ANALYSIS OF SYNTACTIC ERRORS IN ESL/EFL CONTEXTS: A COMPREHENSIVE STUDY OF COMMON ERROR PATTERNS AND CAUSES

Abstract

The syntactic errors are one of the most prominent and frequently occurred error types among phonological, lexical, morphological, semantic, and orthographic errors in ESL/EFL contexts. This desk research aims to execute a systematic examination of the syntactic errors in ESL/EFL contexts of Sri Lanka, Arab, China, and Korea to achieve its primary objective of increasing the awareness of syntactic errors among ESL/EFL learners and educators. Then, the causes of the syntactic errors, and the pedagogical interventions to alleviate the syntactic errors are investigated as the secondary objective of the research. The qualitative research approach is utilized while manipulating the purposive sampling method and implementing the theme-based content analysis as the analytical technique. The findings of the research highlighted that all the recognized syntactic errors indicate a common pattern across the selected ESL/EFL contexts. Hence, this desk research identified six major syntactic error types of ESL/EFL learners around the world, which are copular errors, concord errors, tense errors, conjunction errors, prepositional errors, and adjective word order errors. Negative transfer from the native language of the learners, faulty or partial learning of the target language, or the momentary lapses in target language production are perceived as causes for these syntactic errors. Therefore, productive pedagogical intervention strategies to minimize the syntactic errors in ESL/EFL contexts are recommended through this desk research. The constant immersion in the target language through interactive ESL/EFL teaching and learning processes and providing constructive feedback to terminate the fossilization of syntactic errors can be proposed as effective pedagogical implications.