Interlanguage Error Analysis: an Appropriate and Effective Pedagogy for Efl Learners in the Arab World

Copyright © 2020 by Muhammad Khan Abdul Malik.

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Rev. date: 05/30/2020

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The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.

—William Arthur Ward

Call for:

Sense of responsibility,

Self-guidance,

Self-discipline,

Self-interest,

Self-motivation,

Self-learning,

Self-testing, and

Self-improvement

Teaching either teacher centred or student

centred, it must be learning centred.

We need to be:

Conscientious

Committed

Confident

Creative

I

dedicate this work to my parents, my family, and all the scholars who had contributed, are contributing, and will contribute the precious knowledge through their untiring efforts for the betterment of humanity in this ephemeral world through the eternal life with everlasting success.

FOREWORD

This is a matter of pure delight for me to write the foreword of this book, titled Interlanguage Error Analysis: An Appropriate and Effective Pedagogy for EFL Learners in the Arab World. The author is my colleague working in the English Department, College of Arts and Humanities, Jazan University, Jazan (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia). Reading about the Arabic speakers’ EFL teaching-learning problems and experiencing the problems practically are two different phenomena. This is how the present edition is a true depiction of real-life situation and would definitely prove fruitful for the readers related to teaching and learning of English as a foreign language in the Arab world.

The present edition is the outcome of his long experience of teaching-learning of English linguistics to the Arab EFL learners. The Arab learners face certain difficulties in learning English as a foreign language. There are different factors that negatively influence their EFL learning such as L1 interference, social cultural norms, lack of motivation and participation in classroom activities.

Moreover, I want to make it crystal clear that the present work is of a great benefit both for the English and Arab learners of the target language either Arabic or English. The teachers and the students need to devour and digest all contents of the book for effective teaching-learning of English and Arabic. The author touched upon the most common areas of linguistics, i.e. phonetics, phonology, morphology, and syntax that generally prove problematic for the Arab learners.

Dr. Thameemul Ansari

M.A., M.Phil., LL.B., Ph.D.,

Jazan University, Jazan (KSA)

PREFACE

The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The

superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.

—William Arthur Ward

The author has been exploring since long how the existing level of teaching-learning of English in the Arab world can be improved. But the answers to the questions such as what are the reasons of EFL learners’ weaknesses, what are the possible solutions at the learners and teachers’ level, how to teach and what to teach English could not be found. The present attempt is the result of my realisation as an English language teacher as to how a teacher can minimise students difficulties in learning of English and maximise their knowledge, skills, and competency of English as a foreign or second language.

Although tremendous efforts have been exerted at different levels to improve the teaching-learning process of English, EFL programs still fail to deliver as expected, and the EFL learners’ proficiency in English remains inadequate and below expectation. This edition investigates the challenges encountered in teaching English in the Arab countries. It attempts to answer the questions such as: (1) what are the challenges that we face in teaching EFL? (2) how can we meet these challenges? The general findings revealed that inadequate preparation of teachers, lack of motivation on the part of the learners, teacher-centred methods, and inadequate assessment techniques are among the major problems that render EFL programs unable to deliver as expected. English has become a global language and teaching it as a foreign or second language has increasingly become a universal demand. Many textbooks have been designed for teaching English as a foreign language in many countries all over the world. Special institutions have dedicated themselves to training English language teachers by organizing pre-service and in-service training courses that, at the end, lead to awarding participants a teaching certificate.

Moreover, higher-education institutions offer degree programs in TEFL. Although tremendous efforts have been exerted to improve the teaching-learning process of English, EFL programs especially in the Arab world yet fail to deliver as expected. The present edition is a humble attempt to identify the challenges that we encounter in teaching English in the Arab world countries and proposes a number of recommendations to address these challenges – in other words, how we can meet these challenges and what possible measures can be recommended to improve the proficiency of the English language learners. At the outset, we have to admit a bitter fact that we face a problem in teaching English as a foreign language in the Arab world. The bitter pill to devour is that the outcomes of the teaching-learning process are still below expectations despite the tremendous efforts exerted in teaching EFL. That is to say, the EFL programs fail to deliver. Diagnosing the problems related to EFL teaching and learning at the beginning, and proposing feasible and evidence-based solutions are demands of the times.

