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Misordered Words: A Study in Iraqi EFL
Learners' Written Production Rania Adnan Aziz
College of Law, Al-Mustansiriya University, Baghdad, Iraq raniaadaz@uomustansiriyah.edu.iq Wafaa Husain Jabur Al-Temeemey
English Dept., College of Education, Misan University, Misan,
Iraq
wafaaaltimimi@uomisan.edu.iq
Key words: word order, errors, types, EFL, written production.
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Abstract
The current paper analyzes Iraqi EFL learners' word order errors
(WOE) in essays written for exam purposes. Word order errors
here were given a specific definition targeting changes that
affect the correct placement of words in a sentence, provided
these component words all exist in that sentence. The type of
WOE, subject gender and exam score were also taken into
account. The researchers noted that certain kinds of error were
significantly more frequent than others. The type of error can be
related to subject score. The type of WOE has more connection
to score than the number of errors does. The researchers also
found that the degree of flexibility of an element goes hand-in-
hand with the number of WOE’s; the more flexible an element is
the more it is misplaced. Moreover, certain types of WOE’s
exhibit higher recurrence with one gender rather than the other.
In addition to that, the researchers noted that a prominent
factor of WOE’s was subjects’ mother tongue.
1 . What is word order?
Word order (WO) is defined as the syntactic arrangement of words in a
sentence, clause, or phrase; i.e., the order in which words appear in a
sentence. It can also apply to the various ways that languages organize the
components of their sentences in relation to one another (O‘Grady et al,
1996:2016). Bettinsoli (2006: 11) prefers to label WO
as a topological property of languages that refers, in a given sentence,
to the ordering of subject (S), object (O) and verb (V).
Six logical ways of ordering subjects, objects and verbs are possible,
and these are: SOV, SVO, VSO, VOS, OVS, and OSV. The number of
possible orders permitted in a given language signals the first type of
variation across languages. English, for example, typically uses an order in
which both the verb and the object are preceded by the subject, which in
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turn implies that English is an SVO language. According to Hudson (2000,
as cited in Jiang, 2009: 2), this topological property is one of the three basic
syntax components including grouping, feature, and WO. WO has gained
the most attention from researchers among the three components of syntax
due to its impact on the intelligibility of language.
2 . The importance of WO
For the majority of people, the soul of language resides in the
grammar. According to Celce-Murcia and Hilles (1988) language is
regarded as a form of action confined by rules, and grammar is, therefore, a
subdivision of those rules that control the configurations assumed by a
language's syntax. For instance, WO rules in English allow us to accept the
following sentences as grammatically correct:
1) Where is she going?
2) The boy kicked the ball.
The same rules, however, oblige us to reject sentences containing typical
errors of EFL learners such as the following:
3) *Where she is going?
4) *The ball kicked the boy.
By changing the WO in a sentence the syntactic relationships between the
elements change. The first
sentence in the second pair, although grammatically incorrect, is likely to
be understood. These sentences, however, cannot be
acknowledged as right in the output of EFL Learners. English has
established a tolerable defined WO, indicating without fail what the subject
of a sentence is in the vast majority of cases.
In typological words, English has a rigid SVO WO, notes Thompson
(1978:25);
English is a language in which WO signals basic grammatical relationships.
Specifically, it is a language in which, in main clauses, there must be a noun
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phrase (NP) immediately preceding the verb and that noun phrase is the subj
ect even if it is unmarked.
Jespersen (2006: 66) contradicts Thompson by claiming that no grammatical
rules of WO can be exclusively observed in all situations; there is a certain
flexibility in that regard, and much depends on what the speaker thinks at all
times. He will still have a tendency to say what is most important to him
first. On the other hand, he may sometimes purposely—more or less
consciously—hold back an idea in order to create a greater impact, if its
presentation is well planned. Jespersen also maintains that the main
grammatical use of WO is that it gives us the answer to the correct
interpretation, as in the following examples (ibid: 67).
