Grammatical Errors Analysis On Second Language Wrting of High School Students (Vanessa S. Andrade)

GRAMMATICAL ERRORS ANALYSIS ON SECOND LANGUAGE WRITING
OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
VANESSA S. ANDRADE
APRIL 2018
GRAMMATICAL ERROR ANALYSIS ON SECOND LANGUAGE WRITING
OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
VANESSA S. ANDRADE
Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School

Capiz State University, Pontevedra, Capiz
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS
Major in English
APRIL 2018
Republic of the Philippines
CAPIZ STATE UNIVERSITY
Pontevedra, Capiz
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, ARTS, AND SCIENCES

GRADUATE SCHOOL
APPROVAL SHEET
Research Title : Grammatical Errors Analysis on the Second Language

Writing of High School Students
Student : Vanessa S. Andrade
Course : Master of Arts
Major : English
Advisory Committee:
HAZEL D. JOAQUIN, Ph.D. ______________________

Adviser Date
LOUIS PLACIDO F. LACHICA, Ph.D. ______________________

Member Date
LEO ANDREW B. BICLAR, Ph.D. ______________________

Member Date
MARY ANN L. DECREPITO, Ed.D. ______________________

Member Date
Recommending Approval:
MARY ANN L. DECREPITO, Ed.D. ______________________

Program Coordinator Date
JUDEL V. PROTACIO, Ph.D. ______________________

Research Coordinator Date
JOCELYN M. DAGUDAG, Ed.D. ______________________

Research Chairman Date
Approved:
REBECCA N. ROSANO, Ed.D. ______________________

Dean Date
Research No. ________________________
ii
Republic of the Philippines
CAPIZ STATE UNIVERSITY
Pontevedra, Capiz
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, ARTS, AND SCIENCES

GRADUATE SCHOOL
ACCEPTANCE SHEET
In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts major in
English, this thesis titled “Grammatical Error Analysis on Second Language Writing
of High School Students” prepared and submitted by Vanessa S. Andrade has been
evaluated and recommended for final oral examination.
HAZEL D. JOAQUIN, Ph.D.

Adviser
Approved by the Advisory/Examining Committee with a grade ________ on
___________________
HAZEL D. JOAQUIN, Ph.D.

Adviser
LOUIS PLACIDO F. LACHICA, Ph.D. LEO ANDREW B. BICLAR, Ph.D.

Member Member
MARY ANN L. DECREPITO, Ed.D.

Member
Accepted as a partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of

Arts major in English.
REBECCA N. ROSANO, Ed.D.

Dean
iii
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Vanessa S. Andrade was born in Jaro, Iloilo City on December 15, 1991. She was
raised by her mother Ines S. Andrade, and was later on taken cared by her grandmother
Consuelo and her aunt Elsie.
She finished her elementary education at Camambugan Elementary School in
2004 where her dream of becoming a teacher started. She finished her secondary
education at Balasan National High School in 2008, and her baccalaureate degree at
Northern Iloilo Polytechnic State College in 2012.
After graduating in college, she became a private school teacher at St. Anne
Catholic School of Balasan, Inc. where she rendered her first 2 years in teaching. In the
year 2015, she was hired at Balasan National High School as an emergency clerk. It was,
then that the door of becoming a public school teacher opened. Currently, she is a high
school English teacher at Cabalic National High School.
Teaching in a far-flung area requires a determined heart. During rainy days, she is
crossing 3 floods to fulfill her duties as a teacher. This situation did not stop her in
attending to her obligations in school; in fact this made her appreciate things and learn to
love more the teaching profession.
Because of her passion and will to nurture the minds of the students of Cabalic
National High School, and because also of the influence of her college classmate and
friend Garner Ace B. Rebadio, she decided to enroll in the Master of Arts major in
English program at Capiz State University, Pontevedra Campus in 2014.
iv
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
With thankful heart, the researcher acknowledged the help from the following
people who, without second thoughts, extended their contributions to the completion of
this study.
Dr. Hazel D. Joaquin, adviser, for her untiring support, encouragement, patience,
and for sharing her expertise, time, and materials for the accomplishment of the study;
Dr. Rebecca N. Rosano, dean of the College of Education, Arts and Sciences, for
her understanding, never ending support, and contributions for the improvement of this
study;
Dr. Louis Placido F. Lachica, for his guidance, and for selflessly extending help
that contributed to the development of this study;
Dr. Leo Andrew B. Biclar, for his patience, and encouragement, and for untiring
support for the improvement of this study;
Dr. Mary Ann L. Decrepito, for her encouragement and understanding and for
sharing her expertise that contributed for the improvement of the study;
Dr. Jocelyn M. Dagudag, for her ideas, and time given to improve this study;
Dr. Nenita C. Maningo and Mrs. Ma. Edelyn Capanas, for the support and
understanding that contributed to the accomplishment of the study;
Her high school teachers: Ma‘am Noemi, Ma‘am Jasmin, Ma‘am Nieves, Ma‘am
Sharon, Ma‘am Ma. Fe and Ma‘am Jeanette, who extended their support, which
contributed to the development of her work and for the motivation that helped the
researcher to continue this study;
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Ma‘am Elna and Charie for extending their help and time and assisting the
researcher during the conduct of this study;
Ma‘am Concepcion A. Valenzuela, for motivating the researcher to continue and
finish the study;
Ma‘am Grace, Ma‘am Annah-Lynn, Ma‘am Leah, and to her Cabalic National
High School Family, for moral and spiritual support, for extending their hands to help the
researcher pursue her study despite all the challenges;
Her supportive friends: Garner Ace, Aicee, Deziree, Winie, Rosemarie, Shien,
Sandy, Joseph, Jean and Jeanai, for all their help, and encouragement, and for believing
in her capabilities to accomplish this study;
Inday Liezel, Bebe Stef, Danie, Juday, Beng Lina, Inday Val and Auntie Alicia,
for supporting the researcher by extending help especially in the reproduction of
manuscripts;
Rome B. Aguilar, for the patience, support, and believing that the researcher
would be able to make it until the end, and most of all, to her Mama Ines and Tete Elsie
for their never ending support may it be morally, or spiritually, and for loving and
understanding her; and
Above all, the Almighty God, for His unfathomable love, blessings, and guidance
until the accomplishment of this study.
V. S. A.
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ABSTRACT
Vanessa Sucgang Andrade, Capiz State University, Pontevedra, Capiz, 2018.

Grammatical Error Analysis on Second Language Writing of High School Students.
Adviser: Dr. Hazel D. Joaquin
This study was conducted to identify the grammatical errors of the high school
students of the two public secondary schools in the northern part of Iloilo determined
possible remedial activities that will help English teachers minimize the errors committed
in English writing. Corder‘s (1974) Methods on Error Analysis was used in identifying
and analysing the grammatical errors committed by the 32 high school students in their
120-word essay. The results of this study revealed that the grammatical errors committed
by the students were on capitalization, sentence fragment, subject/verb agreement,
spelling, word order, singular/plural form, verb tense, article, preposition, and double
negative. The sources of errors were determined through Corder‘s (1974) Sources of
Errors, namely: intralingual and interlingual errors. Likewise, the study revealed that
capitalization garnered the highest number of errors, while double negative received the
least number of errors. It further revealed that intralingual errors were mostly the sources
of the committed errors. Considering these, it was evident that the learners needed
practice to correct the identified errors. Thus, English teachers should not only be aware
of learners‘ grammatical errors, but they also have to evaluate these errors for them to
have a guide on what rules should be given emphasis. This will help in the selection of
the appropriate remediation as well as the appropriate methods and techniques to be used.
Keywords: Grammatical errors, L2 writing, Interlingual, Intralingual
vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PRELIMINARIES PAGE
TITLE PAGE i
APPROVAL SHEET ii
ACCEPTANCE SHEET iii
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH iv
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS v
ABSTRACT vii
TABLE OF CONTENT viii
LIST OF TABLES xi
LIST OF FIGURES xii
LIST OF APPENDICES xiii
CHAPTER
I INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study 1
Statement of the Problem 3
Assumptions of the Study 3
Epistemology and Theoretical Perspective 4
Significance of the Study 5
Definition of Terms 6
II RELATED LITERATURE
Conceptual Literature 10
Second Language Learning 10
Grammatical Structure 11
Errors in English Writing 13
Error Analysis 14
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Classification of Errors 16
Benefits of Error Analysis 16
Causes and Sources of Errors 17
Capitalization 18
Spelling 23
Related Studies 28
Synthesis 33
III METHODOLOGY
Methodological Perspective 35
Context of the Study 36
Participant of the Study 37
Sample Size and Sampling Procedure 37
Research Instrumentation 38
Data Gathering Procedure 39
Data Analysis Procedure 39
IV PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND

INTERPRETATION OF DATA
Grammatical Errors 42
Analysis of the Grammatical 44

Errors Committed
Sources of Grammatical Errors 116
Proposed Remedial Activities 120
V SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND

RECOMMENDATIONS
ix
Summary 125
Conclusions of the Study 127
Recommendations 128
REFERENCES 130
APPENDICES 135
x
LIST OF TABLES
TABLE NO. TITLES PAGE
1 Identified grammatical errors 43

committed by the high school students
2 Summary of errors committed by the students 47

in capitalization

in spelling

in sentence fragment

in subject-verb agreement

in verb tense

in article

in word order

in singular/plural form

in preposition

in double negative
xi
LIST OF FIGURES
FIGURE NO. TITLES PAGE
1 Flow chart in analysing the grammatical 41

errors in L2 writing
xii
LIST OF APPENDICES
APPENDIX NO. TITLES PAGE
1 Permission letter 135
2 Samples of consent letter signed 137

by the students
3 Samples of the students‘ essay 138
4 Lesson exemplars 139
xiii
1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
The importance of English in this generation cannot be denied and ignored for it
is the most common language spoken everywhere. The use of English language is the
well-known means of international communication, education, and business around the
world. It bridges the communication gap among different countries making it the most
widely spoken language in the world.
In some countries like United Kingdom, Australia, America, Netherland, and
Canada, English is used as the first language. On the other hand, it is also taught and used
widely in many other countries as an L2 (Mbau et. al, 2014). In the Philippines, people
learn English, mostly, in school for it is used as the medium of instruction in subject areas
like Mathematics, Science, T.L.E, and MAPEH. However, there are still learners who
have problems in applying the grammatical rules, and mechanics (may it be in written or
in spoken form) even though they have been learning English for about 12 years in
school.
This is evident in the 2008 survey of Social Weather Station (SWS) wherein the
result revealed that many students are having difficulties in the use of English. Some of
them claimed that they made fair use of the English language while there were also some
who claimed that they were not competent in any way when it comes to the use of the
English language.
Two public secondary schools in the northern part of Iloilo also faced this
problem since most of the teachers complained on the grammatical errors committed by
2
the students especially in written activities.
Writing skill is one of the four major skills that learners need to master. As
posited by Ulijn and Strother (1995), writing is generally considered to be one of the
active or productive skills of language usage. Therefore, it is very important for the
students to know and master the grammatical rules which will be their anchor in
acquiring the language.
Because of those predicaments stated, many of the English teachers are in search
for better ways to enable the students to apply grammatical rules in English
independently for them to enhance their English competencies.
The researcher assumed that one way which might help students improve their
grammatical competence is to identify, and analyse the grammatical errors, and
determine the sources that contributed to commission of such errors.
Error analysis is an essential source of information to teachers. It provides
information on students' errors which in turn helps teachers to correct students' errors and
also improves the effectiveness of their teaching (Houran, 2008). Through this, English
teachers would have an idea on what would be given extra attention (that they may be
able) to solve the problem.
Mastery of the grammatical rules serves as foundation in the correct sentence
construction and in acquiring the English language. The researcher believes that proper
guidance, encouragement by the teacher and the use of remediation activities will help
ensure students‘ mastery on the said rules. As a result, this study was conceived.
3
Statement of the Problem
This study aimed to identify the grammatical errors committed by the junior high
school students in two public secondary schools in northern part of Iloilo during school
year 2017-2018, which eventually determine the possible remedial activities to be used
by English teachers.
Specifically, this study intended to answer the following questions:
1. What are the grammatical errors committed by the respondents?
2. What are the sources that contributed to the commission of grammatical errors
of the students?
3. What possible remedial activities can be drawn from the result of the study?
Assumptions of the Study
This study aimed to identify the grammatical errors of the students of two public
secondary schools in the northern part of Iloilo. This study assumed that the identification
and analysis of the grammatical errors and the sources which contributed to the
commission of those errors, and the determination of the appropriate remedial activities
will help the English teachers correct the errors in writing.
English writing is a very important skill which is widely used as a device to
facilitate and present students‘ educational knowledge and occupational opportunities
(Chen, 2007). In terms of the educational aspect, three reasons which make this skill
necessary are that more international linguists are promoting writing as their field of
specialization, more articles and journals are being published in English, and more
international students are pursuing their degrees in English speaking countries (Santos,
4
2000). More and more companies require their job candidates to have good command of
English writing because workers have to use this skill in many types of organization
communication such as e-mails, reports, presentations, sales material, visual aids, etc
(Brudhiprabha et.al, 2017).
However, writing in English has been perceived as the most difficult skill among
the four skills of English (Hengwichitkul, 2009). Even a native speaker fails to write a
good piece of writing (Kukurs, 2012). Filipino learners are not an exemption in this
problem. This is evident in the 2008 survey of Social Weather Station (SWS), wherein
many learners claimed that they are having difficulties of using English.
The identification and analysis of the grammatical errors committed by the
selected junior high school students of the two national high schools in the northern part
of Iloilo, and the determination of the possible remedial activities will help the English
teachers of the said schools to eradicate the problems in errors in writing.
Epistemology and Theoretical Perspective
English language is very important in competing globally. However, the problem
lies on the idea that L2 learners cannot avoid committing errors on the use of the
language. Tracing the roots of the errors, then, should be given emphasis in order for the
L2 learners to be aware of the sources of their errors and will learn to avoid it.
Learning, according to Glaserfeld (1987) is a process of constructing meaningful
representations, of making sense of one‘s experiential world. In this process, students‘
errors are seen in a positive light and as a means of gaining insight into how they are
organizing their experiential world. These statements are supported by constructionism

5
which is based on the idea that student understanding is formed via reflection on their
personal experiences and relating new knowledge to the knowledge that they already
possessed.
However, the interference of the possessed knowledge of the L2 learners to their
new knowledge sometimes contributed to the commission of the errors in the use of the
L2. Errors, in this case, are interpreted in order for the learner, as well as the English
teacher, to look for the ways on how to address these errors. This can be done through
studying it in a great level of depth according to interpretivism.
Interpretivism assumes that access to reality (given or socially constructed) is
only through social constructions such as language, consciousness, shared meanings, and
instruments This philosophy emphasizes qualitative analysis over quantitative analysis.
Its goal is understanding the nature of the problem (Andrew et. al, 2011), which is also
the concern of this study.
Significance of the Study
The result of this study showed the junior high school students‘ grammatical
errors such that the teachers may identify and analyze which grammatical rules need
remediation to improve the students‘ English competency.
This study will be beneficial to the following:
English Teachers. Having the knowledge of the students‘ grammatical errors will
guide them on what ways or strategies they will be using to make learning of
grammatical rules effective.
Principals and School Administrators. This study will give them an idea on
what skills trainings and instructional materials will be provided to the teachers to equip
6
of the necessary skills needed by the students in language learning, which will eventually
develop students to learn more and improve their English competency.
Students. The awareness on the grammatical errors they committed will be their
guide on what rules they need to learn more in order to overcome the said incompetency.
Future Researchers. This study may serve as their guide for the conduct of more
comprehensive studies related to English language. The result of the study will become
their stepping stone in designing instructional materials that will help students improve
their English competency.
Definition of Terms
For better interpretation of the study, some important terms were defined
conceptually and operationally.
Article. It is defined as a kind of determiner as in ―a,‖ ―an,‖ and ―the‖ (Collins,
2008).
In this study, it refers to one of the grammatical rules involving student‘s error in
the use of determiners a, an, the.
Capitalization. It means writing a word with its first letter as a capital letter
(upper-case letter) and the remaining letters in small letters (lower-case letters)
(Sawalmeh, 2013).
In this study, it refers to correct use of capital letters at the beginning of the
sentence, proper noun, name titles, personal pronoun I, business-related titles, publication
titles, etc.
Double Negative. It is the nonstandard usage of two negatives used in the same
sentence so that they cancel each other and create a positive. (Escalas, 1999).
7
In this study, it refers to one of the grammatical rules which involved the use of
the two negative words in a sentence like ―no,‖ ―don‘t,‖ ―without,‖ ―didn‘t,‖ etc.
Error Analysis. It provides information on students' errors which in turn helps
teachers to correct students' errors and also improves the effectiveness of their teaching.
(Hourani, 2008).
In this study, it refers to the method used in identifying the grammatical errors in
the writing of the students and analysing the sources that contributed to the commission
of the errors
English language. It is an Indo-European language belonging to the West
Germanic branch; the official language of Britain and the United States and most of the
commonwealth countries (Farlex, 2003).
In this study, it refers to the language used in the writings of the students which
they committed grammatical errors.
Grammatical Error. It is a term used in prescriptive grammar to describe an
instance of faulty, unconventional, or controversial usage, such as a misplaced modifier
or an inappropriate verb tense (Nordquist, 2017).
In this study, it refers to the errors committed by the junior high school of two
public secondary schools in the northern part of Iloilo in terms of grammatical rules
which include: (1) verb tense, (2) word order, (3) singular/plural form, (4) subject-verb
agreement, (5) double negative, (6) spellings, (7) capitalizations, (8) articles, (9) sentence
fragments, and (10) prepositions.
Grammatical Rules. These are linguistic rules for the syntax of grammatical
utterances (Farlex, 2003).

8
In this study, these refer to the rules in English language where most of the
students committed errors. This include: (1) verb tense, (2) word order, (3) singular/plural
form, (4) subject-verb agreement, (5) double negative, (6) spellings, (7) capitalizations,
(8) articles, (9) sentence fragments, and (10) prepositions, to be analysed using Corder‘s
(1967) method on error analysis.
Second Language (L2). It is a language learned after one has learnt one‘s native
language (Richards and Schmidt, 2002). In this study, it refers to the English language
which the junior high school students committed errors on its grammatical rules.
Prepositions. It is used in which two parts of a sentence are related to each other.
It is always followed by a phrase containing a noun and need more than just themselves
to answer the same questions (Alfiyani, 2013).
In this study, it refers to the grammatical rule the students committed errors in
their writing which were analysed using Corder‘s (1974) Methods on Error Analysis.
Remedial Activity. Remedial Activity is intended to improve a person's ability to
read, write, or do mathematics, especially when they find these things difficult (Collin,
2017).
In this study, it refers to the activity which was drawn from the result of the study.
It will help the English teachers enrich the English competency of the junior high school
Students.
Sentence Fragment. Sentence Fragment is a string of words that does not form a
complete sentence; there is a necessary component of a complete sentence missing
(Nordquist, 2017).
9
In this study, it refers to the grammatical rule which the students committed errors
in terms of completing the thought of a sentence.
Spelling. It means the act or process of writing words by using the letters
conventionally accepted for their formation (Sawalmeh, 2013).
In this study, it refers to the grammatical rule which the students committed errors
due to misspelled words.
Subject-Verb Agreement. It is the subject and verb in a sentence that must agree
in number. They both must be singular or they both must be plural (Smith, 2008).
In this study, it refers to the errors committed by the students in their writing
because the verb did not agree with its subject.
Word Order. It is the arrangement of words in a phrase, clause, or sentence
(Collins, 2008).
In this study, it refers to the grammatical rule in which the students committed
errors due to incorrect order of the words in the sentence.

10
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
This study is based on related data and information about the underlying
principles of the study. It acknowledged the ideas of various authors that served as point
of reference in the conduct of this study by taking in consideration the results of their
studies. This chapter is categorized into conceptual literature and related studies.
Conceptual Literature
To use the English language in written and communication form is not an innate
ability of the second language learner. Unlike the learner‘s mother tongue which comes
naturally after a year of birth, English language must be learned. The first step in
learning the English language is to become aware of its grammatical rules.
Second Language Learning
Richards and Schmidt (2002) refer the term second language (L2) as any
language learned after one has learnt one‘s native language. L2, unlike the mother
tongue, is not acquired naturally. It should be developed through excessive practice on
the use of the language.
According to Krashen (1981), adults develop language competence in two
different ways: language acquisition and language learning. Language learning and
language acquisition differ in various respects. Language acquirers are not consciously
aware of the grammatical rules of the language, but rather develop a feel for correctness.
Apart from the situations in which a child is raised by parents using two different
10
11
languages on an everyday basis, or in a country in which there are two languages in
common use, the most usual situation is learning L2 not from infancy, but at school, or
even later.
Language learning, on the other hand, according to Krashen (1981) is the
conscious learning of a language, knowing the rules, being aware of them, and being able
to talk about them. In the same vein, Brown (2002) defines language learning as a
conscious process in which ―learners attend to form, figure out rules, and are generally
aware of their own process.‖
To find out learning strategies which learners use in L2 learning and identify
difficulties they encounter, error analysis has to be carried out (Richards & Schmidt,
2002). Hakuta (1981) explains that language acquisition research can be described as the
search for an appropriate level of description of the learner's system of rules. The very
circumstances of language acquisition and L2 learning are different, because the already
acquired language, which is L1, can have an impact on the process of L2 learning.
Grammatical Structure
Grammar depends on the language being used. People who know the same
grammar system of the language are able to communicate from each other. Because the
use of the language to communicate presuppose a grammar, it follows that all speakers
and writers of a language must have a knowledge of its grammar.
According to Thornbury (2004), grammar is partly the study of what forms (or
structures) are possible in a language. Its concern is the analysis of the rules on how
language sentences are formed.

12
Harmer (2002), states that grammar of a language is the description of the ways in
which words can change their forms and can be combined into sentences in that
language. It is the structure and meaning system of language.
In addition, Ur (1993) defines grammar as the way a language manipulates and
combines words (or bits of words) in order to form longer units of meaning. He writes
that grammar tells how the rules of language actually work, they arrange and shape
words.
In order to make a well structured writing, one should master the rules in
grammar. These rules consist of the meaning (morphology), arrangement of words
(syntax), clause and phrase structure and the classification of part of speech (noun, verb,
etc), and issues regarding cohesion and coherence of whole text. If grammar rules are
taken for granted, communication, especially in English, may suffer.
Swan (2002) states that good rule include ‗simplicity‘ (it may cause problems),
‗truth‘ (because clearly some rules are more ‗true‘ than others), ‗clarity‘ (because rules
that are unclear help nobody) and ‗relevance‘ (because there are some things which a
teacher or student probably does not really need to know). Knowledge of correct
grammar will influence the coherence of the piece of writing. By using correct
grammatical rule, writers will have good writing.
Errors in English Writing
Writing is a complex process and difficult task even in the first language because
effective writing production requires several components including contents,
organization, and language competence (Richards and Renandya, 2002).

