The use of prepositions among adult ESL learners in Malaysia

One predicament facing an educationist is whether grammar should be taught formally, or allowed to be naturally acquired, especially where there has generally been a deterioration of students’ grammar skills among English as second language (ESL) learners in Malaysia, particularly in the use of a sy...

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Main Author: Sudhakaran, Beena
Format: Conference or Workshop Item
Language:English
Published: 2010
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Online Access:http://irep.iium.edu.my/7811/1/TURKEY_FULL_PAPER.pdf
http://irep.iium.edu.my/7811/
http://eab2010.eab.org.tr/en/
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spelling my.iium.irep.78112011-11-23T04:01:17Z http://irep.iium.edu.my/7811/ The use of prepositions among adult ESL learners in Malaysia Sudhakaran, Beena PE English One predicament facing an educationist is whether grammar should be taught formally, or allowed to be naturally acquired, especially where there has generally been a deterioration of students’ grammar skills among English as second language (ESL) learners in Malaysia, particularly in the use of a syntactical category like prepositions. In order to get to the depth of the issue, a case study research design was carried out. This study was carried out on seven Malay students from the International Islamic University Malaysia. The study sought to determine the extent to which students acquired English prepositions in the naturalistic setting, the different types of errors in students’ use of prepositions, in the use of alternative locative frames, and whether there was a specific pattern in acquisition of prepositions. Data from students’ written samples were collected at six monthly intervals over three years. The progress of the students was monitored over this period. An analysis of students’ use of prepositions in the various writing tasks was carried out. Although errors persist, most subjects showed improvements in their use of prepositions, more so in the prepositions ‘to, ‘of’ and ‘in’. The errors they committed were of two kinds: errors of commission and errors of omission. They had more errors of commission than errors of omission. These findings imply that grammar should be taught in a way that is compatible with the natural processes of acquisition. Learners should also be developmentally ready to acquire prepositions. 2010-05-01 Conference or Workshop Item REM application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/7811/1/TURKEY_FULL_PAPER.pdf Sudhakaran, Beena (2010) The use of prepositions among adult ESL learners in Malaysia. In: The Second International Congress of Educational Research, 29 April 2010 - 2 May 2010, Antalya, Turkey. (Unpublished) http://eab2010.eab.org.tr/en/
institution Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia
building IIUM Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider International Islamic University Malaysia
content_source IIUM Repository (IREP)
url_provider http://irep.iium.edu.my/
language English
topic PE English
spellingShingle PE English
Sudhakaran, Beena
The use of prepositions among adult ESL learners in Malaysia
description One predicament facing an educationist is whether grammar should be taught formally, or allowed to be naturally acquired, especially where there has generally been a deterioration of students’ grammar skills among English as second language (ESL) learners in Malaysia, particularly in the use of a syntactical category like prepositions. In order to get to the depth of the issue, a case study research design was carried out. This study was carried out on seven Malay students from the International Islamic University Malaysia. The study sought to determine the extent to which students acquired English prepositions in the naturalistic setting, the different types of errors in students’ use of prepositions, in the use of alternative locative frames, and whether there was a specific pattern in acquisition of prepositions. Data from students’ written samples were collected at six monthly intervals over three years. The progress of the students was monitored over this period. An analysis of students’ use of prepositions in the various writing tasks was carried out. Although errors persist, most subjects showed improvements in their use of prepositions, more so in the prepositions ‘to, ‘of’ and ‘in’. The errors they committed were of two kinds: errors of commission and errors of omission. They had more errors of commission than errors of omission. These findings imply that grammar should be taught in a way that is compatible with the natural processes of acquisition. Learners should also be developmentally ready to acquire prepositions.
format Conference or Workshop Item
author Sudhakaran, Beena
author_facet Sudhakaran, Beena
author_sort Sudhakaran, Beena
title The use of prepositions among adult ESL learners in Malaysia
title_short The use of prepositions among adult ESL learners in Malaysia
title_full The use of prepositions among adult ESL learners in Malaysia
title_fullStr The use of prepositions among adult ESL learners in Malaysia
title_full_unstemmed The use of prepositions among adult ESL learners in Malaysia
title_sort use of prepositions among adult esl learners in malaysia
publishDate 2010
url http://irep.iium.edu.my/7811/1/TURKEY_FULL_PAPER.pdf
http://irep.iium.edu.my/7811/
http://eab2010.eab.org.tr/en/
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score 13.209306