting lawyer. My plans are for three things: future work, future family, and sport I want to play. I will help my children with any problems they are facing whether these problems are emotional, with friends, with a teacher, in school, etc... (parallelism!) This image is very important, because I will be able to establish a good early start concerning my future. The plans for my future are being a successful basketball player & to get a job as a computer engineer. (parallelism) All my life I’ve really enjoyed the game and played it all my life and of course it is my favorite sport. That, I have been doing since a long time ago. In both of the plans for my future I clearly stated, that I began working on them from the beginning of my life.
	Word order	1 E	I also have noticed something that most people when they grow up they Forget their Family and Friends because of work and all that stress But, I intend to still have a very close relationship with my family and friends.
Lexical Errors (word choice) 26 E - 19 T
		24 E (17 T)	For me to be counted as a one of a kind mother I need to take care of my kids thus they will be successful in the future. I don’t just want to be a parent but▼ a mom who is proud and deserves that position as well as an interesting lawyer. Getting an early start about the future can help by expanding our knowledge about our plans. it rises problems.
Organization (claim/thesis, transition words (TW), support, process, logical progression, flow of ideas) + Discourse/Process
5 good theses 5 good support 2 good TW			incorrect thesis- poor support- no transition words- no logical progression. good thesis- good support- TW used incorrectly (“therefore” at the beginning of the body; “as a result” in the thesis.) poor thesis- off topic- few TW- but good mechanics. incorrect thesis- good TW- logical flow. good thesis + support- few TW- third paragraph off topic. good thesis- poor support- shallow- incorrect TW good thesis- no respect for order of thesis components- poor TW- good flow. good thesis but no parallelism- too many repetitions- too long- very few transition words. thesis but no parallelism- good support- good TW- good flow. thesis but no narrowing down.
Substance (Mechanics + Spelling)   120 E-  25 T
	Punctuation	64 + 11 E (21 T) (28%)	There are two paths▼evil and good. Once I am a veterinarian▼the most important thing is that I give the right medication to my animals which are sick. First of all▼ in order to do that I have to give the sick animal the most benifitial medicine. last but not least, if I was giving an animal a shot▼ I have to make sure that I am giving it in the right place. Consequently▼ one must plan his life to be successful. suitable enviroment. This factor will allow me to focus on different aspects of my life,  which make me happier and,  help me improve my life. It is known to be, that a person would be more appreaciated, and treated better▼ if he were an educated individual than a failure. Living your life owning a beatiful mansion, and amazing cars is a relative way of my lifestyle in the future. To get a start on my good education▼ the first stepping stone is highschool graduation. There▼ I want to get a PhD in law. When I accomplish that▼ I earn a certain level of respect. Next▼ I move to wall street. When I secure a job▼ my goal is to become partner and have a quarter office. I also sacrifice a lot▼ most of all▼ seeing my family. My plan is difficult, to acheive it I have to work hard at school, become a famous lawyer, and finally carry positive values. If money is an issue▼ apply for financial aid, or use resources at home▼ just dont let life get the best of you. For, them not to hate me▼ they need to respect me and realize how much I love them and how hard I work for them. I also have noticed something▼ that most people▼ when they grow up▼ they Forget their Family and Friends because of work and all that stress▼ But, I intend to still have a very close relationship with my family and friends. I don’t just want to be a parent▼ but a mom who is proud and deserves that position▼ as well as an interesting lawyer. To become all this is really hard▼ but if I set my mind to it▼ I know that I will acheive it. I hope that this is forfilled▼ I wonder what god has written for me, what’s my destiny? I have many plans for the future that, if accomplished▼ will insure me a successful life full of hapiness and joy. I will help my children with any problems they are facing▼ whether these problems are emotional, with friends, with a teacher, in school, etc... I will support my children in any activity they choose to join▼ whether it is Fine arts, or sports. An image, is just a vision about my future life. The plans for my future are▼ being a successful basketball player & to get a job as a computer engineer. Thus▼ I will need to put a good concentration of time, practicing my basketball skills. All my life▼ I’ve really enjoyed the game. I really do agree, that planning for the future is essential for a person to have a good life. Well▼ you know what, I’ve given this a lot of thought▼ I think I’m sure of what I want to be. That is so because I would like to follow in my fathers foot steps, I love playing ball▼ and because I would like to be healthy in the mind as well as the body.
	Capitalization	9 E (4 T) (44.4%)	I also have noticed something that most people when they grow up they Forget their Family and Friends because of work and all that stress But, I intend to still have a very close relationship with my family and friends. I will support my children in any activity they choose to join whether it is Fine arts, or sports.
	Spelling	36 E (0%)	If I hit an animal it would loose trust in me and stay on irritating me while curing it. Veterenarians are very important to have around, especially in the ergent times. … which will allow me to raise my family in a suitable enviroment. Belive/beleive - - - - What ever To conqere Gentel Bieng happy Necassary Benifitial -- Acheive/acheiving - - - - - Appreaciated Beatiful How ever reuslt foriegn dont forfilled hapiness - succesful - acomplishing foot steps
TOTAL			214 Errors 137 Developmental Errors  64.1%