The present edition specifically focuses on the importance of learning-centred pedagogy, error analysis, L1 (Arabic) negative interference, other reasons of errors, categories of errors, and certain solutions to varying difficulties through principled eclecticism method. Therefore, the book pinpoints previous researchers’ findings regarding English and Arabic phonological, morphological, and syntactic similarities and differences and how all these differences result in mistakes and errors by the Arab learners of English in their learning process. These mistakes or errors are unconsciously or involuntarily made by Arab learners of English due to the differences between the system and sub-systems of the two languages.

The work is pedagogically oriented and primarily intended to make teaching and learning of English as a foreign/second language a bit easy especially for the first-year university students of English language in the Arab world: (Gulf area such as KSA, UAE, Kuwait, and the Middle East Area, such as Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and so on). The focus is on phonetic and morpho-syntactic variations in Arabic and English languages. This area of research becomes more interesting through the assumptions – (i) information about the differences and similarities between Arabic and English language is to be supplied at an early stage since this facilitates the students learning task, (ii) the differences are to be presented in pedagogically suitable format, (iii) it is useful to separate and present phonetics, morphological, and syntactic categories as they function in suitable contexts and not merely abstract notions, (iv) before students tackle contrastive analysis, they should have basic knowledge of Arabic and English languages similarities and differences, and (v) premodification and postmodification of lexical and syntactic structures are to be explained appropriately.

A word for the readers: The positive and useful aspects are purely blessing of Allah (SWT), but if you find weaknesses whatever in the book are purely mine. If you find any weakness(s), kindly suggest improvement which will be highly appreciated.

Muhammad Khan Abdul Malik

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author acknowledges all existing research work explored/used for the book. I am grateful to the people whose ideas and comments have contributed a lot to this book. But these are just formal expression and simple acknowledgement may not pay them in full whatever they deserve. I would ever pray that Allah (SWT) reward them for their untiring efforts and contributions towards spreading the knowledge whatever that proved useful for the learners worldwide and especially teaching and learning of different languages. I also thank the teachers and students in the English Department, College of Arts and Humanities, Jazan University (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) for their timely responses whenever approached for some relevant information. The patience and cooperation extended by my family members are highly appreciated. The prevailing practices in Jazan University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, such as continuous assessment of the quality education focusing on the course and program learning outcomes, conferences, workshops, and so on proved a source of inspiration and urged the author to explore and produce something useful for teaching and learning of English as a foreign language especially in the Arab world.

The author, due the space constraints, is unable to show the names of all great scholars, but it would be unfair if I don’t mention the scholars of the present era whose novel research work is really an asset for the future research, such as Mr Emad M Al-Saidat; Nada Abisamra and Dr Kassim Shaaban, American University of Beirut; Sameera Sultan Baloch, University of Dammam; Nada Salih A Ridha, University of Basrah; Dr Muna Mohammed Abbas Alkhateeb, University of Babylon, Iraq; Nuwar Diab, Lebanese American University, Beirut, Lebanon; Fadi Mohammad Rashied Abu Ghwaileh, the British University in Dubai; Aisha Saud Alasfour, Portland State University; Dana Adas, An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine; Ayda Bakir, Al-Quds Open University, Nablus, Palestine; J Dean Mellow, Simon Fraser University; Dr Walid M Amer, Islamic University of Gaza; Mohammed Shormani and Yehia Ahmed Al-Sobhani, Ibb University and Zainab K. Igaab and Hassan Abdullah, Thi Qar University, Iraq; and last but not least Sabah Salman Sabbah, (ELC) Community College of Qatar.

Moreover, I appreciate the cooperation and guidance extended by Mr Rob Mercado, supervisor; Jim Addison, publication adviser; Cherry Noel, the author representative; and the whole team at Xlibris, Australia.

