Analysis of Verb Tense Errors in the Written English of Gaza Secondary School Students

Abstract

Abstract Analysis of Verb Tense Errors in the Written English of Gaza Secondary School Students This study aims at analyzing the common English verb tense errors of secondary school students in Gaza City . The Study is confined to the common errors of the three tenses (present — past ~ future ) . For this purpose , the study was conducted on a random sample which consisted of 100 males and 100 females from general Secondary School Certificate , i.e. (the twelfth grade in Gaza City of the academic year 1999- 2000 ) , the schools are : 1- Shohodaa El-Shatti Secondary School for Boys . 2- Ahmed Shawky‘Secondary School for Girls . The researcher has designed a test which was writing two compositions which are : 1- What did you do during last summer holidays ? 2- The importance of leaming English . These topics were designed to test the abi1ity~0f the student toexpress about his/her ideas in the (present — past — future) simple tense . The test was shown to a group of judges to determine the suitability of the topics . This group consisted of two professors of English in Palestinian universities ,four well - experienced secondary school teachers and two well — experienced secondary school inspectors . They all admitted the test .

The researcher , also , conducted an interview with a group of English Language teachers in Gaza with the purpose of knowing the causes of the students’ weakness in English Language and the problems which the teachers encounter in teaching English . The researcher followed the analytical and statistical techniques in eliciting the results of the research . After checking the examination sheets of the male and female students , the researcher classified students errors into eight types which are : ' 1-Tense Shift . 2-Verb Substitution . - 3- Verb Incorrectly Formed . 4- Copula Omission . 5- Wrong Tense . 6- Copula Redundancy . 7- Subject Verb agreement . 8- Verb Omission . The statistical analysis has proved that the highest percentage of errors has been found in TS, i.e. 15.20 % of all errors, particularly in the present simple tense , where the lowest percentage of errors has been found in _VO area i.e.9.30 % of all errors . Also , the statistical analysis has proved that there are significant differences between male and female performance in all the previous areas. The researcher attributed this phenomenon to many reasons which she discussed in this study .Finally she put some suggestions and recommendations .