University of Makati

J.P. Rizal Extn. West Rembo, Makati City

College of Education

Error Analysis on the Global Morphological Structure of Second Year

Students in the College of Education at University of Makati

Academic Year 2018 - 2019

Alforte, Dana Princess M. Jovena, Sunshine C.

Bautista, Regina T. Loverita, Claudette T.

De Leña, Lean Flitz G. Rotia, Joy Cindy M.

Del Mundo, Mel Erika N. Talamor, Jerrimay A.

Jagonio, Christine

IV – English

A.Y. 2018 – 2019

 APPROVAL SHEET

In partial fulfillment of the requirements in the course Research in the Major

Field, this research entitled “Error Analysis on the Global Morphological Structure
of Second Year Students in the College of Education at University of Makati

Academic Year 2018 – 2019” prepared and submitted by the following students:

Alforte, Dana Princess M. Bautista, Regina T.

De Leña, Lean Flitz G. Del Mundo, Mel Erika N.

Jagonio, Christine Jovena, Sunshine C.

Loverita, Claudette T. Rotia, Cindy Joy M.

Talamor, Jerrimay A.

has been examined and is hereby recommended for acceptance and approval for
Oral Examination.

DR. TEODORA SABATER

Adviser

PANEL OF EXAMINERS

Approved by the Committee on Oral Examination with rating of ____

JERILOU MARIE A. BUTED, LPT Prof. DANILO FRANCISCO

Panelist Panelist

Accepted as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the course

Research in the Major Field.
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

A number of people contributed to the successful accomplishment of this study, and

the researchers are gratefully indebted to all of them:

Dr. Teodora Sabater, our professor, for her professional guidance and for

imparting her knowledge and expertise in this study.

Dr. Jesus Perry L. Caudilla as our consultant, for giving his time and effort in

providing information regarding this research and for patiently supervising and

correcting us.

Prof. Coleen Sual as our validator and consultant, for giving her time and effort

in giving advice for the improvement of the study.

All the Second Year students of the College of Education at the University

of Makati, our respondents, for their participation in the writing composition which

served as our bases in gathering relevant information for this study.

Our family, who helped us a lot and support us financially and emotionally in

finalizing this paper and for their guidance as well.

Above all, the God the Father Almighty for giving us wisdom and

understanding, patience, strength and guidance that we need the most whenever we

encountered ups and down. As well as for the love and care that He has shown us,

for making us feel that everything that we do has a purpose.

-Researchers
 Abstract

This study investigated the frequently committed grammar errors in written

compososition of second year students from the College of Education in the University

of Makati of Academic Year 2018 - 2019. The study analyzed errors in a collection of

50 essays written by randomly selected respondents, 10 respondents from each area

of specialization.

This study is important to educators and study material developers who should

become aware of the kind of errors their students commit. This is an important tool to

determine where teachers need focus on in teaching accuracy in writing skill. For

learners, error analysis is important as it shows the area they have

difficulty with in writing.

This study employed the descriptive quantitative method. With the use of

percentage as statistical method, adequate and accurate interpretation of the existing

phenomenon was performed. In this study, there was no manipulation of the subjects.

The researcher analyzed the errors as they were without the intervention of an

experiment. Errors were identified and classified into various categories based on

Analysis Model of Ferris (2005), (as cited by Caudilla 2014).

This study gathered specific types of errors under Global Morphology. It found

out that students commit a total of 326 errors. Among the five components of Global

Morphology, subject-verb agreement which constituted 100 or 30.67 percent of errors

was the most frequent error committed by the students in their written composition

followed by verb tense with collected 90 or 27.61% of errors and noun endings which

garnered 63 or 19.33% of the errors respectively. On the otherhand, verb forms with

21 or 6.44% of the error was the least frequent error committed by the students in their
written compositon. This is followed by articles/determiners with 52 or 15.95% of the

total errors.

Based on the findings, it was concluded that erros committed by the students

in their writing composition served as evidence that the respondents lack mastery of

the English language system.

This study recommends that the most frequent errors committed by the

respondents should be given emphasis in designing and developing modules in writing

that would help supplement students’ ability to write composition with accuracy and

high level of grammatical correctness.

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Title Page ………………………………………………………………… i

Approval Sheet ……………………………………………………………. ii

Acknowledgment.………………………………………………………… iii

Abstract ……………………………………………………………………. iv

Table of Contents …………………………………………………………. v

List of Tables ……………………………………………………………… vi

Chapter I: The Problem and Its Background

Introduction ……………………………………………………………….. 1

Background of the Study ………………………………………………… 2

Research Paradigm ……………………………………………………… 3

Statement of the Problem ……………………………………………….. 4

Hypotheses ……………………………………………………………….. 5

Significance of the Study ………………………………………………… 6

Scope and Limitation …………………………………………………….. 7

Operational Definition of Terms ………………………………………… 8

Chapter II: Review of Related Literature …………………………………… 11

Chapter III: Research Methodology

 Research Design ………………………………………………………… . 30

Respondents of the Study ……………………………………………….. 31

Research Instrument …………………………………………………….. 32

Data Gathering Procedure ………………………………………………. 33

Statistical Treatment of Data ……………………………………………. 36

Chapter IV: Presentation, Analysis and Interpretation of Data

Problem 1: Errors Committed by the Students ……………………….. 37

Problem 2: Most and Least Frequent Errors …………………………. 40

Problem 3: Development of Module …………………………………… 48

Chapter V: Summary of Findings, Conclusion and Recommendation

Students’ Profiling …………………………………………………………. 49

Summary of Findings ……………………………………………………... 49

Conclusion …………………………………………………………………. 51

Recommendation …………………………………………………………. 53

Appendices

Extracts on Students’ Composition

Letters to Conduct Research

References

Developed Module

Researchers’ Profile
 LIST OF TABLES

Gender of Respondents ……………………………………………………. 31

Respondents of the Study …………………………………………………. 32

Error Codes and Explanation ……………………………………………… 35

Error Distribution in Verb Tense …………………………………………... 40

Error Distribution in Verb Form ……………………………………………. 42

Error Distribution in Subject-verb Agreement …………………………… 43

Error Distribution in Articles/Determiners ………………………………… 45

Error Distribution in Noun Endings (Possessives) ……………………… 46

Error Distribution in Global Morphology ………………………………….. 47

 CHAPTER I

THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

Introduction

Among the four macro skills, writing seems to be the least liked by students

because it is a complex skill. It follows grammatical structures and forms. Once these

structures are not carefully followed, accuracy of the composition is questionable.

Accuracy in writing means carefully knowing and applying correct rules in one’s

composition. Accuracy would usually be affected due to incorrect use of tenses, verb

formation, noun endings, agreement of the subject to its verb and even the articles or

determiners used. These components are said to be categorized under global

morphology which is the study of words, how they are formed and their relationship to

other words present in the composition. Knowing that errors inevitably affect accuracy

in writing, even the native speakers of the English language commit errors in having

grammatically correct composition, how much more learners who have English as their

second language.

In this study, the researchers want to determine the most frequently committed

errors in the global morphology of second year students under the College of

Education. This level is very important because students at this level start to compose

writing that is relevant to their chosen field. These students are expected to come-up

with accurate composition having considered the learning they have gained in their

previous levels, though as said earlier, committing errors is inevitable. Determining

what component in global morphology students frequently commit errors with will help

not just the students, but also teachers to know where focus is needed. Also, knowing
these errors will help researchers to come-up with a material that would hopefully help

in supplementing learners’ knowledge about the said topic.

Background of the Study

Writing is one of the most critical skills of students because they have to be

aware of the grammar rules for them not to commit errors. One of the errors committed

by the students is under global morphological errors; the verb tense, verb form,

subject-verb agreement, articles/determiners, and noun endings. Because there are

rules needed to be followed to make their composition grammatically correct.

According to Oktari (2010), (as cited by Kusumuwati, 2015), the previous

research on analysis of morphological error is taken from Oktari where, research found

out that there are many students often made error if they lack knowledge of structure

and the students’ paragraph writing is morphologically low. Another research from

Nugraha (2012), (as cited by Kusumuwati 2015), the researcher said that students still

confused to use the tense in recount text. They are not only using past tense in

recount text but also present tense. It would be better if the teacher gives explanation

about formula of past tense before asking the students to make recount text. These

problems are due to the inadequacy of students’ knowledge about the structure on

how to make a good writing composition. Verb tense is one of the problems in writing

because students failed to maintain tense continuity.

Error analysis is a brand of applied linguistics. It is concerned with the

compilation, study and analysis of errors made by second language learners and aims

at investigating aspects of second language acquisition, “(Error Analysis”, 2009). Error

analysis is important because the students will be able to identify what part of global

morphological needed to focus. Identifying error of the students in their writing

composition is very helpful in the teaching field, allowing both teachers and students

to benefit from it. This kind of analysis teachers can become aware about their

students’ strengths and things to improve on.

This study aims to help the students to be aware in the writing composition to

avoid committing mistakes. In that way, they will become more confident to their works.

In addition, this study will also help the researcher to develop a module that will

enhance the language of the student about their writing compositions.