13
The errors are systematic deviations, which occur when L2 learners have not
learned something and consistently make them wrong, so the errors reveal L2 learners‘
competent levels in the target language (Brown, 2000).
Ellis (2008) and James (1998) provided more information that the errors are
unnoticeable points for the L2 learners. They reflect the gaps in the learners‘ knowledge
because they cannot identify if the errors are correct or incorrect, so the errors occur
finally.
Brown (2000) and Coder (1981) stated that the learners may believe that their
languages are correct, and they do not know the correct forms should be. Even if the
learners acknowledge the errors, they cannot correct them.
The errors are different from mistakes, which are productions of the learners‘
performance deficiency. The mistakes are related to slips of the tongue, which are
generally one-time-only events. The learners who make mistakes have noticed or been
taught L2 grammar structures comprehensibly, but they are unsuccessful to apply
grammatical rules. With these reasons, the errors become significant for the study of error
analysis because they reveal evidence that the L2 learners use definite systems of
language at every point in their language development systems, whereas the mistakes are
not relevant to the error analysis because they are non-systematic.
Error Analysis
Researchers cite three approaches to the analysis of ―learner English‖ namely,
contrastive analysis, error analysis, and transfer analysis (Swan & Smith, 1995). As
Okuma (2000) noted, these approaches differ in focus. Contrastive analysis compares the
structures of two language systems and predicts errors. Transfer analysis, on the other
14
hand, compares ―learner English‖ with L1 and attempts to explain the structure of those
errors that can be traced to language transfer (Xiaofei, 2004). Error analysis compares
―learner English‖ with English (L2) itself and judges how learners are ―ignorant‖ (James,
1998).
For decades, Error Analysis (EA) has received a great deal of interest from a
number of scholars in the field of second language acquisition.
Dulay et. al. (1982), states that the analysis of errors is the method to analyse
errors made by EFL and ESL learners when they learn a language. Not only can it help
reveal the strategies used by learners to learn a language, it also assists teachers as well as
other concerning people to know what difficulties learners encounter in order to improve
their teaching.
Error Analysis (EA) examines errors made by L2 learners. Richards and Schmidt
(2002) define it as ―The study and analysis of the errors made by second language
learners.‖ Corder (1967) was the first to advocate the importance of studying errors in
student writing.
According to Corder (1967), learners‘ errors are important in and of themselves.
For learners themselves, errors are indispensable, since the making of errors can be
regarded as a device the learner uses in order to learn.
EA has two objectives: one theoretical and another applied. The theoretical
objective serves to ―elucidate what and how a learner learns when he studies a second
language‖ (Corder, 1974). The applied objective serves to enable the learner ―to learn
more efficiently by exploiting our knowledge of his dialect for pedagogical purposes.‖
15
The investigation of errors can be diagnostic and prognostic. It is diagnostic
because it can tell us the learner's state of the language (Corder, 1967) at a given point
during the learning process and prognostic because it can tell course organisers to
reorient language learning materials on the basis of the learners' current problems
(Richards, 1984).
EA consists of (1) the collection of errors, (2) the identification of errors, (3) the
description of errors, (4) the explanation of errors, and (5) the evaluation of errors
(Corder, 1974).
In agreement, Richards and Schmidt (2002) point out that EA may be carried out
in order to: identify strategies which learners use in language learning; try to identify the
causes of learner errors; obtain information on common difficulties in language learning
as an aid to teaching or in the preparation of teaching materials.
In short, Error Analysis (EA) is the study of language forms deviating from the
standard of the target language which occurs during learners‘ language learning. The
analysis of errors helps reveal the types and sources of errors which can lead to an
accurate way and less time consumption to reduce errors made by learners.
Classification of Errors
Errors found in ESL and EFL learners‘ pieces of writing are analysed and
categorized into various categories.
Errors are categorized according to their features by Dulay, Burt and Krashen
(1982) into six different categories: omission of grammatical morphemes, double
marking of semantic features, use of irregular rules, use of wrong word forms, alternating
use of two or more forms, and misordering.

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In the late 1990s, James (1998) proposes five categories of errors which include
grammatical errors (adjectives, adverbs, articles, nouns, possession, pronouns,
prepositions and verbs), substance errors (capitalization, punctuation and spelling),
lexical errors (word formation and word selection), syntactic errors (coordination/
subordination, sentence structure and ordering), and semantic errors (ambiguous
communication and miscommunication).
Benefits of Error Analysis
In his article The significance of learners' errors, Corder (1974) emphasizes the
importance of studying errors made by second language learners: the study of error is part
of the investigation of the process of language learning, and it provides a picture of the
linguistic development of a learner and may give indications as to the learning process.
He adds that, remedial exercises could be designed and focus more attention on
the trouble spots. It is the learner who determines what the input is. The teacher can
present a linguistic form, but this is not necessarily the input, but simply what is available
to be learned.
Error analysis is not only beneficial to teachers, syllabus designers and textbook
writers by showing them a student‘s progress, but it is also significant to researchers and
to the learners. It can show researchers what strategies learners use to learn a second
language and also indicate the type of errors learners make and why. When a learner has
made an error, the most efficient way to teach him or her of the correct forms is not by
simply giving it to a learner, but by letting the individual discover the error and test
different hypotheses (Corder, 1974).

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Error analysis is 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.
Causes and Sources of Errors
It is an undeniable fact that an understanding of a language grammar is essential.
It is said that vocabulary is the flesh of the language and grammar is the skeleton.
However, most learners of English as a foreign language view the study of grammar as
boring and there are frequent outcries about the difficulty of structures among the
students (Qashao, 2006). Because of these, some theorists had introduced the causes and
sources of grammatical errors.
According to Corder (1974), there are two sources of errors: the Interlingual
errors and the Intralingual errors. Interlingual errors are those which are related to the
native language. This means Interlingual error is committed when the learners' native
language habits (patterns, systems or rules) interfere or prevent them, to some degree,
from acquiring the patterns and rules of the second language (SL). Interference (negative
transfer) is the negative influence of the mother tongue language (MTL) on the
performance of the target language (TL) learner (Lado, 1964).
Intralingual errors, on the other hand, are committed due to the language learned
from the other sources like instructional materials. They are items produced by the
learner which reflect not the structure of the mother tongue, but generalizations based on
partial exposure to the target language. The learner, in this case, tries to derive the rules
behind the data to which he/she has been exposed, and may develop hypotheses that
correspond neither to the mother tongue nor to the target language (Richards, 1974). In
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other words, learners commit errors in grammar because of applying the grammar
patterns of the native language to the target language.
Odlin (1989), states Language Transfer is another important cognitive factor
related to writing error. Transfer is defined as the influence resulting from similarities and
differences between the target language and any other language that has been previously
acquired. Furthermore, the influence presents in a degree to which both native language
and target language differ or similar to each other. The influence is stronger where there
are greater appearances of differences The study of transfer involves the study of errors
(negative transfer), facilitation (positive transfer), avoidance of target language forms,
and their over-use (Ellis, 1994).
Capitalization
The English language can be quite complex. Most people don't really think about
it in daily speech, but when it comes to the written word, there are countless amounts of
grammatical rules to follow. Capitalization rules are no exception. There are dozens of
grammar rules to follow when it comes to what should be capitalized and what should not
(Sarhan, 2016). These rules include: (1) Always start a sentence with a capital letter. The
first word, regardless of what it is, should always be capitalized. Example, ―The train
echoed in the distance.‖ The first letter of the word The, even if it is not a proper noun, is
capitalized because it is the first word in the sentence.
Rule number 2 of capitalization states that all proper nouns should be capitalized.
Proper nouns are names of people, places and things, therefore it should always be
capitalized. Example, ―The city of Alexandria, Egypt is a hub for tourism.‖ The words
Alexandria, Egypt are capitalized because they are names of a province (Alexandria) and
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a country (Egypt). Therefore, they are considered proper nouns. In addition, words that
derive from proper nouns should be capitalized. Foreign languages should be capitalized
because they originated from a particular country which would be considered a proper
noun. For example, ―The street vendor speaks in English to attract the people passing
by.‖ The word English is capitalized because it comes from the proper noun England.
Another example, ―Among the languages in the world, Spanish is close to my heart.‖ The
word Spanish is capitalized because it originates from Spain which is a proper noun.
Another thing to take into consideration is the name of days, months, holidays and
specific events. These are considered proper nouns and name specific days, months and
holidays. Example, ―Sandra is off work on Saturday and Sunday.‖ ―Billy's birthday is in
May.‖ ―Philip‘s favorite holiday is Halloween.‖ Words such as Saturday, and Sunday are
capitalized because they are names of the days in a Week, May is a name of a month and
Halloween is the name of one of the holidays being celebrated around the world.
Rule number 3 of capitalization states pronoun I should always be capitalized.
There is no exception to this rule. Example, ―Toni and I went shopping together.‖ No
matter where it is located, pronoun I should always be capitalized.
According to rule number 4 of capitalization, all titles should be capitalized when
it comes before a name because it becomes part of a proper noun, such as Mrs. Smith, Dr.
Thompson, and Mr. Jones. However, if the title comes after the name, it is generally not
capitalized. Example: ―Glen Howard, doctor in neuroscience, has made great strides in
his research.‖ The title of Glen Howard which is doctor is not capitalized because it
comes after the proper noun. The title doctor, then, becomes a common noun or a general
word.
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Rule number 5 states that capitalize the first word in an opening salutation and in
a closing salutation. Capitalize a person's title when it follows the name on a signature
line or as a part of an address, just like the following examples, ―Tom Belvins,
Chairperson‖ ―Dear Mr. Fallon,‖ ―Sincerely,‖
Rule number 6 states that capitalize federal, state, city, or other official
governmental names. If used in general reference, there is no need to capitalize. Example,
―The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into the mass shooting incident.‖ The
first letters of the words Federal Bureau of Investigation are capitalized because it is an
official governmental name while in the sentence ―This is considered a federal offense.‖
the word federal does not start in a capital letter because it is used to point out general
reference.
Rule number 7 states that capitalize names of bureaus, departments or other
business related titles. However, if it is being used as a general reference there is no need
for capitalization. Example, “The Department of Education is looking at implementing
new curriculum.‖ In this sentence, Department of Education starts with a capital letter
because it is a title of a department. ―There is a job opening in the department.‖ Here, the
word department does not start with a capital letter because it used as a general reference.
Rule number 8 states that names of business products should always be
capitalized. This is the name of a brand usually with a company logo. Example, ―Dodge
Ram truck.‖ Dodge Ram is a name of a company whose products are trucks. Another
examples are ―Kraft cheese,‖ ―Whirlpool dishwasher,‖ ―Havaiana sleepers,‖ etc.
Rule number 9 states that publication titles, such as books, articles and songs
should be capitalized. This includes all the words, even the short verbs, such as is, be and
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are. The only words that are not capitalized in a publication title are articles, some
conjunctions and prepositions with fewer than five letters. These include the, a, an, but,
and, of, for, as, if and or to name a few. The only time these words are capitalized is
when they are at the start of the title. Example, ―The Day the Lights Went Out‖ ―A Tale
of Two Cities.‖ The two examples contain capitalization in the first letter of each word
except the article the and preposition of. However, the words the and a are capitalized
because they are at the start of the title.
Rule number 10 states that specific course titles are capitalized. There is some
confusion when it comes to this rule. It should always be remembered that course titles
that are capitalized are naming a specific course, which in turn makes them a title as well
as a proper noun. However, in the absence of specific course title, course title should be
capitalized and becomes proper noun. Example: ―My favorite in social studies is World
Geography.‖ ―Among the branches of science, Biology interests me most.‖ The first
sentence shows that eventhough social studies is a course title, it does not start with a
capital letter because it has a specific course title which is World Geography. It is also
applicable to the second sentence wherein the first letter of the word science is not
capitalized because it has a specific course title in the sentence which is Microbiology.
Religions, holy books, holy days and names of specific deities need to be
capitalized according to rule number 11 of capitalization. However, the general use of the
word god should not start in a capital letter. Example, ―There is none worthy of worship
other than Allah.‖ Allah starts in a capital letter because it is a name of a specific deity of
the Muslims. ―Thou shall put no other gods before Allah.‖ In this example, the word god
does not start in a capital letter because it is used to point out general word for the deities,
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however, Allah starts with capital letter because it is specific name of a deity. ―The Holy
Qur'an is a sacred text for Muslims.‖ Holy Qur‟an and Muslims start with a capital letter
because they name a specific book and specific group of people.
Rule number 12 states that when it comes to directions, such as north, south, east
and west, capitalize the specific direction when it specifies a name of an area or a region
of a city or country. However, when referring to the cardinal points of a compass, there is
no need for capitalization. Example, ―Tina is from the South.‖ The word South in this
sentence starts with a capital letter because it points out a specific direction, however, in
the sentence ―Turn south at the next light.‖ South does not start with a capital letter
because it refers to the cardinal point of a compass.
Rule number 13 states that do not capitalize names of seasons. The only exception
to this rule is if it is a part of an event title. Example, ―Bears hibernate in the winter.‖
Winter in this sentence does not start with a capital letter because it is plainly a name of a
season, while in the sentence ―The community gathers together at the annual Big Spring
Jam.‖ Spring starts with a capital letter because it is part of the title of the event.
Always capitalize the first word after a quotation mark according to rule number
14 of capitalization. When including a direct quote within a sentence you would use a
comma, then a quotation mark, followed by capitalizing the first word in the quotation.
Example, ―Before I go," he said and paused, "I may kiss her?" (from A Tale of Two
Cities).‖
There is no need to capitalize after using a colon if it is a list of people, things,
places or ideas according to rule number 15 of capitalization. Example, ‗Tara had several
items on her grocery list that included: eggs, milk, bread, cheese and coffee.‖
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Do not capitalize after a colon if it is included on one sentence after the colon
according to rule number 16 of capitalization. However, if there will be two or more
sentences after the colon, capitalize the first word. Example, ―I loved Emily Bronte's
novel: her book, Wuthering Heights, was very engaging.‖ This is a compound sentence
which is composed of two sentences combined by a colon. However, there is only one
sentence preceded the colon, so the first letter of the first word after the colon is not
capitalized (Alfiyani, 2013).
With these complex rules governing capitalization, it could be really challenging
on the part of the L2 learners to master these. It could really confuse the learners as to
how to use these rules.
Spelling
English spelling, according to Trask (2006), is notoriously complex, irregular, and
eccentric, more so than in almost any other written language because it is so
unpredictable since its vocabulary consists of many words derived from other languages,
which have been adopted with their original spellings intact. It is bounded with a lot of
rules which make the learning not easy.
Although English has 42 sounds, there are 400 ways to spell them. No wonder it
can be a challenging language. The rules that govern spelling are: 1. „ie‟ or „ei.‟ Write i
before e, except after c, example: achieve, believe, friend receive, receipt, perceive. Write
ie after c for words with a ―shen” sound. Example: ancient, efficient, sufficient,
conscience. Write ei when the vowels sounds like an ―a” as in weigh, neighbour, vein,
reign, rein, deign. Exceptions to this rule are the words: counterfeit, either, neither,
height, leisure, forfeit , foreign, science, species, seize, weird.

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The second rule of spelling states that add es if a word ends in ch, sh, ss, x or z,
examples, arch- arches, clash- clashes, class- classes, box- boxes, quiz- quizzes. Add es
for most words ending in o, example: tomato- tomatoes, hero- heroes, go- goes, do- does,
echo- echoes. Exceptions to this rule are words like altos, duos, pianos, radios, solos
sopranos, studios, videos, typos.
Rule number 3, „y‟ to „i‟ or no. For words ending in y preceded by a vowel, retain
the y when adding s or a suffix, example, convey- conveys, employ- employer. For words
ending in y, retain the y when adding ing, example, try- trying, justify- justifying, certify-
certifying, study- studying. For words ending in y, preceded by au consonant, change y to
i before any other suffix, example, try- tried, justify- justifies, certify- certifiable, mystify-
mystified, laboratory- laboratories. Exceptions to this rule are words like dryness,and
shyness.
Drop the final „e‟ is the 4th rule of spelling. Drop the e when the suffix starts
with a vowel, example, save- savable, use- usable, etc. Drop the e when the word ends in
dge, example, judge- judgment, etc.. Drop the final e when adding –ing, save- saving,
manage- managing, trace- tracing, emerge- emerging. Exceptions: Do not drop the e if
the word ends in ce or ge (e.g. manage- manageable, trace- traceable). Exceptions to this
rule are words like dryness,and shyness.
„T ‟ or „tt‟ when adding -ing, - ed and some suffixes to verbs. Double the t for
verbs of one syllable with a single vowel, or a short vowel sound, example, rot- rotting,
rotted, rotten; fit- fitting, fitted; knot- knotting, knotted. Double the t for verbs of more
than one syllable when the stress is on the last syllable, abet- abetting, abetting; allot-
allotting, allotted; commit- committing, committed; emit- emitting, emitted; forget-

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forgetting, forgotten (but forgetful). Exceptions: Do not double the t for verbs of one
syllable with a double vowel or a long vowel sound (e.g. treat- treating, treated; greet-
greeting, greeted). Exceptions to this rule are words like dryness,and shyness.
„R‟ or „rr‟ when adding -ing, - ed and some suffixes to verbs. Double the r for
verbs of one syllable when the final r is preceded by a single vowel, example, star-
starring, starred, starry; tar- tarring, tarred; war- warring, warred (but warfare); scar-
scarring, scarred; stir- stirring, stirred. Double the r for words of more than one syllable
when the stress does not fall on the first syllable, example, concur- concurring,
concurred, concurrence; occur- occurring, occurred, occurrence; defer- deferring,
deferred, (but deference); deter- deterring, deterring, deterrent; infer- inferring, inferred,
(but inference); prefer- preferred, preferring, (but preference); refer- referred, referring,
referral. Exceptions: Do not double the r for verbs of one syllable when the final r is
preceded by a double vowel (e.g. fear- fearing, feared) Do not double the r for words of
more than one syllable, when the stress falls on the first syllable (e.g. prosper- prospered,
prospering). Exceptions to this rule are words like dryness,and shyness.
„l‟ or „ll‟ when adding -ing, -ed and some suffixes to verbs. Double the l when it
is preceded by a single vowel, example, cancel- cancelling, cancelled, cancellation;
enrol- enrolling, enrolled (but enrolment); fulfil- fulfilling, fulfilled, fulfilment; level-
levelling, levelled; travel- travelling, travelled, traveller. Exceptions: Do not double the l
when it is preceded by a double vowel (e.g. conceal- concealing, concealed). Exceptions
to this rule are words like dryness,and shyness.
Dropping letters. Many words drop a letter when adding a suffix, but it is not
always the final letter, example, argue- argument; proceed- procedure; humour-
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humorous; disaster- disastrous; repeat- repetition; administer- administration. There is
no reliable rule covering these words, so they simply have to be memorised. Exceptions
to this rule are words like dryness,and shyness.
Word endings such as able/ible, ant/ance; ent/ence, example, negligible,
incredible, invisible, sensible, admirable, preventable, suitable, dependable attendance,
ignorance, nuisance, importance sentence, difference ,independence, intelligence. There
is no reliable rule covering these words, so they simply have to be memorised.
Exceptions to this rule are words like dryness,and shyness.
Silent letters. Some words include letters which are not pronounced when the
word is spoken, example, advertisement, campaign, column, debt, design, doubt, gauge,
ghetto, heir, knife, knowledge, island, mortgage, often, pneumatic, rhythm, solemn,
subtle. There is no reliable rule covering these words, so they simply have to be
memorised (Elder, 2016).
In any language, spelling always poses as a problem to many. Incorrect spelling
of words may change their meaning. To properly convey the idea correct spelling is
important.
Rules of spelling in Hiligaynon. Spelling should be in accordance with the
phonetic sound of the word. Example, bulsa, semana, gid ; Use of o and u, (a) if the
first syllable of the word has o or u sound, u is usually used. Example, umpisa, suman,
uling. (b) if the last syllable of the word has o or u sound, o is usually used except when it
precedes m (except when there is a u-o pattern) and when the word has a grave or
circumflex accent. Example, kuno, dulom, itum (exception: bayu, amu). (c) If a word has
three o or u sound, the first three shall be u and the fourth shall be o. Example, tinutuyo.
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(d) If the word has four o or u sound, the first three shall be u and the fourth shall be o.
Example, pumuluyo. (e) The terminal letter o is changed to u when a suffix is added to
the word. Example, kumpleto + ha= kumpletoha; When a root word is repeated, the
spelling is not changed. Example, tiyog- tiyog (spinning around several times); not
tiyug-tiyog, sunod- sunod (in successive order); nit sunud- sunod; Use and Non-use of
Hyphen. (a) There should be a hyphen between a consonant and a vowel, only if it is to
avoid confusion. Example, luy-a (ginger). (b) A hyphen is necessary between two
repeated words if they tell either similarity or likeness, intensity, or repeated action (root
words which are composed of repeated syllables do not carry a hyphen. Example, tawo-
tawo (likeness of a person), lain-lain (an ill feeling becoming worse or intense).
However, huyahuya (makahiya plant) do not carry a hyphen because it is composed of a
repeated syllable. (c) A hyphen is necessary between the prefix and a proper noun.
Example, taga- Iloilo, maki- Dios, mapa- Capiz. (d) A hyphen is used as a replacement
for a vowel that is deleted. Example, kaon + a= kan-a. (e) A hyphen is used between a
root word and a one- vowel suffix in words of order or request. Example, pili-a. (f) A
hyphen is used in some compound words. Example, tuapad- balay (neighbour); Use of
wa, we, wi instead of ua, ui and ya, ye, yo instead of ia, ie, io in common nouns.
Example, kwarta, kambyo (exception: liempo, tiangge); Rule 6) Use of Prefixes. (a) The
use of prefixes (a-, i-, al-, pala-, mala-, dulo-, hulo, etc.) does not change the spelling of
the word. Example, palahambal, inugdugang. (b) The prefix pang- or mang-when with
words beginning in consonants except g, h, m, n, r, w, y undergo consonant change or
assimilation. Example, pamulak (pang + bulak), pangudal (pang + kudal), panuhol
(pangduhol), mamulak (mang + bulak), mangudal (mang + kudal); Use of Infixes. The
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use of infixes (-in-, -um-, -ul-, etc.) does not change the spelling of the word. Example,
kinadlaw, lumumpat, bululngan; Use of Suffixes. (a) Some words ending in d when with
suffixes –a, -an/han, i,-on, -anay change to r. Those ending in o when with these suffixes
change to w. Exapmle, patawara (patawad + a), katwahan (ka + tawo + han). (b) Some
words with r in the last syllable when with suffixes change to l. Example, sugilanon
(sugiran + on), kadton (kagat + on). (c) The addition of the suffixes –a, -an, -on, ukon, -
anay enables the word to employ metathesis. Example, imnon (inom + -on), sudlan
(sulod + -an), baslan (balos + -an).
Related Studies
A number of research studies have been conducted both to find out causes of
writing problems and to help ESL learners overcome difficulties in their writing.
For instance, some studies try to identify types of errors in learners‘ various types
of writing, including sentences, paragraphs, essays, and abstracts, and categorize those
errors, so they can be accurately corrected (Huang, 2006).
Mabuan (2015) for instance, analysed the errors found in English in the 58 blog
posts written by the 58 participants through weblogs. The result found out that the most
problematic area in grammar among the participants is the verb tense. Wrong application
of verb tenses can be seen when the participants did not apply the correct tense to the
verb in the sentences. Students had problems with the use of bare infinitive after modals,
the use of the simple present tense when the context is in the present, and the use of
simple past tense to refer to actions completed in the past.

29
Mabuan (2015) added that the second most common type of error committed by
the students is the error in subject-verb agreement. Students seemed not to master the
syntactic rules of providing singular verbs for singular subjects and plural verbs for plural
subjects. It was observed that the major cause of this error is students‘ confusion in
locating the subject and determining its number.
The third most common type of error is error in prepositions. It was noticed that
students were not sure of the semantic scope of certain prepositions, i.e. they do not know
whether the preposition IN, for example, or the prepositions ON and AT should be used
in a given context.
These errors showed that students still have not mastered the rules governing the
English grammar even though they are exposed to these rules.
On the study of Gustilo and Magno (2012) concerning the case of the Filipino
ESL, the top five most frequently occurring errors that are distributed in three different
levels of writing proficiency are comma (unnecessary or missing comma, missing comma
after an introductory clause or phrase, missing comma before a nonrestrictive clause)
16.6 %, Word choice (wrong word form/word choice) 13.5%, Verbs (S-V Agreement,
verb tense, verb form) 11.8%, Capitalization 11.3 %, and punctuation and sentence
structure (fragment and run on sentences) 9.4 %.
Addition to this is the study of Lin (2002) wherein he examined 26 essays from
Taiwanese EFL students at college level. The results of his study indicated that the four
highest error frequencies were sentence structures (30.43%), wrong verb forms (21.01%),
sentence fragments (15.94%), and wrong use of words (15.94%).

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Some studies attempt to examine sources of errors since knowing the sources that
lead to learners‘ making of the errors is an effective way to help reduce errors (Penny,
2001.
The studies of Kroll and Schafer's (1978) and Kwok (1998) demonstrate how
error analysis can be used to improve writing skills. They analyse possible sources of
errors in non-native-English writers‘ work, and attempt to provide a process approach to
writing where the error analysis can help achieve better writing skills.
Furthermore, a considerable number of studies employ Error Analysis (EA) which
is the process to analyze learners‘ errors systematically has gained a great deal of interest
from many scholars and researchers. Error Analysis (EA) was employed to help both
EFL and ESL learners improve their writing.
Eun-pyo (2002) conducted an error analysis study on Korean medical students‘
writing. The subjects in the study were 35 second year premedical students who took
English Writing in the third semester of their two-year English curriculum. The primary
purpose of the study was to analyse what errors intermediate to advanced level learners,
at a medical college, make in their writing by reviewing their formal and informal letters.
Since these learners were considered relatively of advanced level according to their
scores of the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC), the results were
also compared with other results of basic level learners from a previous study. The
subjects‘ writing was evaluated and the sentences with errors were recorded to identify
the types and frequency of errors. The study revealed that approximately one fourth of
errors (26%) resulted from L1 transfer. Other major errors identified were wrong words
(16%), prepositions (15%) and articles (14%).

