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This dissertation has two main purposes: (a) to provide an analysis of the past tenses in Nepali and compare them with those of English from a discourse pragmatic perspective; and (b) to investigate how Nepali learners of English use the English past tenses in terms of forms, meanings, and functions.A major claim of the dissertation is that tenses and aspects play various discourse functions in Nepali. Although Nepali has various past tenses as in English, their actual use is different from those of English. A significant difference between the use of the past tenses in English and Nepali is revealed in the use of the past perfect tense. In Nepali, unlike in English, the past perfect does not always require the existence of the past reference point between the event time and the speech time. Although used in similar as well as different contexts, the past perfect in both languages is found to express background information. In the analysis of the Nepali past tenses, one of the major arguments is that the traditionally termed `unknown past' does not have `past' as part of its basic meaning. The main function of this verb form is to express the speaker's unawareness of a situation at the time of its happening, whether in the past or the future.After the discussion of the Nepali past tenses in comparison with the English past tenses and aspects, an error analysis of Nepali EFL learners' use of the English past tenses in written essays is carried out. It was hypothesized that Nepali learners would make a wide variety of errors in the use of the English past tenses. Because of differences in the use of the past perfect and the past tense in the habitual sense between Nepali and English, it was expected that Nepali ESL learners would make errors in those areas. However, overgeneralization due to difference in the use was found only in a very few cases. Most of these errors cannot be traced to Nepali influence. One area, however, where Nepali has a clear effect on the students' use of English is in indirect speech. I argue that Nepali speakers do not change tenses in English indirect speech appropriately because verb tenses in Nepali are not changed from direct speech to indirect speech as in English.It is hoped that this dissertation will enhance the understanding of grammatical categories such as tense and aspect in general and of Nepali tense and aspect systems in particular. In general, this dissertation showed contribute to several areas of study in discourse analysis, second language acquisition, language transfer and contrastive analysis. A major significance of this dissertation is its demonstration of the role of tense and aspect in Nepali in the expression of various discourse functions. / Department of English

One of the issues that have been debated at length in second language acquisition research circles is that of error-feedback and its desirability. Although there is as yet no conclusive evidence concerning its effectiveness in contributing towards the acquisition of a second language, a number of studies that have been conducted bear evidence to its desirability in L2 classrooms. This research then, was concerned with the way teachers of content subjects reacted to their learners' linguistically erroneous responses during oral interaction in their classes. The participants were four teachers who, with their pupils, are second language speakers of English . Three of these were content subject teachers while the fourth one teaches English. The data was collected from a class of Std 5 pupils in a rural school in the Eastern Cape where the lessons of these teachers were observed and audio-taped. Subsequently some of them were transcribed and analysed. The analysis of the data revealed that teachers in content subject classes, who teach through the medium of English showed more concern for content than for linguistic errors despite the fact that they are expected to extend the pupils' chances of second language acquisition.

This study uses a predominantly quantitative approach to explore the effect of different error correction feedback mechanisms on students’ English as a Second Language writing (narrative and descriptive) amongst high school students in Botswana. A longitudinal, quasi-experimental design is used, with a control group that received no correction feedback while the experimental groups received direct, coded and uncoded feedback. Three hypotheses define the study in terms of fluency, correction success and accuracy development over time. No significant increases in fluency were found between the pretests and posttests. Correction success achieved by the three treatment groups when rewriting texts reflected the explicitness of the feedback, with the direct group highest, followed by the coded and uncoded groups. Findings were mixed on the important issue of accuracy development, although they strongly suggest that for spelling, any type of feedback is significantly better than none and that coded feedback is better than direct feedback despite the latter being more explicit. Students from all the treatment groups expressed similarly positive opinions on correction feedback. / Applied Language / M.A. (Spec. in Applied Linguistics)

M.A. (Applied Linguistics) / This dissertation explores the phenomenon of errors in the writing of second language learners. The concepts of language error and standard language are discussed briefly. The Contrastive Analysis and Error Analysis hypotheses are presented and the notions of interlanguage and fossilization explored. The limitations and strengths of the Error Analysis hypothesis are pointed out. Research on error correction and remediation is reviewed. Questions such as whether errors should be corrected, when, how and by whom, as well as which errors should be attended to, are considered. An error analysis of the written work of a group of English second language students is undertaken. Errors of a mainly syntactic nature are identified and classified and the possible causes of some are pointed out. The dissertation considers the implications of these errors for language teaching and concludes by making recommendations with 'special reference to the distance teaching situation.

Correction of oral errors in foreign or second language classrooms has been an issue of great concern. Although the literature on error correction is abundant, the studies on student reaction to this pedagogical practice are few. This study investigated the preferences for correction of classroom oral errors among university students of English in Japan. Data were collected from anonymous questionnaires. The study examined the students' attitudes toward the views about correction of oral errors which have been controversial among foreign and second language educators. The study also investigated the students' preferences for correction of different types of oral errors (e.g., grammatical errors) and particular types of correction as well. The results showed that the students had a strong positive agreement regarding teacher correction of oral errors. They showed a tendency toward agreement concerning peer correction, and a slight tendency toward agreement regarding selective error correction. Concerning overcorrection of errors, they showed a tendency toward disagreement. There was no significant difference among the different levels of oral English proficiency. The students had positive attitudes toward the correction of all five types of errors listed in the questionnaire: grammatical errors, phonological errors, and errors regarding vocabulary, pragmatics, and discourse. Pragmatic errors received the strongest preference. A significant difference among the proficiency levels was observed in only preference for correction of discourse errors. Preferred methods of error correction were: 1) the teacher gives the student a hint which might enable the student to notice the error and selfcorrect, 2) the teacher explains why the response is incorrect, 3) the teacher points out the error, and provides the correct response, and 4) the teacher presents the correct response or part of the response. The methods disliked were: 1) the teacher ignores the student's errors and 2) the teacher repeats the original question asked of the student. A significant difference among the groups was observed in preference for only one error correction method: the teacher presents the correct response or part of the response.

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Thesis (M. A. (Language Education)) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / The study focused on the grammatical errors made by learners in writing descriptive essays: A case study of Mmakgabo Senior Secondary School, Koloti circuit, Limpopo, South Africa, paying much attention to the use of grammatical rules features specifically, in their academic piece of writing (descriptive essay). The study aimed at finding out the patterns of grammatical errors that are present in learners’ essays and the effective approach that one can use to trace the grammatical errors made by school learners in descriptive essays. The nature of the study and type of data to be collected motivated the researcher to use qualitative approach. Therefore, the researcher deployed qualitative method to collect and analyse data for this study. This method gave the researcher a wide range of opportunities to collect invaluable data which made him to gain in-depth insight of the study and the problem researched. As data collection instruments, the research firstly relied on document analysis by analysing English essay scripts of learners. In addition, the researcher conducted structured interviews by asking relevant questions to English teachers in order to ascertain their experiences and knowledge of the kind of grammatical errors learners make when they write English texts. The researcher found from document analysis that learners commit grammatical errors such as the use informal language, sentences fragment, spelling errors, incorrect use of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions. The interview findings also presented similar findings and the interviewees ranked learners’ adherence to grammatical rules to average level. The researcher relied on the findings of both the interviews, and document analysis interpreted in conjunction with recent empirical studies to conclude that learners still have many challenges with regard to following grammatical rules when they write in English. Therefore, the researcher recommends that teachers put extra effort to teach learners how to write coherently in English

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