Research Paradigm

Figure 1

Independent Variable Dependent Variable

Quality Indicators  Global Morphological

Demographic profile Structure

I. Communication
 Gender
 Area of  Oral
Specialization -Fluency
-Clarity
Global morphological errors
 Written
 Verb tense -Accuracy
 Verb form
II. Composition
 Subject-verb
agreement  Grammatical
 Articles/determiners Correctness
 Noun endings

The conceptual paradigm showing the hypothesized relationship between the

Independent and Dependent variables.

Statement of the Problem

This study is conducted to analyze the errors in the global morphology in the

written composition of second year students under the College of Education at

University of Makati of Academic Year 2018-2019.

Specifically, the study sought to answer the following questions:

1. What are the demographic details of respondents in terms of:

1.1 Gender

1.2 Area of Specialization

2. What are the errors committed by the students in terms of:

2.1 verb tense

2.2 verb form

2.3 subject-verb agreement

2.4 articles/determiners

2.5 noun endings (plural/possessive)

3. Which of these morphological errors are the least and most frequently

committed by the students in terms of:

3.1 verb tense

3.2 verb form

3.3 subject-verb agreement

3.4 articles/determiners

3.5 noun endings (plural/possessive)

4. What module for global morphology can be developed to improve the

student’s written composition?

Hypotheses

The respondents’ written composition in this field of research will be reviewed

by the researchers. It will be revealed that students commit errors in using global

morphology in their compositions. In the view of the foregoing, the following

assumptions have been considered:

1. Students learning a second language can inevitably commit errors

because of learning difficulties that affect their writing composition.

According to Muhsin (2016), students learning the English language

often commit errors in arranging sentences or in using tenses while

writing. Knowing that these errors are inevitable, investigation on

which area of global morphology students commit error most in their

presented composition will help teachers determine on which are

they need focus on.

2. Errors committed by the respondents are proofs of their current

knowledge about the language stressed by Caudilla (2014), these

errors are possible bases in developing learning materials to

enhance students’ grammatical correctness in their writing

composition.
Significance of the Study

The main focus of this study is the global morphological errors of the students

in subject-verb agreement, verb tenses, verb forms, articles/ determiners and noun

endings in constructing their writing composition. In academic writing, neglecting the

rules of these five has serious consequences; these include the misunderstanding of

the message of the text and reducing the credibility of writing. When the students are

aware about their errors they can be determined to discern for appropriate solution

that will solve problems and provide greater improvement in their language learning

and writing skills. If students learn how to write they become more capable of analyzing

what they read, interpret and think.

This research is informative to the students, especially to Second Year

students under the College of education for them to be aware of their errors in

grammar in their written composition which this could be their jumping-off place for

accuracy improvement.

At the same time, Errors Analysis will help teachers identify the difficulties of

the students in using the rules of subject-verb agreement, verb tenses, verb forms,

articles/ determiners and noun endings every time that they are constructing a writing

composition. Aside from that, they can also create instructional materials and

formulate different teaching strategies that will address the needs of the students in

writing a composition using the English language.

The results of this study will help the school administrators to conduct

different professional development activities, seminars and workshops that will uphold

the teaching competencies of teachers in writing whenever they are imparting

knowledge to their students. This will also help them to support different activities and
programs for the effective learning in the English language and improvement of the

students’ writing skills.

This error analysis is a significant data for the curriculum designers to create

different teaching materials that will cater the needs of the students in terms of

correcting their errors in subject-verb agreement, verb tenses, verb forms, articles/

determiners and noun endings. This will also enhance their writing skills and

knowledge in the English language.

Future researchers may use this study to collect evidence that will help them

recognize the weaknesses of the students about their knowledge in the second

language. This will also help them to understand how subject-verb agreement, verb

tense, verb forms, article/determiners and noun endings affect the students’

construction of ideas in writing a composition using the English language.

Scope and Limitation

This study focuses on the Global Morphological errors in the writing

composition of Second Year Students of College of Education at University of Makati

for the Academic Year 2018-2019. The intention of this study is limited in determining

how frequent the students commit errors in the rules of Global Morphology. Also, this

study will not cover the reasons and factors that affect the continuous committed error

of the respondents.

According to Jussof (2009), students need to clearly write what they want to

convey in order to transmit the messages effectively to the receiver. In other words,

students have to know the correct grammar rules and even the choice of words.

However, students with English as their second language are having difficulties in
constructing correct sentences in English. These students have problems with

morphology due to their native language which has different structure to their second

language which is English.

This study is conducted to 50 second year students, randomly chosen, in the

College of Education at University of Makati for the Academic Year 2018 – 2019.

Operational Definition of Terms

For clearer understanding, the following terms are hereby defined as they were

used in the study.

Analysis refers to the detailed examination of the Morphological elements or structure

of the written composition of the respondents in this study. This was used in discussing

and interpreting the gathered data to better understand the problems of the study.

Article can be definite (the) and indefinite (a, an). It is used with a noun to specify the

reference being made by the noun.

Curriculum refers to the set of courses and the total learning experiences that is being

offered by an institution.

Determiner is a word or phrase which comes at the beginning of noun phrase.

Determiners are either specific (definite article: the; possessives: my, your, his, her,

its; our, their, whose; demonstratives: this, that, these, those; interrogatives: which) or

general (a,an; any,another; other; what).

Error refers to the global morphological errors committed by the respondents in their

writing composition.
Error analysis is a study of errors committed by the respondents in their writing

composition. Ellis and Barkhuizen (2005) describe error analysis as “a set of

procedures for identifying, describing and explaining learners’ errors”. According to

Sharma (1980), Error analysis can thus provide a strong support to remedial teaching”.

This would help the teachers know more the needs of the learners in grammatical rules

and components.

Fluency refers to the student’s ability to write with a natural form and rhythm.

Global errors are errors which cause miscommunication. These affect the structure

of the entire sentence.

Global morphological errors refer to the errors in verb form, verb tense, subject-verb

agreement and noun endings found in the learners’ written composition.

Grammatical Accuracy refers to how accurate the students in using the language

system including their use of grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary.

Noun ending refers to plural and possessive endings of noun.

Subject-Verb Agreement refers to the general rule wherein the verb (the word

representing the action/state of being) must agree with the subject (the doer of the

action) in the sentence.

Students refer to all the second year specializing in English, Math, General Science,

Social Studies, and Early Childhood Education of College of Education at the

University of Makati.

Verb form refers to the base form, the -s/es form, the –ing form, the past form, and

the past participle form of regular or irregular verb.

Verb tense tells when the action occurs (past, present, future).

Written composition refers to the output made by the respondents. It is used by the

researchers in gathering and analyzing data regarding global morphological errors

committed by the respondents.

 CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter contains related previous studies in error analysis done by other

researchers. These give the researchers a wider view of the current study. The

concepts, principles, and theories help the researchers to better understand the

current study.

Writing

Among the four macro skills, writing is considered to be the most difficult

especially in English. According to Kukurs (2012), even a native speaker fails to write

a good piece of writing. Sermsook et. al (2017) stated that English writing is a very

hard task for EFL learners because they unavoidably commit errors due to their limited

chance of using the language. Misuses of grammatical rules in English that lead to

grammatically incorrect sentences may produce less effective written composition of

students because it might not convey the intended idea.

The errors may possibly be committed due to lack of exposure to the said

language, and so the rules are being misused. Teachers must know the reasons of

the students' errors and how it will be improved.

Errors

The study of errors would be significant: to teachers, to researchers and to

learners. In addition to studies concentrating on error categorization and analysis,

various studies concentrated on these three different areas. In other words, research

was conducted not only in order to understand errors per se, but also in order to use

what is learned from error analysis and apply it to improve language competence.
 According to Ima Suciani (2018), most teachers are more familiar with the

frustrations of teaching English. They have to correct the same mistakes over and over

again and have to repeat the explanation of the points already discussed in earlier

lessons. Therefore, she concludes that a good way to teach English effectively is for

the teacher to give students the opportunity to become familiar with many types of

errors in order to prevent the occurrence of these same errors.

Errors in writing are inevitable and more often repeatedly committed. Analyzing

these errors is a great help in finding the remedy when the errors are being identified

and determined. The need of this study urges to find out the most committed errors

and the least as well for the interventions to be made.

Error analysis is the technique used to determine and document the errors

that appear in learner language. The researchers use this method to find out the error

that the students often commit on their writing composition. For this reason, it is useful

for anyone interested in learner language to do a more thorough error analysis, to try

to identify all the systematic errors. This can help researchers understand the

cognitive processes the learner is using, and help teachers decide which might be

targeted for correction.

The importance of student's language errors is pointed out by Tira Nur Fitria

(2018) as it is parallel to their knowledge specifically about the global morphological

errors in English language. Tira Nur Fitria (2018) said that error analysis is not just

about merely finding the error, but learning from this error in order to have a good

development in constructing a simple sentence. He also noted that student's errors

must be taken seriously as these errors are the ways to students’ progress. This will

have a good impact for the various stakeholders. For teachers, they can determine the
current learning abilities of their students. For researchers, it will reveal the way

language is learned and structured. For students, these errors will serve as a stepping

stone for them to improve their language proficiency. As a result, this error analysis is

a continuous learning process which will lead to a better output in the English context.