31
Eun-pyo‘s (2002) study is relevant to the present study since both studies evaluate
students' written pieces and identify the types and frequency of errors made.
In another study, Yin and Ung (2001) investigated errors made by ESL students in
their written work. While Eun-pyo (2002) concentrated on subjects whose English
proficiency was relatively good, Yin and Ung (2001) focused on subjects with low
language proficiency. They attempted to analyse, describe, and explain the cross-
linguistic influence found in 50 written English essays of low proficiency students (that is
students with a score that was less than 50% of the total marks (30 marks), and to
determine how the native language or mother tongue (in their case, Bahasa Melayu)
influenced the acquisition of English. The analysis revealed items which have been
incorrectly used due to the interference from L1 and low proficiency of the target
language. In their findings they identified items like: approximation; coined words and
slang; language switch; medium transfer; inappropriate use of tenses; omission of
articles; omission or wrong usage of articles; adjective morphology errors; prefabricated
patterns; and literal translation.
Other researchers employed error analysis to examine the types of errors in
Taiwanese EFL students' English writing. Kao (1999) studied 169 compositions from 53
Taiwanese college students who were English major students. A total of 928 errors were
found, among which grammatical errors occurred with the greatest frequency, 66%,
semantic errors occurred 18% of the time, and lexical errors occurred with the least
frequency, 16%.
Error analysis helps linguists realise that although errors sometimes obstruct
communication, they can often facilitate second language learning, and they play a
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significant role in training teachers and helping them identify and classify learners' errors,
as well as helping them construct correction techniques.
Wijaya (2009), in his study about the grammatical errors made by the fifth year
pupils, uses the classification of errors in the use of questions suggested by Richards,
namely omission of inversion, be-omitted, omission of do, wrong form of auxiliary/verb,
and inversion in embedded sentences. The research is intended to see the predominant
type of grammatical errors produced by the fifth year pupils of Santa Theresia II. The
researcher found that most pupils made errors in wrong form of auxiliary.
Other research studies, for example, Kutz, Groden, and Zamel (1993); Carson
(2001), suggest different reasons why errors occur. First of all, learners may translate
from L1, or they may try out what they assume is a legitimate structure of the target
language. Secondly, they also tend to over-generalise the rules for stylistic features when
acquiring new discourse structures. In addition, learners are often unsure of what they
want to express, which would cause them to make mistakes in any language. Finally,
writers in L2 might lack familiarity with new rhetorical structures and the organisation of
ideas.
Sawalmeh (2013), in his study attempts to investigate the errors in a corpus of 32
essays written by 32 Arabic-speaking Saudi learners of English. All the participants in the
study are male students who graduated from Saudi secondary schools and joined the
Preparatory Year Program at University of Ha'il. The results show that the Arabic
speakers in this study committed ten common errors. These errors are: (1) verb tense, (2)
word order, (3) singular/plural form, (4) subject-verb agreement, (5) double negatives, (6)
spellings, (7) capitalization, (8) articles (9) sentence fragments and (10) prepositions.
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It goes without saying that the students' errors can be due to L1 transfer or the L2
itself. It can be due to the materials used or the native language. However, the overt
influences of native language on the students' writing of English indicate that language
teachers need to take careful stock of the transfer and interference of the students' mother
tongue in their spoken or written production. Therefore, one way to highlight the
influences of the mother tongues on the students' learning of English is to collect these
errors and ask the students to analyse them and if they could to correct them (Ridha
2012).
Synthesis
In this century, English has become a universal language. It has an essential
importance in politics, economy and commerce. Therefore, the number of second
language learners is increasing rapidly. So, those learners need to master grammatical
features of English in order to have the ability to communicate in English correctly.
As a Second Language Learners of the English, Filipinos should exert more
efforts and understanding on the grammatical rules to be proficient in the lingua franca of
the world. Mastery of the said rules will be the stepping stone in attaining good
communication skill that will open the door in the world of globalization.
However, poor application of the grammatical rules in English language has been
shown by some studies in the Philippines claiming that learners‘ English proficiency is
deteriorating. This is evident in the studies of Mabuan (2015) about the Grammatical
Errors of Filipino Learners of English as a Second Language, and Gustilo and Magno
(2012) about The Case of Filipino ESL which both showed the errors on the respondents‘
works.
34
As to the similarities of the previous study to the literature reviewed, both used
the Error Analysis pioneered by Corder (1974). Also, both focused on the identification
of the grammatical errors committed by the respondents and the sources (interlingual and
intralingual) of errors.
However, this study differs from those reviewed literature in terms of the group of
respondents, the age of the respondents, the criteria in the selection of the respondents
and the place/ school where the study was conducted.

35
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
This chapter contains the description of the methods used in the conduct of the
study. The study utilized the qualitative method of research to describe the grammatical
errors committed in the 120-word essay of the junior high school students of two public
secondary schools in the northern part of Iloilo for School Year 2017-2018. Purposive
Sampling was used in the selection of 16 participants from the two (2) secondary high
schools. It also used Corder‘s (1974) Method on Error Analysis in identifying and
analyzing the grammatical errors and the sources of errors of the students.
Methodological Perspective
The qualitative method of research was utilized in this study for it primarily
aimed of identifying and analysing the grammatical errors of the Junior High School
students. This type of research describes the observed phenomena in the form of words
rather than numbers (Sutomo, 2010). This method was used to present a clear picture of
the grammatical errors and the sources of errors of the students.
Corder‘s (1974) Method on Error Analysis was essential in the identification and
analysis of the students‘ grammatical errors. It mainly composed of five steps: (1)
collecting samples of learner‘s language, (2) identifying the errors - the errors found on
the essay written by the participants were identified, (3) describing the errors - the
identified errors were described according to the rules of English grammar, (4) explaining
the errors - the researcher explained how the errors were committed using Corder‘s
(1974) Sources of Errors, the Intralingual and the Interlingual errors, and (5) evaluating
35
36
the errors - grammatical errors were evaluated as to what grammatical rule/s received the
most number of error.
Context of the Study
This study was conducted at two (2) public secondary high schools in the northern
part of Iloilo for S.Y. 2017-2018. These schools were selected because these were the
only national high schools in one of the municipalities in the 5th District of Iloilo.
School A
School A is located in a barangay which is approximately 7 kilometers away from
the town. It has 6 adjacent barangays where all the students came from. The students can
reached the school by riding in a motorcycle or walking for approximately half an hour,
for the farthest barangays. It has a total population of 420 students who were grouped
homogeneously. It has 3 sections for grade 7, 2 sections for grade 8 to 10, and 1 section
for grade 11. The school does not offer grade 12 yet, since it is only a new implementer
of the senior high school. It offers General Academic Strand for grade 11.
School B
School B is located in a barangay which is approximately 1 kilometer away from
the town. The students were composed of those who live in all the barangays of the town
and of those who live in the neighboring towns which were approximately 15 kilometers
away from the school. It can be reached via motorcycle, bus, or van. It has a population
of 2,843 students for the junior high school alone and approximately 1, 500 for the senior
high school. The students were grouped homogeneously for the first three sections and
heterogeneously for the rest of the sections. It has around 12 sections for each grade
37
level. The school is a full implementer of the senior high school offering different tracks
and strands.
Participants of the Study
The participants of the study were the 32 junior high school students who were
officially enrolled for S.Y. 2017-2018 in the two public national high schools in the
northern part of Iloilo. Sixteen (16) of the participants, who were composed of two (2)
males and two (2) females from each grade level, came from School A while the
remaining 16 students came School B.
Sample Size and Sampling Procedure
Purposive sampling is a technique widely used in qualitative research for the
identification and selection of information-rich cases for the most effective use of limited
resources (Patton, 2002). This involves identifying and selecting individuals or groups of
individuals who are especially knowledgeable about or experienced with a phenomenon
of interest (Cresswell & Plano Clark, 2011). In addition to knowledge and
experience, Bernard (2002) and Spradley (1979) note the importance of availability and
willingness to participate, and the ability to communicate experiences and opinions in an
articulate, expressive, and reflective manner.
Purposive Sampling was used in the selection of 32 participants from the two (2)
national high schools.
In choosing the participants, the following criteria were considered: 1) the
students have an average grade of 80- above, satisfactory (for the section 1) and an
38
average grade of 75- 84, fair- satisfactory (for the lower section) in an English subject
(based on the DepEd Order No. 8, series of 2015), 2) officially enrolled in the two
schools, 3) in grade 7, 8, 9, and 10, and 4) currently taking his or her English subject.
Research Instrument
The instrument used in this study was the guide questions constructed by the three
(3) English teachers who served as evaluators. The researcher proposed three (3) titles for
the essay to be written by the participants. The proposed titles were: ―Social Media: Its
Good and Bad Sides,‖ ―Challenges Faced by Millenials,‖ and ―What Makes Schooling
Difficult.‖ Out of these titles, the evaluators chose ―What Makes Schooling Difficult.‖
This was because according to them students could easily relate to it and it was easy to
understand.
They suggested that there should only be three (3) guide questions. These guide
questions unified the content of their essays: Introduction - What is the importance of
education/going to school?, Body - What is/are the difficulty/difficulties you have
encountered in school?, and Conclusion - How do you use these difficulties to motivate
you to study well?
Data Gathering Procedure
The data were collected from the 32 identified junior high school students of two
public secondary high school in the northern part of Iloilo. The researcher had the
participants of the study signed a consent form and told all of them that the participation
was voluntary. In addition, the researcher informed the participants that all the
39
information would be treated with utmost anonymity and that would only be used for this
research purpose. After that, the researcher administered and gave the students enough
time to write a 120-word essay titled ―What Makes Schooling Difficult‖ with the
following guide questions to unify the content of their essays: Introduction - What is the
importance of education/going to school?, Body - What is/are the difficulty/difficulties
you have encountered in school?, and Conclusion - How do you use these difficulties to
motivate you to study well? After the given time, the essays were collected and the
participants were thanked for their participation.
Data Analysis Procedure
The essays written by the participants were analysed using Corder‘s (1974)
Methods on Error Analysis. This method has five steps: (1) collecting samples of
learner‘s language, (2) identifying the errors - the errors found on the essay written by the
participants were identified, (3) describing the errors - the identified errors were
described according to the rules of English grammar, (4) explaining the errors - the
researcher explained how the errors were committed using Corder‘s (1974) Sources of
Errors, the Intralingual and the Interlingual errors, and (5) evaluating the errors -
grammatical errors were evaluated as to what grammatical rule/s received the most
number of error.
The collection of a sample of participants‘ language was the foremost step in the
identification and analysis of the grammatical errors. This step was, then, followed by the
identification of the errors committed by the participants. The researcher looked on errors
committed on the following grammatical rules: (1) verb tense, (2) word order, (3)
40
singular/plural form, (4) subject-verb agreement, (5) double negative, (6) spellings, (7)
capitalizations, (8) articles, (9) sentence fragments, and (10) prepositions.
The identified errors were then described as to how the participants commit error
in a specific grammatical rule. The fourth (4) step was explaining the errors, wherein the
researcher made use of Corder‘s (1974) Sources of Errors.
According to Corder (1974), there were two sources of errors: the Interlingual
errors were those which were related to the native language. These were committed when
the learners' native language habits (patterns, systems or rules) interfere or prevent them,
to some degree, from acquiring the patterns and rules of the second language (SL).
Interference (negative transfer) is the negative influence of the mother tongue language
(MTL) on the performance of the target language (TL) learner (Lado, 1964).
Intralingual errors, on the other hand, are committed due to the language learned
from the other sources like instructional materials. They are items produced by the
learner which reflect not the structure of the mother tongue, but generalizations based on
partial exposure to the target language. The learner, in this case, tries to derive the rules
behind the data to which he/she has been exposed, and may develop hypotheses that
correspond neither to the mother tongue nor to the target language (Richards, 1974).
Lastly, the evaluation of the errors. Grammatical errors committed by the
participants were evaluated as to what grammatical rule/s received the most number of
errors.
The result of the study, then, became the basis in determining the possible
remedial activities to be used by the English teachers.

41
Collecting the sample

language of the students
throught their essays
Identifying the grammatical

errors committed by the
students in their L2 writing
Analysing the identified

errors
Identifying the sources of

errors using Corder‘s (1974)
Sources of Errors
Determining possible
remedial activities
Figure 1. Flow chart in analysing the grammatical errors in L2 writing.

42
CHAPTER IV
PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS, AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA
This chapter presents and discusses the findings of the study on the grammatical
errors committed by the junior high school students in their L2 writing. The grammatical
errors discussed include capitalization, sentence fragment, subject/verb agreement,
spelling, word order, singular/plural form, verb tense, article, preposition, and double
negative.
Grammatical Errors
Table 1 shows the grammatical errors in L2 writing committed by the junior high
school students. As reflected in the table, a total of 192 grammatical errors were
committed by the students. Among the identified grammatical errors, capitalization was
the most frequently committed error with a frequency count of 57 (29.69%). Other errors
were spelling with a frequency count of 33 (17.19%), sentence fragment, 22 (11.46%),
subject-verb agreement, 21 (10.94%), verb tense , 20 (10.42%), article and word order,
11 (5.73%), singular/plural form, 9 (4.69%), preposition, 5 (2.60%), and double negative
as the lowest with a frequency count of 3 (1.56%).
The analysis of the errors revealed that students usually committed errors in
capitalization of words. This implies that they have not mastered the necessary
grammatical rules in capitalization. On the other hand, students are aware that double
negative is wrong in language writing as shown by very few students who committed
such error.
The findings of the study are in support of the findings of the study of Sawalmeh
42
43
(2013) wherein he used the Error Analysis of Corder in identifying the grammatical
errors committed by the 32 participants in the University of Ha'il. The result revealed that
the 10 common errors committed by the participants were also the grammatical errors
committed by the respondents of the study. It also support Gustilo and Magno‘s (2012)
study wherein the top 5 identified most frequently occurring errors in the result of their
study were comma, word choice, verbs, capitalization, and punctuation and sentence
structure were also the grammatical errors with the most frequency counts in this study.
Table 1. Identified grammatical errors committed by the junior high school students.
FREQUENCY OF PERCENTAGE
TYPE OF ERROR
ERRORS %
Capitalization 57 29.69
Spelling 33 17.19
Sentence Fragment 22 11.46
Subject-Verb Agreement 21 10.94
Verb Tense 20 10.42
Article 11 5.73
Word Order 11 5.73
Singular/Plural Form 9 4.69
Preposition 5 2.60
Double Negative 3 1.56
TOTAL 192 100

44
Analysis of Grammatical Errors

Committed by the Respondents
Capitalization
Data revealed that among the grammatical errors committed by the junior high
school students of two public secondary schools in the northern part of Iloilo,
capitalization got the most number of errors having 57 (29.69%) frequency counts.
The English language can be quite complex. Capitalization rules are no exception.
There are dozens of grammar rules to follow when it comes to what should be capitalized
and what should not (Sarhan, 2016).
Junior high school students committed errors in this rule as evident in the
following: ―love life was the way you…‖ This shows that the students are not able to
follow rule number 1 because he/she failed to capitalize the first letter of the word love.
Regardless of its usage, it should start with a capital letter because it is the beginning of
the sentence. Another example of an error in rule number 1 which was committed by the
students in their L2 writing is, ―as a student will study …‖ The first letter of the word as,
which is a, should be capitalized, because it is the beginning of the sentence. However,
some students committed errors because they capitalize the first letter of some words
which are actually not in the beginning of the sentence. Examples of these are: ―First,
Strive more …,‖ ―Eventhough it is hard, Sometimes we need to pursue …‖ These
sentences actually start with a capital letter and ends in a period, however, the word that
follows the comma also starts with a capital letter making this sentence incorrect. The
word strive, for the first example, functions as a verb of a missing subject which is the
student himself/her self because of the presence of an adjective my, while sometimes, for
45
the second example, functions as an adverb of time. With these, strive and sometimes
should not start with a capital letter because they are not the start of the sentence. Also, a
verb and an adverb are not proper nouns. This case has something to do with rule number
2 of capitalization.
Students also committed errors in rule number 2 of capitalization as evident in
lines like, ―is a … Balasan national high school.‖ Balasan national high school, should
be written wherein the first letter of each word is capitalized because it is a name of a
place, specifically of a school, therefore, it is a proper noun. However, some students
committed errors in this rule because they capitalized the first letter of the word even if it
is not a proper noun. Examples are: ―…importance of Going to School everyday … In
everyday life. Words like going, school, and in should not be capitalized because they are
not proper nouns. Going is a noun, a gerund in its case, but is not a proper noun. It does
not name something. School is also a noun, but a common noun that generalizes a place.
While in is a preposition that should not be written in a capital letter unless it starts the
sentence. The same error is committed by this sentence, ―... I Encountered In my school
and In my study that I've Got a Failing Grade In my other subjects.‖ The word the since it
is the start of the sentence should also start in a capital letter. On the other hand,
encountered, in, got a failing grade should not start with a capital letter. They are not
proper nouns because encountered is a verb, in is a preposition, got is also a verb, failing
functions as a preposition in the sentence, and grade, still not a proper noun. The
sentence ―When they speak english some of the words …‖ also contains an error
concerning rule no. 2 of capitalization. It did not follow the sub-rule of rule no. 2 which
states that foreign languages should be capitalized because they originated from a
46
particular country which would be considered a proper noun. The word English in the
sentence should be capitalized because it is a foreign language which originates in
England, making it a proper noun.
Students committed errors in rule no. 3 in phrases (taken from the sentences) like;
―The difficulties i have encountered …,‖ ―… i can do everything to make my parents
proud...,‖ ―… i don't give up …,‖ ―… also i believe in the saying…‖ ―… i can do
everything to make my parents proud…‖ In these examples, personal pronoun I should be
capitalized in accordance to rule no. 3 of capitalization.
―…almost all students in school find Mathematics hard especially algebra...‖ This
sentence is applicable in rule no. 10 of capitalization. The course title mathematics has a
specific course title Algebra. Therefore, the specific course title Algebra should be
written in capital letter because it is considered as a proper noun while the course title
mathematics should not start in a capital letter because it becomes a general word.
The students also committed errors concerning rule number 11 of capitalization.
In the sentence ―You have to fight for this god's givens life...,‖ the word god is not used
to generalize, but it is a specific name of an Almighty who is worshipped by Christians.
Therefore, it should be capitalized. In addition, ―…. study hard, and pray in lord, …‖ is
also the concern this rule. Lord should also be capitalized because it means the same God
to the Christians.
The junior high school students have not avoided the complexities in the rules of
capitalization since they committed errors in what should be capitalized and what should
not be capitalized even behind the fact the English and Hiligaynon, the L1of the students,
shared the same rules in terms of capitalization (Sarhan, 2016).

47
Table 2. Summary of errors committed by the junior high school students in

capitalization.
ERRORS ANALYSIS CORRECTION/S

RULE APPLIED
(1) love life was the way The first rule in Love life was the way you
you… capitalization states that
always start a sentence with
a capital letter. The first
word, regardless of what is, …
should always be
capitalized.
In the sentence number 1,
the first letter of the word
love should start with a
capital letter, regardless of
its used, because it is the
start of the sentence.
(2) as a student will study The same rule (no. 1) As a student will study …
… should be applied in this
sentence. The first letter of
the word as, which is a,
should be capitalized,
regardless of its used in the
sentence, because it is the
beginning of the sentence.
This should be followed in
order to correct the error
committed in capitalization.
(3) the important of my life The first letter of the word The important of my life …
… the should be capitalized
because it is the beginning
of the sentence.
(4) that is my encountered The letter t in the word that That is my encountered …
… should be capitalized
because it is the start of the
sentence.
(5) and that is my … And should start with a And that is my …

capital letter because it is
the beginning of the
sentence.
48
Table 2 continued

RULE APPLIED
(6) the difficult of my... The word the should start The difficult of my...
with a capital letter because
it is the beginning of the
sentence.
(7) be one with the leaders. This is considered as a Be one with the leaders.
sentence because it is
understood that the subject
of this sentence is you,
therefore, the first letter of
the first word which is b
should be capitalized.
(8) we learn that things ... The pronoun we should start We learn that things ...
with a capital letter because
it is the start of the
sentence.
(9) to get high grades … The first letter of the word To get high grades …
to should be capitalized
sentence.
(10) use this difficulties … The first letter of use should Use this difficulties …
be capitalized because it is
the start of the sentence.
(11) make your dreams The first letter of the word Make your dreams come
come true. make should be capitalized true.
because it is the beginning
of the sentence.
(12) reach your star and The first letter of the word Reach your star and never
never give up. reach should be capitalized give up.
sentence.
(13) but be strong … The word but, regardless of But be strong …

its usage in the sentence,
49
Table 2 continued

RULE APPLIED
(14) she said to … The first letter of the word She said to me …
she should be capitalized to
follow rule no. 1 of
capitalization.
(15) how prove my … The student wrote this as a How prove my …

sentence because of the
period at the end of it,
therefore the first letter of
the first word should be
written in capital.
(16) we are speciall, uniqe, The first word in this We are speciall, uniqe, …
… sentence which is the
pronoun we should begin
with a capital letter in
accordance to rule no. 1 of
capitalization.
(17) First, Strive more … This sentence starts with a

capital letter and ends in a
period, however, the word
that follows the comma also
starts with a capital letter
making this sentence
incorrect. The word strive
functions as a verb of a
missing subject which is the
student himself/her self
because of the presence of
the adjective my. With this,
strive should not start with a
capital letter because a verb
is not a proper noun. Proper
nouns which are names of
the people, places, and
things should be capitalized.
50
Table 2 continued

RULE APPLIED
(18) Eventhough it is hard, The same rule should be Eventhough it is hard,
Sometimes we need to applied in this sentence, sometimes we need to
pursue … wherein sometimes should pursue …
not start with a capital letter
because it is not a proper
noun.
(19) project and output are This sentence didn‘t follow Project and output are one
one of Difficulties too. rule nos. 1 and 2 of of difficulties too.
capitalization. The word
project should begin in a
capital letter because it is
sentence. On the other hand,
The word difficulties should
not begin in a capital letter
noun.
(20) is a … Balasan This sentence lacks of a Is a … Balasan National

national high school. subject, however, the High School.
presence of the period at the
end of it signifies that the
student wrote this as a
sentence. Therefore, The
first letter of the word is
should be capitalized. On
the other hand, Balasan
national high school, should
be written where the first
letter of each word is
capitalized because it is a
name of a place,
specifically of a school,
therefore, it is a proper
noun.
51
Table 2 continued

RULE APPLIED
(21) the importance of The word the should start The importance of going to
Going to School everyday with a capital letter because school everyday … in
… In everyday life. it is the beginning of the everyday life.
sentence. However, words
like going, school, and in
should not be capitalized
because they are not proper
nouns. Going is not a proper
noun. School is also a noun,
but a common noun that
generalizes a place, while in
is a preposition.
(22) the difficulties that I The should also start in a The difficulties that I
Encountered In my school capital letter because it is encountered in my school
and In my study that I've the start of the sentence. On and in my study that I've
Got a Failing Grade In my the other hand, got a failing grade in my
other subjects. encountered, in, got a other subjects.
failing grade should not
start with a capital letter.
They are not proper nouns
because encountered is a
verb, in is a preposition, got
is also a verb, failing
functions as a preposition in
the sentence, and grade,
still not a proper noun.
(23) When they speak This sentence did not follow When they speak English
english some of the words rule no. 2 of capitalization some of the words …
… The word English in the
sentence should be
foreign language which
originates in England,
making it a proper noun.
52
Table 2 continued

RULE APPLIED
(24) … and english is so This sentence shows that … and English is so hard
hard like Math. the student has not yet fully like Math.
comprehends the rule in
proper nouns. He/she was
able to write Math correctly
having its first letter
capitalized, however the
student failed to write
English correctly because
he/she was not able to
capitalized the first letter of
it. Math and English are
both proper nouns for t.
(25) Balasan national high Balasan national high Balasan National High
school is comfortable school should be written School is comfortable
special in my Family … having the first letter of special in my family …
each word capitalized
because it is a name of a
place. On the other hand,
the word Family should not
start with a capital letter
noun nor the start of the
sentence.
(26) Try and Try Untill you The words Try and Untill Try and try until you
succeed. should not be capitalized succeed.
nouns. Try is a verb while
Untill (until) functions as a
conjunction in the sentence.
(27) … skills of Learners. The word Learners should … skills of learners.

not be capitalized because it
is not a proper noun, rather
it is common noun. It is
used for general reference.
53
Table 2 continued

RULE APPLIED
(28) It gives you The word Knowledge is a It gives you knowledge and
Knowledge and wisdom. noun itself, however it wisdom.
should not be written in
capital letter because
specifically it is not a
proper noun. The only
exception is if it is written
at the beginning of the
sentence or if it is included
in a title.
(29) …Lack of Learning The words Lack, Learning …lack of learning

materials, No electricity, and No are not proper materials, no electricity,
improper waste disposal nouns; therefore they improper waste disposal
and Lack of classrooms. should not start in a capital and lack of classrooms.
letter. Lack and Learning
are both nouns but not
specifically proper nouns
while No is used as an
adjective in the sentence.
(30) … every Day that I The word Day in this … everyday that I went to
went to school. sentence should actually be school.
combined with the word
every (everyday) and should
not be written with a capital
letter because it does not
name days in a week.
(31) … EDUCATION and EDUCATION and … education and