INTRODUCTION TO THE

PRESENT EDITION

An important purpose of the present edition is to touch upon the areas that more or less prove problematic for the EFL learners in the Arab world. The error analysis (EA) theory has been focused to identify different categories of errors, reason of the errors and then determine some effective solution for better teaching and learning of English as a foreign language. Three areas of linguistics such as phonetics/phonology, morphology, and syntax wherein different errors are experienced by the Arab EFL learners are of main concern in this edition.

The book has been divided into four main parts with relevant chapters, main topics and sub-topics for the ease of the readers. There are some exercises at the end of each chapter demanding the readers’ comprehension with full concentration. Then some solutions to some exercise are also there at the end of the contents, ie the last chapter. But these questions and exercises are not sufficient in themselves instead you need to explore more and more with good intention of self-learning.

Section I: Introduction to English and Arabic phonetics, morphology, and syntax: (i) some difficulties and problematic aspects, and (ii) contrastive analysis of English and Arabic writing system.

Section II: English and Arabic phonetics and phonology: (i) English and Arabic alphabet and (ii) English and Arabic sound contrasted.

Section III: English and Arabic Morphology: (i) introduction to English morphology, (ii) Arabic morphology, (iii) English vocabulary and roots, (iv) Arabic vocabulary and roots, (v) lexical errors, (vi) spelling errors and (vii) direct literal translation from L1 (Arabic).

Section IV: Syntax/word order/grammar: (i) introduction to general characteristics (features) of English and Arabic languages, (ii) the challenges that the Arab English language learners face in writing of English, and (iii) colloquial Arabic, MSA translation into English and errors.

Index: A number of items at micro level have been indexed alphabetically just for a quick approach to the required information.

SUGGESTIONS FOR EFL TEACHERS

IN THE ARAB WORLD

A common observation is that L1 constantly interferes in learning a target language. Another experience is that if the learners are familiar with the similarities and differences in different areas of English and Arabic languages, the process of second or foreign language teaching-learning becomes a bit easy. It is the teacher who can help learners in all possible ways. Explaining the reasons of errors and then giving certain activities for practice would definitely prove fruitful. Activity-based teaching–learning definitely proves more fruitful with regular feedback. Our errors and mistakes are common phenomena. We learn better through our mistakes. When students make mistakes whatever, the teacher should not criticise instead encourage them. This attitude ever develops confidence towards the teaching-learning process.

Arthur W is apt in saying that ‘the mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.’ No doubt, a teacher is a facilitator, but at the same time a teacher is a change agent. Students’ motivation and inspiration are prime factors in their studies. Man worship immediate needs so the learners are to be realised of the importance of Arabic and English language in their practical life. The most important factor is that the teacher should have expertise in his area(s) of specialization because our students learn what the teacher knows. Self-improvement and updating our knowledge is a lifelong process. Very simply no one knows everything. If someone thinks that he is perfect and needs no more knowledge and improvement, then the very next moment his ignorance will start.

SUGGESTIONS FOR EFL LEARNERS

IN THE ARAB WORLD

First-language acquisition is a subconscious process whereas the learning of a second language is conscious one. At micro and macro levels the basic units of a language are word and sentence. The familiarity to the variations between English and Arabic phonetics, morphology, and syntax may be helpful in learning English language. On the basis of this knowledge the English language learners may avoid certain mistakes and errors. The text books in the prescribed syllabus may not sometimes meet your needs as the context demands. In such a situation, the learner may go for appropriate and suitable authentic material that is generally close to real-life situations. Generally we learn by doing and when we do mistakes/errors are certain. A learner should not be afraid of errors rather go on practising whatever the skill he wants to improve.

A student needs to be self-disciplined, self-motivated, and self-learned for an overall self-improvement. Either in the classroom or outside the classroom, a student is a learner/knowledge seeker around the clock. He should be active and committed towards his studies and classroom assignments with great interest. The teacher may not teach a student everything in classroom hours, so he has to develop the ability of self-learning, self-improvement, and overall self-development. A learner’s full concentration on his study either in class or at home is more rewarding. Every student should determine some aim in life and then go for its achievement. For example, if one does not decide his destination, where will he go?

