Objectives
There
are some reasons or purposes to do then research work. They are-
To find out the
errors of writing
To find out the
causes of errors of writing
To explore the
condition of the fresher student of free hand writing
To show the way
to solve of their errors.
Introduction
Learning
a foreign language or second language, learners have to know or acquire four
skills. Such as- listening, speaking, reading and writing. Among these four
skills writing is the most important. By birth one acquires listening and
speaking ability. Within three to four years a child can speak his or her
mother tongue. Gradually, he learns to read and write by learning letters. If
the learners learn the letters, then it’s easy to read. But it’s not easy to
write by knowing the letters because there are so many rules and regulations of
writings. Every language follows some rules and regulations to write. We can
express ourselves through speaking, body language and symbols.
Learning
a foreign language is a gradual process, during which mistakes are to be
expected in all stages of learning. Mistakes will not disappear simply because
they have been pointed out to the learner, contrary to what some language
learners and teachers believe. Language acquisition does not happen unless the
learner is relaxed and keen on learning. Fear of making mistakes prevents
learners from being receptive and responsive. In order to overcome learners’
fear it is essential to create a friendly and relaxed atmosphere in language
classrooms, to encourage cooperation through peer work or small group work and
apply techniques for language acquisition that suit and involve individual
learners.
Among
all the four skills writing is the most important. In every sphere of life,
writing is needed. A student has to write in his exam script. We evaluate the
student’s merit with his writing in exam script. Without writing, there is no
evidence. David P. Harris has shown different objects of writings in his book Testing English as a Second Language. In
English, to write something precisely, the writers have to know some
components. Such as- subject-verb agreement, preposition and their extensive
use, tense, subject, verb etc. In English, or in any languages, have some rules
and regulations for effective writing. So, the writers have to have a clear
idea about the grammar. If someone writes ‘I rice eat’ then it will be wrong
because it doesn’t follow the rules of English Grammar. So, correctness of the
spelling, grammatical accuracy, as well as the clear concept about the grammar
will help students especially the first year students remove their errors of
their writings.
Data Presenting and Data Analysis
After
collecting their writing, I have checked those. There I found a lot of errors
in their writings. Some of them have done comparatively better than the others.
There are some common mistakes in their writings. Such as- preposition,
spelling, tense, sentence structure, determiners etc.
I have
found spelling mistakes in the most of the students’ writings. Some students
have confusion to use –sion and –tion. For example, they have written conclusion
in the place of conclusion. One of the students has written the word ‘sit’ as a
noun but the noun will be ‘seat’. In pronunciation they are the same but in
spelling they have difference. They have done some silly mistakes only for
their carelessness in writing. Such as- they have written, ‘goal’ instead of
‘goal’, ‘ded not’ instead of ‘did not’, ‘lesten’ instead of ‘lesson’, in the
place of ‘their’ they have written ‘there’, ‘complite’ instead of ‘complete’,
‘healthe’ instead of ‘healthy’, ‘stong’ instead of ‘strong’, ‘daly’ instead of
‘daily’, ‘surprice’ instead of ‘surprise’ etc. They make such type of mistakes
because they don’t pay their attention or concentration at the time of reading
and writing. There is another problem that after reading or memorizing
something they don’t write it.
Subject-verb
agreement is another kind of big problem of writings. The students make
mistakes in subject-verb agreement commonly. I have also found this type of
problem in the writings. One of the students has written ‘students loves her’
which is wrong. Here ‘the students’ is plural form. He has to write ‘students
love her’. Someone has written that ‘all of our student is’ which is also
wrong. The student has to write ‘all of our students are’. To know about it the
students have to know countable and uncountable noun. From grammar books they
can know about subject-verb agreement. The students face problems especially in
using verb in the place of ‘little’ or ‘a little’, ‘few’ or ‘a few’, ‘each’,
‘every’, ‘both’, ‘any’, etc.
Generally
all the students face problem in using tense. I have also found that the
students of first year at intermediate level of this college had mad this type
of errors. They frequently use present tense and past tense in the same
sentence. Sometimes, they are unable to maintain tense order. I have found
their errors in the place of present perfect tense and past indefinite tenses.
One of the students has written that ‘I passed my school life from…’. The
student has to know that in past indefinite tense he must mention time.
Sometimes, the students write that ‘I have passed my college life in 1999…’ but
it is also wrong. If he wants to mention time he has to use past indefinite
tense. From one example, the students can remove their confusion and that is ‘I
was born in 1984’ which is past indefinite tense. I have found that the
students mix different tenses in their writings. One of the students has
written that ‘When I am in class one; in the first day I sat at the first
bench’. He is telling about his past experience but he is using present
indefinite tense. The students can explain any past experience in present
indefinite tense but mixing present indefinite tense and past indefinite tense
together in a sentence is wrong. I have also found some errors in writing past
perfect tense and present perfect continuous tense. In
present perfect continuous tense, the student hasn’t mentioned time in the
sentence. Someone has written that ‘She has been teaching here.’ He or she
hasn’t mention time here. The student has to write ‘She has been teaching here
for 5 years.’
I have
found errors in capitalization in their writings. In the middle of the sentence
the students have to start words with small letters. But sometimes there are
some exceptions. If the word is someone’s name or name of any place then they
have to use capital letters. There is another exception that if some one wants
to write ‘I’, he has to use capital letter though it is in the middle of the
sentence but here I have found one of the students has written ‘i’ instead of
‘I’ in the middle of the sentence. After completing a sentence, the students
have to start with capital letter to write new sentence but here one of the
students has written ‘her mutual behaviour…’ which one is wrong. The students
are making such types of silly mistakes only for their carelessness of
writings.
