A STUDY OF ESL LEARNERS' LINGUISTIC ERRORS AND THEIR PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS: A CLASSROOM-BASED INVESTIGATION

Abstract

The present study explores the learner language problems existing in the ESL classrooms and the meanings of their implications for improving the pedagogical practice. The study is concerned with written production of BS-level ESL learners and the most common linguistic errors that are made in classroom writing tasks. The research utilizes the Error Analysis approach developed by Corder (1967) and Surface Strategy Taxonomy as proposed by Dulay et al.(1982) for categorizing learner errors into grammatical, syntactic, lexical and mechanical errors. Even though these frameworks aredeveloped from previous periods of Second Language acquisitionstudies, they are very applicable as they offer a systematic and pedagogically sound approach to understanding the common L2 learning problems and developing suitable pedagogical interventions. About twenty fiveESL learners are chosen to provide data for the study through an essay writing task in a classroom setting. The results reveal that the most common grammatical and syntactic errors are related to the use of tenses, subjectverb agreement, article, sentence structure, and prepositions. The analysis also shows that the influence of the L1 of the learnerson L2 is a major factor in error production as well as the influence of intralingual factors like overgeneralization. The study ends with the conclusion that systematic error analysis is still a valid method to analyze learner language and help in better classroom practices as well as learner-centered ESL teaching in higher education settings.