According to Kazemian (2015) it is fine to commit errors, where it is a crucial

part and aspect in the process of learning the language. They will provide principles

into the complicated process in language development as well as a systematic way

for identifying, describing, and explaining student errors. By the aid of error analysis,

teachers are able to understand the new ways of teaching by giving the feedback to

the errors made by their students. To do so, an authentic example from a student will

be analysed regarding her language errors by applying the methodological approach

of ‘error analysis’.

Errors are an integral part of language learning. The learner of English as a

second language is unaware of the existence of the particular system or rule in English

language (Apriliyani and Harnadi, 2018). The cause of errors in second language

acquisition may be the unconsciousness of the rules in using such.

Nzama (2010) defines that mistake is a choice that turns out to be wrong

committed by the learners because they already have the idea but they fail to apply it

correctly. But errors are usually made because of the lack of knowledge. As much as

possible, errors must be weeded out because if these will occur continuously, students

will have the difficulty in identifying their own errors.

According to Priyanga and Lenin (2018) study, a "mistake" refers to a

performance error in that it is a failure to utilize a known system correctly. While an

"error" is a noticeable deviation from the adult grammar of a native speaker, reflecting

the inter-language competence of the learner.

Learning English as a second language is difficult because when students start

to write a sentence or a paragraph; they have to consider the main idea and supporting

ideas in each paragraph, including the coherence between the paragraphs. Learners

have to imagine how the description varies according to the situation. The problem

which is normally encountered is that students will think using their mother tongue and

then translate into the target language. They also lack knowledge in terms of

vocabulary and structure.

The students’ lack of mastery of the grammatical structure leads to numerous

and repetitive errors committed in writing composition.

Global-Morphological errors

Global errors are categorized as either morphological (verb tense, verb form,

subject-verb agreement) or syntactic (articles/determiners, noun endings-plural

possessive. Learners commit errors on these two categories because of the

unawareness of the rules in each subcategory.

It is indispensable to be aware of such to be able to produce quality written

output. According to Deborah McCutchen and Sara Stull, morphological awareness,

which is the metalinguistic insight that words consist of meaningful roots and affixes

that can be isolated and manipulated, has been much studied in relation to children's

developing literacy skills.

Verb Tense

In the English grammar, tense is the most important part and difficult point in

which non-native learners have to spend time to understand and use it correctly

and properly.

The need to address grammatical errors and errors in the use of articles and

preposition has a need to address because it was already recognized (Kockmar and

Briscoe, 2014; Ng et al., 2014). That is why the correct use of content word is

notoriously hard for language learners to master because they often get confused and

misuse them. Students have vague understanding of the time concept indicated by

the different tenses and always confused with the various usages of different

tenses.

The teaching of grammar is in most cases the analysis of independent

grammatical points in the textbook by the teacher. It is not systematic. Moreover, the

teaching of grammar still lingers on the sentence level, not supported by ample

discourse context. Regarding the teaching of tense, there are two obvious problems.

On the other hand, the teaching of tense is not integral. Wherever a usage of tense

appears in the text, the teacher teaches it separately. There is no comparison between

different usages of one tense and between different tenses. The result of this kind of

teaching is that students can only remember some separated usages and cannot

master tense through a comprehensive study. On the other hand, the emphasis of

tense in the classroom teaching and the exam is not consistent with actual use of

tenses.

Students get confused when they meet many kinds of verb tenses due to the

influence of their mother language which does not have system for tenses that is for
particular time. The influence might impede or hinder the process of acquiring foreign

language and another one is the process of acquisition that influences the process of

learners’ interlanguage. Tenses and aspects are found in every sentence in English.

Whenever the error occurs, it impedes the process of acquisition if they did not realize

that they commit the error and that’s the reason why they can’t remember the structure

of tenses.

Verb Form

Every learner needs to acquire basic grammatical knowledge in order to

communicate fluently and effectively in English whether in the written or spoken form

(Muhajir, 2018). However, this proves to be an area of great difficulty for many

students. Several studies have been conducted in the area of errors made and it has

been revealed that verb-form errors contributed to the highest percentage of errors

that students made.

According to Dulay et. als’ (1982), (as cited by Woe, Sim and Jusoff 2014),

there are four verb-form errors and their classification are:

(a) omission; (c) misformation; and

(b) addition; (d) ordering.

Errors of omission are made when compulsory elements are omitted. These

occur mainly in tense markers or number markers such as the omission of the

grammatical morphemes, for example, the omissions of the -ed marker in the simple

past tense verbs, such as, “Yesterday, the car knock (-) the man down” and the -s

marker in the verbs after the third person singular nouns or pronouns, for example,

“Student think (-)”. Very often, the subjects may omit the “be” verb in a sentence for
example, “Most of us (-) very weak.” The -ing form may be omitted from a gerund, for

example, “Swim is my hobby.”

Errors of addition are made when unnecessary elements are present with the

use of redundant markers, such as, putting the -s marker on verbs after the plural

pronouns/nouns in the simple present tense, for example, “They likes…” and

“Students wants…”. Double marking refers to the marking of two items for the same

feature such as in a tense. The examples are “he doesn’t respects,” or “The student

didn’t plagiarized.” The past tense -ed marker may be redundantly added in cases

where it is incorrect to do so, for example, “She ‘’cutted’’ the fruits last night.” Students

may redundantly add –s,-ed or -ing after a modal verb which should be followed by

the base verb, for example, “It will affects”, “Students will learned” and “Some of them

will using...” The ‘be” verb may be redundantly placed before the main verbs, for

example, “They are prefer copying” and “This is happens”. An infinitive is required after

the word “to” but students may put a redundant, -s, -ed or -ing after it, for example,

“We have to passes…” “It is important to submitted...” and “The students like to doing

…”

Errors of misformation occur when the wrong forms of the verbs are chosen in

place of the right ones. These commonly occur in cases of subject-verb agreement

(SVA) when the wrong verb-forms are selected.

Subject-Verb Agreement

Lane and Langan, (as cited by Daflizar, 2011), point out that a subject-verb

agreement is an error in which the form of a verb does not fit grammatically with the

subject. It is important to ensure that subject and verb always agree with each other

because the relationship between the two lies at the heart of grammatically correct

English writing. Thus, if a subject is singular, its verb must also be singular; if a subject

is plural, its verb must also be plural. Committing grammatical errors and neglecting

its rules in writing can instantly reduce the credibility of the students in conveying their

thoughts to the readers.

Article and Determiner

Aside from the above-mentioned errors, students also commit errors with the

use of articles and determiners.

Ba’dulu (2008) mentioned that determiners are function words covering the

articles, numerals, demonstrative and possessive pronouns and they commonly occur

with nouns to form noun phrases. Ba’dulu concluded that the determiners are function

words that occur before a noun to modify, specify and identify a noun in various ways,

in order to form a noun phrase.

In brief, memorizing the rules for the correct articles in English are complex,

and errors may arise because of lack of effort in giving explanations or practices to the

students by the teacher. Suitable teaching techniques will prevent recurring errors and

allow learners to recognize the distinct features of English articles (Coxhead, 2017).

Teachers should provide suitable materials and strategies that will help his/her
students to master the rules of articles. In that way, students won’t have a hard time

to think what articles should or should not be used.

Noun Endings (Plural/Possessive)

There are some issues in academic writing that have caught the attention of

many researchers. For example, learning the grammatical category especially nouns.

There are many topics that will cover nouns and the basic one is to form it in a plural

and possessive form.

One of the most common mistakes in English writing composition involves

putting an apostrophe to a word where it doesn’t have to be placed. According to

Wanderer (2014), apostrophes show possession- who belongs to what and what

belongs to whom. The rules are simple yet; people sometimes get confused especially

when nouns end in the letter “s”. Basically, two rules apply with one refinement to

make a singular noun possessive, add “’s” to make a plural noun ending in “s”

possessive, simply add an apostrophe. If a plural noun does not end in “s” and “’s”.

According to Stolley (2016) as cited in Academic Learning Centre, the misuse

of the possessive –s is a grammatical error that plagues all sorts of writers. This error

is commonly done because they lacked knowledge in terms of this matter. Sometimes

they do not care about the rules most of them rely on what they think is correct. This

basic problem will reduce if the student considers the rules to make their writing better.

Students should remember that possessive nouns incorporate the concept of

ownership while forming the plural of noun has rules where the students should know

and understand. Knowing the basic rules of noun endings, particularly the plural and

possessive, the student will easily understand what is being written on the text and
how to use it in the writing composition. Above all, if the students master all these

rules, they will become more accurate and avoid the misunderstanding of the

message.

Inputs for Module Development

The study of English grammar is considered the most essential aspect that

cultivates each student to master on how they will use the second language

specifically in writing. According to Richard (1971), (as cited by Khansir 2012),

categorize four types of errors which are (a) learner creates a similar structure on the

basis of experience of the other structure, (b) second language learner applies the

rules of context in a situation that they do not compromise, (c) the correct form of rules

learned not applied in a correct manner, (d) misassumption of the rules learnt, as

second language learner do not fully grasp the comprehension of the target language.