5) Jack saw Henry and
6) Henry saw Jack
In the above pair of sentences, Jack saw Henry describes a very different
situation from Henry saw Jack. WO is a grammar function that plays an
important role in structuring the knowledge of a sentence since it is ―one of
the key tools that languages give speakers to convey who is doing what to
whom'' (Gershko-Stowe & Goldin-Medow, 2002: 377).
3 . Major types of WO
The basic elements of a sentence structure are the Subject (S), Verb (V)
and Object (O). SOV and SVO represent the most common WOs among
languages. Yet, all possible WOs are present in at least some languages
(Dryer, 2007:61). English has an SVO WO which is characterized as fixed.
The positioning of the clause's key elements is strictly controlled. There are
two parts of clauses that Carter and McCarthy (2006) consider to be
important to how information is structured within them, what Jespersen
(2006:65) prefers to name topic and predicate, also termed the theme (or
subject) and the rheme (or comment). The theme heads the clause in
English and usually signals for who or what the clause is about. The rheme,
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as the central part of the message, supplies the important information about
the topic and is located after the subject, in the second part of the clause.
The following examples show variation of element positioning.
7) My friend (S) usually (A) enjoys (V) travelling (O).
8) Usually (A) my friend (S) enjoys (V)) travelling (O).
9) My friend (S) enjoys (V)) travelling (O), usually (A).
Only one of the components of the sentence (the adverb) has the freedom
of moving from one position to another (but not complete freedom), the
others do not, not in any of the three variants. Their position may change,
but only in a limited number of cases such as relative clauses where the
relative pronoun comes first. Certain sentence components are more stable
than others. Stability of these component positions, though generally
undisturbed, is varied. Fixedness changes along a continuum that begins
with the verb and ends with the adverb, the verb being the most stable. The
subject, object and complement lie along that continuum, in between the
two extremes.
The adverbial is the most peripheral and movable element and can
occur either initially or finally (Quirk et al., 1985: 51). Many adverbials,
however, can also occur medially. Parrott believes that the rules governing
the place of adverbs in sentences are complex and unpredictable, since the
meaning of adverbs and what information the speaker or writer needs to
explain need to be taken into consideration (2000: 64). Some adverbs are a
central part of a phrase; for example, adverbs of degree, quantity and
manner are fairly uncompromising in their position. Other adverbs (e.g.
place, time and frequency) may refer to entire clauses or to broad parts of
clauses, although their position is more dynamic.
At the adjectival level, Swan (2005:8, 15) and Wallawork (2016:29)
point that two key positions can be used for the plurality of adjectives in a
sentence. Typically, the first position is with a noun, normally before it, to
describe it. This position is called attributive. Swan goes on mentioning
that the second position is after linking verbs such as be, seem, look, etc.
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(known as the predicative position) (ibid). To place the adjective after the
noun, Wallawork (2016:29) contends, a relative clause must be used. If
more than one adjective is used, they should be placed in a certain order.
To that, Swan (2005:15) adds that words that describe come before words
that classify, beginning with the words that convey an opinion, attitude and
judgement. The order of descriptive adjectives is not entirely fixed.
Adjectives of origin and material usually come last. Others of size, age,
shape and color often come in this order: size, age, shape, color, origin ,
material then noun.
4 . WO deviation
There are certain cases when English represents non-SVO WO. These
cases include questions, passive form, sentences with infinitives,
participles, and gerunds, in addition to sentences containing relative
clauses. In a Yes/No question, the subject, is followed by an auxiliary or
modal verb, such as be, may, will, shall, etc., as seen in the
statement/question pair below.
10) Sarah (S) is preparing (V) a meal (O).
11) Is (V) Sarah (S) preparing (V) a meal (O)?
12) A meal (O) is being prepared (V) (by Sarah (S)).
As example 11 shows, the complex verb phrase is preparing splits. The
resulting WO becomes VSVO. And in Example 12, the object appears first
in the sentence and the WO becomes OV(S).