KNOWLEDGE. KNOWLEDGE are both knowledge.
noun. However, they should
not be written that way
nouns. Thus, should not be
written in capital letter.
Also, it should not be
written that way just to
emphasize its meaning.
54
Table 2 continued

RULE APPLIED
(32) …when you are in Comma is used to separate …when you are in school,
school, You may have words or group of words in you may have encountered
encountered… a sentence. The words that the different subject that…
follow the comma should
not be written in capital
letter unless the word is a
proper noun. In the
sentence, You, which follow
the comma, was written in a
capital letter. This makes
the sentence in correct
because You is a pronoun.
(33) I didn't Pass the The words Pass, I didn't pass the requirement
Requirement that my Requirement, and Require that my teacher require me.
teacher Require me. are not proper nouns,
therefore their first letter
should not be written in
capital. Pass and Require
are verbs while
Requirement is a noun but a
proper noun.
(34) … it was because of Bullying is a noun, … it was because of

Bullying. specifically a gerund, bullying.
however it should not be
written in a capital letter
noun, unless it is written at
sentence.
(35) And I also believe that The word Education, And I also believe that
Education is … though it is a noun by education is …
nature, should not be
written in a capital letter
noun, unless it is written in
the beginning of a sentence,
or it is included in a title.
55
Table 2 continued

RULE APPLIED
(36) … that Youved Learn The words Youved (you‟ve) … that you‘ve learned by
by going to school and Learn should not be going to school everyday.
everyday. capitalized because they are
not proper nouns. Youve
(you‟ve) is a combination of
pronoun you and the verb
have and learn is also a
verb.
(37) Lack of Classroom, The first letter of the word Lack of classroom, Because
Because other teachers … Classroom should not be other teachers …
common noun for a place.
The word Because should
not also be written in capital
letter because it is not a
proper noun, but a
conjunction. Also, the
comma which the word
follows does not indicate
that it is the end of the
sentence. Therefore,
because which follows it
should not start with a
capital letter.
(38) It is also difficult if The word Teacher in this It is also difficult if you're
you're Math class and sentence should not be Math class and teacher is …
Teacher is … capitalized because it is not
a proper noun rather a
common noun for a person.
(39) The difficulties i have In this sentence, personal The difficulties I have
encountered … pronoun I should be encountered …
capitalized because rule no.
3 of capitalization states
that pronoun I should
always be capitalized. It
strongly stated that there is
no exception to this rule.
56
Table 2 continued

RULE APPLIED
(40) … i can do everything The pronoun I in the … I can do everything to
to make my parents proud... beginning of the sentence is make my parents proud...
capitalized. It is evident that
the student is aware of the
rule no. 1 of capitalization.
However, the second
pronoun I is not capitalized.
This only means that the
student does not fully
comprehend the rules in
capitalization.
(41) The difficulties i The same rule is violated by The difficulties I

encountered … this sentence. Pronoun I encountered …
should always be
capitalized regardless of its
location in the sentence.
(42) Because i have The same rule is violated by Because I have encountered
encountered … this sentence. Pronoun I …
should always be
(43) … i've even incounterd The same rule is violated by (43) … i've even incounterd
in my whole life. this sentence. Pronoun I, in my whole life.
even if paired with have,
should still be capitalized.
(44) … i don't give up to … The same rule is violated by … I don't give up to …

this sentence. Pronoun I
should always be capitalize
because there is no
exception to this rule.
(45) ... i well be free and i The same rule is violated by … I well be free and I use
use this problem some day. this sentence. Pronoun I this problem some day.
should always be
57
Table 2 continued

RULE APPLIED
(46) … because i like Pronoun I, in this sentence, … I like writing …
writing … is not capitalized.
According to the rule, I
should always be
capitalized no matter where
it is located.
(47) … i hate is love life. The same rule is violated by …I hate is love life.
this sentence.
(48) … also i believe in the Pronoun I in this sentence is … also I believe in the
saying… not also capitalized. saying…
(49) … i can do everything Same as through in this (49) … i can do everything

to make my parents sentence, the pronoun I is to make my parents
proud… not capitalized. proud…
(50) … to learn lot oF thing Prepositions are not (50) … to learn lot oF thing
like Biodiversity … capitalized unless it is the like Biodiversity …
start of the sentence. In this
sentence, the student
committed an error due to
the capitalization of the
second letter of the
preposition oF.
(51) …almost all students in This sentence is applicable …almost all students in
school find Mathematics in rule no. 10 of school find mathematics
hard especially algebra... capitalization. In the hard especially Algebra...
sentence, the course title
mathematics has a specific
course title Algebra.
Therefore, Algebra should
be written in capital letter
because it is considered as
proper noun while
mathematics should not
start in a capital letter
because it becomes a
general word.
58
Table 2 continued

RULE APPLIED
(52) … when it comes to Mathematics/Math is a (52) … when it comes to
mathematics and not just proper noun for a common mathematics and not just
math… noun subject, therefore this math…
word should start with a
capital letter. Also, it is
applicable in rule no. 10 of
capitalization. Mathematics
should be capitalized since
there is an absence of its
specific course title
(example: Algebra,
Geometry, etc).
(53) I have difficulties in The same rule is applicable I have difficulties in the
the subject math. in this sentence. The word subject Math.
math should start in a
capital letter because there
is no specific course title
that follows. This makes it a
proper noun.
(54) … english is so hard The student is aware of the … English is so hard like
like Math, english you think rule in capitalization as Math, English you think for
for a english a any letter… evident in the word Math a English a any letter …
wherein he/she was able to
start it with a capital letter.
However, he/she has not
fully comprehend the rules
because he/she was not able
to apply the same rule in the
word English. English, just
like Math, is used as a
course title in this sentence.
The absence of their
specific course title made
them a proper noun, thus
they should be written in a
capital letter.
59
Table 2 continued

RULE APPLIED
(55) … math subject is The word math should start … Math subject is very
very difficult, I very hate in a capital letter because difficult, I very hate the
math because ... there is no specific course Math because …
title that follows. This
makes it a proper noun.
(56) You have to fight for Religions, holy books, holy You have to fight for this
this god's givens life … days, and names of specific God's givens …
deities need to be
capitalized. However, the
general use of the word god
should not start in a capital
letter. These are stated in
rule no. 11 of capitalization.
In this sentence, the word
god is not used to
generalize, but it is a
specific name of a Being
that is worshipped by
Christians. Therefore, it
(57) …. study hard, and Rule no. 11 is also the … study hard, and pray in
pray in lord, … concern of the error in this lord, …
sentence. Lord should also
be capitalized because it
means the same God to the
Christians.
Spelling
Data revealed that the students of the study committed 33 (17.19%) frequency
counts in terms of errors in spelling.
The student committed an error in the first rule of spelling because he/she wrote
ecxpeirence instead of experience. The word was misspelled because of adding the letter
c before letter x and not following rule number 1 of the spelling. Since letters e and i
60
follow letter r, it is understood that the letter i will comes first then will be followed by
letter e, as stated by the first rule of spelling. The student also committed an error in rule
number 2 since he/she wrote classess instead of classes. The word classess is misspelled
because it is supposedly spelled by adding only –es at the end of its singular form class.
Most of the errors committed by the students are due to substituting, adding, or
dropping of letters to words which do not have reliable rule covering them, and will only
be mastered through familiarization or memorisation of their spellings. Example, ―…will
be sacriface…‖ An error was made due to substitution of letter a to letter i (as in
sacrifice) . ―… is you everday habbit …‖ The student committed an error in the spelling
of this word because of adding the letter b. ―…uniqe…” The dropping of u before e
misspelled this word. . ―… I‘ve even incounterd…‖ An error was because of substituting
letter e of letter i, and dropping of letter e before letter d (incounterd- encountered).
Also, the students committed errors in rule number 1 of the spelling of
Hiligaynon. This rule was followed by some students. Example: ―… in dis school…‖ The
student spelled the word this in accordance with the phonetic sound of the word. ‗…
lessening to teacher…‖ is also spelled in accordance with the phonetic sound of the word.
This word was spelled in accordance with the phonetic sound of the word my. ―…in may
study…‖ This word also belongs to those which have no rule covering them, so they
simply have to be memorised.
In any language, spelling always poses as a problem to many. Incorrect spelling
of words may change their meaning. To properly convey the idea correct spelling is
important.
61
Table 3. Summary of errors committed by the junior high school students in

spelling.

RULE APPLIED
(1) … excused in classess… The student committed an … excused in classes…
error in rule no. 2 of
spelling. The word classess
is misspelled because it is
supposedly spelled as
classes, adding only –es at
the end of its singular form
class. However, the student
added –ess making it
spelled incorrectly.
(2) … average is loowest… The student spelled the … average is lowest…

word lowest with double o,
as in loowest, making it
incorrect. This word
belongs to the group of
words where there is no
reliable rule covering them,
so it simply have to be
memorised.
(3) …you are intellegent… This word also belongs to …you are intelligent…
the group of words where
there is no reliable rule
covering them, so it simply
have to be memorised. The
student committed an error
because he/she wrote e
instead of i between letters
l and g (intellegent-
intelligent).
(4) … richkid … This is supposedly … rich kid …

composed of two words;
rich (adjective) and kid
(noun). However, the
student combined these
words to form one word for
richkid which is incorrect.
62
Table 3 continued

RULE APPLIED
(5) …Untill… This word also belongs to …Until…
those which do not have
reliable rule covering them.
So, to avoid an error in the
spelling of this word, one
should memorise it.
Dropping the last letter l
will make this word
correctly spelled.
(6) Life is just like a wheel The student got confused Life is just like a wheel
theire are ups… on what would be the there are ups…
spelling of theire (there) so
he/she came up to this
spelling. Based on the
sentence, he/she is referring
to an adverb; therefore it
should be spelled there.
However, it was spelled as
if it is the combination of
an adjective their and the
adverb there.
(7) … just to finish some An error was committed … just to finish some
requirments … because of the absence of requirements …
one of the letters in the
word, e. This does not have
rule covering it. Therefore,
it should be memorised.
(8) It is a great privilage … The student committed an It is a great privilege …

error in the spelling of the
word privilage (privilege)
because he/she wrote a
instead of e between letters
l and g (privilage-privilege).
The spelling of this word
should be memorised.
63
Table 3 continued

RULE APPLIED
(9) … unpredictably An error was committed … unpredictably
inserparable. because of adding r inseparable.
between the letters e and p.
This word also belongs to
those which do not have
reliable rule covering them.
(10) ... Englis you think … An error was committed ... English you think …
because of dropping of h at
the end of the word.
(11) ...is your everyday The student committed an ...is your everyday habit.
habbit. error in the spelling of this
word because of adding the
letter b.
(12) we are speciall… An error was committed we are special…

due to addition of letter l at
the end of the word.
(13) ...especially eneimes The two different spellings ...especially enemies my

my enimes can speak … of the word enemy simply enemies can speak …
shows that the student is not
familiar or does not
memorised this word.
(14) I ecxpeirence… The word is misspelled I experience…

because of adding the letter
c before letter x and not
following rule number 1 of
the spelling which states
that write i before e, except
after c. Since they follow
letter r, it is understood that
the letter i will comes first
then will be followed by
letter e, making it spelled as
in experience.
64
Table 3 continued

RULE APPLIED
(15) ...whorst difficulties… An error was committed ...worst difficulties…
due to the addition of letter
h after w. This word is the
superlative degree of the
word bad (worse, worst).
those which have no rule
covering them.
(16) ...uniqe, we don't The student committed an ...unique, we don't deserve

deserve to be … error because of the to be …
absence of u before e. This
word belongs to those
which some of the letters
are not pronounced when it
is spoken. Thus, there is no
reliable rule covering this
word, so they simply have
to be memorised.
(17) I've even incounterd An error was committed in I've even encountered …
… the spelling of this word
because of substituting
letter e of letter i, and
dropping of letter e before
letter d (incounterd-
encountered). The spelling
of this word has be
memorised in order to spell
it correctly.
(18) ... to com every day ... The absence of e at the end ... to come every day ...
of the word made it
incorrect. This word also
belongs to those which have
no rule covering them. This
simply has to be
memorised.
65
Table 3 continued

RULE APPLIED
(19) … will be sacriface … An error was made due to … will be sacrifice …
substitution of letter a to
letter i.
(20) ... organice the people The student committed an ... organize the people
error due to substitution of
letter c to supposedly letter
z. This word also belongs to
covering them.
(21) ... it's allready The word was spelled like a ... it's already deadline!
deadline! combination of the word all
and ready. The addition of
letter l made this word
incorrect. This word also
no rule covering them, so
they simply have to be
memorised.
(22) ...good Propessional… The word was misspelled ...good Professional…

due to substitution of letter
p to letter f. This word also
belongs to those which
have no rule covering them,
so they simply have to be
memorised.
(23) ...all the stragle… Substitution and omission ...all the struggle…
of letters misspelled this
word. The student
substitute letter a to
supposedly letter u, and
omitted g. This word also
have no rule covering them.
66
Table 3 continued

RULE APPLIED
(24) … in dis school The student spelled the … in this school
word this in accordance
with the phonetic sound of
the word.
(25) … lesten to teachers… An error was committed … listen to teachers…

due to the substitution of
letter e to letter i. This word
belongs to those with silent
letter. The spelling of this
word must be memorised
since there is no reliable
rule covering this word.
(26) ... atest and to get my The student combined the … a test and to get my
dream. words; a (an article) and dream.
test (noun) which made
him/her come up to a word
which is atest, the
misspelled one.
(27) ... in our licture … The student committed an ... in our lecture …
error because of substituting
e with i (licture- lecture).
covering them, so they
simply have to be
memorised.
(28) … the earthwake and An error was committed … the earthquake and …
… because it was spelled
nearly in accordance with
the sound of the word. The
student was aware of the
spelling of earth. However,
he/she wrote wake which
sounds like quake.
67
Table 3 continued

RULE APPLIED
(29) … more defficulties The substitution of letter e … more difficulties in…
in… to letter i made this word
incorrectly spelled. This
word also belongs to those
which have no rule covering
them, so they simply have
to be memorised.
(30) ... consence in my An error was committed ... conscience in my self…

self… due to dropping of letters
such as c, and i. It was
spelled as if it is in
accordance with the
phonetic sound of the word.
(31) … best advantade is The student committed an … best advantage is
study… error on the spelling of this study…
word because of
substituting letter g with
letter d. This word also
have no rule covering them,
so they simply have to be
memorised.
(32) … lessening in Since the word is one of … listening in teacher…

teacher… those words which has
silent letter when
pronounced, the student
spelled it in accordance
with the phonetic sound of
the word. Instead of writing
the –ing form of the verb
listen, he/she wrote the “-
ing” form of the adjective
less (which is not
acceptable). This word, too,
no rule covering them.
68
Table 3 continued

RULE APPLIED
(33) ... in may study. This word was spelled in ... in my study.
accordance with the
phonetic sound of the word
my. This word also belongs
to those which have no rule
covering them.
Sentence Fragment
The students committed errors in sentence fragments having 22 (11.46%)
frequency counts as revealed by the data of the study.
This type of error can be divided into two groups: no verb and no subject.
Hiligaynon sentences, like English, should be composed of a subject and a verb in order
to express a complete idea or thought.
Fragments are incomplete sentences. Usually, fragments are pieces of sentences
that have become disconnected from the main clause. One of the easiest ways to correct
them is to remove the period between the fragment and the main clause. Other kinds of
punctuation may be needed for the newly combined sentence.
A sentence is a group of words that contains three things: a subject (that makes
sense with the verb, verb (that goes with the subject), and complete thought. A sentence
fragment is a group of words that lacks one or more of these three things. While there are
many ways to end up with a fragment, almost every fragment is simply a result of one of
the following three problems: it is missing a subject, it is missing a verb, and it fails to
complete the thought it starts.
The rules to avoid sentence fragments should be considered. Some fragments are
69
missing subjects. Often the subject appears nearby, perhaps in the preceding sentence;
however, each sentence must have a subject of its own.
Some fragments are fragments because they are missing a verb or an essential
part of a verb. Any phrase, no matter how long, is a fragment if the verb is missing.
A very common type of fragment is the unfinished thought fragment. While
other kinds of fragments require adding something--a subject, or a verb, or both--
unfinished thought fragments can be corrected simply by joining them to a preceding or
following sentence. The following example, while it contains a subject and a verb, fails to
complete the thought, ―Because tuition increased again this semester.‖ The word to blame
for making this thought incomplete is because. If you find a fragment of this kind, see in
this case, analyze if the sentence before or the sentence after it would complete it. If the
preceding or following sentence does not complete the unfinished thought, omit the word
that makes the sentence incorrect provided its absence does not affect the sentence, or
add the missing information to the fragment to make it complete. There are many words
that, by their mere presence, make a clause incomplete, for example, since, while, when,
unless, although.
In spite of the rules of grammar, language can be shaped in great many ways, so
for any fragment problem, many solutions exist. The more the students practice writing,
the more they will be able to spot fragments and fix them. And the more they learn about
English, the more ways they will find to make their grammatically correct sentences say
exactly what they mean (Elder, 2016).

70
Table 4. Summary of errors committed by the junior high school students is sentence
fragment.

RULE APPLIED
(1) to get high grades and This phrase has a missing I need to study well to get
climbing that stage to get subject category. Who high grades …
that ribbon, bringing that wants to get high grades?
glory to your name, and Also, this lacks verb since
making your family proud. to get is an infinitive, and
climbing, bringing, and
making are gerunds.
(2) First, Strive more to This phrase has a missing First, I will Strive more to
achieve my dreams. subject also. Who will achieve my dreams.
strive more to achieve (my)
dreams? Each sentence
must have a subject of its
own. The presence of the
word my in the phrase
indicates that there maybe a
subject before or after this
phrase.
(3) use this difficulties This, also, has a missing You use these difficulties
foryour advantage. subject. Who will use these for your advantage.
difficulties?
(4) First. (The children is This fragment has a missing First, the children are noisy
noisy and shouting.) subject, a missing verb, and and they are shouting…
an unfinished thought. In
this case, the sentence
before and after the
fragment should be analyze
if it contains the subject and
the verb intended for this
fragment and if it would
complete the thought. If the
following sentence does not
complete the unfinished
though, missing information
should be added to
complete the thought.
71
Table 4 continued

RULE APPLIED
(5) and SECOND. The same thing should be Secondly, the teacher has
(The learn is important to done in this case. Since it not appeared …
your life)… (the teacher has lacks of a subject, a verb,
not appearance.) and a complete thought,
sentences before and after
this fragment should be
analyze in order to see if it
would complete it.
(6)(They are all there to our This fragment lacks a They are all there to our
side to support.) And to subject and a verb. Sentence side to support and to
believe us. before or after the fragment believe us.
should be analyzed to know
if it would complete the
sentence.
(7) And so! (Why we need The same thing should be And so, why do we need to
to go to school everyday?) applied to this fragment. go to school everyday?
(8) Improper waste This fragment lacks a verb. Improper waste disposal
disposal. (We cannot It also has an incomplete should be observed …
concentrate during class.) thought. Since the sentence
… (Whenever we go we saw that precedes and the
some trash.) sentence that follows could
not complete the thought of
the sentence, missing
information (verb) should.
(9) (We all know, many Eventhough it contains a We all know that many
people have no work.) Or i subject (I) and a verb (say), people don‟t have work or I
must say its hard to find this is still a fragment. The must say it is hard to find
work for them. presence of or makes the work for them.
thought incomplete.
Sentences before and after it
should be analyzed in order
to know if it could complete
it, or word should be
omitted as long as its
absence does not affect the
sentence.
72
Table 4 continued

RULE APPLIED
(10) Because there's a The presence of because There's a saying that ―life is
saying that " life is not makes the thought not complete without a
complete without a incomplete. Therefore, problem."
problem." sentences before and after it
it, or the word which makes
that sentence incomplete
should be omitted as long as
its absence does not affect
the sentence.
(11) Lastly to help my Missing subject, missing I am going to help my

parents. verb, and unfinished parents.
thought make this a
fragment. Since the
sentences before and after it
cannot complete its thought,
the missing information
(subject and verb) should be
added.
(12) Because i have The presence of because I have encountered

encountered a difficulties in makes the thought difficulties in this school
this school like bullying and incomplete. Therefore, like bullying and treating
they treatened me like I sentences before and after it me like I am nothing.
was nothing. should be analyzed in order
the sentence.
(13) To me education is The period divides the To me, education is very

very important. because it is sentence into two important because it helps
to encourage to how to fragments. This made their us know how to speak, read,
speak, read, and other learn thoughts incomplete. In and other learn to school.
to school. order to correct this error,
they should be combined.
73
Table 4 continued

RULE APPLIED
(14) But the other rich kid Eventhough it contains a Other rich kids don‘t mind
they doesn't mind about subject (kid) and a verb about schooling.
schooling. (doesn‟t mind), this is still a
fragment. The presence of
but makes the thought
incomplete. Therefore,
the sentence.
(15) But their have no The presence of but makes They have no money and
money and food to the thought incomplete. The food to sustain their lives.
sustained their life. word which makes the
sentence incomplete should
be omitted.
(16) In order for you to This phrase has a You study well in order for
success. incomplete thought. What you to succeed.
will the subject do in order
to succeed? Also, this
fragment lacks of verb since
in order is not a verb.
Therefore, a verb should be
added to correct this
fragment.
(17) Maybe we will suffer This fragment contains a Maybe, we will suffer from
subject (we) and a verb (will poverty if we don‟t study
suffer), however, it has an well.
incomplete thought. Suffer
from what? Missing
information should be
added in order to correct the
sentence.
74
Table 4 continued

RULE APPLIED
(18) Because there's a The presence of because There's a saying that "Life
saying that "Life is not makes the thought is not complete without a
complete without a incomplete. The same rule problem."
problem." should be applied.
(19) And that is the whorst The presence of and makes That is the worst difficulty
difficulties i've even the thought incomplete. I‘ve encountered in my
incounterd in my whole life. Therefore, sentences before whole life.
and after it should be
analyzed in order to know if
it could complete it, or the
word which makes that
sentence incomplete should
be omitted as long as its
absence does not affect the
sentence.
(20) But words can't bring The presence of but makes Words can't bring me down!
me down! the thought incomplete.
Sentences before and after it
the sentence.
(21) And I always think that This fragment contains a I always think that this is
this is not a hindrance subject (I) and a verb not a hindrance instead it….
instead it…. Will encounter (think), however, it has an Will encounter in my
in my everydays life. incomplete thought. The everyday‘s life.
presence of and makes the
thought incomplete. He
word could be omitted as
long as it does not affect the
meaning of the sentence or
another word or group of
words could be added.
75
Table 4 continued

RULE APPLIED
(22) And will be strong Missing subject, and We will be strong together.
togeder. unfinished thought make
this a fragment. Since the
cannot complete its thought,
the missing information
(subject) should be added.
Also, the presence of and
added to the error of this
sentence. Since it is not
needed, it should be
omitted.
Subject-Verb Agreement
Data revealed that the students committed 21 (10.94%) errors in subject-verb
agreement, together with the spelling.
A verb conveys the action of its subject and the connection between the two
should be clear and easily understood. To ensure clarity in writing, one must make sure
that subjects and verbs agree (Morato, 2006).
As a rule, the verb should agree in person and number with its subject. Use
singular verb forms with singular subjects and use plural verb forms with plural subjects.
Although nous ending in s usually plural, verb forms ending in s are usually singular. It is
a must to determine whether a subject is singular or plural in order to make certain that
the verb of a sentence agrees with its subject. Some subjects require careful attention.
Certain nouns may be singular or plural, depending on their used in the sentence.
Subject-verb agreement is bounded by rules on different cases. These rules are:
Collective Noun. A collective noun names a group. Nouns like assembly, orchestra,
76
committee, company, crowd, family, herd, flock, class, crew, team, cast congregation,
swarm, school, jury, council, organization, association, faculty, gaggle, etc. are collective
nouns. Consider a collective noun singular when it refers to a group as a whole. Consider
it plural when it refers to each member of a group individually.
Special Nouns. (a) Nouns plural in form (ending in s) but singular in meaning
take singular verbs. These are acoustics, economics, linguistics, mathematics, measles,
mumps, news, physics, rickets, phonetics, aeronautics, etc. (b) Nouns singular in form
(not ending in s) but plural in meaning take plural verbs. Such noun include cattle ( cows,
carabaos, bulls), livestock (horses, sheep, goats, pigs, and other domesticated animals),
and poultry (chicken, and other domestic birds). (c) Nouns always used in the plural
(always end in s) require plural verbs. Such are eyeglasses, shears, pliers, pants, thanks,
congratulations, slippers, trousers, clothes, jeans, shorts, slacks, shoes, refreshments,
remains (corpse), goods (merchandise), proceeds, riches, tweezers, binoculars, etc. (d)
Nouns expressing abstract ideas are usually singular in form and require singular verbs.
Some of them are poverty, courage, education, fear, happiness, laughter, love, luck,
hatred, joy, sorrow, piety, merriment, etc. Example, ―Poverty is not an obstacle to
success.‖ (e) Mass nouns are always singular and require singular verbs. These are
ammunition, applause, baggage, luggage, blood, bread, chalk, coffee, dirt, dust,
electricity, equipment, furniture, gossip, gravel, heat, homework, ice, information, ink,
jewelry, lightning, music, machinery, milk, money, perfume, poetry, prose, rice, salt,
scenery, soap, sugar, thunder, water,, smoke, etc. When these nouns are preceded by
pieces of, kinds of, drops of, collection of, etc. they require plural verbs. Example, ―Drops
of blood were seen on the floor.‖ (f) Some nouns always plural in form (ending in s) but
77
either singular or plural in meaning require the verbs to agree with the meaning intended.
Such nouns are: politics (singular)- considered as one field, politics (plural)- more than
one set of beliefs, ethics (singular)- one subject of interest, ethics (plural)- more than one
ethical decision, statistics (singular)- science of collection of facts, statistics (plural)-
classified facts, means (singular)- an agency or instrument, means (plural)- two or more
agencies or instruments, etc. (g) Some nouns always singular in form but singular or
plural in meaning require the verbs to agree with the meaning intended. Such nouns are
deer, salmon, sheep, trout, moose, grouse, etc. (h) Some nouns change their meaning
with a change in form. These nouns are commonly used in the singular and require
singular verbs. When used in the plural, they carry a special meaning and require plural
words. These are property (possession, real estate) and properties (props, qualities or
attributes), iron (metal) and irons (utensils, instruments), wood (lumber) and woods
(forest), etc.
Amounts and time as subjects. Use a singular verb with a subject that refers to a
single unit: a fraction, a measurement, an amount of money, a distance, or a specific
interval of time.
Titles and names as subjects. The title of a book, movie, television program,
musical composition, the name of a country or of an organization is singular, even though
it may contain plural words and requires a singular verb.
The number, the variety, a number, a variety. The phrases the number and the
variety when used as subjects take singular verbs; a number and a variety take plural
verbs.
Compound subjects joined by and. Usually, compound subjects joined by and