Learning English language as a second language is difficult because when the

students start to write a sentence, paragraphs or essay they have to consider the main

idea and supporting ideas in each paragraph. Students have to imagine or think the

description varies according to the situation. The problem that students encounter the

most is they will think in their mother tongue and then translate into the target

language. In order to reduce errors, the role of the teacher is also important on how

they deal with this kind of students’ difficulties in constructing a sentence, essay, and

paragraphs. Teachers should have to know what strategy s/he will be going to use to

be more effective and enhance the students writing composition.

Morphological errors are errors formed or made when the rules are

Morphological aspect of grammar is being misinform. If these rules are wrongly applied

by the second language learners, it means that they have committed morphological
errors. With the help of Error Analysis, evidence to know which area students need

improvement will be provided.

Module in Writing refers to instructional materials that contain grammar lessons,

exercises or activities and other assessment tools that can be used to evaluate the

writing skills of students. Developing a module includes the learners’ needs, aims,

learning outcomes, teaching strategies, criteria and evaluation. The importance of

module is to help the teacher assess the writing skills of students and to nurture them

in knowing how to write sentences, essay or paragraphs with grammatical

competence.

The following section offers a survey of several significant studies conducted

on error analysis. The studies point the grammatical errors committed by learners of a

second language specifically English. These studies being conducted by some

researchers show the Global-Morphological Errors of the learners of the said

language.

Writing

Many studies were conducted to analyze students’ errors in the English as a

second or foreign language context in providing insights for teachers, researchers and

students as mentioned earlier. Katiya et al., (2015), for instance, examined and

analyzed a corpus of Chemistry first year students’ essays. The researcher discovered

that mother tongue interference, punctuation and spelling errors, misapplication of

essay construction rules and syntactic and morphological errors compromised the

quality, meaning and rhetorical aspect of the contents.

Errors

Taher (2011), when investigated the most frequent errors performed by

Swedish junior high school students, it found out that common errors include verb

tense, verb inflection and subject-verb agreement. The author reasoned the errors due

to lack of grammatical knowledge and incorrect transfer from Swedish into English.

Meanwhile, Heydari and Bagheri (2012) provided comprehensive review of

sources of second language learners’ error. The authors presented the taxonomies of

the common errors performed by second language learners, interlingual and causes

of intralingual errors made by Iranian students and other nationalities. Iranian students’

errors are found to be caused by complexity of the English language, the interference

of conversational English into written English, students’ incomplete knowledge or

ignorance of certain structures, the transfer of training, unfamiliarity with the

requirements of written English, lack of sufficient practice informed writing, lapses of

memory, and pressure of communication were among the major causes of errors.

Grammatical Accuracy

The study conducted by Rizwan, et.al (2017) investigated the writing skill

problems of undergraduate learners at local and global levels. One hundred and

twenty ESL male learners randomly selected from Government Postgraduate College

Samna Abad, Faisalabad were asked to complete three writing skill tasks. The second

task that they did was a topic based discussion wherein they were rated through a

rubric measuring coherence, cohesion, lexical range and also the grammatical

accuracy. The statistical outcomes of the repeated measures regarding local and

global errors indicated that the learners’ rate of error frequency in grammatical

accuracy was (N=784). The learners made 65% errors in grammatical accuracy.

Based on the results of the study, grammatical accuracy, together with coherence

were found most problematic areas in the writing skill of ESL learners. Caudilla (2014)

explained, in his study that “Global errors hinder communication and they affect the

structure of the entire sentence, such as a missing essential part of the sentence-

subject or verb.” Writing is a communication. If there is something that hinders it, the

message would not be understood and that would be a problem.

Global-Morphological errors

Global errors are categorized as either morphological (verb tense, verb form,

subject-verb agreement) or syntactic (articles/determiners, noun endings-plural

possessive. Learners commit errors on these two categories because of the

unawareness of the rules in each subcategory. In a study conducted by Carretero, et

al. (2014) entitled “We celebrate Christmas different”: An Error Analysis of Students’

E-mails and the Case of Interlanguage, the findings revealed that it was on subject-

verb agreement, verb tense and prepositions where the respondents committed the

greatest number of errors respectively. The respondents committed the errors more

than once. It was concluded that although they have been taught the rules, they found

these rules hard to apply.

According to Oktari (2010), (as cited by Kusumuwati 2015), the previous

research on analysis of morphological error is taken from Oktari where, research found

out that there are many students often made error if they lack knowledge of structure

and the students’ paragraph writing is morphologically low. Another research from

Nugraha (2012), (as cited by Kusumuwati 2015), the researcher said that students still

confused to use the tense in recount text. They are not only using past tense in

recount text but also present tense. It would be better if the teacher gives explanation

about formula of past tense before ask the students to make recount text. These

problems are due to the inadequacy of students’ knowledge about the structure on

how to make a good writing composition.

Subject-Verb Agreement

Sparks (2006), (as cited by Tama Aperezki Antari 2017), the previous research

states on an error analysis of subject verb agreements where, the research found out

that subject-verb agreement is a fancy term for a simple idea: the subject and verb

must work together. In addition, it is important to ensure that subject and verb always

agree with each other. Thus, if a subject is singular, its verb must also be singular; if
a subject is plural, its verb must also be plural. The relationship between the two lies

at the heart of grammatically correct English writing. Committing grammatical errors

and neglecting its rules in writing can instantly reduce the credibility of the students in

conveying their thoughts to the readers.

Khan (2008), (as cited by Al-Dubib 2013), the previous research states on an

error analysis of subject verb agreement of EFL students where, the research found

out that the errors made by the EFL learners at tertiary level really reduce the quality

of their writing. These errors made by the learners will lead to confusion and

misunderstanding in the communication process. Hence, it seems that there are gaps

of knowledge due to the errors made by those students at this level. Another source

of error is caused by misleading explanation from the teacher, wrong presentation of

a structure, or maybe the wrong pattern that was improperly memorized and

contextualized. Aside from developing their writing skills when it comes to the

organization of the content, teachers must also focus on how students apply the rules

of subject-verb agreement in constructing their writing composition. Furthermore, if the

students are knowledgeable in the rules of subject verb agreement they can enhance

their skills in the proper formation of sentence structure and sentence construction.

Improving the content and looking into the students’ proper use of subject-verb

agreement rules will make them more effective in expressing their ideas using the

English language.

Nayan (2009), (as cited by Tama Aperezki Antari 2017), many of the students

have the difficulty in using the correct rules of subject-verb agreement in their writing

composition even they have been learning the English language for a long period of

time. Aside from they have the lack of knowledge in the rules of subject-verb

agreement; there are instances that the interference of their first language occurs, that
are quite different to their second language. Therefore, there are possibilities that

students may tend to commit errors when it comes to subject-verb agreement. It is

because the learners’ knowledge about the first language is strongly set. It is important

to identify the errors committed by the students to be able to create constructive

activities that can overcome those errors easily.

Article and Determiner

Ho van Han (2016) said that the English article system contributes not only to

understanding what is said, but also playing an important role in making oneself

understand in the discourse that one is engaged in. According to his study, it is very

difficult for Vietnamese students to be able to use the English article correctly, namely

the distinction between definite “the” and generic “the”.

Dotti and O’Donnell (2014) concluded that the English article system is one of

the most difficult structural elements for ESL learners. In fact, it has often been

considered hard grammar, very difficult if not impossible to teach. His study focuses

on Spanish learners of English and he made it clear that knowing when to produce an

article or not is one of the most critical skills learners need to master.

Another study performed by Yusuf and Jumriana (2017) stated that the most

frequently type of error made by the students was in term of noun phrase including the

use of determiners. It has also been classified that there are three causes in

committing this error, which are (1) carelessness (2) first language (3) translation. The

study suggests that teachers should pay more in developing techniques to help

students to lessen and avoid committing such errors.

 In the study performed by Atibrata (2012), 98% of the errors found were

determiners. Most of them were articles followed by possessives, demonstratives and

the quantifiers. The results suggest that the students had a major difficulty in the use

of articles in writing in English. It can also be seen that most of the structural alteration

the students made is the omission. Therefore it can be suggested that most of the

students tent to omit the articles in their writing.

According to the study performed by Lasaten (2014), Darus and Ching (2009),

they found out that one of the most common errors committed in English writings is

the articles. Using articles in writing may be difficult to some students because they

are confused on what should be the appropriate articles to be use in their sentences.

They do not know when to use it in a right way. ‘

Noora and Usha (n.y.) also agreed that most of the students are in appropriately

using the definite article “The”. They analyzed the over use of this article in the

formation of major and the subordinate clauses. Learners are finding this article as a

supporting word that could be used anywhere in the sentence when they find

themselves confused with the indefinite articles, prepositions or conjunctions.

Article errors committed by the students can be lessened if teachers will use

suitable strategies that will help the students comprehend easily the rules and

exceptions of it. And providing them appropriate materials and modules that will help

them lessen doing article errors.

