Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

The capacity to convey oneself through written language is a key skill not only for

academic writing but also for successful social and professional undertakings. Written language

is made up of numerous parts, as well as a combination of conceptual and linguistic abilities

(Penner-Williams et al. 2009; Pierangelo and Giuliani 2017). Furthermore, effective

understanding is made possible by correctness in voice and writing. However, incorrect

language or wording can obstruct communication. This study is inspired by evidence from the

classroom demonstrating how poorly students master basic grammar, namely auxiliary verbs.

The incorrect use of verb auxiliaries in both oral and written phrases indicates a lack of

competence in the English language.

Certainly, in Indonesia, Eliyawati (2018) carried out the same research. He discovered

that 81.2% of the 32 students in the research made mistakes when using the verbs to be, to do,

to have, and modal in their erroneous forms. Further, in Bulgaria (2017), Bulgarian students

continue to struggle with the right usage of auxiliary verbs. In Nigeria as well, Alobo (2015),

students show misunderstanding in the use of English auxiliaries such as, students do not

realize that "is" and "does" are singular verbs, whereas "do" and "are" are plural verbs.

In the Philippines, according to Myra Caguete (2020), a Pinay English teacher and

educational YouTube creator, claims that students are confused about the use of the verb

auxiliaries specifically modal auxiliaries "can '' and "could" in terms of ability. She

also added that most Filipino students often misuse and interchange these two terms.

Additionally, according to Fr. Emeterio Barcelon (2015), stated in his paper "Filipino Problems in

English Grammar," 10% to 50% of the grammar errors made by Filipino authors and speakers

are related to the use of auxiliary verbs.

According to my personal experiences, my Grade 9 students struggle with correctly

employing auxiliary verbs, such as removal of auxiliary verbs, particularly grammatical

morphemes; addition of primary auxiliary verbs such as double markings and simple addition;

and errors in modal auxiliary application. As a result, mastery of the use of auxiliary verbs in

essay writing is one of the least learned English competencies among Grade 9 students at one

of the schools in the Panabo City Division.

Moreover, according to a related study, Ginting (2018) her study revealed that students

misused primary auxiliary verbs. This is also supported by Inni Nihayah (2019), who claimed

that her research demonstrates that students commit errors in using modal auxiliary verbs.

However, none of the aforementioned research focused on the errors that students make when

using verb auxiliary in their written English essays. Since there are not any studies that address

this particular context and location of the study, I believe it is urgent to conduct a thorough

analysis of it so that English teachers, especially in the Division of Panabo City, can discern the

obstacles that prevent students from learning how to use verb auxiliary effectively in their writing

and how those errors affect the composition of their written essays.

The objective of this effort is to demonstrate that an incorrect expression stays incorrect

regardless of who says or writes it. It is expected that after completing this research, the correct

use of auxiliary verbs will become so established in one's mind that the correct version will occur

spontaneously anytime one speaks or writes. As a result, our young learners eventually become

self-sufficient and productive citizens of our ever-changing and advancing society.

Purpose of the Study 

The purpose of this discourse analysis specifically error analysis is to identify and

analyze the auxiliary verb errors among grade 9 students in their English written essays in one

of the secondary schools in the Panabo City Division. 

At this point in the research, the study of verb auxiliary in students’ essays is commonly

defined as revealing the writing abilities of the students and investigating one of the most

frequently mistaken areas of linguistics.

Research Questions 
 1. What are the errors on the usage of auxiliary verbs found in the English written essays of

the Grade 9 students?

2. How do these errors on the usage of auxiliary verbs affect the composition of English

written essays of the Grade 9 students?

Theoretical Lens 

This study will hinge the error analysis framework of Stephen Pit Corder (1974) who

views that "A learner's errors are significant in that they give the researchers evidence of how

language is learnt or acquired and what strategies or procedures the learner is employing in the

discovery of the language." He also noted that students’ errors should be taken seriously as

these errors show development features for language learners.