Appendix 10 - Table 5:

Error Analysis: Scope of Study

Topic: What are your plans for the future?

Brevet Students @ ACS || Ten 250-word essays studied

Error Sources & Numbers compared

Error Category	Interlingual Errors InterL/L1T	Intralingual Errors IntraL/Dev	Error Sources
Grammatical Errors	14 Transfer (48.2%)	15 Dev.	A- INTERLINGUAL: L1 (negative) Transfer / interference B- INTRALINGUAL: Developmental/ analogical errors [Corder, 1974; p. 130] or over-generalization or of TL rules (Selinker, 1972 in Richards, 1974) = redundancy reduction (Richards, 1974; p 175) Ignorance of rule restrictions Incomplete application of rules = under-generalization e.g. nobody knew where was Barbie (Richards + James, 1998; p 185) Building of false concepts/systems (Richards, p 174) Morphology => 3^rd pers sing “s”, “ed”, “ing” <=> Concord + Phonological error (James p 154) False analogy => childs (James p 185) Induced errors (James p 178): from classroom situations cross-association teacher explanation material induced errors Omissions/avoidance because of ignorance (James p 176) C- AMBIGUOUS: Both interlingual/interference and intralingual/developmental D- UNIQUE: Neither interlingual nor intralingual <=> not in L1 and not developmental (Richards p 115- Dulay & Burt)
Syntactic errors	16 T (45.7%)	19 D	A- INTERLINGUAL: L1 (negative) Transfer / interference B- INTRALINGUAL: (James p 157) Phrase structure errors = Misselection / Misordering Clause errors = Omitted, Misordered, Misselected, Blend Sentence errors = Discourse <=> Coherence Intersentence errors = Cohesion
Lexical Errors (word choice)	19 T (73%)	7 D	A- INTERLINGUAL: L1 (negative) Transfer / interference <=> False friends / Deceptive Cognates B- INTRALINGUAL/Developmental: Confusables (James p. 145-147) Distortions -  form nonexistent in TL (James p 150)
Semantic errors	3 T (100%)	0 D	INTERLINGUAL: L1 (negative) Transfer / interference
Organization (claim/thesis, transition words (TW), support, process, logical progression, flow of ideas) + Discourse/Process			A- INTERLINGUAL: L1 (negative) Transfer / interference B- INTRALINGUAL / Developmental: Relevance, clarity, development, originality (James p 161) Coherence/content = value as a message Cohesion = value as a text/product (Das, 1878; in James p 161)
Substance (Mechanics + Spelling)	25 T (20.8%)	95 D	A- INTERLINGUAL: L1 (negative) Transfer / interference B- INTRALINGUAL / Developmental
Punctuation (28% T) Capitalization (44.4% T) Spelling (0% T)	Spelling		Pronunciation: sound spelling, unnecessary letters Convention of spelling: omissions, inversion, letter shape (Corder p 138) Dyslexic errors, phonetic near-misses (e.g. course/coarse), confusables, typographic errors (James p 130)
TOTAL	77  Transfer Errors 35.9%	137 Dev. Errors 64.1%	214 Errors

Sources: Corder, 1974; Richards, 1974; James, 1998; Selinker, 1972 in Richards, 1974; Richards & Sampson, 1974