Curriculum

There are many ways to define and categorize curriculum. The term curriculum

refers to the lesson and academic content taught in a school or in a specific course or
program. According to Lakeand Winterbottom, (2010), in Kattington, (2010),

curriculum is a set of rules that benefits students by providing them with practice in

both content and social curriculum through the use of active learning, exploration of

interest, civic responsibility, character building, and recognizing and helping the

community.

Curriculum is important because it helps teachers to deliver an effective and

quality education. According to Mitra and Gross (2009), students’ needs must be

considered in the decision of making of the curriculum. It focuses on the role of the

students in regard to the content and the structure of the curriculum.

Defazio, Jones, Tennant, Hook, (2010), effective writing is a skill that is

grounded in the cognitive domain. It involves learning comprehension, application, and

synthesis of new knowledge. Writing also encompasses creative inspiration, problem

solving, reflection and revision that result in a completed manuscript. From a student

perspective writing may instead be a laborious and even dreaded exercise of attending

to place taught on paper while developing mastery over the rules of writing, such as

spelling, citation format, and grammar.

Sein, Dexon, and Isaacton, (1994), (as cited by Defazio, Jones, Tennant, Hook

2010), suggested that "many writing disabilities may derive from too little time allocated

to writing instruction or from writing instruction or from writing instruction, inadequately

designed around the learning need and many students. One of the reasons why most

students are not excellent in writing, it is because lack of time, and congested

curriculum. According to DepEd K to 12, (2015), a congested curriculum happens

when two subjects ate squeezed into a short period of time. Therefore, it may lead to

students’ information overload that cause them not to master the writing composition.
To avoid congested one can either increase space or time or reduce whatever is taking

space or tome.

Writing Fluency

Writing fluency refers the ability of the students to write with a natural flow and

rhythm. It also provides a bridge between word cognition and comprehension. It is

important for the second language learners’ because it will lead to the success in their

studies. Language learners are often judged as fluent users of language if they use

their second language with ease and in a native-like way (Housen, Kuiken, & Vedder

2012). Fluency plays an important role in language production by using appropriate

word patterns, vocabulary and content.

According to Williams (2012), “Fluency increases when the language learner’s

knowledge of grammar and vocabulary grows.” The language learner’s knowledge of

the target language affects fluency every time they are writing. Learners can easily

express the message that they want to convey if they have enough knowledge about

the proper use of grammars and correct construction of sentences. Furthermore,

written fluency is generally determined through analyzing the number of words in a

written text, the text’s length or the amount of time used for writing. In addition,

according to Housen et al. (2012), more automatic language processing leads to more

fluent production of language. It means that the more a learner recalls the language

pattern automatically, the easier and more fluent the production becomes.

CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
 This chapter presents the methods and procedures used in the study. It

discusses the research design, the respondents, the instrument used, and the data

gathering procedures.

Research Design

This study uses a descriptive quantitative method as it is required to distinguish

the errors in global morphological errors when it comes to subject-verb agreement,

verb tenses, verb forms, articles/determiners and noun endings in the written

composition of second year Education students enrolled in Academic Year 2018-2019

at the University of Makati.

This study is quantitative because it is based on testing theory, measured with

numbers and statistical techniques. Creswell (2009) described quantitative research

characterized as being structured with predetermined variables, hypotheses and

design. It uses procedures in gathering numerical form; more broadly the term usually

implies an approach to research that aims at casual explanation of phenomena

through the identification of variables which can be made on the basis of experimental

investigation. The data gathered in statistics and table were used to show the results

of the study.

This study is descriptive because it is known as statistical research, describes

data, and characteristic about the population or phenomena being studied. According

to Calderon (2008), (as cited by Alberto et al 2011), descriptive method is also known

as statistical research, it describes data and characteristics, or phenomenon being

studied. It involves the description, recording, analysis, and interpretation of the

present nature, composition or process of phenomena. The focus is on prevailing

conditions, or how a person, group, or thing behaves or functions in the present.

Respondents of the Study

The respondents for the study were randomly chosen students from different

Area of Specialization who are officially enrolled in the College of Education for the

Academic Year 2018 – 2019.

Table 1

Gender of Respondents

Gender f %

Male 8 16 %

Female 42 84 %

Total 50 100 %

Table 1 shows the frequency distribution of the gender of the respondents of

the study. The table shows that most of the respondents are female which contribute

to 84 percent of the respondents while only 16 percent are male.

Table 2

Respondents of the Study

Respondents F %
 English 10 20 %

Math 10 20 %

General Science 10 20 %

Social Science 10 20 %

Early Childhood
10 20 %
Education

Total 50 100 %

Table 2 shows the frequency distribution of the respondents of the study. The

table shows that each of the area of specialization has 10 equal number of

respondents, each corresponding to 20 percent for the total of 100 percent.

Research Instrument

The researchers used an essay test in gathering data to evaluate the writing

composition of the students. Essay test is one of the tools that can be utilized in

analyzing and identifying the grammatical errors of the students in writing composition.

Ellis and Barkhuizen (2005), (as cited by Caudilla 2014), claimed that competence can

only be studied and evaluated by analyzing performance. Through an essay test, the

researchers knew the grammatical error/s committed by the students. Error analysis

will serve as the guide for the researchers to evaluate the writing composition of each

student that can help the teacher to organize his or her students in learning on how to

write sentences and paragraphs with grammatical (morphological) competence.

 The writing composition was based from the topic “How Does Facebook Affect

Your Daily Life.” This topic was chosen because students nowadays are in the 21 st

century wherein they are exposed in using social media, most especially Facebook.

Facebook is a web-based, interacting that allows user to share information, personal

thoughts, and to be updated of what is happening or the news. The students can easily

think and construct paragraphs because they are familiar with it and have a notion

about the given topic. This will assess the student thinking skills on how they will

compose their written task. This would be the basis on how the learners translate their

thoughts into Second Language. Some learners make mistakes in writing

composition, it is because he/she does not know the appropriate expression or

structure to communicate in his second language.

The written compositions made by the respondents were not revised. Error

analysis determines the least and the most frequent errors committed by the students

and these provide evidence on what the learners need to improve on their writing

composition.

Data Gathering Procedures

Data gathering is essential in conducting a research paper to get all the

information and planning the data analysis. All the information that has been gathered

will help on whatever plans and preparations needed in the research study.

Researchers’ study is all about identifying and analyzing the errors committed

by the students, specifically, the global morphological errors; verb tense, verb form,

subject-verb agreement, articles/determiners, and noun endings (plural/possessive).

 On September 7, 2018, the researchers went to Building 2 Room 308 where

the class of II–Mathematics from the College of Education is having their

Developmental Reading class. On September 20, the researchers went to II-English’s

class, then to General Science, Social Science and ECE the next day. The

researchers instructed the students to write a written composition through the aid of

the guide questions about the writing prompt, “How Does Facebook Affect Your Daily

Lives”. They were tasked to write at least 150-200 words with the time limit of 20-30

minutes. When the respondents were all done, the researchers collected the paper

and counted it to assure that all respondents had participated.

As soon as the papers were collected, the researchers started reading the

essays. The global morphological errors; verb tense, verb form, subject-verb

agreement, articles/determiners, and noun endings (plural/possessive) were

identified. The errors were marked, classified and discussed by the researchers.

Before analyzing the written composition of the respondents, the researchers prepared

an error matrix based on the analysis model of Ferris (2005), (as cited by Caudilla,

2014) to help them in tallying the errors. The abbreviation has a corresponding code

listed on the table below.

Table 3

Error Codes and Explanation

Error Codes Error Explanation

 VT Error in Verb Tense

VF Error in Verb Form

SVA Error in Subject-Verb Agreement

Art/Det Error in Article/Determiner

NEnd Error in Noun Ending (Plural/Possessive)

Table 3 presents the codes used by the researchers in identifying and

categorizing the errors committed in the individual written composition of the

respondents.

As part of Ferris' (2005) Analysis Model, (as cited by Kato 2006), and (as cited

by Caudilla, 2014) which has 4 categories, the errors of respondents were identified

and categorized under morphological errors which for Ferris’ classification are

considered global errors. Morphological errors of the respondents were categorized

into five as (1) error in verb tense (2) error in verb form (3) error in subject verb

agreement (4) error in articles or determiners and lastly (5) error in noun endings.

Using the given codes, the researchers marked, tallied and classified the errors

seen in each respondent’s individual written composition.

Statistical Treatment of Data

The statistical treatment that the researchers used is simple the frequency and

the percentage for the proper interpretation of the data.

 Percentage. It can be computed by dividing the class frequency by the total

frequency. The formula is given below where P is for percentage, f for frequency of

errors and N for number of total errors. Percentage Distribution is a descriptive statistic

used to determine the number of respondents responding to a particular category

against the total number of respondents.

% = f/n x 100

Where: % = percentage

f = frequency of errors

n = number of total errors

CHAPTER IV

PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA

 This chapter covers the presentation, analysis and interpretation of data in the

light of the research questions formulated in the study.

Problem 1. Errors Committed by the Students

Global Morphological Errors

Verb Tense. The tense of the verb talks about when the action takes place. It

is either in the past, present or the future. Error in verb tense includes unclear use of

verbs that do not indicate when the action is, was or will be completed.