In relation to this study, students have to acquire and that trying out language and

making errors are a natural and unavoidable part of learning process because students’ errors

are a very useful way of showing what they have and what they have not learnt, so instead of

seeing errors negatively as a sign of failure (by the teachers or the students ) they should be

seen positively as an indication of what we still need to teach or learn. Further, errors are

believed to be an indicator of the learner stages in their target language development. With the

errors learners committed, English teachers or researchers can determine students’

competence of the language system and they also become keys to understand the process of

second language learning and planning the English lesson.

Furthermore, in his article “The significance of learners’ errors”, errors are significant in

three ways. First, they tell the teachers how far towards the goal the learners have advanced

and what remains for them to learn. Second, they provide the researchers with evidence of how

language is learned and what strategies the learners are employing. Third, they are

indispensable to the learners because making errors can be regarded as a device they use to

learn.
 Concurrent to the theory above, I believed that error analysis can assist teachers in

detecting and analyzing students' errors, hence providing opportunities for growth. Indeed, this

approach will shed light on the learners' issues while also showing the fundamental causes of

these blunders. Teachers can also benefit from developing or preparing techniques and

measures to assist learners in overcoming obstacles and improving their language skills.

Furthermore, in agreement with Corder's view, Alobo (2017) contends that errors are not only

an inevitable but also, very importantly, a necessary feature of learner language, without which

improvement cannot occur.

More so, learners' errors found in the corpus only revealed incorrect or insufficient

language proficiency and made them aware of how well they had mastered the principles of

grammar and where they still needed to make improvements. With this, Corder (1974) classifies

the errors into four different categories namely: Addition, Omission, Misinformation and Mis-

ordering.

Addition refers to the appearance of elements that ordinarily would not exist in a well-

performed speech or in writing, which are the opposite of omission errors. Such as, “Go to with

the flow.” An additional preposition “to” is added in the idiom in which it should not be the case.

Further, Omission occurs when a student omits necessary items that must appear in the

sentences. For example, language learners miss grammatical morphemes far more commonly

than content words, as in “John new student”, an omission of the primary verb auxiliary “is”.

Next, Misinformation refers to an erroneous selection of words which should not be used. For

example, the sentence “Do he go to church?” the use of the verb “do”, which is in plural form, is

erroneous for it does not agree with the number of the subject in the sentence which is singular.

Finally, Mis-ordering refers to errors that are characterized by the incorrect placement of a
morpheme in an utterance or in the sequence of words in a sentence. For instance, “He is all

the time late”, “all the time” is mis-ordered.

On the other hand, according to the communicative effect taxonomy (Dulay et al, 1982),

local errors only affect a single element of the sentence and rarely hinder communication, but

global errors affect the sentence's entire organization and usually obstruct communication.

Further, errors in the use of verb auxiliary words have an impact on the essay's structure

specifically error on the use of major constituents, since students frequently miss placing the

subject before the primary auxiliary verb and the modal auxiliary verb. As a result, the sentence

becomes ambiguous. Second, there is a misuse of grammatical morphemes in which students

omit or fail to include auxiliary verbs, making the sentences confusing. Moreover, errors made

by students while using verb auxiliaries might affect essay writing at the sentential level

(Runkati, 2013). These errors include run-on sentences, inappropriate word order, poor subject-

verb agreement, incorrect verb tense, sentence fragments, and missing verbs. On the other

hand, poor word choices, incorrect prepositions, inappropriate articles, missing determiners,

wrong pronoun usage, and conjunctions are at the word level (Runkati, 2013).

Scope and Limitation of the Study

The researcher will limit this research to solely focusing on the errors of the students

when employing auxiliary verb words in their writings and how these errors affect the

composition of English-written essays. This study will be carried out among Grade 9 students

who are formally enrolled in the school year 2022–2023 at one of the secondary schools in

Panabo City Division. The data collection will begin in September 2022 and last through

November 2022.
 Further, with 51 essays acting as my research materials, I will be using Corder's error

analysis framework as a method of this study to uncover and analyze the errors, with a focus on

the omission, addition, misinformation, and incorrect ordering of auxiliary verbs.