78
or by both … and are considered plural. However, when the parts of the compound
subject are parts of one unit or when they refer to the same person or thing, the subject is
considered singular. Example in plural form, ―The librarian and the students are
reading.‖
Compound subjects joined by or or nor. With compound subjects joined by or
or nor (or bu either … or or neither … nor), the verb agrees with the subject nearer to
verb.
Many a, every, and each with compound subjects. When many a, every or each
precedes a compound subject, the subject is considered singular. Example, ―Each
librarian and student is reading.‖
Intervening expressions. Certain expressions such as accompanied by, as well
as, plus, in addition to, in the company of and together with introduce phrases that modify
the subject but do not change its number. If a singular subject is linked to another noun
by an intervening expression, the subject is considered singular.
Subjects and verbs must agree in number. This is the cornerstone rule that
forms the background of the concept. Example: ―The dog growls when he is angry.‖ and
―The dogs growl when they are angry.‖
Prepositional phrases between the subject and verb usually do not affect
agreement. ―The colors of the rainbow are beautiful.‖
When sentences start with “there” or “here,” the subject will always be placed
after the verb, so care needs to be taken to identify it correctly. ―There is a problem with
the balance sheet. Here are the papers you requested.‖

79
Table 5. Errors committed by the junior high school students in subject-verb agreement.

RULE APPLIED
(1) The difficulties that I Difficulties is a non-count The difficulties that I
mentioned is just some noun in plural form, mentioned are just some
of…. therefore it should also take of….
the plural form or the base
form of the verb. Is should
be replaced with are to
agree to the number of the
subject.
(2) The children is noisy The subject children is the The children are noisy and
and shouting … plural form of the noun shouting …
child, therefore the plural
form of the verb should be
used to agree to the number
of the subject.
(3) The difficulties i have Difficulties is a non-count The difficulties i have

encountered in school is … noun in plural form. It encountered in school are
should also take the plural …
subject.
(4) Challenges makes me… The subject of the sentence Challenges make me…
which is challenges is in
plural form. To agree to the
number it, the subject must
also use its plural/base
form.
(5) The difficulties I The same error was The difficulties I

encountered as a student is committed by the student in encountered as a student are
(6) not being openminded, this sentence. Difficulties not being openminded, ...
… plural form or the base form
of the verb. Is should be
replaced with are to agree
to the number of the
subject.
80
Table 5 continued

RULE APPLIED
(7) Children, students wants Children and students are Children, students want to
to go to school. both plural in number, go to school.
therefore the verb (want)
should also be in its
plural/base form to agree to
the number of the subject.
(8) Poor people wants to go People is the plural form of Poor people want to go to
to school … the noun person. The school …
in this sentence because the
form of the verb used did
not agree to the number of
the subject. The subject
people should take the
plural form of the verb
which is want.
(9) … they doesn't mind They is a pronoun referring … they don't mind about
about schooling… to plural number of noun. schooling…
Therefore, it should also
take the plural/base form of
the verb (do) to agree with
its subject.
(10) ... those students The subject of the sentence, ... those students don‘t
doesn‘t appreciate … students, is plural in appreciate …
number, therefore the verb
to be used is also in
plural/base form
(11) The difficulties I Again, difficulties is a non- The difficulties I

encounter in school is … count noun in plural form, encountered in school are
therefore it should also take …
the plural form or the base
subject.
81
Table 5 continued

RULE APPLIED
(12) Challenges and trials The subject of the sentence Challenges and trials make
makes me strong. which are challenges and me strong.
trials are both in plural
form. To agree to the
number it, the subject must
also use its plural/base
form.
(13) ... some people wants Some is a plural indefinite ... some people wants ....
.... pronoun used to refer to
people, which is plural.
Therefore, the verb that
follows it should also be in
its plural/base form.
(14) They makes me feel … They is a pronoun referring They make me feel …
to plural number of noun,
therefore it should take the
plural form of the verb
(make).
(15) … what you wants. The pronoun you, though … what you want.
singular in number, should
take the plural form of the
verb. Therefore, it should
take the plural/base form of
the verb wants, which is
want.
(16) … someone make me The verb must agree in … someone makes me feel
feel like… number with an indefinite like…
pronoun subject. Someone
is an indefinite pronoun
which is always singular.
Therefore, it should always
take the singular form of the
verb. The number of the
verb should agree with the
number of the subject to
make it correct.
82
Table 5 continued

RULE APPLIED
(17) … it help us to study It is a pronoun which refers … it helps us to study hard
hard … to a singular noun, so in …
order for the verb to agree
to its number, it should also
be in singular form.
(18) School are ... A school is a common noun School is ...

referring to a place. Since it
is singular in number, it
should also take the singular
form of the verb.
(19) … my teacher Require The subject teacher is … my teacher requires

me. singular in number. To me…
agree the verb to the
subject, it should also take
the singular verb (requires).
(20)... education are Education, a noun ... education is important to

important to me … expressing abstract idea, is me …
singular in form and
requires singular verb.
Therefore, the verb are
should be replaced with is.
(21) … my family are The word family is … my family is proud…

proud… considered as a collective
noun. It is considered
singular when it refers to
the group as a whole, and
plural if it refers to each
member of the group
individually. The student
committed an error in this
sentence because family
refers to the group as a
whole. Therefore, it should
take a singular verb (is
instead of are).
83
Verb Tense
Data revealed that students committed 20 (10.42%) errors related to verb tense.
When writing in English, it is important to be consistent in verb tense usage. Verb
tense indicates two main types of information; time relations and aspectual differences
whether an action, activity, or state is past, present, or future. There are three basic forms
of verb tenses: past, present, and future. Simple and perfect forms of these verbs are also
used (Alfiyani, 2013).
The simple form of a verb demonstrates an action that has specific time duration.
It could be the action has occurred, is going on now, or will happen in the future. On the
other hand, the perfect form of a verb is used to show variations in time. These variations
include ongoing events, a sequence of events, or events that have a continued effect on a
situation. Perfect tenses include the past, present, or future form of ―has/have/had‖ plus
the past participle form or the third degree of the verb.
Example, the sentence ―I jogged to my car.‖ is in the simple past tense because
the action occurred and ended, and no other events occurred at the same time. Simple
past tense uses only the past tense of the verb. On the other hand, the sentence ―I had
jogged to my car only to realize I forgot my keys in the office.‖ is in the past perfect
tense because there is an action that occurred directly after the first action. The action
forgot occurred directly after the first action had jogged. Past perfect tense is formed
using the auxiliary verb had (for both singular and plural subject) + the past participle/
third form of the verb.
For the simple present tense, the action occurs in a certain point of time and stop
only there. Example, I jog to my car. The verb jog is in the present tense indicating that
84
the subject of the sentence jog at a certain point of time and stop. No other actions take
place at this time. Simple present tense is formed using only the present form of the verb.
However, the subject of the sentence should be taken into consideration in order not to
commit another error in a certain grammatical rule. Singular subject should take the –s
form of the verb (e.g. jogs) while plural subject should take the base form of the verb
(e.g. jog) in order not to commit an error in the subject- verb agreement. Learners should
have the knowledge on the forms of the regular and irregular verbs because there are
some whose –s form is not only formed by simply adding –s at the end of the word.
Example, the word try is in its base form. To have its –s form is not only done by adding
–s at the end of the word making it trys, which is incorrect, but by changing y to i and
adding –es, making it tries. Without background knowledge of these things, learners will
surely commit another error. The present perfect tense of the verb, on the other hand, is
formed using an auxiliary verb has (for singular subject)/ have (plural subject) + the past
participle/ third form of the verb. This tense is used to show that the action begun in the
past has been completed or is ongoing. Example, in the sentence ―I have jogged to my car
for a minute.‖ indicates that the action of the subject happed in the past and continues to
occur. The subject I though singular in number should take the plural form of the verb as
it is an exception to the rule. Therefore, I should take the auxiliary verb have + the past
participle or the third degree of the verb (jogged). For the sentence ―Marion has jogged
to his car for a minute.‖ the subject Marion is singular therefore it should take an
auxiliary verb has + the past participle or the third degree of the verb.
The sentence is in the future tense when the action of the subject has not yet
begun. Example, ―I will jog to my car later.‖ The action of the subject in this sentence
85
which is will jog indicates that it has not yet started. It will happen later in the future. The
future tense is formed using the auxiliary verb will + the present – base form of the verb
for both singular and plural subject. On the other hand, the future perfect tense indicates
that the action will take place at some point in the future, and other actions may occur at
the same time or after the action. This tense emphasizes the fact that one future time is
completed before another future time. This form of tense is usually accompanied by a
time expression such as on, at, when, by, and before. It is formed using will + have (for
both singular and plural subject) + the past participle or third degree of the verb.
Example, ―I will have jogged to my car before tomorrow comes.‖ The verb tense will
have jogged emphasizes that the action of the subject in the future is completed before
another future time (tomorrow).
Another is the progressive tense of the verb. It is used to discuss an action that is,
has, or will be in the process of occurring. This can be found in the past, present, or future
tense. Past progressive tense indicates that the action happened in the past, and
continued to happen when another action occurred. It is formed using was (for singular
subject)/ were (for plural subject) + the –ing form of the verb. Present progressive tense
of the verb, on the other hand, is used for a single event that has a beginning but it does
not necessarily include the end of the action. It is formed using is (for the singular
subject)/ are (for the plural subject) + the –ing form of the verb. The action, is helping, of
the subject indicates that it began and is continuing. However, there is no indication when
it will end. Lastly, the future progressive tense which indicates that the action has not
occurred yet, but will occur in the future at a certain point in time. This is formed using
will + be + the –ing form of the verb regardless of the form of the subject (Heady, 2007).
86
On the other hand, Hiligaynon, the L1 of the students, and English language share
similarities in verb tense. Thompson (2014) in his blog titled ―Hiligaynon‖ stated that the
language is composed of the following verb tense: past/action already begun (nag/gin),
progressive/on gong action (naga/gina), future/action expected to occur (ma/maga). The
tense of the verb is formed by adding the respective prefixes on the root word. Example,
―Nagkadto ako sa tinda kagapon.‖ (I went to the market yesterday.) This sentence
indicates that it is in the past tense because of the presence of the prefix nag- in the verb
root kadto (go) and the presence of time kagapon (yesterday) to indicate when the action
took place. For the progressive tense or ongoing action, the sentence ―Nagakadto ako
sa tinda subong.‖ (I am going to the market at this moment) indicates that the action is
happening or ongoing because of the prefix naga- attached to the verb root kadto (go)
and the indicated time subong (at this moment). The sentence ―Makadto ako sa tinda
karon.‖ (I will go to the market later.) is in the future tense because of the presence of
the prefix ma- and the time karon (later). The action expected to occur some time in the
future.
However, verb tense in Hiligaynon does not matter all the time (Murphy, 2010).
In the blog of Murphy titled Eleven Degrees North, he stated that the language
(Hiligaynon) is bewildering sometimes. This is because the sentence can still be
understood by native speakers even without the presence of verb tense. For example,
Nagkadto ako sa tinda kagapon (I went to the market yesterday). The nag indicates past
tense. In common usage, this could be shortened to Kadto ko sa tinda kagapon, dropping
the tense, but can still be understood by just relying on the context in which the statement
is given to indicate when the action took place.

87
Table 6. Errors committed by the junior high school students in verb tense.

RULE APPLIED
(1) … the student was In order to show that the … the student threw her
throw her garbage … action happened in the past, garbage …
he/she formed the verb
using was + the preset- base
form of the verb (throw). In
the case of throw, its past
tense is threw.
(2) The difficulties i The first verb used by the The difficulty I encountered
encountered in school is … student is in the simple past in school is … made me
makes me feel like i'm tense, therefore, the entire feel like I‘m down.
down. verb tense should be in the
past since there is no other
events occurred at the same
time. So, instead of makes it
should be changed to made
for the past tense.
(3) Despite the difficulties The presence of the word Despite the difficulties we
we encounter in school… despite in the sentence encountered in school…
indicates that the action is
in the past. Therefore, the
verb encounter should make
used of its past form
encountered.
(4) And the most difficult The sentence is on the past And the most difficult thing
things that I encountered perfect tense because there I encountered since I went
since I was going to school is an action that occurred to school is bullying and
is bullying and directly after the first discrimination.
discrimination. action. Encountered and
was going (first action) are
the verbs used in the
sentence. The action
encountered occurred
directly after the first action
was going (went should be
used to indicate that the
action was already done).
88
Table 6 continued

RULE APPLIED
(5) …you have learn … Auxiliary verb have goes …you have learned …
with the past participle of
the verb. Therefore, learn
should be in its past
participle form (learned).
(7) My father always telling The presence of always My father always tells us …
us … indicate that the action is in
the present tense. Therefore,
the present form of the verb
should be used in the
sentence.
(8) Wherever we go, we The verb in the sentence Wherever we go, we see
saw some trash. should be in the simple some trash.
present tense because the
action of the subject occurs
in a certain point of time.
Simple present tense is
formed using only the
present form of the verb.
However, the subject should
be taken into consideration.
The subject of the sentence
is we (plural in number),
therefore it should take the
present tense – base form of
the verb.
(9) … no matter what had The error occurred between … no matter what had
happen … had and happen. Past happened …
perfect tense is formed
using the auxiliary verb had
(for both singular and plural
subject) + the past participle
of the verb. Happen is not
actually the past participle
but the present- base form
of the verb- happened is its
past participle.
Table 6 continued
89

RULE APPLIED
(10) I going to school This sentence is also in I go to school everyday …
everyday … present tense because of the
indicated time, everyday.
Therefore the verb should
not take its –ing form, but
its present for.
(11) …we still have to The action of the subject in … we still have to finish the
finish the requirements that the sentence continues to requirements that our
our teacher given to us … occur, therefore it is in the teacher have given to us …
present perfect tense. The
auxiliary verb have before
the past participle form is
omitted, thus this become
incorrect.
(12) … I have encounter … Auxiliary verb have goes I have encountered …

with the past participle of
the verb to indicate that the
action begun in the past has
been completed or is
ongoing. Therefore,
encounter should be in its
past participle form.
(13) … I have encounter The same rule is applicable … I have encountered again
again … in this sentence. Therefore, …
encounter should be in its
past participle form.
(14) … I have encounter, I The same error is … I have encountered, I

pray … committed in this sentence prayed …
where its auxiliary verb
have goes with the past
participle of the verb to
indicate that the action
begun in the past has been
completed or is ongoing.
Therefore, encounter should
be in its past participle
form.
90
Table 6 continued

RULE APPLIED
(15) I prove to myself that i The sentence is in the future I will prove to myself that I
can do it. tense because of the word can do it.
can (to be able to do) which
signals futurity. Therefore ,
the main verb prove should
take the auxiliary will to
indicate that action of the
subject has not yet begun.
(16) … the great feeling I This is also in the future … the great feeling I will
will had in my life. tense. Future tense follows have in my life.
the will + the present-base
form of the verb pattern.
Therefore, will had is
incorrect because had is not
the present- base form of
the verb but the it is already
in the past participle. Have,
on the other hand, is the
present form of the verb.
(17) … your stress will The same rule in verb tense … your stress will vanish
vanished will be applied in this
sentence. An error occurred
because vanished is not the
present form of the verb but
the past participle form of
the verb. Therefore, the –ed
at the end of the word
vanished should be omitted.
(18) …that I will The same rule is applicable …there will be challenges
encountered… in this sentence. An error that I will encounter…
occurred because
encountered is not in
present form but the past
participle form. Therefore,
the –ed at the end of the
word encountered should be
omitted.
91
Table 6 continued

RULE APPLIED
(19) … and i use this This also indicates that the … and I will use this
problem some day. action has not yet begun. problem some day.
The absence of auxiliary
verb will, which indicates
futurity, made this sentence
incorrect.
(20) …other teachers This sentence is in the … other teachers are having
having there class on gym. present progressive tense. their class at the gym.
The action of the subject
shows that it began and is
continuing up to the
present.
Article
Data revealed that the students of the study committed 11 (5.73%) frequency
counts in terms of errors in article.
The words a, an, and the form a special group of adjectives called articles. Articles
have only one function: they signal that a noun is coming.
Use a if the following word (the noun or adjective modifying the noun) begins with a
consonant; use an if the following word begins with a vowel. This rule allows the article and
the next word to be spoken together easily.
There are two types of articles: definite and indefinite. Definite article precedes a
noun which names a specific member of a group. This type of noun is called a specific
(definite) noun. Either the writer (or speaker) and the reader (or listener) know the identity of
this noun. Examples: ―The order for our office supplies was sent today.‖ ―The sun provides
energy to help plants make food.‖

92
On the other hand, indefinite article (a and an) refers to any member of a group
rather than to a specific member of the group. Neither the writer nor the reader knows the
identity of the member.
Definite article the has the following basic use. Use the before singular or plural
definite (specific) nouns. Their identity is already known to the reader for one of the
following reasons: (a) The noun has already been mentioned; (b) The noun is followed by
a phrase or clause which identifies the noun. Example: ―A journalist interviewed the
engineer who designed the plane.‖ (c) A superlative adjective precedes the noun.
Example: ―John is the fastest runner on the team. There can be only one fastest runner.
An adjective before a plural or non-count noun does not make the noun specific
(definite). The noun is specific because it is preceded by the. (d) The noun is unique;
there is only one in existence. Example: ―Thousands of tourists visit the Statue of Liberty
yearly.‖ (e) The context makes the noun‘s identity clear. Example: ―My friends bought
movie tickets at the box office.‖
An error in the used of this rule was committed in the L2 writings of the students.
In the sentence ―…they are distracting the other people…‖ An error was committed
because the student used the after the plural noun, other people, which mean ―all‖ or ―in
general.‖ Article the should be omitted in order to correct this error.
Indefinite article a/an has the following basic uses: Use a/an before singular
nouns when the noun is general (indefinite, non-specific, one of many), Use a before the
first mention of a singular noun. In order to use a/an with noncount nouns, a quantifier
(―a little,‖ ―a great deal of‖) or a unit phrase (―a piece of,‖ ―a quart of‖) must be included
before the noun.

93
Use of articles when an adjective precedes a noun: Do not use an article before
an adjective which precedes a general non-count noun. No article is used before more.
Exception to this rule: Do use the before an adjective preceding a non-count noun if the
noun is made specific (definite) by a following phrase or clause.
The students also committed errors in this rule as evident in the sentence ―
... can speak to me a bad languages…‖
Use the before an adjective which describes a group of people but is not
followed by a noun. The adjective takes the place of the noun. Example: ―The nurse
was trained to care for the elderly.‖
Articles have Special Rules to be considered: Places: (a) Names of countries: Do
not use the unless the name refers to a group or has the word ―of‖ within the name.
Examples: ―I traveled to China last summer.‖ ―The United States of America was
established in 1776.‖ (b) Cities and streets: Do not use articles before cities and streets.
Example: ―The shop is located at 3572 Travert Avenue in Seattle.‖ (c) Rivers, oceans,
seas, groups of mountains and islands: Use the before nouns naming these geographical
features. Example: ―The Lewis and Clark Expedition traveled up the Missouri River.‖ (d)
Schools: Use the when ―of‖ is part of the school‘s name. Otherwise, omit the article.
Examples: ―She plans to attend the University of Washington.‖ ―My two friends both
received scholarships to Whitman College.‖ (e) Location vs. Activity (for a few nouns):
When a noun naming a place is used in a phrase referring to an activity, no article is
needed before the noun. Examples: to school: ―Most children ride the bus to school.‖ to
church: ―The family goes to church regularly.‖ When the same noun is used simply to
name the location, use either a definite or indefinite article as usual. Examples: ―The
94
workers arrived to remodel the school.‖ ―The new family visited a church in their
neighborhood.‖
The students committed an error in this rule because they put an article between to
and the name of the place (school). “We go to the school …‖ the article the before the
school should be omitted. The article a should be omitted because an adjective precedes a
general non-count noun.
Numbers: (a) Cardinal numbers: Do not use an article before cardinal numbers
(number words that name a quantity) when the number word functions as a noun.
Examples: ―The customer admired the artist‘s paintings enough to buy one.‖ ―He
removed thirty of the fifty trees on his property.‖ In this sentence thirty is a noun whereas
―fifty‖ is an adjective modifying trees.) (b) Ordinal numbers: Use the before ordinal
numbers (number words such as ―first,‖ ―second,‖ and ―third‖ that indicate order in a
sequence.
Things shared by a family or community: Use the before these nouns. Examples:
―Many homes have a microwave in the kitchen.‖ ―Citizens are invited to speak to the city
council about problems.‖ ―The mayor visited the library.‖
Expressions that identify part of a larger group: Use the before the nouns in these
expressions. Examples: ―one of the (plural noun)‖ One of the students was absent. ―both of the
(plural noun)‖ ―She enjoyed both of the performances.‖ ―some of the (plural noun)‖ The
instructor returned some of the essays today. ―some of the (noncount noun)‖ Some of the
stolen money was recovered.
Second mention as a synonym: Use the before a noun used as a synonym for a word
or words that have already been mentioned.

95
Table 7. Errors committed by the junior high school students in article.

RULE APPLIED
(1) …they are distracting An error was committed …they are distracting other
the other people… because the student used the people…
after the plural noun, other
people, which mean ―all‖ or
―in general.‖ To correct the
error, article the should be
omitted.
(2) …the learning is Non-count nouns and those … learning is important to

important to your life… nouns ending in –ing your life…
(gerund) do not need an
article. This is the error
made by the student in this
sentence. Therefore, article
the should be omitted
because it is not necessary.
(3) We go to the school … An error was made due to We go to school …

the presence of article the
before the noun school.
When a noun naming a
place is use in a phrase
referring to an activity, no
article is needed before the
noun. Therefore, the article
the before the school should
be omitted.
(5) ...is a needed to … This sentence is incorrect ...is needed to …

because the article a
precedes a verb (needed)
which is not acceptable.
Article a should be omitted.
(4) …. the test is a hard … An error was committed …. the test is a hard …
precedes the adjective hard
which is against the rule.
96
Table 7 continued

RULE APPLIED
(5) ...is a needed to … This sentence is incorrect ...is needed to …
precedes a verb (needed)
which is not acceptable.
Article a should be omitted.
(6) ….and give us a Article an should be used in ….and give us an

opportunity … non-count nouns beginning opportunity …
in vowels. Therefore, an
should precedes the noun
opportunity because it
begins with a vowel o.
(7) Because i have The student committed an "Because i have

encountered a difficulties… error because he/she used encountered difficulties…
the article a with a non-
count noun (difficulties). In
order to use a/an with
noncount nouns, a
quantifier (―a little,‖ ―a
great deal of‖) or a unit
phrase (―a piece of,‖ ―a
quarter of‖) must be
included before the noun, or
the article itself should be
omitted.
(8) ... can speak to me a bad The article a should be ... can speak to me bad
languages… omitted because an languages…
adjective precedes a general
non-count noun.
(9) … overcome all An article is needed in an … overcome all the

problems in our school. expression (all of) used by problems in our school.
the student. The non-count
noun (problems) should be
preceded by the expression
all of the because it refers to
a larger scope.
97
Table 7 continued

RULE APPLIED
(10) ….and give us a Article an should be used in ….and give us an
opportunity … non-count nouns beginning opportunity …
in vowels. Therefore, an
should precedes the noun
opportunity because it
begins with a vowel o.
(11) To become a educated The same error was To become an educated

person… committed in the use of the person…
article wherein the educated
should take the article an
because it begins with a
vowel.
Word Order
Data revealed that the students committed 11 (5.73%) errors in their L2 writing.
Word order is the syntactic arrangement of words in a sentence, clause, or phrase
(Sawalmeh, 2013).
Word order is very important in English because there is very little "case
marking"- a subject and an object have the same form (except for pronouns).
The basic word order in a sentence with a verb that does not take an object is
subject + verb.
An intransitive verb does not take an object. For example, the sentence "John
cried." does not have an object. The verb "to cry" is intransitive. English has very few
verbs that are always intransitive. The main test of intransitivity is whether the verb
resists taking a prepositional phrase. Some grammar systems classify transitive and
intransitive verbs differently. Many verbs may be transitive or intransitive.