In this study, errors such as shift tense within a sentence and in paragraph has

been disclosed. This also revealed that verb tenses were not yet mastered by the

learners though they already learned it from previous years of studying.

As said by Darus and Ching (2009), “it is not surprising that L2 learners face

problems with tenses since English notion of tense is somewhat confusing…” to

students who use English as their second language and who have a native language

which has fewer tenses than English. Same to as Filipino learners whose language

has only three tenses only: pangnagdaan (past), pangkasalukuyan (present) and

panghinaharap (future). In the learners’ native languange, changing the tense of the

verb requires the use of affixes. In forming the past tense, nag-, um-, and –in are

attached while for the present tense, repeating the first syllable of the verb’s rootword

(salitang ugat) will do. Lastly, the prefix -mag is usually added to the rootword of the

verb to form its future tense. Having said this, students with English as their second

language can inevitably commit errors in using the tenses of the verb just like the

subject of this study.

Verb Form. Errors in verb form usually happens when a writer confuses forms of

irregualar verbs or treat them as if they follow the regualar pattern. Example of this is

using the word runned as the past tense of run instead of “ran”.

The verb phrase in Filipino language only uses the word “ay” with the the verb

while in English, verb phrase contains of a helping verb and the main verb. Also, unlike

the English language, Filipino language does not have regular and irregualr forms of

the verb though it has focus on either the actor or the object. The following sentences

are examples of actor-focus and object-focus. The verb is linis, conjugated in

completed, incompleted, and contemplated forms respectively.

Actor-Focus Object-Focus

Naglinis ako ng bahay kaninang umaga. Nilinis ko ang bahay kaninang umaga.

Naglilinis ako ng bahay ngayon. Nililinis ko ang bahay ngayon.

Maglilinis ako ng bahay bukas. Lilinisin ko ang bahay bukas.

The sentences above do not use the helping verb ay along side the verb linis.

Writing which has verb followed by a subject is common way of writing sentences in

Filipino. Because of this, learners omit helping verb in composing English sentences.

Subject-Verb Agreement. As a general rule in English, the verb of the sentence

should agree in number and person with the subject. If these are not followed, it is

automatic that error in subject-verb agreement is committed. Filipino languange unlike

English, do not have its rules on this agreement. It does not have a concept regarding

rules on numbers and base form of the verb. This explains why Filipinos commonly

commit error in the agreement.

Articles/Determiners. Different studies have found out that L2 students either omit or

overuse an anrticle. And according to Felice and Pulman (2008), articles and

determiners are known to be one of the most frequent sources of errors for L2 English

learners

Noun Endings (Plural/Possesive). In English, there are several rules on forming the

plural of a noun such as adding s and some other exceptions to the rule. For

possesives, adding apostrophe is usually common. In the L1of the learners which is

Filipino, adding mga is the only indicator that the noun they use is in plural form. Also,

using apostrophe in indicating possession is not used in Filipino. Instead, words like

kay, kina, iyo, akin, amin, atin and kanila are used. With this, Filipino learners commit

error in forming the Noun Endings.

Problem 2. Most and Least Frequent Errors Committed by the Students

Global Morphological Errors. The following tables display the frequency of

distribution of morphological errors in the written composition of the respondents.

Table 4

Frequency Distribution of Verb Tense Errors

in Written Composition of the Respondents

Least/ Most
Verb Tense f %
Frequent
A1. Past Tense 18 20 %
A2. Present Tense 68 76 % Most Frequent
A3. Future Tense 4 4% Least Frequent
Sub- Total 90 100 %

Table 4 shows the frequency distribution of Verb Tense errors in their written

composition. It can be derived from the table that verb tense gathered a sub-total of

90 errors. Among the subcategories of verb tense, present tense has 68 errors or 76%

of total errors. It was the most frequent error committed by the respondents in their

written composition that needs improvement. On the other hand, the table shows that

future tense with only 4 errors or 4% was their least frequent error and where the

students are best in.

According to James (1988), (as cited by Darus, 2009), errors in writing such as

tenses and weak vocabulary are the most common and frequent type of errors that

are committed by the learners. Since grammar is seen only to an end, some learners

tend to forget its importance and how it will be used in the process of writing. Usually,
the learners find it difficult in learning the grammatical aspects of Target Language

and one of those is the tenses of the verb.

It implies that the students are weak in terms of written performance that uses

the simple tenses of verb where they commit a lot of mistakes in using the present

tense. The problem that the students encountered would be the inappropriate use of

grammar in which their sentences become incomprehensible. Using the error analysis

can greatly help the teachers to find out in a systematic manner the specific and

common language problems students have, so they can focus more attention on this

type of morphological errors.

 Table 5

Frequency Distribution of Verb Form Errors

in Written Composition of the Respondents

Least/ Most
Verb Forms f %
Frequent
B1. Base 13 61.90 % Most Frequent
B2. Past 3 14.29 %
B3. Past Participle 1 4.76 % Least Frequent
B4. Progressive 4 19.05 %
Sub- total 21 100 %

Table 5 shows the frequency distribution of Verb Form errors in their written

composition. The table above shows that verb form errors gathered a sub-total of 21

errors. Among the subcategories, base form has 13 or 61.90% most frequent errors

that should be given focused by the respondents in their written composition while,

past participle has 1 or 4.76% least frequent errors.

Darus (2009) revealed that there were no differences among all the learners of

English in making particular errors at a certain stages of development. It was found

out on previous studies of error analysis that those learners share the same problems

in morphological errors including verb tense errors, verb forms, the use of articles and

etc., According to Alsied, Ibrahim & Pathan (2018) at all levels, writing in a foreign

language is of a great challenge to the students, particularly essay writing. This written

composition allows the students to write freely therefore unconsciously, without them

knowing that they tend to commit errors particularly in verb form.

 Table 6

Frequency Distribution of Subject- Verb Agreement Errors

in Written Composition of the Respondents

Least/Most
Subject- Verb Agreement f %
Frequent
C1. A singular subject takes a singular verb Most
85 85 %
whereas a plural subject takes a plural verb. Frequent
C2. Two singular subjects connected by or,
Least
either/or, or neither/nor require a singular 1 1%
Frequent
verb.
C3. Two or more subjects joined by “and” are
Least
considered plural and require a verb form 1 1%
Frequent
without an “s.”
C4. If a subject is modified by the words “each”
or “every” that subject is singular and will take a 2 2%
verb form that ends in “s.”
C5. Use a singular verb with distances, periods
of time, sums of money, etc., when considered 0 0%
as a unit.
C6. With words that indicate portions—e.g., a lot,
a majority, some, all. If the noun after of is
9 9%
singular, use a singular verb. If it is plural, use a
plural verb.
C7. With collective nouns such
as group, jury, family, audience, population, the
0 0%
verb might be singular or plural, depending on
the writer's intent.
C8. The word “were” replaces “was” in
sentences that express a wish or are contrary to 2 2%
fact.
C9. Indefinite pronouns are usually singular and
0 0%
take a verb form that ends in “s.”
C10. A few nouns, such as economics, mumps,
measles, or news end in “s” but are considered 0 0%
singular.
100 100 %
Sub-Total
 Table 6 presents the frequency of committed errors of the respondents in the

Subject- Verb Agreement, with a sub- total of one hundred (100) errors. Among the

subcategories, the rule stating a singular subject takes a singular verb, whereas a

plural subject takes a plural verb was the most frequently committed error of the

respondents in their written composition, averaging eighty five (85) percent.

Meanwhile, the least frequent errors committed by the respondents fall to two other

rules, first is the rule that says that two singular subjects connected by or,

either/or, or neither/nor require a singular verb. The other one is the rule that says that

two or more subjects joined by “and” are considered plural and require a verb form

without an “s.” The respondents in both rules averaged only one (1) percent of errors

being committed.

Lane and Langan, (as cited by Daflizar, 2011), point out that a subject-verb

agreement is an error in which the form of a verb does not fit grammatically with the

subject. The said error was shown in the above table. Nayan (2009), (as cited by Tama

Aperezki Antari, 2017), many of the students have the difficulty in using the correct

rules of subject-verb agreement in their writing composition even if they have been

learning the English language for a long period of time. Subject-verb agreement is

being taught from elementary up to college, yet there are still grammatical errors in

using the said agreement in speaking and/or writing.

The results mean that though the basics like the subcategory number one,

which got the highest frequency of errors, are being taught for many years, the

students still lack enough knowledge in Subject-verb agreement rules that hinders

them to be grammatically correct in the subcategories under the said morphology.