As for Wh- questions, the basic SVO WO is changed as follows: an
auxiliary verb or do moves to the left of the subject so it precedes the
subject. Furthermore, as exemplified in the following statement/question
pair, the questioned phrase, for example, an object, appears at the
beginning of the sentence in the form of a Wh-phrase:
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13) The students (S) bought (V) some books (O).
14) What (O) did (V) the students (S) buy (V)?
This pair shows that the usual SVO order of the statement shifts to the
OVSV order in the related question. For the creation of alternate questions
that resemble either Yes/No or Wh-questions the same rule applies (Quirk
et al., 1985: 87).
Another English structure in which the basic SVO WO can be
changed is the relative clause. The relative clause is a structure which
provides descriptive information about a noun phrase in a sentence. In the
next example, the relative clause is used to supply descriptive information
rather than being a second independent sentence. The relative clause which
the student lost takes place immediately after the noun a book and gives
descriptive information about a book.
15) The teacher (S) found (V) a book (O) which (O) the student (S) lost (V).
In addition, the main clause, The teacher found a book, demonstrates the
basic SVO pattern of sentence elements. The relative clause which the
student lost, however, displays OSV WO. As with English Wh-questions, a
Wh-phrase in a relative clause must occur at the beginning of the clause.
That is why relative clauses often exhibit non-SVO WO. In the above
example, which refers to a book in the main clause and represents the
object of the verb lost within the relative clause (Berent as cited in Pavić,
2013: 9).
Another case of WO deviation appears in sentences containing
infinitive clauses, such as to write, to travel, etc. The structure is illustrated
in the following sentence.
16) The author (S) decided (V) to write (V) a short story (O).
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Normally, the infinitive doesn't have its own explicit subject. The subject of
the infinitive to write is missing but is understood to be the author, which is
the explicit subject of the main verb decided. Sentences containing
participial clauses vary in different ways from the basic SVO WO. Below,
one of the differences is shown.
17) Finishing (V) the book (O), the student (S) completed (V) the
assignment (O).
The participle finishing appears first in the sentence and is followed by its
object, the book. The main clause, the student finished the assignment,
contains normal SVO order. The participle clause is interpreted to mean
that the student finished the book and the student completed the
assignment. But without an explicit subject, the non-SVO order of the
participial clause creates a sentence exhibiting VOSVO order.
Despite looking identical to a participle, a gerund clause serves a different
function; a subject or object within a sentence. Example 18 contains the
gerund clause playing that game.
18) The students (S) liked (V) playing that game (O).
Playing that game serves as the object of the verb liked. Yet, the gerund
clause itself contains a verb (gerund) with its own object that game. So,
despite the fact that this gerund clause is the O in an SVO structure,
internally it has an VO form (Pavić,2013:9).
… playing (V) that game (O).
WO deviation is thus not a deformity that distorts a sentence or
hinders its comprehension. It is simply a variation which occurs in a limited
set of cases which may reflect certain purposes intended by the speaker, as
Jespersen noted in Section 2.
5 . Word order errors
Errors made by learners of a second/foreign language is a topic that has
drawn the attention of linguists, behaviorists, psychologists and many
others. One of the pioneers to address the topic of errors was Fries (1945).
He concluded that errors created in a second/foreign language are
inherently present in the mother tongue. His ideas were focused on
American structural linguistics, which compared the target and source
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languages from a behavioral perspective. Thus, in order for a new structure
to be
formed, a second behavior is developed from a system of patterns learned i
n the mother tongue, over the shallower
sections and more slowly in the deeper sections. Broughton et al. (1980:46)
note that student WO errors is a hotly debated topic. A behaviorist, for
example, would contend that through making mistakes the learner is
practicing the wrong things and developing undesirable habits, therefore,
learners should never be exposed to the position of making errors. A
, that learners at any unavoidablementalist view suggests that errors are
given point of their growing competence possess of an interim grammar
which is by definition imperfect, that we actually learn from our mistakes.
