FROM ERRORS TO INSIGHTS: ANALYZING MORPHOLOGICAL MISTAKES IN NON-NATIVE ESL COMPOSITIONS

Abstract

The present research aims to estimate the frequency and find out the potential causes of morphological errors. The study also addresses pedagogical implications on ELT that would minimize morphological errors among Pakistani ESL learners. This research adopts a pragmatic research paradigm (a mixed-methods approach) to analyze the morphological errors and derive practical implications for ELT (English Language Teaching) in Pakistan. The population of the study comprises matric level ESL students of Lahore district and forty students were selected as sample by utilizing purposive sampling technique. The results revealed that the forty students of matriculate level made different types of mistakes in their essay writing. The mostly errors made by these students were omission, addition, misformation and misordering, the results also revealed that these students totally made one hundared and forty-five errors. The results of table 5 highlights that the 40 non-native ESL learners committed 91 errors related to plural morphemes, 10 possessive, 2 third person singular,1 past tense, 6 present participle and 2 comparative/superlative morphemes. They committed total 112 inflectional morphological errors. Table 6 highlights that the 40 non-native ESL learners committed 2 errors related to Parts of Speech Confusion, 8 Noun formation, 1 Adjective Formation, 2 Verb Formation, 2 Prefix Misuse, 3 Incorrect Spacing, 2 Incorrect Sequencing, 3 Incorrect Element Selection. The analysis presented in table 7 highlights that the most common factor behind the morphological incompetency of non-native ESL learners is the intralingual factor.