 Table 7

Frequency Distribution of Determiner/Article Errors

in Written Composition of the Respondents

Least/Most
%
Subcategories f Frequent
D1. Specific identity not known; use the indefinite
article “a” or “an” only with a singular count noun
whose specific identity is not known to the reader.
9 17.31 %
Use “a” before nouns that begin with a consonant
sound, and use “an” before nouns that begin with a
vowel sound.
D2.specific identity known: use the definite article
"the" with any noun (whether singular or plural, Least
5 9.62 %
count or noncount) when the specific identity of the Frequent
noun is known to the reader
D3. all things or things in general: use no article with
Most
plural count nouns or any noncount nouns used to 20 38.46 %
Frequent
mean all or in general
D4. Use " this" and "that" in inferring to singular
11 21.15 %
nouns
D5. use " these" and "those" in inferring to plural 7 13.46 %
nouns
Sub-total 52 100 %

Table 7 shows the frequency distribution of Articles/Determiner errors in their

written composition. It can be derived from Table 7 that determiner/article error gather

a sub-total of 52 errors. Among the subcategories of determiner/article, all things or

things in general: use no article with plural nouns or any noncount nouns used to mean

all or in general is the most frequent errors committed by the respondents in their

written composition which has a sub-total error of 20 or 38.46%. According to the study

performed by Lasaten (2014) Darus and Ching (2009), they found out that one of the

most common errors committed in English writings is the articles. Using articles in
 writing may be difficult to some students because they are confused on what should

be the appropriate articles to be used in their sentences.

Table 8

Frequency Distribution of Noun Endings (Plural/Possessive) Errors

in Written Composition of the Respondents

Least/ Most
Subcategories F %
Frequent
E1. Use “s” or “es” to show
plurality when you are talking
about more than one or are 44 69.84 % Most Frequent
speaking in general terms about
all of the items in one category.
E2. Use an apostrophe followed by
“s” (‘s) to show that a singular noun 7 11.11 %
belongs to someone or something
E3. Use an”s” followed by an
apostrophe (‘s) to show
possession of plural nouns or 5 7.94 % Least Frequent
nouns that always end “s”.
E4.The word “is” is often
abbreviated (or “contracted”) in
English. Use an apostrophe
7 11.11 %
followed by an “s” (‘s) in order to
show the contraction for the word
“is”.
Sub-total 63 100 %

Table 8 shows the frequency distribution of Noun Ending errors in their written

composition. It can be derived from the table that Noun Ending (Plural/Possessive)

errors gathered a sub-total of 63. Among the subcategories, 44 errors or 69.84% was

the most frequent error committed by the respondents in their written composition

which is the use of "s" or "es" to show plurality.

 Even though the rule is simple, some of the respondents lack knowledge about

this matter that is why they need an improvement. On the other hand, 5 errors or 7.94%

was the least frequent error committed by the respondents which is the use of an "s"

followed by an apostrophe ('s) to show possession of plural nouns that always end "s".

According to Stolley (2016), (as cited in Academic Learning Centre), the misuse

of the possessive –s is a grammatical error that plagues all sorts of writers. But this

error can be reduced just like what the respondents have done with their written

composition. It simply means that, most of the respondents know how to put

apostrophe -s where it is needed.

Table 9

Frequency Distribution of Morphological Errors

in Written Composition of the Respondents

Least/Most
Subcategories F %
Frequent
Verb Tense 90 27.61 %

Verb Forms 21 6.44 % Least Frequent

Subject-Verb Agreement 100 30.67 % Most Frequent
Article/Determiners 52 15.95 %
Noun Endings
63 19.33 %
(Plural/Possessive)
Sub-total 326 100 %

Table 9 presents the summary of results on the Global morphological errors

committed by the students, which gathered a total of 326 errors. Among the

subcategories under the Global Morphological errors, Subject- Verb Agreement got

the highest number of errors, averaging 30.67%. This states that it is the subcategory
wherein the students most frequently commit errors in their written composition.

Meanwhile, the least frequently committed errors lies in the subcategory Verb Forms,

having 21 errors, and averages only 6.44%.

Taher (2011), when investigated the most frequent errors performed by

Swedish junior high school students, it found out that common errors include verb

tense, verb inflection and subject verb agreement. In the study conducted by Taher,

one of the said common errors is the Verb tense, which on the table it shows that Verb

tense is second to the highest number of errors, next to Subject-Verb agreement.

Based on the results, it can be implied that the students commit more errors on

the subcategories which have more rules, than the lesser one. The more rules, the

more committed errors. The lesser rules, the lesser committed errors.

Problem 3: Development of Module

After analyzing the errors committed by the students, it has been revealed that

they mostly commit errors in subject-verb agreement with 30.67% of the total 367

errors while verb form has their least error with only 6.44%. It is necessary, however,

to mention that the frequency of errors for subcategory of errors may not automatically

denote the difficulty level of the errors for the students. According to Gasol (2016),

“making mistakes is part of the learning process” thus, knowing the errors of the

students can help the researchers develop a module that can help supplement and

aid their learning about global morphology.

 Chapter V

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This chapter presents the summary of findings, conclusions and

recommendations of the study about the Error Analysis on the Global Morphological

Structure of Second Year students under the College of Education at University of

Makati.

Students’ Profiling

The respondents are 2nd year College of Education students, specializing in

English, Mathematics, General Science, Social Science and Early Childhood

Education, consisting of 8 males and 42 females. They were qualified in the standards

set by the College of Education in the University of Makati, which are written

examination, interview and having 85 percent of general weighted average.

Summary of Findings

After interpreting the data, the researcher came up with the following findings:

1. Errors Committed by the Students

The respondents of this study committed various types of global morphological

errors in their written composition. These errors belong into the following categories of

Global Morphology Structure such as verb tense, verb form, subject verb agreement,

articles/determiners and noun endings (plural/possessive).

 1.1 Among the subcategories of Verb Tense, the most frequent error committed

by the respondents was the present tense which constituted of 68 errors or 76%, while

future tense was their least frequent committed error which collected only 4%.

1.2 The most frequent error committed by the respondents in verb form was the

base form which garnered 13 errors or 61.90%, while their least frequent error was the

past participle which constituted only 1 error or 4.76%.

1.3 Among the subcategories of Subject-Verb agreement, a singular subject

takes a singular verb whereas a plural subject takes a plural verb was the most

frequent committed error, which constituted of 85 errors or 85%. While the following

were the least frequent error: first, the use a singular verb with distances, periods of

time, sums of money, etc., when considered as a unit; second, with collective nouns

such as group, jury, family, audience, population, the verb might be singular or plural,

depending on the writer's intent; third, indefinite pronouns are usually singular and

take a verb form that ends in “s.”; fourth, a few nouns, such as economics, mumps,

measles, or news end in “s” but are considered singular. These four rules have no

errors at all in the written composition of the respondents for they did not use these

rules in their writing. It only means that they did not make sentences that would violate

these rules under the subject-verb agreement.

1.4 The most frequent committed error among the subcategories of

Articles/Determiners was the rule that says that all things or things in general: use no

article with plural count nouns or any non-count nouns used to mean all or in general,

which constituted of 20 errors or 38.46%. While specific identity known: use the

definite article "the" with any noun whether singular or plural, count or non-count) when
the specific identity of the noun is known to the reader was the least frequent error

committed by the respondents, which collected 5 errors or 9.62%.

1.5 Among the subcategories of noun endings (plural/possessive), use “s” or

“es” to show plurality when you are talking about more than one or are speaking in

general terms about all of the items in one category was the most frequent committed

error, which garnered 44 errors or 69.84%. While the least frequent error committed

by the respondents was the use an ”s” followed by an apostrophe (‘s) to show

possession of plural nouns or nouns that always end “s” which collected 5 errors or

7.94%.

2. Least and Most Frequent Errors Committed by the Students

Global Morphological Errors. In this general category, the respondents

committed a total of 326 errors in their written composition. Among the five global

morphological errors, subject verb agreement was identified as the most frequently

committed error which constituted of 100 errors or 30.67%. On the other hand, Verb

Form was the least frequently error committed by the students which constituted 21

errors or 6.44%.

Conclusions

Based on the findings of the study, the following conclusions were drawn:
1. In the five global morphological errors, Subject Verb Agreement was identified as

the most frequent error. While, the least frequent error committed by the students were

Verb forms.

2. Based on the data shown, the errors committed by the students in terms of the five

global morphology structure are the following:

The most frequent error committed by the students among the subcategories

of Verb Tense was present tense, while future tense was the least frequent error.

Among the subcategories of Verb Form, the most frequent error was base

form, while part participle was the least frequent error committed by the students.

In Subject-Verb Agreement, a singular subject takes a singular verb whereas

a plural subject takes a plural verb was the most frequent error committed by the

respondents. While the following were the least frequent error: first, is the use a

singular verb with distances, periods of time, sums of money, etc., when considered

as a unit; second, with collective nouns such as group, jury, family, audience,

population, the verb might be singular or plural, depending on the writer's intent; third,

indefinite pronouns are usually singular and take a verb form that ends in “s.”; lastly,

a few nouns, such as economics, mumps, measles, or news end in “s” but are

considered singular.

The most frequent error among the subcategories of articles/determiners was

all nouns used to mean all or in general. While, specific identity known: use the definite

article "the" with any noun whether singular or plural, count or non-count) when the

specific identity of the noun is known to the reader was the least frequent error

committed by the respondents.

 In noun endings (plural/possessive), use “s” or “es” to show plurality when

you are talking about more than one or are speaking in general terms about all of the

items in one category was the most frequent error. While the least frequent error

committed by the respondents was the use of an ”s” followed by an apostrophe (‘s) to

show possession of plural nouns or nouns that always end “s”.

