Analyzing morphosyntactic errors of verbs in English written compositions by Vietnamese undergraduates

Abstract

This error analysis aimed to investigate Vietnamese university students' written grammatical accuracy in EFL writing, given the crucial role of verbs and their intricate morphosyntactic features (Huddleston & Pullum, 2002). However, systematic investigation into morphosyntactic verb errors and their causes remains limited. To address this gap, the study aimed to: (a) identify the types and frequency of morphosyntactic verb errors made by elementary-level EFL undergraduates, and (b) examine their causative factors. The researchers conducted an error analysis of 224 compositions written by EFL undergraduates at a university in Vietnam. The findings showed that misformation errors were the most prevalent, followed by omission and addition, while misordering was least common. Most errors stemmed from intralingual factors, with false concept hypothesis as the primary source, though interlingual transfer also exerted a notable influence. The findings partially align with previous research, likely due to differences in study scope, writing genres, and participant characteristics. The insights suggest that teachers should implement targeted, rule-based activities (e.g., tense drills, verb correction tasks, and coded feedback) to improve learners' control of morphosyntactic verbs. They also highlight the need for more robust research designs to better capture learner performance and contextual influences on error production.