Summary

of L1 Transfer Error Percentage

Semantic                                        100%

Lexical                                          73.0%

Grammatical                                 48.2%

Syntactic                                       45.7 %

Substance/Mechanics                  20.8%

Appendix 11

Mrs. Nada AbiSamra © http://nadabs.tripod.com

English Brevet

Oral/Written Presentations 
Guidelines and Expectations

http://nadabs.tripod.com/presguide1.html

You are expected to work in teams of at least 3 in order to develop a 30 minute final presentation to be given in class every term on an issue related to the themes we have been studying.   The team will select one theme and obtain my approval.  Each member of the team will then choose, on his/her own, a different topic within this theme and also obtain my approval.  In teams, you will have to introduce and conclude the common Theme, but each member will have his/her own introduction and conclusion related to the topic they have individually chosen.  There are, as you know well, two parts to this project: Oral and Written.

The criteria used to grade the Oral Presentation will include:
(cf. handout "Panel Presentations: Evaluation Criteria")

In Teams:
1. Introduction of Team Members-
2. Title of THEME- Outline of the whole presentation-
3. General Purpose- Interest arousal-
4. Presentation style + Enthusiasm-
5. Introduction & Conclusion of THEME (including thesis statement + restatement of thesis)-
6. Collaboration among/transition between Team Members- Questions elicited-
7. Visual Aids used in common-
8. Timing of presentation.

Individually:
1. Title of the TOPIC presented- Goal of presentation (explanation)-
2. Outline of individual presentation + Organization.
3. Introduction: Interest arousal + thesis statement.
4. Facts provided (Remember to PARAPHRASE) + sources/references
   (A statement about where information used in the presentation was obtained from)
5. Personal Analysis
6. Activities used to make sure the students have grasped the information
   provided (ex: short quiz, questionnaire, item ranking...).
7. Presentation style + Enthusiasm + Index cards.
8. Language & Mechanics.
9. Visual aids used: overhead transparencies or PowerPoint slides to visually present the major points.
   (It is suggested to use one to two more visual(s), such as handouts or posters)
10. Conclusion/brief review of all major points covered in the presentation.
11. Time for class questions.

The team must notify me a week PRIOR to their presentation regarding what equipment they need for their presentation: overhead, VCR, or PC.  If using music, the portable stereo system will have to be supplied by the team. Don't forget to provide a copy of "Panel Presentations: Evaluation Criteria" for each one of your classmates including me to get our feedback. If you have your OWN Evaluation Form it will be much better.

---

In addition to the Oral presentation, each Team must submit a
Written Presentation that should include the following components:

1. Cover Page.(Title of THEME + Illustration, Team Name, Names of all team members,
Name of school, Name of teacher, Subject, Class, Date)
2. Index
3. Detailed Outline of overall presentation of THEME including the TOPICS with their subheadings.
    The outline should state when slides and activities are used during the presentation.
    It should also provide an explanation for why each activity was chosen.
4. Purpose of Theme presentation.
5. Introduction of theme.
6. Topics of individual team members- Each topic will include the following:

2pts. 1pt. 1pt. 4pts. 7pts. 12pts. 11pts. 7pts. 2pts. 3pts. 2pts. 52pts.

a- Cover page for individual member (Title of TOPIC + Illustration, Team     Name, Student Name, Name of school, Name of teacher, Subject, Class, Date) b- Index + Page numbers c- Detailed outline of presentation d- Purpose of topic presentation e- Introduction f- Facts- PARAPHRASE! (+ titles and subheadings + pictures) g- Personal Analysis (Relate the information found to your own life/country...) h- Conclusion i- References (They should be written according to the APA style) Your references should consist of Four to Five works minimum. (Internet sources, at least one book, refereed journals...) j- Appendix that includes: 1- paper copies of overhead transparencies or PowerPoint slides, handouts, quizzes, cartoons or anything else you would provide during the presentation. 2- an evaluation form that you have created for your presentation. 3- a paragraph describing how you proceeded to work on this project and how much you benefited from it. 4- comment on the compatibility and cooperation of all team members in regards to preparation. + Format

7. Conclusion of theme.
8. Bibliography or Sources for further information.
9. Paper copies of overhead transparencies or PowerPoint slides, handouts, quizzes, cartoons or anything else you would provide as a Team during the presentation.
10. Comments on a single page from all the team members regarding this
   experience
   + Signatures
   + ALL Team Worksheets: Team pledge, Team leader pledge, Team charter,

First team progress report, Team Progress Reports, Team schedule, Team work evaluation,
Team listening skills evaluation, Conflict negotiation rating sheet, Self-esteem test, Leadership
self-assessment, Team leader evaluation,Team assessment.