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Basic word order with an indirect object [Subject --- Verb --- Indirect Object
--- Object].
Alternate word order with an indirect object is [Subject --- Verb --- Object --
- Indirect Object]. In this sentence order, the indirect object must be part of a
prepositional phrase. An example is the sentence "Mary gives the ball to John." Mary,
still, is the subject of the sentence and gives is the verb. The direct object and the indirect
object are used interchangeably. The indirect object of the sentence is the ball (a noun
phrase= determiner the + noun ball) and the direct object is to John (a prepositional
phrase= preposition to + noun John).
Word order with an Auxiliary [Subject --- Aux --- Verb --- Indirect Object ---
Direct Object]. If a sentence has an auxiliary (will, have, been, or other auxiliaries), the
standard position for the auxiliary is before the verb.
Word order with Negation and Auxiliary [Subject --- Aux --- Neg --- Verb ---
Indirect Object --- Direct Object]. If a sentence has negation and an auxiliary the
standard position for the negation is between the aux and the verb.
Word order with Multiple Auxiliaries. If a sentence has more than one
auxiliary, the order of auxiliaries is determined by the verb form.
Place and Time. Place before the time is the correct order in the sentence.
Adverb of time at the beginning of a sentence. Time can be put at the beginning
of the sentence.
Adverbs before verbs. A lot of adverbs are put before verbs. These adverbs
include: always, also, sometimes, possibly, probably, often, seldom, never, hardly ever,
almost, still, definitely, certainly, even, and only.

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Adverbs after the first verb. When there is more than one verb, an adverb s
usually put after the first verb.
The order of the adjectives in the sentence is also important. In many
languages, adjectives denoting attributes usually occur in a specific order. Generally, the
adjective order in English is: quantity or number, quality or opinion, size, age, shape,
color, proper adjective (often nationality, other place of origin, or material), and purpose
or qualifier. For example: ―I love that really big old green antique car that always parked
at the end of the street.‖ ―My sister adopted a beautiful big white bulldog.‖ When there
are two or more adjectives that are from the same group, the word and is placed between
the two adjectives: ―The house is green and red.‖ ―The library has old and new books.‖
When there are three or more adjectives from the same adjective group, place a comma
between each of the coordinate adjectives: ―We live in the big green,
white and red house at the end of the street.‖ ―My friend lost a red,
black and white watch.‖ A comma is not placed between an adjective and the noun. ―I
love that really old big green antique car that always parked at the end of the street.
[quality – age – size – color – proper adjective],‖ ―My sister has a big, beautiful,
tan and white, bulldog. [size – quality – color – color],‖ ―A wonderful old Italian clock.
[opinion – age – origin],‖ ―A big square blue box. [dimension – shape – color],‖
―A disgusting pink plastic ornament. [opinion – color – material],‖ ―Some slim new
French trousers. [dimension – age – origin]‖ ―A wonderful old Italian clock. [opinion –
age – origin],‖ ―I bought a pair of black leather shoes. [color – material].‖
Grammatical errors occur when parts of constituents are separated from each
other in movement, or moved to the wrong place in the word order (Jennings, 2015).
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Table 8. Errors committed by the junior high school students in word order.

RULE APPLIED
(1) To me education is so This committed an error in To me education is so very
important very… the order of the adverbs so, important …
and very the sentence. So
and very refer to a degree of
extremity.
(2) ... I very much hate the There is an error in the … I hate Math very much
math … order of the adverb (very
and much) in the sentence.
Adverbs are located after
the noun it modifies.
Therefore, very much
should follow the noun
Math.
(3) … when we are badly An error in the order of … when we are sick badly
sick … adverb and the noun it …
modifies was committed.
Badly functions as an
adverb of manner. If the
sentence contains only one
adverb, then, it will be
located after the noun it
modifies. Therefore, it
should be placed after the
word sick.
(4) , you have also to take An error committed in the , you also have to take …
… order of adverb and verb.
Adverbs put before verbs
include: always, also,
sometimes, etc. Therefore,
the adverb (also) in the
sentence should come
before the verb (have).
(5) ... have also a good job The same rule should be ... also have a good job …
applied in the error
committed in the order of
adverb and verb.
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Table 8 continued

RULE APPLIED
(6) … it can be not highest An error committed on the … it can not be highest
score… word order with negation score…
and auxiliary. If the
sentence has negation and
an auxiliary, the standard
position for negation is
between the auxiliary and
the verb. The negation
should be put between the
auxiliary can and the verb
be.
(7) … if the problem of An error was committed …if the problem of your
your family your education due to the placement of the family is your education …
is… verb is in the sentence.
(8) ...is very important An error was committed .. education is very

education because.. due to the placement of the important because..
subject education wherein it
is the one which precedes
the verb.
(9) … many student throw An error was committed … many students throw the
the garvage every morning due to the order of place garvage in the hoe every
in the hoe … and time in the sentence. morning …
Place before the time is the
correct order in the
sentence. Therefore, in the
hoe (refers to the place)
should be before every
morning (time).
(10) …student will be The same thing should be …student sacrifice to com
sacriface to com every day applied in this case. In this in this school every day.
in dis school. school, which refers to the
place, should come before
the time, everyday, in the
sentence.
Table 8 continued
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RULE APPLIED
(11) ...com every day to Still, this committed error in … come to school
school … the placement of place and everyday…
time in the sentence. School
should come before
everyday.
Singular/Plural Form
As revealed by the data, students committed 9 errors in singular/plural form.
A noun that names one of anything is called a singular noun, and a noun that
names more than one of anything is called a plural noun.
Rules in forming the plural of nouns. Add an "s" to form the plural of most nouns.
Example, zebra – zebras, piano – pianos, block – blocks; If the word ends in any of the
following hissing sounds: s, z, x, ch, or sh, add an "es" to form the plural. Examples of
this rule are buses, taxes, waltzes, brushes, churches; If the word ends in a vowel plus
"y", add "s". Examples are trolley – trolleys, ray – rays, key – keys; If the word ends in a
consonant "y", change the "y" into an "ie" and add "s". Examples are baby – babies,
daisy – daisies, fairy – fairies; If the word ends in "is" change the "is" to "es". Examples
of this rule are the words synopsis – synopses, thesis – theses, metastasis – metastases; A
few words that end in "fe" or "f" have plurals formed by "ves". Examples are wife –
wives, knife – knives, shelf – shelves, elf – elves; Words that end in "o" can often have two
plural forms, but some can only have one plural form. The following should be
considered: (a) If the word ends in a vowel plus "o", just add a "s". Example words are
stereo – stereos, fascia – fascias, imbroglio – imbroglios. (b) If a musical term ends in
"o", just add a "s". Examples are solo – solos, piano – pianos, piccolo – piccolos, cello –
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cellos. (c) Some words can be formed with either an "s" or an"os". Examples of the
words are avocados/avocadoes, cargos/cargoes, innuendos/innuendoes, lassos/lassoes,
peccadillos/peccadilloes, etc; The plurals of numbers, single capital letters, or acronyms
take a single "s" with no apostrophe, as in 10s, Zs, ATMs.
Other rules in pluralisation should also be considered. Subject and Noun
Agreement. When two or more nouns or pronouns that are connected by and are the
subject of a sentence, use a plural verb. Example in the sentence ―George and his buddies
are going to the concert.‖ plural form of the verb should be used because the subjects are
connected by and they are considered as a group of things. Therefore, the verb must
reflect the plurality of the group; When two or more nouns or pronouns that are
connected by or or nor are the subject of a sentence, use a singular verb. Example, ―The
knife or the candlestick is the murder weapon.‖ Because the subjects of the sentence are
connected by or or nor, they are considered separately, and the verb must reflect that
uniqueness (singularity); Compound subjects (more than one noun) are tricky. When
there is both a singular noun and a plural noun forming the compound, the verb form
must agree with the noun that is closest. Consider the following sentences ―The woman
plays hard.‖ or ―The women play hard.‖ In the sentence ―The men or the woman plays
hard.‖ The noun closest to the verb, woman, is singular so the verb, plays, must agree as
it would if there were only woman as the subject; Phrases that are inserted between the
subject and the verb can cause confusion. Consider the sentence without the phrase to
clarify the proper usage. The sentence ―One is empty.‖ [Leaving out the phrase.] Right
form for this is ―One of the jars is empty.‖ It is understood that jars is a plural noun but
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the phrase specifies one of the jars; Be careful with contractions. Don't is a contraction of
do not. It should be used with a plural subject.
Some words and phrases are singular and require a singular verb. They are:
anybody, anyone, each, each one, either, neither, everyone, nobody, no one, somebody,
someone. Example, ―Each of the jars is empty.‖ Though the subject of the sentence is
plural in form, it takes the singular verb because of the presence of the word each; There
are nouns that have an "s" on the end that are, nevertheless, singular. Examples are,
―Measles is a disease.‖ Measles, though ends in s, is considered as one. Therefore, it
should take the singular form of the verb. Some of the nouns that require a singular verb
are: civics, mathematics, physics, statistics, measles, news, tuberculosis, basis, etc.
Another example: Mathematics is necessary for that major. There is a special case for this
rule. When referring to dollars as things, it requires a plural verb. When referring to an
amount of money in dollars, it requires a singular verb. Example, ―Ten-thousand dollars
is a tidy amount.‖ and ―Dollars are the preferred medium of exchange.‖ Dollars in the
first sentence refer to the amount of money that is why it takes a singular verb, while in
the second sentence, dollars refer to a thing, therefore it take a plural verb; There are
some nouns that refer to things that have two or more parts to them and the subject is,
therefore, plural. These words are: pliers, tweezers, shears, trousers, pants, slacks, shoes,
lips, ears, feet, sides, margins, etc. When a sentence begins with there is or there are the
subject is following the verb. The verb must then agree with the following subject. In
other words, there is not the subject. Some nouns refer to a collection or group but are
considered singular. Family is a good example. A family has more than one member by
definition but is a recognizable entity in itself, and is therefore considered singular. These
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words include family, team, inventory, group, set, class, committee, membership, etc.
However, when referring to a portion or distinct members of the group the plural verb is
used. ―Her family are disagreeing with each other.
Pluralisation should also take into consideration demonstrative pronouns.
Use this (singular) and these (plural) to talk about people or things near: Example:
This is a nice cup of tea. These are nice cups of tea.
Use that (singular) and those (plural) to talk about things that are not near:
Example: This is our house, and that‘s Hansel‘s house over there.
Those are very expensive shoes.
This, these, that and those are also used with nouns to show proximity.
Use this and these for people or things near.
There is often confusion over all and all of. As a very general guideline, use all
of when the next word is a pronoun (e.g., us, you, it, him, her) (Delmendo, 2016).
In Hiligaynon, nouns can be determined whether they are singular or plural
through several forms: a) Most nouns add mga to signify that they are plural. Example,
singular words like lamesa (table),simbahan ( church) will be pluralized by adding mga
before the word, as in mga lamesa (tables), mga simbahan (churches). b) To determine
whether nouns are in singular or plural form, grammatical particles are used. Example,
ang (a/an) is used for singular common nouns, ―Nagakaon ang bata.” For plural
common noun, ang mga (the) is used. Example, “Nagakaon ang mga bata.”c) Nouns
referring to relationships are determined as singular or plural through their affixes.
Example for singular, abyan (friend), utod (sibling). “Abyan ko si Ana.” “Utod niya s
Flor.”
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Table 9. Errors committed by the junior high school students in singular/plural form.

RULE APPLIED
(1) that things… Demonstrative pronoun that that thing…
refers to a singular object
which is far from the
speaker. Therefore, the
noun that follows it is
singular in number. An
error was committed in this
rule because the student
wrote things after the
pronoun that, which is
incorrect because he/she is
referring to a plural
noun/subject.
(2) I can use this difficulties This is a demonstrative I can use these difficulties
… pronoun referring to a …
singular subject. The
sentence constructed by the
because the pronoun this is
followed by the plural noun
difficulties.
(3) … one of the important The phrase containing one … one of the important
thing … of the is always followed by things …
the plural form of the noun.
An error was committed in
this phrase because the
student used the singular
form of the verb instead of
its plural form.
(4) … these are the problem These is a demonstrative … these are the problems
… pronoun referring to the …
plural object near the
speaker. Therefore, the
noun that follows it should
be in plural form. The use
of singular noun problem
made the sentence incorrect.
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Table 9 continued

RULE APPLIED
(5) There is challenges , … When the sentence begins There are challenges , …
with there is the subject is
following the verb. The
verb then must follow the
number of the subject. In
other words, there is is not a
subject. An error was
committed because the verb
does not follow the number
of the subject.
(6) One of this … The phrase containing one One of these …

of … is always followed by
the plural form of the noun.
In case it is followed by a
demonstrative pronoun, it
should be in a plural form.
An error was committed in
this phrase because the
student used the singular
form of demonstrative
pronoun this instead of
these.
(7) .. every quizzess and The phrase starting with the .. every quiz and every
every exams … word every is always exam …
singular. The student
committed an error because
the word that follows every
is not in singular form.
(8) …all them… As a very general guideline, …all of them…

use all of when the next
word is a pronoun (e.g., us,
you, it, him, her). Since the
word that follows all is a
pronoun, therefore it should
also use all of phrase
instead of all only.
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Table 9 continued

RULE APPLIED
(9) I use this difficulties … Difficulties is plural in form I use these difficulties …
therefore these (plural)
should be used.
Preposition
Data revealed that respondents committed 5 (2.60%) errors related to
prepositions.
The smallest class of words in the English language which includes words like to,
with, and of is called preposition. A preposition has only one major property: it combines
with a following noun phrase—its object—to form a larger syntactic unit—a
prepositional phrase. Typical prepositions include: of, with, in front of, because of, to,
under, in spite of, over, in, about, beyond, before, for, after, within, through, etc. Some
prepositions, like under and after, express identifiable meanings. Others, such as of, have
a purely grammatical function: in the noun phrase the end of the year, the preposition of
serves merely to connect the smaller noun phrase the year to the rest of the bigger one,
but of the year is still a prepositional phrase. Prepositional phrases usually tell where and
when; they show relationship, for example, of location (in Duffy‘s Tavern) or of time (in
February).
The students committed errors in telling the time because the prepositions they
used were not followed by noun but by an article the. Example: ―Despite the difficulties
we encounter in the school …‖ In the sentence, the student used preposition to tell where
the action happened. However, the presence of the after the preposition in made the
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sentence incorrect because it is not necessary in the prepositional phrase used by the
student. The same error was made in the sentence ―… to have a good reputation in the
life.‖ and ―…when you are in the school…‖ wherein the preposition was not immediately
followed by a noun but by an arfticle.
Preposition phrase follows a pattern, preposition + noun or pronoun, for example,
without (preposition) + Suzanna (noun)= without Suzanna (prepositional phrase).
Stuff can be added between, usually in the form of various adjectives, but a
prepositional phrase always begins with the preposition and ends with the noun (or
pronoun): preposition + adjectives + noun or pronoun = prepositional phrase. Examples
are, in (preposition) + a yellow (adjectives) + submarine (noun) = in a yellow submarine
(preposition phrase). Another example is of the best and brightest students, adds multiple
adjectives (as well as a conjunction) but it begins with the preposition and ends with the
noun, and that is what matters.
The noun (or pronoun) that ends a prepositional phrase is called the object of the
preposition. If all prepositional phrases ended with nouns, it may also end with pronouns,
and those pronouns must be objective pronoun: her (not she), him (not he), me (not I), us,
(not we). Example, ―Rossi will come with her and me.‖ Prepositional phrases may end
with double nouns or double pronouns (compound objects of the preposition).
For the learners not to confuse themselves on what prepositions should be used,
some rules were made:A preposition must have an object. All prepositions have
objects. If a preposition does not have an object it is not a preposition—it's probably an
adverb. A preposition always has an object. An adverb never has an object. Example
sentences: ―They are in the kitchen. (preposition in has object the kitchen.) while the
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sentences, ―Please come in. (adverb in has no object; it qualifies come); Pre- position
means place before. The name ―preposition‖ indicates that a preposition (usually)
comes before something (its object): ―I put it in the box.‖ But even when a
preposition does not come before its object, it is still closely related to its object:
Who did you talk to? / I talked to Jane; A pronoun following a preposition should be
in object form. The noun or pronoun that follows a preposition forms a
‗prepositional object‟. If it is a pronoun, it should therefore be in the objective
form (me, her, them), not subjective form (I, she, they): ―This is from my wife and me.‖
―Mary gave it to them.‖; Preposition forms. Prepositions have no particular form. The
majority of prepositions are one-word prepositions, but some are two- or three-word
phrases known as complex-prepositions: one-word prepositions (before, into, on),
complex prepositions (according to, but for, in spite of, on account of); to preposition
and to infinitive are not the same. Do not confuse the infinitive particle ―to‖ (to sing,
to live) with the preposition ―to‖ (to London, to me). To as preposition: ―I look forward
to seeing you.‖To as infinitive particle: ―They used to live in Moscow.‖
The students committed errors in this preposition because it is followed by an
article and not a noun. Example: ―…by going to the school …‖ To as a preposition
always follows a noun. If to follows other than noun, it is not considered as preposition,
rather an infinitive. An error was committed due to the presence of the after to. The is not
necessary in the preposition used by the student. Therefore, it should be omitted.
The golden preposition rule. A preposition is followed by a "noun". It is never
followed by a verb. If the preposition is being followed by a verb, it must be in the "-ing"
form which is a gerund or verb in noun form.

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Prepositions have also look-alikes. Preposition is a function of the word, not the
word itself. A preposition, to be a preposition, must be in a prepositional phrase.
Sometimes a word on the list of common prepositions above occurs alone in a sentence,
without a noun or pronoun following. In the example, ―please practice your soccer
dribbling outside!‖ outside is not a preposition at all, but a simple adverb modifying the
verb practice. Another preposition look-alike occurs when the word to appear followed
by a verb rather than by a noun. This is a type of verbal phrase called an infinitive: ―They
practiced their dribbling outside to avoid breaking the furniture.‖ Yet another preposition
look-alike is the phrasal verb-two-word verbs such as check out, run into, or show up:
―Carol never showed up for the soccer game on Sunday.‖
Other expressions mean very different things depending on which prepositions
they are paired with, for example, differ from (be dissimilar) and differ with (disagree
with). In comparisons, a thing is similar to another thing. We agree with a person, but we
agree on a plan and agree to particular actions.
Several English prepositions are realized as a single form in the mother tongue.
Example in Hiligaynon: Nagkadto kami sa tinda. (We went to market.), Naglangoy kami
sa suba. (We swam in the river.), Sa karsada ang inaway. (The commotion occurred on
the street.).
Further, the English prepositions have complex forms like because of and in spite
of. There are coalesced forms such as into and onto. Certain prepositions co-occur with
verbs, adjectives, and nouns to form clusters, such as : to substitute for, to be afraid of, in
favor of, and awareness of. These are features which may not occur in many languages in
the Philippines (Alcudia et. al, 2016).

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Table 10. Summary of errors committed by the junior high school students in preposition.

RULE APPLIED
(1) …by going to the To as a preposition always …by going to school …
school … follows a noun. If to follows
other than noun, it is not
considered as preposition,
rather an infinitive. An error
was committed due to the
presence of the after to. The
is not necessary in the
preposition used by the
student.
(2) Despite the difficulties In the sentence, the student Despite the difficulties we
we encounter in the school used preposition to tell encounter in school …
… where the action happened.
However, the presence of
the after the preposition in
made the sentence incorrect
because it is not necessary
in the prepositional phrase
used by the student.
(3) … to have a good The same error was … to have a good

reputation in the life. committed by this sentence reputation in life.
because it is an article the
that follows the preposition
in which is supposedly
followed by a noun, life.
The article should be
omitted in order to correct
the sentence.
(4) …when you are in the The same error was …when you are in
school… committed by this sentence
because it is an article the
that follows the preposition
in which is supposedly school…
followed by a noun, school.
The article should be
omitted in order to correct
the sentence.
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Table 10 continued

RULE APPLIED
(5) …many garbage are in While other prepositions do …many garbage are in the
the mouth of hoe. not need articles to follow mouth of the hoe.
them, the preposition of, on
the other hand, need an
article. The preposition of
serves merely to connect the
smaller noun phrase the
mouth to the rest of the
bigger one, but of (the) hoe
is still a prepositional
phrase. So in order to
correct the error of the
student, addition of the
article the should be done.
Double Negative
Among the grammatical errors committed by the junior high school students,
double negative has the least number with 3 (1.56%) frequency counts.
Double negative refers to the use of two negatives in one statement or question.
(Lavrakas, 2008). It is considered incorrect in the English language due to the following
reasons: In standard English, each subject-predicate construction should only have one
negative form. Negative forms in English are created by adding a negation to the verb.
In the sentence written by one of the students, ―If there's no education what would
be our life without it?‖ the presence of no used as modifier of the noun education and
without made the sentence incorrect. There should only be one negation for a noun and its
pronoun. It could be corrected by rearranging the words in the sentence.
A double negative is a non-standard sentence construction that uses two negative
forms. Double negatives are created by adding a negation to the verb and to the modifier
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of the noun (adjectives, adverbs, etc.) or to the object of the verb. Example, ―I won‘t (will
not) bake no cake.‖ (verb negation + object negation) and ―I can‘t (cannot) go nowhere
tonight.‖ (verb negation + modifier negation).
The student committed an error in the sentence ―How could I make it better when
I cannot never handle problems by myself?‖ because of the negative word cannot and
never joined together to negate the verb handle. In this case, only one negative word
should be used to negate the verb. This sentence can be corrected by deleting the other
negative word or by replacing the other negative word into the positive one. Also, in the
sentence ―Sometimes I didn‘t know nothing how to make the words …‖ the same
correction should be applied. Adding a negation to the verb and to the object of the verb
will make the sentence incorrect.
Since double negative rank the least among all the errors, it only showed that the
students were aware that using two negative words in a sentence is wrong in language
writing. However, there were still students who cannot avoid committing an error in this
grammatical rule.
The negation in Hiligaynon has nothing to do with the errors committed by the
students in English language because students‘ native language has only 3 negative
markers which are used in different kinds of sentences. ―Wala” or ―none‖ negates an
existential statement, ―Dili” or ―not‖ negates verbs in future tense, and ―ayaw” or
―don‘t‖ negates imperative sentences (Zorc, 1992).

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Table 11. Summary of errors committed by the junior high school students in double
negative.