Importance of the Study

The following are the beneficiaries of this study:

To the students, this study will make them more aware of the mistakes they make when

using auxiliary verbs in their writing. Additionally, it makes them better learners and enables

them to assess and take charge of their own learning. It is anticipated that the research findings

will aid students in improving their writing skills.

Next, Teachers, this study will motivate them to help students who are having trouble

learning English by helping them apply verb auxiliaries correctly. It will offer feedback for

enhancing the teaching method and motivation for students to use auxiliary verbs in English

writing with more caution.

Also, School administrators, this research may help them understand and address the

linguistic demands of their students, which are proven to be among the most important

determinants in determining how well they communicate. May they use the analysis's findings

as a springboard to better understand how students' writing abilities develop and to work toward

improving their academic English proficiency.

Similarly, the Department of Education officials, it is hoped that this study will give

them useful information so they can identify issues with students' writing and how they can help

both students and teachers by providing them with workshops and seminars that will improve

both their language and communication abilities in writing and those of the students.
 Lastly, Future Researchers, the study's findings can serve as a starting point for further

research on how to teach and learn English, particularly when using verb auxiliary constructions

in all writing assignments. Other researchers may attempt to do the best investigation possible.

In addition, they will develop the best new research while continuing to conduct deeper research

in the same area.

Definition of Terms

For a clearer and better understanding of the study, the following terms used were

defined operationally.

Error Analysis. Error analysis is a method used to document the errors that appear in

learner language, determine whether those errors are systematic, and (if possible) explain what

caused them (CARLA, 2021). In this study, it pertains to unveil and analyze verb auxiliary usage

errors in student essays produced in English, as well as how these errors impact the

composition of the essays. Additionally, the errors that will be detected in the essay will be

categorized in accordance with the categories of errors, namely omission, addition,

misinformation, and mis-ordering.

Usage of Verb Auxiliaries. Auxiliary verbs are classified into two types, according to

Alagbe, A.A. (2009): primary auxiliary verbs (be, have, and do) and modal auxiliary verbs (may,

might, will, shall, should, can, could, must, and ought to). They are known as helping or

supporting verbs, although they are not the same thing. A primary auxiliary can be used as both

a lexical and a helping verb. The modal auxiliary cannot be used as a lexical verb. They solely

serve as auxiliary verbs (Hyland, 2004; Nurhadi, 2014). In this study, they serve as the

foundation for understanding the data from the research materials. This is the key focus and the

source of the errors discovered in the students' essays.

 Essays of the students. An essay, according to Thoreau in Solihah (2017), is a short

piece of writing that is often written from the writer's point of view. Essays are typically prepared

in a formal academic style and are used to assess students' understanding of a subject. In this

study, the essays of the students are related to the writing activities in the classroom, from

which we might collect possible errors in the use of auxiliary verbs. Furthermore, these 51

essays will be the basis of my research materials.

Organization of the Study

This study will be conducted to analyze the verb auxiliary usage errors made by Grade 9

students in their English-language essays. This study's proper and thorough preparations are

provided below.

Chapter 1 summarizes the study's main points. This chapter lists the study's objective,

research questions, theories that explain its emphasis, scope and limitation, significance, and

associated terminologies so that the reader can obtain a general idea of what the study is about.

Chapter 2 the review of related literature to the study is the main topic of this chapter.

The accompanying research and publications defined and elaborated on the terms used during

the course of the investigation. The background and related ideas were made clear through the

relevant literature. The citations confirmed the urgency of starting this study right away.

Chapter 3 the approaches utilized by the researcher in conducting the study are stated.

This highlighted the procedure of carrying out the investigation. This included the research

design, research materials, the researcher's role, data sources, data analysis, procedure,

trustworthiness, and ethical considerations.

Chapter 4 discusses the results of the study based on the linguistic corpora gathered

which would shed light to the main purpose of the study. The segment wherein the outcome of

the study is presented and explicated.

 Chapter 5 explains the basis of results and findings based on the various linguistic

corpora that will be documented and gathered within the research locale. Relevance of these

findings to the existence of the other previously studies conducted by other researchers are also

provided. The explanation of its implication in the practice and further research to be conducted

together with its concluding results will be also given and stated.