As a consequence, the systemic comparison of languages clarifies all of the
challenges that learners face. Related items are easy to remember, while
dissimilar items result in a negative transition and, as a result, errors. Lado
(1957) agrees with Fries (1945) that the mother tongue has a great effect on
learning foreign languages, which leads to a learner's first language perhaps
being one of the sources of errors.
6. Types of error
Researchers in the field of applied linguistics classify errors based on
different perspectives.
6.1 Errors of competence and performance
According to Corder (1973:132) errors of competence are related to the
learner‘s cognitive development. They are systematic and the learner
cannot correct him/herself. Errors of performance, on the other hand, are
made by the learner due to certain conditions like stress, fatigue and
emotional strain. They occur because of the carelessness of the learner and
they are random. The learner knows the rules, therefore, he is able to
correct him/herself. This corresponds to what is commonly called a fault.
6.2 Global and local errors
For Burt and Kipasky (1974, as cited in Touchie (1986: 76)) an error
can be global or local, which can refer to a single word, part of the phase or
the whole sentence. According to these two linguists, the global error is an
error that affects the overall structure of the sentence and extremely hinders
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communication. Brown (2007: 231) confirms that, adding that they prevent
the hearer from comprehending some aspect of the message. For example,
"Well, it's a great hurry around," in whatever context, may be difficult to
interpret.
On the other hand, local errors unlike the global errors affect only one
element and do not change the meaning of the statement. Muhammad and
Dahlan (2019: 285) add that local errors do not prevent the message from
being heard because there is only a minor violation of one segment of a
sentence allowing a hearer/reader to make an accurate guess about the
intended meaning.
6.3 Errors of sentence structure
Corder (1973: 277) classifies these errors into four kinds.
6.3.1 Omission
This occurs when an element is missing in the sentence.
19) * He studying
20) He is studying
6.3.2 Substitution
It occurs when the learner replaces one element of the sentence with
another.
21) *She have written her homework.
22) She has written her homework .
6.3.3 Addition
This happens when the second/foreign language learner adds an element to
the sentence.
23)*He made me to pay his bills.
24) He made me pay his bills.
6.3.4 Misordering sentence elements
This occurs when the learner puts elements of the sentence in incorrect
positions.
25)*They could have not succeeded.
26) They couldn’t have succeeded.
7. Sources of errors
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Sources of errors made by second/foreign language learners are
explained differently by different applied linguists. Touchie (1986:75)
specifies two major sources of error. The first is interference from the
native language, while the second can be attributed to intralingual and
developmental factors. Corder (1975), Richards (1980) and Selinker (1972)
are among the early linguists who have addressed the issue of sources of
error in second/foreign language learning. Broughton et al (1980:136)
point out that there is a source of error language learners bring with them
into the learning process, namely their mother tongue. Even more
importantly, the learning process itself is the source of other errors. Based
on this account, errors are classified into the following three types.
7.1 Interlingual errors
Interlingual factor is considered as a significant source of learner errors.
Selinker (1972: 214) puts forward the notion of ‗interlanguage‘, arguing
that the productions of a learner of a second language do not conform to
what is expected of a native speaker. The error results, in this case, from
the learner's native language or more precisely negative transfers the
learner makes from his/her mother tongue to the second language he/she is
learning.
7.2 Intralingual errors
Brown (2007:232) notes that one of the major contributions of
learner language research has been its recognition of sources of error that
extend beyond interlingual errors. It is now clear that intralingual transfer
(within the target language itself) is a major factor in second language
learning. Intralingual error is a prime factor of errors, where the students
produce errors because of the wrong application of incomplete
understanding. Richards (1971, as cited in Corder, 1975:208-9)
subcategorizes these errors into the following three types.
7.2.1 Errors of overgeneralization
Brown (2007: 98) states that overgeneralization occurs when a second
language learner applies a rule in that language so extensively that it
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trespasses its limits of application. It is the incorrect application—negative
transfer—of previously learned second language material to a present
second language context. All generalizing involves transfer and all transfer
involves generalizing(ibid:99).
27) *She is the most happy girl in the class.
28) She is the happiest girl in the class.