RULE APPLIED
(1) If there's no education The presence of no used as What would be our life
what would be our life modifier of the noun without education?
without it? education and without made
the sentence incorrect. It
could be corrected by
rearranging the words in the
sentence.
(2) How could I make it An error is committed How could I make it better
better when I cannot never because of the negative when I cannot handle
handle problems by myself? word cannot and never problems by myself?
joined together to negate the
verb handle. In this case, How could I make it better
only one negative word when I can never handle
should be used to negate the problems by myself?
verb. This sentence can be
written in two ways: by
deleting the other negative
word or by replacing the
other negative word into the
positive one.
(3) Sometimes I didn‘t Didn‟t is used to negate the Sometimes I didn‘t know
know nothing how to make verb know. However, the how to make the words …
the words … addition of the word
nothing to negate the adverb
how makes this sentence
incorrect.
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Sources of Errors
Based on the analysis of the grammatical errors committed by the students, it was
revealed that capitalization got the highest number of errors having 57 (29.69%)
frequency counts while double negative got the least number of errors having 3 (1.56%)
frequency counts. With the complex rules governing the English language, it could be
really challenging on the part of the L2 learners to master all of it.
The analysis revealed that the students are not able to follow rule number 1 of
capitalization because he/she failed to capitalize the first letter of the word love.
Regardless of its usage, it should start with a capital letter because it is the beginning of
the sentence. Another example of an error in rule number 1 which was committed by the
students in their L2 writing is, ―as a student will study …‖ The first letter of the word as,
which is a, should be capitalized, because it is the beginning of the sentence. ―the
important of my life …,‖ ―that is my encountered …,‖ ―and that is my …‖ the, that, and
and, regardless of their used in the sentence, should start with a capital letter because it is
the beginning of the sentence. However, some students committed errors because they
capitalize the first letter of some words which are actually not in the beginning of the
sentence. Examples of these are: ―First, Strive more …,‖ ―Eventhough it is hard,
Sometimes we need to pursue …‖ These sentences actually start with a capital letter and
ends in a period, however, the word that follows the comma also starts with a capital
letter making this sentence incorrect. The word strive, for the first example, functions as a
verb of a missing subject which is the student himself/her self because of the presence of
an adjective my, while sometimes, for the second example, functions as an adverb of time.
With these, strive and sometimes should not start with a capital letter because they are not
117
the start of the sentence. Also, a verb and an adverb are not proper nouns. This case has
something to do with rule number 2 of capitalization.
The students committed errors in what should be capitalized and what should not
be capitalized even behind the fact the English and Hiligaynon, the L1of the students,
shared the same rules in terms of capitalization. (Sarhan, 2016). The students, then, had
inadequate knowledge of the English rule in that the first letter of specific nouns and the
first letter of a sentence must be capitalized. This causes intralingual error.
The students tend to overgeneralization the rule in spelling, in addition to lack of
training and carelessness. Most of the errors committed by the students are due to
substituting, adding, or dropping of letters to words which do not have reliable rule
covering them, and will only be mastered through familiarization or memorisation of
their spellings. Examples are: ―…will be sacriface…‖ An error was made due to
substitution of letter a to letter i (as in sacrifice) . ―… is you everday habbit …‖ the
student committed an error in the spelling of this word because of adding the letter b.
―…uniqe…” The dropping of u before e misspelled this word. . ―… I‘ve even
incounterd…‖ An error was committed in the spelling of this word because of
substituting letter e of letter i, and dropping of letter e before letter d (incounterd-
encountered). In any language, spelling always poses as a problem to many. Incorrect
spelling of words may change their meaning.
The result of the analysis also revealed that one of the rules of the mother tongue
of the students in spelling which states that spelling should be in accordance with the
phonetic sound of the word was followed by some students, as evident on the errors they
committed in their L2 writing. Examples of this are: ―… in dis school…‖ The student
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spelled the word this in accordance with the phonetic sound of the word. ‗… lessening to
teacher…‖ Since the word is one of those words which has silent letter when pronounced,
the student spelled it in accordance with the phonetic sound of the word. Instead of
writing the –ing form of the verb listen, he/she wrote the “-ing” form of the adjective less
(which is not acceptable). ―…in may study…‖ May was spelled in accordance with the
phonetic sound of the word my. This word also belongs to those which have no rule
covering them, so they simply have to be memorised.
Moreover, the differences in the sound and spelling system of English are a main
sources of students spelling errors. Thus, the students committed intralingual and
interlingual errors in spelling.
Sentence fragment is a type of error which can be divided into two groups: no
verb and no subject. Hiligaynon sentences, like English, should be composed of a subject
and a verb in order to express a complete idea or thought. Most of their errors in sentence
fragment have something to do with a missing subject, a missing verb, and an unfinished
thought. Since the students omitted the subject or verb in their sentences they failed to
convey the full meaning of a sentence. The errors committed were considered
intralingual.
The possible explanation on the errors committed by the students in subject-verb
agreement was due to faulty application of rules. In the book written by Zorc (1967) titled
―Hiligaynon,‖ he stated that the plurality in Hiligaynon language is generally shown by
mga, which indicates a ―variety‖ or ‗assortment‖ of what the noun signifies. However,
the plurality of the subject does not affect the form of the verb. It still remains the same.
Because of this, the source of errors is in subject-verb agreement is intralingual. There is

119
no language interference between the native language of the students and the target
language. They simply have not completely acquired the rules of subject-verb agreement.
In verb tense, the students committed errors mostly in past tense, present perfect
tense, and future tense which. It was stated that in Hiligaynon, the dropping of the tense
of the language does not affect the indicated time Murphy (2010). Therefore, the source
of the errors of the students in verb tense is due to the partial learning of its rules and is
considered as intralingual error.
The errors committed by the students in articles can be classified into omission
and addition. There were sentences which omitted the articles in the sentence and there
were also added articles which are not necessary. It can be explained that the students
wrongly apply the rule of the target language. These can be the results of the ignorance in
the rules restriction. With this, intralingual is the sources of the errors of the students in
the articles.
The errors committed by the students in word order mostly came from misplaced
verbs, adverbs, and adjectives. This only shows that the students have not fully acquired
the rules on the sentence construction. Thus, the source of errors is intralingual.
Hiligaynon and English word order according to Thompson (2014), are the same in terms
of adjectives to the English language.
The sentences which contained error the singular-plural form of the verb was
committed due to omission of ―s‖ in forming the plural form. Students may not realize
that phrases such as one of the and these are require plural nouns and due to the lack of
training or incomprehensibility of the rule such errors (intralingual error) occured.

120
In the sentence written by the students which contained error in the used of
preposition, it was revealed that they committed errors because of they added articles
between the preposition and the noun it follows. The error was committed due to the
presence of the after to. To as a preposition always follows a noun. If to follows other
than noun, it is not considered as preposition. This only show that they do not still master
the rules in preposition, therefore the errors is intralingual.
Though students were aware that double negative is wrong in the English
language, they still committed an error due to addition of unnecessary element. The
negation in Hiligaynon has nothing to do with the errors committed by the students in
English language because students‘ native language has only 3 negative markers which
are used in different kinds of sentences (Zorc, 1967). Because of this, students‘ source of
errors in double negative is intralingual.
Proposed Remedial Output
Given the result of the study, it was evident that the learners needed more
intensive as well as extensive practice on the identified grammatical rules. The native
language and the target language grammar items should be differentiated clearly
whenever they occur in the work of the learners.
One of the remedial activities that can aid the Intralingual Errors of the learners is
peer and self editing activities in which the learners have the opportunities to track their
errors themselves or collaboratively. Sentence correction from their own work, and then
justifying the changes made by them might enlighten them and help them to relate better
to the grammar rules of the target language and consequently to remember them. Another
121
could be reading passages which contain the existing structure the learners are acquiring.
Since it is a remedial activity, it is suggested to use brief lessons, rather than extensive
grammar presentations. This will help in maintaining students‘ attention on the given
lesson.
To improve the Interlingual Errors of the learners in which they makes error in
grammar because he/she is following the rules of the native language and not the rules of
the target language, they may be given more practice in writing correct English for a
positive reinforcement. This may help them slowly forget faulty structures and pick up
the correct one instead. Frequent practice of the grammar rules of the target language is
needed. Memorization could also help in language acquisition and in minimization of all
sorts of grammatical errors. If the learners memorize these rules and keep on practicing
them, he/she will eventually master the target language.
The following are the lesson plan exemplars which contain activities for different
grammatical rules in English.

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Lesson Plan in English
I. Objectives
At the end of the lesson, the students would be able to:
1. identify words that need to be capitalized in their own and peer writing;
2. tell when to capitalize the first letter of the word; and
3. create sentences using correct capitalization of proper nouns, the pronoun I,
and the first letter of each sentence.
II. Subject Matter
Topic: Capitalization
(Proper Nouns)
Reference/s: English III (with interactive and integrative learning activities), 2006-
p. 94- 101
Materials: Chalk board, strip of papers, worksheets
III. Procedure
A. Preparatory Activities
1. Prayer
2. Checking of Attendance
B. Motivation
Write on the board.
Mother said that I have to go to school.
My cousins live in Canada.
That hat belongs to Tom.
What have you noticed in the following sentences?

What make these highlighted words different from others?
What do you call these words?
C. Discussion
The teacher explains the following:
1. Capitalize all proper nouns. Proper nouns are names of people, places and
things, therefore it should always be capitalized.
2. Always capitalize the pronoun I. There is no exception to this rule.
3. Always start a sentence with a capital letter. The first word, regardless of what
it is, should always be capitalized.
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ACTIVITY No. 1 (Familiarizing Proper Nouns)
1. The class will be divided into 5 groups.

2. Students will help brainstorm, as a whole group, a list of proper nouns to be
written in a manila paper.
3. They are given 10 minutes to finish their work.
4. The leader of each group will present their output. Correction, if there‘s any
will be made by the group who raised their hands first. Plus point will be given to the
group with correct answer.
ACTIVITY No. 2
1. Students are ask to take out a piece of notebook paper.

2. They will write three sentences.
Write down these directions on the board so that students can glance on them
while they are writing.
 The first sentence should have the name of a city, state, and country in it.
 The second sentence should have the name of a person, month, and
holiday.
 The third sentence should have the name of a book title or a movie title.
3. Each student will exchange work with the classmate nearer to him/her.
4. They will examine each work. If there‘s an error, the owner will be informed
and it is him/her who will figure out the error he/she committed.
ACTIVITY No. 3
1. Students write 2 sentences describing themselves.

2. Have them exchange their papers with their peers.
3. Students circle the letters that have been capitalized correctly and underline the
letters that need to be capitalized but weren't.
4. The one who corrected the error will explain why it should be capitalized.
ACTIVITY No. 4
1. Students will read various sentences on sentence strips that the teacher has
selected from students‘ previous writing composition (these will be selected randomly
and no student names will be given). The teacher will purposely include capitalization
errors so that students can identify the errors.
2. Students, then, will work in groups of three to analyze some sentences on strips
and make the corrections with a marker. After, students will join as a whole group and
share the capitalization errors they found and explain why it should be capitalized.
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ACTIVITY No. 5
Students will answer this worksheet individually.
D. Generalization
When do you need to capitalize the first letter of the word?
IV. Evaluation
On a 1 whole sheet of paper, write an essay about the place you have visited.
Include means on how are you going to get there and the places near to it.
Make sure to use proper capitalization in your sentences.
The essay will be assessed through the following Rubric.
Quality of Writing - 3 points
Grammar - 3 points
Proper Capitalization of Words - 4 points
Total - 10 points
V. Agreement
Put an X if the sentence is capitalized incorrectly and a C if it is capitalized
correctly.
1. _____ Big Ben of London is a clock.

2. _____ I drove east to the city and turned north.
3. _____ My family supports the American cancer society.
4. _____ Yellowstone National Park is a great Park.
5. _____ I work for the New York Times.
6. _____ She is a republican and proud of it.
7. _____ The Emancipation proclamation was issued in 1862.
8. _____ Buddhists have been around a very long time.
9. _____ The Sidney Opera House is a Gorgeous Building.
10. _____ The Bronze Age lasted for several thousand years.
125
CHAPTER V
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS
SUMMARY
This qualitative method research aimed to identify and analyze the grammatical
errors of the students of two public secondary high school in the northern part of Iloilo
which would eventually determine the possible remedial activities to be used by English
teachers.
Furthermore, this study aimed to answer the following questions: 1) What are the
grammatical errors committed by the respondents?;2) What are the sources that
contributed to the commission of grammatical errors of the students?; and 3)What
possible remedial activities can be drawn from the result of the study?
Purposive sampling was utilized in choosing the 32 respondents of the study.
Criteria such as students with average the students have an average grade of 80- above,
satisfactory (for the section 1) and an average grade of 75- 84, fair- satisfactory (for the
lower section) in an English subject (based on the DepEd Order No. 8, series of 2015), 2)
officially enrolled in the two schools, and 3) currently taking his or her English subject
were considered in the sampling.
Data were taken from the corpus of essay written by the junior high school
students. Three guide questions were given in writing the essay which were validated by
English teachers as to relevance and appropriateness of topic. The data gathered were
analysed using Corder‘s Methods on Error Analysis (1974). After the analysis of the data
gathered, possible remedial activities were determined for use of English teachers.
125
126
Findings of the Study
Based on the gathered data, the following findings are forwarded:
1.a. All students committed errors on the use of capitalization, spelling, sentence
fragment, subject-verb agreement, verb tense, article, word order, singular/plural form,
prepositions, and double negative in their sentences.
1.b. The students produced a total of 192 errors in their English language writing
wherein the highest grammatical errors committed by the junior high school students of
the two public secondary high schools were on capitalization, spelling, sentence
prepositions.
2.a. The sources of errors of students on capitalization, spelling, sentence
prepositions, and double negative were intralingual errors garnering 159 (82.81%)
frequency counts. Some grammatical errors on the spelling in the written essays of the
students are due to interlingual errors which garnered 33 (17.19%).
2.b. Students tried to use some learnt grammatical structures, but they were able
to apply them partly, so the rule applications were still incomplete.
2.c. The Intralingual error proved its influential role on the students‘ errors. The
students over-generalized the English structures because some rules were difficult and
complex; they added, omitted, and substituted some of the words in English; hence, they
tend to use their learned English structures to apply with new sentences inappropriately.
3. Students need enhancement activities because they committed several errors.

127
Conclusions
Based on the results of the study, the following conclusions are:
1.a. The students‘ proficiency to apply the rule of English grammar is still
inefficient because they committed errors under the 10 identified grammatical error types.
1.b. The 10 identified type of grammatical errors found in this study have been the
common grammatical errors made by junior high school students in the two public
secondary high school in the northern part of Iloilo when they write English. Thus, it can
be concluded that they have not completely understood or mastered the grammatical rules
concerning those errors.
1.c. Students have not completely mastered or understood the rules on
capitalization of words for they find capitalization the most difficult among the 10
identified grammatical rules in English. However, they are careful on the use of double
negative or understand this grammatical rule, thus they committed the least number of
errors on it.
2.a. Both interlingual and intralingual errors are the sources of grammatical errors
of the junior high school students.
2.b. Among the two identified sources of grammatical errors, intralingual is the
common one due to the language learned from the other sources like those heard or seen
from media and instructional materials. On the other hand, there are only few students
who committed errors in grammatical rules due to students‘ native language habits such
as patterns, systems or rules. Thus, the first language of the respondents does not interfere
with their second language learning.
2.c. The ignorance of rule restrictions is found when the students failed to observe
128
some restrictions of the grammatical rules, so they apply those rules inaccurately.
3. Students need further enhancement activities to minimize the errors on the
identified grammatical rules.
Recommendations
English plays an important role in the communication of the people around the
world. In order to acquire it by non-native speaker, one must learn its grammar. However,
some of the non-native speakers find it difficult to master the grammatical rules of
English which contribute to the commission of errors. Because of that, this study was
conducted.
Based on the findings of the study, the following recommendations were made:
1. English teachers, as educators, should not only be aware of learners‘
grammatical errors, but they also have to evaluate these errors for them to have a guide
on what rules should be given emphasis. It will also help in the selection of appropriate
remediation as well as appropriate methods and techniques to be applied.
2. Learners should be aware of the English grammatical rules they need to master.
They should know the importance of comprehension in using the language so that they
may be able to express themselves freely without fear of being misunderstood.
3. The principals and school administrators, the people who help the teachers in
moulding the minds of the students, may help strengthen the foundation of the learners in
English by providing the school powerful tools that can motivate learners to study.
Student learn more if he/she is motivated enough to do so.
4. The students need to be aware on the application of grammatical rules in
English writing. They need to focus more on those identified top three type of errors.
129
5. Students of the two public secondary high schools need remediation on the
grammatical rules where intralingual errors are committed. The native language and the
target language grammar items should be differentiated clearly whenever they occur in
the work of the learners.
6. English teachers should distinguish different structures between native
language and English grammar and explain them to the students. The teachers may
encourage the students to think in English and use plain English when writing sentences
in order to prevent any direct translation of native language to English.
7. One of the remedial activities that can aid the intralingual Errors of the learners
is peer and self editing activities in which the learners have the opportunities to track
their errors themselves or collaboratively. Sentence correction from their own work, and
then justifying the changes made by them might enlighten them and help them to relate
better to the grammar rules of the target language and consequently to remember them. It
is suggested to use brief lessons, rather than extensive grammar presentations.
8. To improve the interlingual Errors of the learners in which they makes error in
grammar because he/she is following the rules of the native language and not the rules of
the target language, they may be given more practice in writing correct English for a
positive reinforcement. This may help them slowly forget faulty structures and pick up
the correct one instead. Frequent practice of the grammar rules of the target language is
needed. Memorization could also help in language acquisition and in minimization of all
sorts of grammatical errors. If the learners memorize these rules and keep on practicing
them, he/she will eventually master the target language.

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130
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APPENDICES
135
Appendix 1. Permission letter.
October 20, 2017
DR. NENITA C. MANINGO

Principal III
Balasan National High School
Balanti-an, Balasan, Iloilo
Madam:
Greetings!
May I inform your good office that as of this First Semester S.Y. 2017-2018, I am
enrolled in Master of Arts in English at Capiz State University, Pontevedra, Capiz.
Currently, I am on my thesis writing entitled: Students‟ Prevalent Grammatical
Errors.
In this regard, I would like to request permission from your good office to allow me to
conduct a study on the selected Junior High School students on _______ .
Thank you for your support.
Respectfully yours,
SGD. VANESSA S. ANDRADE

MAE Student
Approved:
SGD. NENITA C. MANINGO, Ed. D.

Principal III
Balasan National High School
136
Appendix 1. Permission letter.
October 20, 2017
MA. EDELYN S. CAPANAS

Head Teacher I/ Officer-In-Charge
Cabalic National High School
Cabalic, Balasan, Iloilo
Madam:
Greetings!
May I inform your good office that as of this First Semester S.Y. 2017-2018, I am
enrolled in Master of Arts in English at Capiz State University, Pontevedra, Capiz.
Currently, I am on my thesis writing entitled: Students‟ Prevalent Grammatical
Errors.
In this regard, I would like to request permission from your good office to allow me to
conduct a study on the selected Junior High School students on _______ .
Thank you for your support.
Respectfully yours,
SGD. VANESSA S. ANDRADE

MAE Student
Approved:
SGD. MA. EDELYN S. CAPANAS

Head Teacher I/ Officer-In-Charge
Cabalic National High School
137
Appendix 2. Samples of consent letters signed by the students.

138
Appendix 3. Samples of students‘ essay.

139
Appendix 4. Lesson exemplar.
I. Objectives
1. determine the importance of correct spelling;
2. locate misspelled words in their own writings; and
3. write the sentences using the corrected spelling of word.
II. Subject Matter

Topic: Spelling
(„s‟ or „es,‟ silent letters- no reliable rule)
Reference/s: Mother Tongue for Teaching and Learning, 2016- p. 67- 69
Materials: Chalk board, strip of papers, small white boar, marking pen
III. Procedure
1. Prayer
B. Motivation
Form new words out of the word
―PHOTOSYNTHESIS‖
C. Discussion
The teacher reviews the following:
1. „s‟ or „es.‟ Add es if a word ends in ch, sh, ss, x or z, examples, arch- arches,
clash- clashes, class- classes, box- boxes, quiz- quizzes.
2. Some words include letters which are not pronounced when the word is spoken,
example, advertisement, campaign, column, debt, design, doubt, gauge, ghetto, heir,
knife, knowledge, island, mortgage, often, pneumatic, rhythm, solemn, subtle. There is
no reliable rule covering these words, so they simply have to be memorised.
ACTIVITY No. 1
1. The teacher prepares a word listed in the lesson. These words are written in
paper strips.
2. Students name will be called out one by one to pick up one strip of paper.
3. The teacher dictates the word found in the paper clearly, ex: (enemies); then
repeats the word, but this time says the word slowly while ―sounding out‖ each
letter.
4. The student has spelled the word correctly, he will get plus point. If there is an
error, the teacher will show the word in the strip of paper, have student read it and
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―sound it out‖ then rewrite the word correctly. It may be necessary to let the student
look at the word to enable him/her to write it correctly.
ACTIVITY No. 2
1. Give students a list of their current spelling words with just one or two letters
missing from each word.
arches 1. a _ c h e _
clashes 2. c l a s h _ _
quizzes 3. q u i _ z _ s
boxes 4. b o _ e _
tomatoes 5. t o m a t _ _ s
2. Have students fill in the missing letters. (As they get better, the teacher takes more
letters away.)
ACTIVITY No. 3
1. Divide your class into groups of four and make sure each group has a small
white board. This activity is a race. The first group to raise their white board over
their heads with the correct answer gets a point.
a. Spelling words – The teacher read the word and students spell it on the white
board.
1. island
2. pneumatic
3. rhythm
4. column
5. debt
6. ddoubt
7. knife
8. gauge
9. solemn
10. heir
b. Which letter is wrong? – The teacher prepares word cards with misspelled words.
He/she hold up a word card and the students identify the letter (or letters) that is/are
wrong and write it on their whiteboard.
1. intellegence
2. loowest
3. untill
4. reqairements
5. inserparable
6. engglish
7. habbit
8. ecxperience
9. whorst
10. speciall
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ACTIVITY No. 4
Let students write a complete sentence in their favorite SMS text and translate it
into proper English with correct spelling.
For example: My smmr hols wr CWOT. B4, we used 2go2 NY 2C my bro, his GF
& thr 3 :- kids FTF. ILNY, it's a gr8 plc.
This translates to: My summer holidays were a complete waste of time. Before,
we used to go to New York to see my brother, his girlfriend and their three screaming
kids face to face. I love New York. It's a great place.
ACTIVITY No. 5
1. The students write an essay about their experiences in school.

2. The teacher will check the essay of the students. However, if there are misspelled
words, the students will be informed how many words they misspelled and they have
to find the errors themselves, forcing the students to study the words more carefully."
D. Generalization
Why do you have to spell the words correctly?
IV. Evaluation
Spell the following words correctly, and use them in a sentence. Write your
answer on a 1 whole sheet of paper.
1. organice
2. incounterd
3. uniqe
4. sacrifice
5. propessional
6. stragle
7. already
8. lessening
9. defficulties
10. licture
V. Agreement
Look for at least 5 words which spelling, you think, is not familiar to your
classmates. Present the words in front of the class.
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I. Objectives
1. define subject and predicate; and
2. distinguish between complete sentences and sentence fragments.
II. Subject Matter

Topic: Sentence Fragment
Reference/s: English 9: Across Continents, 2014- p.20-23
Materials: Chalk board, sticky notes
III. Procedure
1. Prayer
B. Motivation
Enumerate words related to the word SENTENCE.
Sentence
C. Discussion
A sentence is a group of words that contains three things: a subject (that makes
sense with the verb, verb (that goes with the subject), and complete thought.
1. Give the definition of subject and predicate.
ACTIVITY No. 1
1. Ask student volunteers to help you create a list of five simple subjects. Write
this list on the board.
2. Ask student volunteers to help you create a list of five predicates. Write your
list of predicates directly next to your list of subject 3. Once the list is complete, call on
students to come up to the list and draw a line from one of the subjects to a predicate to
create a sentence.
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ACTIVITY No. 2
1. The teacher tells students that they are going to take sentence parts and read
them together. If they make a complete sentence when combined, students should stand
up; if they make a fragment, students stay seated.
2. Have a student select a card from the first pile of subjects. Read it aloud.
3. Have another student select a card from the second pile. Read the subject again
with the phrase on the second card as a complete thought.
4. Students who agree that it‘s a complete thought, or sentence, stand up. If they
believe it‘s a fragment, they should remain seated.
5. Discuss each example, asking the questions to identify the subject and
predicate.
Go through this process again until all of the cards have been used.
ACTIVITY No. 3
1. Pass out one sticky note to each student.

2. Ask students to each write a sentence fragment or a complete sentence on their
sticky note.
3. When all students have finished writing, ask them to quietly get up and
exchange their sticky note with another student.
4. On the board, draw two columns: one labelled "Sentence" and the other
labelled "Fragment."
5. Have students come up one at a time and place their sticky note in the column
they think it belongs in.
6. After every student has classified their sticky note in a category, read each note
out loud. Call on student volunteers to state whether the sticky note placement was
correct.
7. Discuss as a group any misplacement of sticky notes.
ACTIVITY No. 4
Find all the sentence fragments in the paragraph below and join them to complete
sentence.
I share a room with my sister. The messiest person in the world. My side of the
room is always neat and dean; her side always looks terrible. As if it just went through a
major earthquake. She never- hangs up her clothes. When she takes them off. The floor is
her closet. The top of her dresser hasn‘t been seen by human eyes. For over a year now. It
is covered with dirty gym socks, old Coke cans, crumpled pieces of paper and old tubes
of dried out lipstick. Without any tops on them. I can‘t figure out what she keeps in the
dresser drawers. Because every single thing she owns is on her bed or on the floor. She
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says I make too much noise about it. But it makes me sick to look at it. All the time, even
when her friend‘s visit. Her bed is piled high with wrinkled clothing. Covered from head
to foot with her junk. Once I even cleaned her part of the room for her, but two days later
it looked like the city dump again. Which was not very encouraging. I guess she will have
to marry someone. Who can afford a housekeeper.
ACTIVITY No. 5
Have the students write an essay about their favourite subject. Have them edit and
revise written work of their peers by identifying and helping others fix their fragments.
D. Generalization
What happens when a reader comes across a fragment? (Point out that a fragment
interrupts comprehension because readers often will go back and reread it, distracting
them from the flow of ideas in the text.)
IV. Evaluation
If a group of words is a sentence, write sentence. If it is a fragment, write

fragment.
1. Patterns of floral or geometric shapes popular.