4. Modules in writing must be designed and developed when it comes to the

improvement of students’ writing skills specifically in the proper use of grammar. These

modules should be given more emphasis on the most frequent committed Global

Morphological errors to achieve high mastery of the specific grammar involved.

Recommendations

Based from data gathered by the researchers the following are recommended:

 The teachers should formulate different teaching strategies that will cater the

needs of the students in writing a composition in English language. Aside from

that, it is important to identify the difficulties of the students using the rules of

verb tense, verb form, subject-verb agreement, articles/determiners and noun

endings (plural/possessive). Start practicing the students in basic writing such

as journals, reflections and essay.

 The school administrators should conduct seminars, workshops and different

professional development activities that will improve the teaching competencies

of the teacher in imparting knowledge to the students. It is also important to

 engage students in different activities when it comes to English language

specifically in grammar that will enhance their writing skills.

 The curriculum designer should create different teaching materials that will

address the needs of the students in correcting their error in the five global

morphology structures that will develop their writing skills with emphasis on

developing the accuracy in grammar.

 The students should be aware about the different errors committed and use it

as self-correction for the improvement of their writing and editing skills.

 The future researchers, who would intend to conduct a study similar to this

should identify and analyse the causes and sources of errors committed by the

students in their written composition in terms of verb tense, verb form, subject-

verb agreement, articles/determines and noun endings (plural possessive).

 APPENDICES

Extracts on Verb Tense

Past tense instead of present tense expressing present condition

The extract above contains past tense “made” which is improperly used

because the tense expresses present condition. Using the present tense “make” is the

the correct way.

Past tense instead of present tense expressing present condition

The above contains past tense “uploaded” which is improperly used because

the tense expresses present condition. Using the present tense “uploads” is the the

correct way.

Tense shift within a single sentence

The tense of the verb in the above extract is past tense (went), therefore the

use of “don’t” which is in the present tense exemplifies tense shift within a sentence.
Tense shift within a single sentence

The tense of the verb in the above extract is present tense (spend), therefore the use

of “wasted” which is in the past tense exemplifies tense shift within a sentence.

Extracts on Verb Form

Omission of helping verb

The extract above shows a missing helping verb “are” to complete the structure

of the verb phrase “are always using”.

Omission of helping verb

The extract above shows a missing helping verb “are” to complete the structure

of the verb phrase “are always spreading”.

 Omission of helping verb

It is shown in the extract above that the structure of the verb phrase is

incomplete because there was no helping verb involved in the the sentence. Using

“are studying” would make the verb phrase complete.

Extracts on Subject-Verb Agreement

Wrong number of verb for singular subject

The extract above shows that a respondent used the plural verb “are” for

singular subject “facebook”. In this case, the respondent violated the rule that singular

subject requires singular verb.

Wrong number of verb for singular subject

The extract above shows that respondents used the verb “affect” for singular

subject “facebook”. In this case, the respondent violated the rule that singular subject

requires singular verb. In order to make the sentence correct, “affects” should be used.
 Wrong number of verb for singular subject

The extract above shows that the respondent used a plural verb for the subject

“it” which always takes singular in form. This case violated the rule singular subject

requires singular verb.

Wrong number of verb for plural subject

The respondent used the word “brings” for the plural subject “videos”. In this

case, the respondent violated the rule that plural subject requires plural verb.

Wrong number of verb for plural subject

The subject in the extract above “family and friends” is connected by the word

“and” which is considered plural, is required to use a plural verb.

 Wrong number of verb for plural subject

The subject in the extract above is the word “people” which is always in the

plural form and should have plural verb. In this case, the respondent used “is” instead

of “are” to make the sentence structure correct.

Extracts on Article/Determiner

Incorrect article

The extract above shows that the article “a”is preceeded by a word that starts

with a consonant letter, thus incorrect article is used because the article a is used for

words starting with consonant letters while the use of “an”is expected for words that

start with a vowel.

Incorrect article

It shows that the use of definite artice “the” is incorrect because it shows that

Facebook is the only way for communication when in fact it is only one of the many

ways. To make it correct, the use of the indefinite article “a” should have been done in

place of “the”.
 Omission of an article

In the extract above, the “a” before the word “chance” is missing.

Omission of an article

In the extract above, “the” before the word “easiest” is missing.

Addition of a

The above extract shows faulty use of the article “a” in relation to the plural

word “advantages”

Incorrect determiner

It shown above that the respondent used the determiner “that” before the word

“words” which makes it incorrect. Determiner “that” and “this” are used for singular

nouns while “those” and “these” are for plural. In this case, “those” should be used in

place of “that” because the noun after the determiner is in plural form.

Extracts on Noun Endings (Plural/Possesive)

 Overgeneralization – adding s to special type of noun

In the extracts above, the respondents over-generalized the rule on adding s in

forming the plural of most nouns. Special types of nons such as “information” does not

form its plural by addind s but by adding quantifiers such as “pieces of” or “bits of”.
 Confusing possessive (‘s) with plural form

The extract above exemplifies error in plural form of the word “regret”. The

respondent confused ‘s with adding -s in forming the plural of the said noun.

Confusing possessive (‘s) with plural form

The extract above exemplifies error in plural form of the word “example”. The

respondent confused ‘s with adding -s in forming the plural of the said noun.
 References

Books

Caudilla, J.P. (2014). Errors In Written Composition of Students in English, IInputs

for a Development of Modules in Writing

Corder, S. P. (1975). Error analysis. In J. P. B. Allen & S. P. Corder (Eds.), Papers in

applied linguistics, The Edinburgh course in applied linguistics, vol. 3:

Techniques in applied linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Internet

Alsied, S., Ibrahim N., & Pathan M.(2018, March 15). Errors Analysis of Libyan EFL

Learners' Written Essays at Sebha University. Retrieved from

http://www.khatesefid.com/journal/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Final-paper-1.pdf

Arung, S. (2014, June 3). The Definition of Curriculum – Dictionaries and Experts

https://anekawarnapendidikan.wordpress.com/2014/06/03/the-definition-of-

curriculum-dictionaries-and-experts/

Banlomchon, J. (2006). An Error Analysis of Free Compositions in Written English

By Thai High School Students. Retrieved from

http://library.christian.ac.th/thesis/document/F008852.pdf
Butte College. (2016, August 22). Definite and Indefinite Articles. Retrieved from

http://www.butte.edu/departments/cas/tipsheets/grammar/articles.html

Darus, S. & Subramaniam, K. (2009). Error Analysis of the Written English Essays of

Secondary School Students in Malaysia: A Case Study. Retrieve from

https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/30333543/ejss_8_3_12.pdf?A

WSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&Expires=1539101302&Signature=hq

4iIDpytDP%2BmhVNtY43Obs1oCw%3D&response-content-

disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DError_Analysis_of_the_Written_English_Es.

pdf

Gany, R. (2002, January). Local and Global Errors in the Journals Written by the

First Writing Class Students. Retrieved from

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/39736987_Local_and_global_errors

_in_the_journals_writen_by_the_first_writing_class_students

Grammarly Inc (2018). Articles. Retrieved from

https://www.grammarly.com/blog/articles/

Harun, O. F., & Sufian, A. (2015, December 2). Errors in Subject-Verb Agreement: A

Study Based On Bangladeshi University Students. Retrieved from

http://green.edu.bd/wp-content/uploads/PDFs/Journals/GURSS/v-2-i-

2/Errors_in_SubjectVerb_Agreement__A_Study_Based_On_Bangladeshi_Un

iversity_Students.pdf
Jabeen, A., Kazemian, B., & Shahbaz, M. (2015, September 10). The Role of Error

Analysis in Teaching and Learning of Second and Foreign Language.

Retrieved from

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281239780_The_Role_of_Error_

Analysis_in_Teaching_and_Learning_of_Second_and_Foreign_Language

Jussof, K., Sim, J., & Wee, R. (2010, January). Verb-form Errors in EAP writing.

Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/268012547_Verb-

form_errors_in_EAP_writing

Khansir, A. A. (2012, May). Error Analysis and Second Language Acquisition.

Retrieved from

http://www.academypublication.com/issues/past/tpls/vol02/05/22.pdf

McCutchen, D. & Stull. S. (2014, August 14). Morphological Awareness and

Children's Writing: Accuracy, Error, and Invention. Retrieved from

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4314952/

McKay, A. (2018). What is Language Acquisition – Theories and Stages. Retrieved

from https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-language-acquisition-theories-

stages-quiz.html
Philippine Basic Education. (2015, December 1). Congestion in DepEd’s K to 12.

Retrieved from https://www.philippinesbasiceducation.us/2015/12/congestion-

in-depeds-k-to-12.html?m=1

Sukasame, N. (2014, February 21). A Study of Errors in Learning English

Grammatical Structures on Tenses of MatthayomSuksa 4 Students of the

Demonstration School, KhonKaen University. Retrieved from

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042814005151

Tizon, F. (n.d.) Error Analysis of LSU Students Written Composition. Retrieved from

http://local.lsu.edu.ph/institutional_research_office/publications/vol.15no.5/4.ht

ml