CONTENTS

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgements

Introduction to the Present Edition

Suggestions for EFL Teachers in the arab world

Suggestions for EFL Learners in the Arab World

SECTION I

Introduction to English and Arabic Phonetics,

Morphology, and Syntax/Word Order/Grammar

1     Some Problematic Aspects for the Arab EFL Learners

Error Analysis

The Importance of Learners’ Errors

Writing in a Second Language

Pedagogy toward Effective EFL Teaching and Learning

EFL Teaching Methodology

Principled Eclecticism Method

Spoken versus Written Discourse

2     Contrastive Analysis of English and Arabic Writing Systems

Word Order in English and Arabic

Teaching Writing

Blended Learning and Teaching Languages

Exercises

SECTION II

English and Arabic Phonetics and Phonology

3     English and Arabic Alphabet

Arab EFL learners’ Errors in English Pronunciation

Vowels

Consonants

Intonation

English Consonants

Arabic Consonants

Manner of Articulation or the State of the Air Stream (Sound)

4     English and Arabic Sounds Contrasted

English and Arabic Consonants’ Differences

English and Arabic Vowels and Diphthongs

Arabic Vowels

Arabic Diphthongs

English and Arabic Vowels Contrasted

Arab EFL Learners’ Pronunciation Errors

Factors Affecting Pronunciation

Different Types of Errors in Pronunciation

Sources of difficulty in pronunciation

Exercises

SECTION III

English and Arabic morphology

5     English Morphology

Morpheme

Words

Word Formation Processes

Inflectional Paradigms

Parts of Speech

Exercises

6     Arabic Morphology

Stem-Root Structure

Morphological Processes

Differences in English and Arabic Affixes

Arabic Noun Morphology

Differences and Similarities in English and Arabic Noun

Morphology

Arabic Verb Morphology

Grammatical Categories of Arabic Verb

Main Classes of Arabic Verb

Some Differences in English and Arabic Verb Morphology

Exercises

7     English Vocabulary and Roots

Vocabulary

Roots

Latin and Greek Root Word Lists

Exercises

8     Brief Introduction to Arabic Roots

Some Important Arabic Roots

Previous Studies

Arabic Root Words versus Base Words

9     Lexical Errors

L1 Interference

Definition of Error-Related Terms

Exercises

10   Spelling Errors

Sources of Spelling Errors and Mistakes (Allen and Corder p. 138)

Exercises

11   Direct Literal translation from L1 and Semantic Errors

Conclusions

Exercises

SECTION IV

English-Arabic Syntax/Word order/Grammar

12   Introduction to general characteristics of Arabic language

General Characteristics of Arabic Language

The Arabic Verb Forms

Theoretical Background of Error Analysis

Arab EFL Learners’ Errors in English Writing

Exercises

13   A dialogue between English and Arabic Syntax

Models of Error Analysis

Sources of Grammatical Errors

Exercises

14   Colloquial Arabic and MSA translation into English

Arabic L1 transfer and English sentence structure

Arabic Relative Clauses

English Relative Clauses

Miscellaneous Errors

Miscellaneous Error Analysis

Prepositions

Articles

Punctuation

Pedagogical Implications

L1 Interference

Error Analysis

Types of Errors

Curriculum Planners/Developers

EFL Teacher’s Priorities

Assessment

Exercises

Error analysis in English writing and pronunciation by the Arab EFL learners under teacher’s guidance

Solutions to Some Exercises

References

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Word Order

Table 2: Modified Word-Order Diagram

Table 3: English Problematic Vowels

Table 4: English Consonants/Clusters Difficult for Arabic

Native Speakers

Table 5: English and Arabic Alphabet

Table 6: English Consonants’ Places of Articulation

Table 7: English Consonants’ Manner of Articulation

Table 8: Summary of English Consonants’ Manner of

Articulation (Sound)

