Abstract:

Error analysis is a crucial approach for the systematic analyzing of deviations from English grammar for the students who learn English as a foreign language (EFL). This study is conducted to investigate the errors occurring on Subject-Verb Agreement (SVA) and verbal inflection in English writings of Thai EFL learners at the tertiary level. It employs both the quantitative and qualitative methods with the frequency and percentage value. The data are collected from 45 pieces of English writings written by Wang Klai Kangwon Campus‟s freshmen at Rajamangala University of Technology Rattanakosin, Thailand, during the first semester of the 2020 academic year by purposive sampling. In the error analysis process, the data are analyzed on SVA and verbal inflection by rules of English SVA (Carter & McCarthy, 2006), verbal inflection processes (O‟Grady et al., 1989), and surface structure taxonomy error characteristics (Duley et al., 1982). The results of this study reveal that the SVA and verbal inflection errors in freshmen’s English writings are occurred in both morphological and syntactic levels. In morphological level, the verbal inflection errors are occurred by misapplying the correct inflectional suffixes and the correct suppletion form of verbs. The frequency and percentage of errors by misapplying the correct inflectional suffixes are higher than those of the errors on verbal inflection. In syntactic level, SVA errors are occurred by misusing the correct lexical verb forms and the correct copular “be” forms. The frequency and percentage of errors by misusing the correct lexical verb forms are higher than those of errors by misusing the correct copular “be” forms. In addition, there are other errors caused by the interference of the students’ mother lounge, Thai language, namely Pro-drop and Serial Verb Construction, have induced the students to make the mistakes on writing the correct English sentence structures. These interferences significantly lead to the errors of SVA as well as verbal inflection in English. In conclusion, all errors of SVA and verbal inflection found in this study reveals that Thai EFL learners require the knowledge of both morphological and syntactic levels of English relating to SVA and verbal inflection in order to fulfill their English writing efficiency.

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