7.2.2 Simplification
The learner uses a procedure which aims at reducing the complexity
of the target language by using simple structures instead of complicated
ones.
29) *What she gave to you?
30) What did she give you?
7.2.3 Ignoring rules of limitations
The learners apply rules or structures in contexts where they must not be
applied.
31) *He can passes the exam.
32) He can pass the exam.
Selinker (1972: 219-31), on the other hand, argues that there are certain
strategies that could be the sources of errors: 1. Faulty teaching techniques
2. Techniques followed by the learner to learn a second language
3. Fossilization, which refers to the types of errors that are stable and are
not manifesting any development.
8. Analysis 8.1 Participants
Subjects of this study are 76 third year English students, of the academic
year 2017/2018, College of Arts, University of Baghdad. 8.2 Samples Samples of the study consist of the seventy six students‘ essay exam
papers. The samples were originally designed by the instructor for exam
purposes, therefore, the outcome is expected to be more expressive of the
subjects‘ linguistic behavior than it would be in a controlled environment.
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The texts produced by the subjects are on different topics which relate to
everyday life.
8.3 Data analysis
In order to obtain the most relevant results, the analysis identifies
specific WOE‘s: those where elements of a sentence are all ‗present‘ but
misplaced. This excludes other definitions of WOE‘s introduced earlier
since they involve more than just order (deletion, wrong word choice, etc.).
WO is tackled in the most precise manner when all the elements are there
in the sentence; otherwise how would their order be compared, and relative
to which word‘s position? Replacing one word with another, even across
different parts of speech, does not signal WOE either, simply because the
slot and the word itself do not shift if a wrong word is selected. This could
be more conveniently classified as a vocabulary error. Deletion also offers
no room for comparing locations since the remaining elements would still
be in their positions.
Subjects‘ WOE‘s in this study are located and analyzed, taking into
account recognizing all errors in a sentence; which means the possibility of
identifying multi error sentences. Other subjects‘ errors (e.g. misspells,
punctuation) were disregarded and corrections were not provided since they
are irrelevant to the purpose of the study. Error percentage is calculated relative to the number of sentences;
for example 50% error means that the number of errors is half the number
of sentences.
8.4 Results and discussion
Inspecting subjects‘ essays reveals different WOE‘s; some of them
local, others global. The errors ranged from misplacing prepositional
phrases to misordering subjects/verbs/objects as a whole. The most
recurring WOE is misplacing prepositional phrases, especially adverbials.
There are two possible reasons for this: the effect of mother tongue
(Arabic) where WO is flexible to a great extent, and the variety of slots an
adverbial can occupy in English. The nature of the structure itself can be
misleading; when an adverbial has more than one word as a phrase, it can
be trickier to identify and classify and, therefore, locate.
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Less frequent, but still also very recurrent, is misordering
subject/verb. This can also be ascribed to interference of mother tongue
where the verb comes before the subject or, in many other cases that are
grammatically acceptable, the order can be very flexible.
Premodifiers, especially adjectival ones, and auxiliary verb WOE‘s
come next in frequency. Less frequent are the negative word not, question
form with statement meaning or vice versa, conjunctions, determiners, wh-
clauses, if-clauses, subject complement, objects of prepositions,
comparative structures, postmodifiers, object/adverb, verb/adverb,
conjunction/subject, verb/object, subject/verb/object, determiner/noun,
qualifier/preposition/numeral, and there-clause.
Noteworthy is that the relationship between failure in this exam and
WOE‘s is not that direct. The increase in the number of WOE‘s does not
result in failure. Some of the subjects who failed had 0% WOE‘s and some
of those who passed had up to 20%. errors To be more precise, the number
of subjects who failed and had 0% WOE‘s is more than those who passed
and had the same percentage; 13, 11 respectively. However, none of the
subjects who passed exceeded 20% WOE‘s. Yet, the number of subjects
who failed and had 20% WOE‘s is more than those who passed; 3, 1
respectively. And the number of subjects with 0% WOE‘s who failed is
more than those who passed. Students who had ≤50% WOE‘s all failed.