11. Final Words/ Illustrations/ Pictures.

Notes:

· Any area above not addressed may affect the team's grade.

· All team members will receive an individual grade and a Team grade.

· The Final Individual Grade will consist of:

o Oral presentation grade (25%)

o Written topic presentation grade: (65%)

§ Preliminary outline (5%)

§ First draft (purpose, intro, facts, analysis, concl) (10%)

§ Final copy.(50%)

o Team grade (10%)

§ grade on booklet presentation (4%)

§ grade on Team functioning and cooperation among team members (including team worksheets). (3%)

§ grade= the sum of the grades individual team members received on their topics divided by the number of team members. (3%)

· All team members will receive the same grade on the Introduction & Conclusion of the Theme.

· Make sure that in your PRESENTATION you:

*Meet stated goal.
*Arouse interest.
*Include at least one activity that provides an opportunity to reflect on,
 experiment with, or practice some aspect of the presentation topic.
*Provide sources for further information.
*Are clear: voice projection, enunciation of words, knowledge of information. (Oral)
*Deliver properly: you should be energetic/enthusiastic; exhibit adequate
 preparation and rehearsal. (Oral)
*Include transition between speakers. (Oral)
*Show a professional appearance. (Oral)
*Are well-organized.
*Use proper transition words.
*Use sub dividers between the individual topics (In the booklet)
*Use headings and subheadings that show a good and logical categorization:
There should be a logical progression of ideas! Ideas should flow smoothly!

· Remember, the non-speaking members need to be very attentive and helpful during other team members' presentations. Otherwise they, and the presenter, both lose points.

· Each team has to submit a copy of the whole project on one floppy disc.

· CREATIVITY is a NECESSITY!!

All reports are due the same day of the assigned presentation!!!

*Preliminary Outlines from all teams are due at least
 3 weeks prior to the presentation.
*First drafts are due 2 weeks prior to the
 presentation.

The Written document you submit will not be returned to you.
(Make photocopies if you need to keep a copy of it.)
Instead, you will get a sheet with your grade and my evaluation.

---

Format- General requirements

§ Written Project word-processed, one inch margins all round.

§ Font: Times New Roman- Courier New- Variable Width.

§ Font size 12; Lines Double-Spaced.

§ Headings & Subheadings in bold.

§ Thesis statement & Restatement of thesis underlined.

§ Number of pages: at least 10 for each topic presentation (without the Appendix)
(Don't forget to number the pages)

§ Minimal Number of lines for main parts: Introduction (15 lines), Facts (60 lines),
Analysis (40 lines), Conclusion (15 lines).

§ The different parts should all start on a new sheet.

§ Project handed in as a Booklet including THEME and all topics.

---

Grading Sheet

Final Individual Grades

Student Name	Oral Pres (100)	Oral Pres. 25pts	Prelim. Outline (5)	Drafts (10)	Final Copy (50)	Written Pres. 65pts	Booklet (4)	Team  Work (3)	Sum of Members' Grades (3)	Team Grade 10pts	Total 100pts	Total 25pts
1.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.
2.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.
3.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.
4.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.
5.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.
6.	.	.	.	.	.	.	..	.	.	.	.	.
7.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.
8.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.
9.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.
10.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.
11.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.
12.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.
13.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.
14.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.

---

Related Links:
Final Individual Grades || Preliminary outline
http://nadabs.tripod.com/panelpres.html || http://nadabs.tripod.com/pres-eval.html

Appendix 12

ERROR ANALYSIS EXERCISES & OBJECTIVE TESTS

http://nadabs.tripod.com/onlinematerials.htm - 3