Surface Strategy Taxonomy in Error Analysis: Basis for Grammatical Competence Enhancement Program (GCEP)

Abstract

This study analyzed the grammatical errors committed by second year BSED and BEED students of the Southern Luzon State University-Judge Guillermo Eleazarfor A.Y. 2016-2017. The result of which was the basis for the development of an enhancement program to upgrade the grammatical competence of the students. Descriptive evaluative–inferential method of research was used with 53 student-respondents. SurfaceStrategy Taxonomy by Dulay, et.al. onError Analysis was adopted to analyze the written compositions. The results were statistically treated, analyzed, and interpreted using Frequency, Percentage, Rank, and Chi-square. The findings revealed that among the four common grammatical errors on the use of simple present tense, malformation topped as most committed error with 139 times or 40%. This was followed by omission with 109 times or 31%, addition with 53 times or 15%, and misordering with 51 times or 14%. As to the common errors on the use of simple past tense, malformation also topped as the most committed error having a total of 303 or 62%. This was followed by omission with 83 or 17% of total errors; misordering with 56 or 11%; and addition with 48 or 10% of the total errors. Most of the sources of errors committed by the second year college students in using both the simple present and simple past tense were due to interlingual transfer composed of 53 or 45% of the total sources of errors. This was followed by intralingual transfer with 38 or 32%; communication strategies with 27 or 23%, and context of learning with 0 or 0%. The results showed no significant difference existed on the sources of grammatical errors committed by second year education students on the use of simple present and simple past tense. It is therefore concluded that learners of a second language commit a number of grammatical errors. It is highly recommended that the proposed enhancement training program be implemented to respond to the needs of 21stcentury education.