2. Edges of clothing into shapes called dagges.
3. She is looking out the window of her house as night falls on Dublin.
4. Although scientists and other workers live in Antarctica for about a year at a time.
5. She shouted the name ―Eveline‖ as the ship started moving.
V. Agreement
On your notebook, write:
1. three complete sentences. Circle the subject and underline the predicate of each
sentence.
2. three sentence fragments. After each fragment, students should state what part
is missing.
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I. Objectives
1. define subject and predicate;
3. differentiate singular from plural subject; and
2. construct their own sentences correct subject- verb agree.
II. Subject Matter

Topic: Subject-verb Agreement
Reference/s: English III (with interactive and integrative activities), 2016-
p. 126-136
Materials: Chalk board
III. Procedure
1. Prayer
B. Motivation
1. Ask volunteer to write verbs on the board.
2. Remember, verbs, unlike nouns, have –s form of the verb in singular form, and
base form for plural form.
C. Discussion
As a rule, the verb should agree in person and number with its subject. Use
singular verb forms with singular subjects and use plural verb forms with plural subjects.
ACTIVITY No. 1
Split the class into two equal groups. Ask each group to write five subject
nouns and five verbs. Have one group write out or say a noun from the list, and the
other group offer a verb to go with the noun. The entire room discusses whether or
not the verb agrees with the noun. If the verb agrees, the team that offered the verb
gets a point. If not, the other team gets a point. The teams then switch, and the
second team offers a noun and the first team offers a verb.
ACTIVITY No. 2
Let the students answer the worksheet.
Choose the correct form of the verb that agrees with the subject.
1. Annie and her brothers (is, are) at school.
2. Either my mother or my father (is, are) coming to the meeting.
3. The dog or the cats (is, are) outside.
4. Either my shoes or your coat (is, are) always on the floor.
5. George and Tamara (doesn't, don't) want to see that movie.
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6. Benito (doesn't, don't) know the answer.

7. One of my sisters (is, are) going on a trip to France.
8. The man with all the birds (live, lives) on my street.
9. The movie, including all the previews, (take, takes) about two hours to watch.
10. The players, as well as the captain, (want, wants) to win.
ACTIVITY No. 3
Students write subject-verb agreement quizzes to give to each other. Half of the
sentences should be correct and the other half of the sentences should be incorrect.
Before the students exchange their quizzes (make sure to check accuracy). The winner of
the game is the student who identifies the most correct and incorrect sentences.
Examples:
 Tom, in addition to his parents, are going to the mall. (incorrect)
 My friend always lend me money. (incorrect)
ACTIVITY No. 4
Have each student write a short paragraph containing a variety of subject -
verb errors. Have students exchange their paragraphs and correct the mistakes in a
classmate's work.
ACTIVITY No. 5
Have each student find one article that he finds interesting. Ask students to
read the article and to identify one singular subject and verb, one plural subject and
verb and one compound subject. Then, present it in front of the class.
IV. Evaluation
If the sentence is grammatically correct, write C before the number. If there is an
error in subject-verb agreement, write the correct form of the verb.
1. The date and the place of the Girl Scouts‘ Jamboree has been set.
2. The photographs in the yearbook are her work.
3. One of todays‘s English lessons are not easy to comprehend.
4. The president, with his cabinet, is going to the luncheon meeting.
5. Are you aware that the sale of the tickets have started?
6. The decision of the director stand.
7. Everyone on these islands are very friendly.
8. On the beach, Jackson sings.
9. The child looks at the picture inside the room.
10. Beneath these buildings are an underground stream.
V. Agreement
Write your answer on a ½ crosswise.
1. Write examples for each of the first four rules of the subject-verb agreement.
2. Give the three remaining rules and give examples for each of the remaining
rules. Put your answers on your notebook.
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I. Objectives
1. distinguish between verb tenses;
2. identify incorrect and correct verb tense in text; and
3. write sentences in different tenses.
II. Subject Matter

Topic: Verb Tense
p. 117- 125
Materials: Chalkboard,
III. Procedure
1. Prayer
B. Motivation
Write on the board.

I sit.
Ask students to copy the sentence.

Then, let them write it in past and future tense.
C. Discussion
Verb tense indicates two main types of information; time relations and aspectual
differences whether an action, activity, or state is past, present, or future.
There are three basic forms of verb tenses: past, present, and future.
ACTIVITY No. 1
Familiarize students with verbs with a fun round of charades. The teacher writes
down verbs or verb phrases on pieces of paper and put them into a bag. Students pick a
paper and act out the verb. Of course, they can't talk but they can use action to describe
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their verb. Some fun verbs to include are: dance, tremble, skip, hop, jump rope, eat,
sneeze and fall.
ACTIVITY No. 2
Using the powerpoint presentation, the teacher write out a funny story but leave
out most of the verbs. He/she indicates the missing verb with a line. Without revealing
the story, ask each student to come up with a verb in the past tense. Then, ask them to say
their verb and fill in the story. Afterwards, read the story to the class and see if the story
makes sense.
The students in Room 2B were very excited. They ______ tickets to see any
movie they wanted. The students ______ and _______. They ________ to go see a scary
movie. At the theater, some students _______ popcorn. Others _______ candy. It _____a
great day! After you are done with the silly story, ask students to fill in the blanks with
verbs that make sense.
ACTIVITY No. 3
The teacher provides each student with a large piece of construction paper. Next,
have them fold the paper into three different sections. After that, tell kids to pick a verb
and write it in the past, present and future tense. Each verb should be written in a
different section. Make sure to check the students' choices to make sure they have the
correct form of the word.
The next step is to write a sentence in each section using the different verb tenses.
ACTIVITY No. 4
Have students write a two paragraph story using common verbs, as well as past
and present tense verbs. These paragraphs should infuse noun usage from previous
grammar lessons with verb usage from the current lesson. Have students take turns
reading one of their paragraphs to the class and identify the verbs within each paragraph.
ACTIVITY 5
The teacher will read the following passage as students follow along.
The teacher will reread the passage, one sentence at a time. He/She will prompt
students to locate the past tense verb in each sentence by raising their hand (prompt will
be delivered after each sentence).
The teacher will give approximately seven seconds of wait time before calling on
a student to answer prompt. The instructor will observe students for participation and
comprehension.
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Direction. Listen to and follow the passage below. Then, wait for the teacher to ask you
questions.
Tom played on his school soccer team. He loved to kick the ball. His team always
worked on their passing skills. Tom passed the ball to his friend Jose. Jose lived on the
same street as Tom. Jose and Tom liked to practice together. They even practiced on
weekends. They learned new skills by working together. They worked hard during
practice so they could play better. They enjoyed learning new soccers kills. Tom and Jose
wanted to be the most skilled players on the team.
D. Generalization
What is the importance of the tense of the verb in a sentence?
IV. Evaluation
On a ½ crosswise, write sentences using the following verbs.
1. tried
2. put
3. written
4. hides
5. flew
6. ate
7. kept
8. bring
9. driven
10. talked
V. Agreement
Look for a magazine or book. Take down at least 5 sentences using different tense
of the verb.
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I. Objectives
1. define an article;
2. choose the proper type of article for a given noun; and
3. identify a definite and indefinite article. .
II. Subject Matter

Topic: Article
p. 162-168
Materials: Chalkboard, worksheets
III. Procedure
1. Prayer
B. Motivation
Ask students to write a descriptive word about their outfit.
Allow students to share their answers.
Explain that students just used an adjective to describe their shirt and in this
lesson they are going to explore two special types of adjectives: definite articles and
indefinite articles.
C. Discussion
The teacher reviews the rules in articles.
ACTIVITY No. 1
Match the rules with their example sentences. Then, compare your answers with
your
partner.
a. The pacific ocean is far from here. 1. We use ―the‖ with nouns such as
earth, sky, sun, moon… ______
b. My uncle moved to the UK. 2. We use ―the‖ with names of rivers,

seas, oceans. ______
c. We lost the ball. 3. We use‖the‖ with the names of

mountain ranges. ______
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d. The Taj Mahal is a famous place in 4. We use ―the‖ with the names of some
Hindustan. countries. ______
e. The Himalayas are the best place I‘ve 5. We use ―the‖ with the names of well
ever seen. Know buildings. ______
f. We see the stars at night.
ACTIVITY No. 2
The students are divided into groups of three or four. Each group is given a set of
article cards and a set of picture cards. The students shuffle the cards separately and
spread them out face down on the table in two sets. Students take it in turns to turn over
an article card and a picture card. If the article matches with the noun, the student scores
a point. The student can then score an extra point by making a sentence with the article
and noun. The student then keeps the cards and has another turn. If the cards don't match,
the student turns them back over, keeping them in the same place. The game continues
until all the cards have been matched. The student with the most points at the end of the
game wins.
ACTIVITY No. 3
Read the conversations including articles. Circle the best sentence that
describes the dialogue.
1. Ayşel: I‘m bored.
Inci: Let‘s rent a movie.
a) Ayşel knows which movie Inci is going to rent.
b) Ayşel and Inci are not talking about a particular movie.
2. Inci: Where is the movie CD, mom?
Mom: I haven‘t seen it.
a) Mom knows that Inci rented a new movie.
b) Mom doesn‘t know that Inci rented a new movie.
There are five dialogues. Fill in the blanks with ―a / an/ the‖.
1. Osman: How was your trip to _____ coast?
2. Fatih: Would you like _____ tomato? There is one in _____ fridge.
Steve: Oh, yes please! I‗ll make myself _____ cheese and tomato sandwich.
3. Burcu: Does your brother have _____ job?
Dindy: Yes. He is _____ soldier.
4. Selin: What did your teacher talked about in the previous lesson?
Gloria: She talked about the surface of ______ earth. Aysel: Why were you so late?
Jessica: Well, I took _____ taxi from _____ airport to _____ hotel where I was staying
and _____ driver completely lost. _____ man was really annoying.
There are five sentences. Add ―a / an / the‖ where necessary. Be careful,

there are gaps with no articles.
1. _____ man and _____ woman were waiting at ____ bus-stop when I got there,
and I asked _____ woman if she knew which bus went to _____ Morphou.
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2. _____ Mount Everest, which is situated in _____ Himalayas, is ____ highest

point in ____ world. That was _____ most ridiculous story
3. I ‗ve ever heard. Either he must be _____ liar or he has _____ extreme
imagination.
4. Apparently, _____ Italian is _____ easier language to learn than ____ French.
5. There was _____ terrible storm last week, which destroyed several trees and
caused _____ chimney on our house to collapse.
ACTIVITY No. 4
The he class is divided into groups of three or four. Each group is given a set of
article cards and a set of noun cards. The students deal the article cards out evenly and
place the noun cards face down in a pile. One student goes first and turns over the top
noun card from the pile and places it face up on the desk. The student then tries to make a
general statement using the noun and one of his or her article cards. If the student can
make a general statement, he or she puts the matching article card next to the noun card
and says the statement, e.g. 'A car has four wheels'. The two cards are then removed from
the game. If the student cannot make a general statement, the noun card is put back at the
bottom of the pile and the student misses a turn. The next student then turns over a noun
card and so on. The first student to get rid of all their article cards wins the game.
ACTIVITY 5
The class is divided into groups of three. Each group is given a set of article and
noun cards, which they spread out face up on the table. The students begin by deciding on
the type of story they want to write, e.g. horror, love, science fiction, etc. The students
then create a story in their groups using as many of the article and noun cards as possible.
When the students have finished, each group pairs up with another group and reads their
story to them. The two groups give feedback to each other and help with any grammatical
errors, paying close attention to the use of articles. Afterwards, groups take it in turns to
read their stories to the class. When all the stories have been read out, the class votes for
the best one.
IV. Evaluation
On a 1 whole sheet of paper, construct a sentence using the following nouns.
Choose an appropriate article to match to given noun.
1. ocean
2. rain
3. heir
4. sugar
5. scissor
V. Agreement
On your notebook, list down nouns which can be only found in school. Pair it
with appropriate pronoun.
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I. Objectives
1. identify the correct order for adjectives and adverbs in a sentence; and
2. write sentences using the correct adjective and adverb word order.
II. Subject Matter

Topic: Word Order
p. 82-92
III. Procedure
1. Prayer
B. Motivation
Ask students to give example of adjectives.
Combined their given adjectives and let them use it in the sentence.
C. Discussion
The teacher reviews the rules in word order.
ACTIVITY No. 1 Match-a-Sentence
Write the following phrases from the movie on strips of paper. Fold the strips and
put them in a container.
We‟re going on vacation

in the morning.
We planned the trip
last winter.
We‟re returning
on Saturday night.
Our bus leaves tomorrow
at seven o‟clock in the morning.
I bought a suitcase
for you.
I bought you
a big suitcase.
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It's usually sunny

at the beach.
Please give the blue, striped towel
to me.
I gave you my sweater
last week.
I'll see you in the morning,
at 6:45
After watching the short video, have students take a sentence strip out of the
container. Explain to students that each phrase goes with one other phrase to create a
complete sentence from the video. The object of the game is to find the student holding
the other phrase. When students find their match, instruct them to say the sentence aloud
and then to identify another way to say the same sentence by putting the words in a
different order. Provide an example, such as:
Original sentence: Ben gave Moby his sweater.
Alternative: Ben gave his sweater to Moby.
When students are ready, have them arrange themselves to stand in order of the
sequence of events in the movie. To facilitate discussion, put a bank of sequence
expressions on the board, such as first, second, third, then, next, last, before that, after
that. If they are not sure of the order, then show the video again. Then have them share
their original and alternative sentences, in the correct order.
ACTIVITY No. 2 Roundtable
Divide the class into groups of 4-8 students, and distribute one of the Order of
Adjectives Chart to each group. Each group chooses any five nouns to fill in the noun
column. Then in a Roundtable activity, students pass the page around, each adding one
adjective to the blank table, in any appropriate column. When they can't think of any
more adjectives, then have each group read out their sentences using this structure: It‟s a
favorite, big old, blue, cotton sweater. Alternatively, give the same nouns to the class, to
compare their finished sentences.
ACTIVITY No. 3 Wizards of Word Order
Distribute the color-coded word cards to students. Call up students with the same
color cards to the front of the classroom. Challenge them to form a sentence by putting
the words in the correct order.
As an extra challenge, invite small groups to create and then cut up sentences that
include adverbs of frequency, adjectives, time expressions, and/or prepositions of time.
Have them swap their sentences with another small group and challenge each other to
reconstruct the sentences with the words in the correct order.
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We / always / meet / at the bus stop / after school.

My cousin / is / never / sick.
I / baked / a / big / round / chocolate / cake / for you.
She / gave / him / a ride / home / on Tuesday.
ACTIVITY No. 4
Answer the worksheet.
IV. Evaluation
Arrange the following adjectives and adverbs, and used it in a sentence.
1. round brown wooden old

2. fast very so
3. golden beautiful American
4. soft delicious creamy
5. well very
V. Agreement
Write a fictional short story using adjectives and adverbs.

156
I. Objectives
1. define prepositions and explain their usage;
2. understand the correct use of preposition in a sentence; and
3. construct sentences using the right preposition.
II. Subject Matter

Topic: Preposition
p. 102-108
III. Procedure
1. Prayer
B. Motivation
Picking the right word. Teacher gives the words on slips of paper, 4 paper slips
along with a jar per group. Then the teacher instructs the students to identify the right
word from the paper slips and put them in the jar.
C. Discussion
The teacher reviews the prepositions and its relationship between noun or
pronoun and the other words in the sentence.
ACTIVITY No. 1
The Preposition Story. The students listen to a preposition story and later spots the
prepositions that were in the story.
ACTIVITY 2 Match It!
1. Tessie wants to know where they are and what they are doing. Can you help?
Tessie has nine kittens. Sometimes they are very naughty. They like to move about
around the house.
2. 1.Trixy is asleep _____the sofa.
3. 2. Topsy is playing _______ a ball of wool.
4. 3. Topper is running _______ the mouse.
5. 4. Tammy is hiding ________ the table.
6. 5. Tipsy is ________ to the fish bowl.
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7. 6. Trixa is walking ________ the living room.

8. 7. Tinkle is jumping _______ the bin.
9. 8. Tally is standing _________ of the tree.
10. 9. Tommy is hiding _________ the chair.
ACTIVITY 2 Grand design.
In pairs, ask students to describe their ideal bedroom or living room to each other.
Now tell students to imagine they have both just won the lottery together and can buy
their dream house. With their partners, they have to write a detailed description of their
ideal home, using prepositions of place, to give to an interior designer. You can either
limit this to one or two rooms, or get the students to design an entire house if they need
lots of practice with prepositions of place. As they are designing the house together, they
may have to make compromises:
Student A: There is a 50-inch TV screen on the ceiling in the bedroom
Student B: I like the idea of a 50-inch screen but I would prefer it on the living
room wall
Once finished, the pairs can join another pair. The first pair can describe their
dream house and the other pair can sketch it. How accurate will they be in drawing each
other‘s houses?
ACTIVITY 3 The List.
Assign students into small teams, at a maximum of four per team. Tell students
you will give them a list of ten prepositions. Each team must discuss how many accurate
sentences they can create using the ten prepositions. Write the prepositions to be
practised on the board, such as: in, under, on, into, above, below, behind, at, in front
of, between.
Then, ask the teams how many sentences they think they can produce.
For example:
Team A: We think we can write eight.
Team B: We can do ten.
Both teams now work closely together to write eight and ten accurate sentences. If
both teams accurately produce the number of sentences they said they could, they are
awarded that number of points: Team A gets eight points and Team B gets ten points. If a
team gets even one sentence wrong, and does not get the number they said they would,
they get zero points.
If Team A is confident that Team B will not be able to write ten accurate
sentences, they can challenge them to list them. If Team B then gets even one sentence
wrong, Team A steals their points.
ACTIVITY 4 Small Group Mini Projects.

Create three train timetables and post them on the walls of the room. Divide your
students into three small teams. One student from each group stands by the timetable. The
second student must run and listen to the information relayed to them by the first student
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by the timetable, then return to pass on the details to the third student, who must now take
note of the information accurately. Only accurate sentences will get points.
For example:
Student A: What time is the train from Madrid to Barcelona?
Student B: It leaves at 10.00 every day.
Student C: (writes) The train from Madrid to Barcelona leaves at 10.00 on
Thursdays.
When complete, give teams a few minutes to review their sentences.
D. Generalization
Why is preposition needed in our writings?
IV. Evaluation
On a 1 whole sheet of paper, write a sentence using the following prepositions.

1. on
2. beside
3. at
4. below
5. to school
Make a list of the prepositions as they appear in the following sentences. 1. In

Roman mythology, Vulcan was the god of fire. 2. According to legend he once had
V. Agreement
Choose the correct preposition from the word list below to ﬁll in the blanks for
each sentence.
==================================================================
over into at behind beside under by
from between up on
onto near in opposite around
during outside of through
without toward until
1. I ride my bicycle to work, all the way _____ the mountain.2. The sign says, "Please dont
sit _____ the grass."3. He ran as fast as he could _____ catch the bus.4. Be careful you don‘t
fall _____ the stairs. They are very steep!5. It began to rain, so we all ran _____ the house.6.
He gave us directions and suggested we drive about 5 miles _____ the sunset, then turn left
_____ we reach the town _____ Highlands.7. We can‘t get _____ the concert hall _____ our
tickets. Someone _____our group will need to go back _____ the hotel to get them.8. The
United States of America is located _____ Canada and Mexico.9. Lets have a picnic _____
the lake. The water is so warm that we could jump _____ and go _____ a swim. Let‘s wait
_____ we eat though.10. If you go _____ the bridge, you will be _____ a different country!
159
I. Objectives
1. identify when double negatives are being used; and
2. make changes to make sentences positive.
II. Subject Matter

Topic: Double Negative
Reference/s: English Expressways, 2012- p. 170-173
III. Procedure
1. Prayer
B. Motivation
Ask students what type of characteristics makes a person negative. What type of
words do these people use a lot?
Give students examples of phrases that may seem more negative.
I'm not eating that because it's not good.
I'm never wearing that because it's ugly.
C. Discussion
The teacher explains that some people may use incorrect grammar, which makes
their sentences negative. He/She reviews the rule in double negative.
ACTIVITY No. 1
1. Organize students into small groups.
2. Ask each group to think of popular sayings that include a negative.
3. Give students the example "There is no place like home".
4. Allow groups 3-5 minutes to write as many popular sayings as they can think
of.
5. Have them underline the negative in each.
6. Students will have the opportunity to share them with the class.
ACTIVITY No. 2
Revise each sentence to fix any double negatives that are present.
1. While walking out the door, Kyle did not lock no doors.
2. The other girls in Kennedy‘s class don‘t never seem interested in joining her
study group.
3. Kara did not go nowhere during her time off from work.
160
4. A tiny bite or small piece of chocolate cake will not do no damage to your
dieting efforts.
5. I remember how when I was a young child I could not hardly wait for
Christmas morning.
6. Caleb was not unhappy with the results of his math test.
7. Just because Kylie cannot decide what she wants to give up does not mean she
don‘t want to give up nothing.
8. Kathy has not done no cleaning since before the baby was born.
9. The doctor would not give nothing to patients he had not seen before that were
asking for prescriptions.
10. Kenneth was not unhappy with the results of the experiment.
ACTIVITY No. 3
D. Generalization
Why do we need to avoid double negatives?
IV. Evaluation
Make some changes in the following sentences to make the positive.
V. Agreement
Look for an article or sentences containing double negative.

Grammatical Errors Analysis On Second Language Wrting of High School Students (Vanessa S. Andrade)

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GRAMMATICAL ERRORS ANALYSIS ON SECOND LANGUAGE WRITING

OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, ARTS, AND SCIENCES

Research Title : Grammatical Errors Analysis on the Second Language

HAZEL D. JOAQUIN, Ph.D. ______________________

LOUIS PLACIDO F. LACHICA, Ph.D. ______________________

LEO ANDREW B. BICLAR, Ph.D. ______________________

MARY ANN L. DECREPITO, Ed.D. ______________________

MARY ANN L. DECREPITO, Ed.D. ______________________

JUDEL V. PROTACIO, Ph.D. ______________________

JOCELYN M. DAGUDAG, Ed.D. ______________________

REBECCA N. ROSANO, Ed.D. ______________________

Research No. ________________________

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, ARTS, AND SCIENCES

HAZEL D. JOAQUIN, Ph.D.

Approved by the Advisory/Examining Committee with a grade ________ on

HAZEL D. JOAQUIN, Ph.D.

LOUIS PLACIDO F. LACHICA, Ph.D. LEO ANDREW B. BICLAR, Ph.D.

MARY ANN L. DECREPITO, Ed.D.

Accepted as a partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of

REBECCA N. ROSANO, Ed.D.

Consuelo and her aunt Elsie.

She finished her elementary education at Camambugan Elementary School in

Northern Iloilo Polytechnic State College in 2012.

school English teacher at Cabalic National High School.

love more the teaching profession.

English program at Capiz State University, Pontevedra Campus in 2014.

that contributed to the development of this study;

support for the improvement of this study;

understanding that contributed to the accomplishment of the study;

researcher to continue this study;

researcher during the conduct of this study;

Ma‘am Concepcion A. Valenzuela, for motivating the researcher to continue and

finish the study;

researcher pursue her study despite all the challenges;

in her capabilities to accomplish this study;

for supporting the researcher by extending help especially in the reproduction of

understanding her; and

until the accomplishment of this study.

Vanessa Sucgang Andrade, Capiz State University, Pontevedra, Capiz, 2018.

Adviser: Dr. Hazel D. Joaquin

by the students were on capitalization, sentence fragment, subject/verb agreement,

Keywords: Grammatical errors, L2 writing, Interlingual, Intralingual

Background of the Study 1

Statement of the Problem 3

Assumptions of the Study 3

Epistemology and Theoretical Perspective 4

Significance of the Study 5

Second Language Learning 10

Errors in English Writing 13

Benefits of Error Analysis 16

Causes and Sources of Errors 17

Context of the Study 36

Participant of the Study 37

Sample Size and Sampling Procedure 37

Data Gathering Procedure 39

Data Analysis Procedure 39

IV PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND

Analysis of the Grammatical 44

Sources of Grammatical Errors 116

Proposed Remedial Activities 120

V SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND