An error analysis of English prepositions in the written work of upper secondary Malay students

Author

• Chek Kim Loi, Universiti Malaya

Date of Award

1-1-2001

Thesis Type

Masters

Document Type

Thesis

Divisions

Faculty of Languages and Linguistics

Department

-

Institution

Universiti Malaya

Abstract

The primary aims of this study are to identify the common prepositional errors in the written texts of Form 4 Malay ESL students who have studied English in school for ten years, to measure the relative intensities of these errors and to find out the causes for the occurrence of these errors. Nine concepts of prepositions which pose the most difficulty for students are examined. They are prepositions of place, prepositions of direction, prepositions of time, prepositions of manner-agent, prepositions of causepurpose, prepositions of similarity, prepositions of association, prepositions of verbprep, and prepositions of adj-prep. The subjects selected for this study consisted of 150 Form 4 Malay students in S.M.K. La Salle, Petaling. A diagnostic test was administered to these students to elicit the data in which they were required to write an essay and fill the blanks of a cloze text and sentences with the correct prepositions. The essays and the exercises are examined and prepositional errors related to the nine concepts of prepositions are identified and quantified. These errors are described and explained for their occurrences. Besides that, the major causes for these prepositional errors are discussed. One significant finding is that the subjects made the most number of errors in using the prepositions of time, place and direction. These prepositional errors mostly occurred in the category of wrong selection. It can be concluded that the major problem of the Form 4 Malay students is related to the selection of a correct preposition for a sentence. This study of error analysis on prepositions should be useful to a language teacher in teaching prepositions, as it will give him the knowledge and understanding of the problems faced by the students in the use of English prepositions. Some suggestions for the teaching of English prepositions are also included as the method of teaching English prepositions could play a vital role in facilitating the learning of prepositions.

Initial

snms

Additional Information

Dissertation (M.A) -- Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, Universiti Malaya, 2001.

Recommended Citation

Loi, Chek Kim, "An error analysis of English prepositions in the written work of upper secondary Malay students" (2001). Student Works (2000-2009). 527.
https://knova.um.edu.my/student_works_2000s/527

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.