Before
pronoun the students should not use article but one of the students has written
that ‘the he is…’. I asked the student why he has used ‘the’ before ‘he’. He
answered me that if ‘the student’ is possible, why ‘the he’ is impossible? I
have used he instead of the word ‘student’. So, I understand that the student
does not know how to use an article properly.
I
have also found errors in writing present participle. After preposition the
student has used ‘-ing’ form of verb but in my findings I have found some of
the students haven’t use ‘-ing’. The student has written that ‘After pass my
H.S.C. …’ but here he has to write ‘after passing’ but after infinitive
(to+verb) they have to use the base form of the verb.
I
have found errors in sentence structure. One of the students hasn’t use verb in
the sentence. He writes, ‘There many students…’. In this sentence there is no
verb. He has to write ‘there are many students…’. Another student writes that
‘One of them my teacher…’ but he has to write here that ‘One of them is my
teacher…’
Most
of the students have a common problem in writing and that is, using of preposition.
To remove the problem of preposition, the students have to practice regularly.
Without practicing they can’t improve themselves. If they write regularly,
gradually it will improve. In my data, I have also found some errors in using
preposition. One of the students has written that ‘I am a student in Pangsha
Postgraduate College’ but it is wrong. He has to write ‘I am a student of Pangsha
Postgraduate College.’ The students have problems in using ‘in’, ‘on’, ‘of’,
‘to’, ‘for’, ‘with’ etc.
I have
found another error in their writings. They can’t use determiners in their
writings perfectly. Determiners are the pre-modifiers and post-modifiers of the
noun. Someone has written that ‘This kinds’ which is wrong. The student has to
write ‘this kind’ which works as singular. If he wants to make it plural, he
has to write ‘these kinds’. Article is also one kind of determiner. I have
found errors in using article.
I
have prepared a diagram to show their errors in different sectors. I have
worked with 20 students and the diagram will show their errors-
The
above chart shows that among nine students all of them have mistaken in
spelling, ten of them in using preposition and participle, sixteen of them in
tense, four of them in determiners, eight of them in using verb, twelve of them
in subject-verb agreement and fifteen of them in sentence structure which have
been shown also in the following percentage table.
 |
Recommendations
I
have shown different types of errors in the writing of the first year students
at Pangsha Postgraduate College, Rajbari. The students can remove those types
of errors by themselves. The education system of our school and college can
help the students to solve their problems. The teachers and students of school
and colleges don’t take care of their students’ writings. They always emphasize
on memorizing but they don’t encourage their students to write creative
writings. To remove their errors the teachers of school and colleges have to be
conscious. They will have to be aware of the errors of their students. In
university level the students have to be conscious about their own writings. To
remove their errors of writings they have to write regularly. Thus, students
can grow a habit of writing something creative on daily basis. Everyday a
student should write something creatively. In this way the students can remove
errors of spelling. The teachers can give them some topics to write. After
writing, the teachers will check them thoroughly and will find out their errors
and give a solution how to correct those errors. In this way the teachers can
help their students to remove their errors. The teachers can give them some
guidelines to read grammar books. There are some English grammar books such as Intermediate English Grammar by Raymond
Murphy, Learning English the Easy Way by
Prof. Dr. Sadruddin Ahmed which can help the students to remove their
grammatical problems or errors. From
these books, the students can learn tense, preposition, sentence structure, subject-verb
agreement properly. My last suggestion to the students to remove their errors
is that there is no alternative way of writing regularly. Whatever a student
will memorize, he or she has to write it down. If one can do this, he or she
will be able to remove different types of errors.
Besides, Learners must be given practice in self-correction of their own work either individually or in
pairs but only if they prefer peer cooperation. However, in my opinion,
students definitely need training in rectifying mistakes independently, i.e.
without teacher’s interference. Left to their own devices, learners might be
overwhelmed or frustrated by task intricacy. Learner’s ability to notice errors
without teacher’s aid is a qualitative leap to conscious cognition.
Language
acquisition does not happen unless the learner is relaxed and keen on learning.
Fear of making mistakes prevents learners from being receptive and responsive.
In order to overcome learners’ fear it is essential to create a friendly and relaxed
atmosphere in language classrooms, to encourage cooperation through peer work
or small group work and apply techniques for language acquisition that suit and
involve individual learners. Correction is an essential condition for
successful acquisition of any language. Learners must be given practice in
self-correction of their own work either individually or in pairs but only if
they prefer peer cooperation. However, students definitely need training in
rectifying mistakes independently, i.e. without teacher’s interference. Left to
their own devices, learners might be overwhelmed or frustrated by task
intricacy.
• Mistake is a natural process of learning and must be considered as a part of
cognition; therefore, teachers should not humiliate or rebuke the students for
committing any mistakes
• Teachers have to recognize a well known fact that learning ability varies
from person to person and all language learning is based on continual exposure.
• Students should be given chance very frequently to correct each other work,
which is very important because ‘self-correction or peer correction help to
focus student attention on the errors and to reduce reliance on the teacher
• We should never correct a mistake, rather correct always a person‘. So, the
active involvement of students in the process of dealing with mistakes is
important: it stimulates active learning; induces cooperative atmosphere; and
develops independent learners.
• The best time to correct is ‘as late as possible’, because it creates friendly
and cooperative atmosphere
• Learners must be given practice in self-correction of their own work either
individually or in pairs but only if they prefer peer cooperation. However,
students definitely need training in rectifying mistakes independently, i.e.
without teacher’s interference
Conclusion
For
good writing one has to practice regularly. If the students write regularly,
it’s possible to remove their errors of writings. The students’ willingness and
teachers’ help can help them write perfectly and without any errors. I believe
that there is a great opportunity to work with my research paper and later on
the researchers will bring out the success properly of my research.