Table 9: Arabic Consonants’ Place of Articulation

Table 10: Arabic Consonants’ Manner of Articulation

Table 11: Summary of Arabic Consonants Manner of

Articulation (Sound)

Table 12: English and Arabic Consonants Clusters

Table 13: Pronunciation with Additional Vowel Sound

Table 14: MSA Syllable Structure

Table 15: English syllable structure

Table 16: Epenthesis - Vowel //I/ insertion in English onset

Table 17: Epenthesis - Insertion of /I/ in the English Coda

Table 18: Epenthesis - Insertion of /I/ in final three consonants cluster

Table 19: Root with Affixes

Table 20: Greek and Latin Root Word Examples

Table 21: English Root Words—Examples

Table 22: Root Words Standing Alone

Table 23: Latin and Greek Dependent Root Words

Table 24: Additional root words

Table 25: Arabic Root – Simple Past Example

Table 26: Arabic Root – Imperfect Example

Table 27: Arabic Verbal Noun

Table 28: Important Arabic roots

Table 29: Derivation in Arabic

Table 30: Spelling Errors by Arabic Speakers

Table 31: Simple vs. Complex Arabic Words

Table 32: English-Arabic Word Classes

Table 33: Arabic verb forms

Table 34: Arabic Detailed Verb Forms

Table 35: Word Order in Standard and Non-Standard Arabic

Table 36: Miscellaneous Errors in Colloquial Arabic Translation

Table 37: Sentence Translation from MSA

Table 38: Free Writing Tasks’ Errors

Table 39: Errors in the use of relative clauses and conjunctions

Table 40: Errors in the use of verb to be

Table 41: Miscellaneous Errors

LIST OF TABLES

Figure 1: Word root

Figure 2: Affixes – prefix and suffix

Figure 3: Arabic Root

SECTION I

INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH AND

ARABIC PHONETICS, MORPHOLOGY,

AND SYNTAX/WORD ORDER/GRAMMAR

CHAPTER 1

Some Problematic Aspects for

the Arab EFL Learners

In the light of some common observation and experience, the teaching and learning of English in Saudi Arabia and other gulf areas are loaded with multifarious problems that need a continuous and consistent process for their solution: (i) sociocultural factors, e.g. instructional variables such as teacher’s behaviour, teaching style, curriculum, teaching methods, and L1 interference; (ii) lack of foundations in English at middle and secondary levels; (iii) individual factors such as age, motivation, aptitude, attitude, anxiety, lack of autonomy in learning strategies, learning style, and income, (iv) external problems with educational system such as overcrowded classes and lack of teachers’ training and examination system; (v) EFL instructions, eg the teacher, the curriculum, and teacher-centred approach; (vi) no motivation towards self-learning and self-assessment; (vii) no regular activities and assignments and feedback on language skills; (viii) English language skills are not integrated; (ix) rote learning is common just to pass the examinations; (x) the focus is on examination grades (through objective type questions) and not knowledge, skills, and competency; (xi) text books, teaching material, assessment method; and (xii) no exposure to the target language, ie English outside classrooms.

Error Analysis

Human beings learn through mistakes and errors. In the 1960s EA was acknowledged as an alternative to the behaviourist CA. In 1970s it became so popular that Schachter and Celce-Murcia could call it, ‘The darling of the ’70s.’ If an EFL teacher and the learners are very familiar with the differences in English and Arabic phonetic, phonological, morphological, and syntactic structures, their performance will be better as the teacher knows what to teach and the learners are aware of what to learn to avoid the expected errors. The existing research depicted a true and realistic picture of contrastive analysis (CA), error analysis (EA), and L1 interference toward EFL teaching and learning especially in the Arab world. Some important points for the teacher and the taught are as follows:

1. Badawi, K. (2012) comments that error analysis is an applied linguistics approach that is used to identify areas of difficulty for second-language learners by applying a system of formal distinction to differentiate between the learner’s first language (L1) and target language (L2; Corder, 1967; Dulay, 1982). Such analysis is based on the understanding that both intralingual and interlingual factors determine the types of errors. The