A stronger connection is found between the type of WOE and the
result of the exam. Global WOE‘s accompanied failed subjects in ≈87% of
the time. Thus, it is not having too many WOE‘s that is the direct factor of
failure, it is the type of WOE (that distorts meaning and hinders
comprehension) that makes subjects more prone to fail (13 subjects out of
15 failed).
Noteworthy, also, is the number of WOE‘s per topic. The absence of
WOE‘s is seen in ≈56% of essays on Euthanasia, followed by 39% of
those on Allowing Uneducated People to Vote, then 37.5% of those on
Soccer and finally in 26.5% of those on Private Colleges (the topic most
written on).
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When it comes to gender there is no direct correlation between the
number of WOE‘s and gender. The complete absence of WOE‘s among
females‘ and males‘ writings represents 31% and 35% of each group
respectively. Results for having ≥ 49% WOE‘s are not similar, but not very
different 90% and 100% respectively. A striking feature of female writings
is Global WOE‘s. They are present in 13 out of 59 female essays, which
makes 22% of total female essays, 21% of total female errors and ≈88.9%
of overall GWOE‘s.
9. Conclusions
Analyzing WOE‘s based on the existence of all sentence elements is
looking at writing from a different angle. It is seeing the ‗biggest‘ picture.
It also means assessing learners‘ written production in a different way and
explicating their errors with a fresh perspective. Hence, the
abovementioned analysis reveals that the learner is aware of what should be
present in their writing, but they are at the same time unaware of the weight
of that which is present. They may also be unaware of the roles of those
elements. Moreover, the learner may even be incognizant of the part of
speech of the words they are using and, consequently, misplacing them.
We can resemble that to having the raw materials but not knowing
how to use them or the order in which to mix them. The learner has to
know where each piece of the puzzle goes. Consequently, they need to
familiarize themselves more with parts of speech, the difference between
the form and function of words—the majority of Iraqi EFL learners still
believe that anything with –ing is a verb! There is need to adopt a more
functional grammatical approach.
One of the sources of WOE‘s in this study is the influence of mother
tongue. It is a major source of writing errors in general, as Ridha (2012: 41)
noted. Again, such influence shows a lack of familiarity with the foreign
language. This calls for an emphasis on the production of extended pieces
of writing (and speaking as well) by learners, provided that it is unguided
production. Avoiding the use of mother tongue during the teaching process
is also of importance. The less room there is for the mother tongue, the
more there is for the foreign.
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The analysis also shows that most of the subjects who failed the test
had global WOE‘s, and global WOE‘s render a text completely
unintelligible. This means that the subject failed to identify the correct
position of a word, its part of speech, function, or was strongly influenced
by mother tongue transfer. Besides its very frequent appearance throughout
the analysis, mother tongue effect was detected in 11 out of 18 global
errors, and for the majority of these errors the source was mainly colloquial
mother tongue (9 out of the 11 errors), not even standard mother tongue.
What this indicates is that the subjects were translating literally from their
first language (a feature of machine translation) which means that Arabic
structures were copied into an English text (with no regard to context).
Nevertheless, this analysis sees the glass half full; the subjects were
able to provide all the required components of a sentence which shows
their awareness of a basic requirement of sentence structure. The next step
is to enhance their awareness of the multiple roles a single element can
have and where this roles locate the element in a sentence.
Count/Value/Percentage
Male Subjects
17
Female Subjects
59
Errors
94
Local Errors
76 = 80%
Global Error
18 = 20%
Number of students who passed
20 ≈ 26%
Number of students who failed
56 ≈ 74%
≤ 100% WOE’s
1 ≈ 1%
≤ 50% WOE’s
6 ≈ 7.8%
≥ 49% WOE’s
70 ≈ 92%
= 0% WOE’s
24 ≈ 32%
Table 1
Total Values Chart
WOE
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= 100%*
≤ 50%*
≥ 49%*
= 0%*
Local**
Global*
*
F
1/1.7/1
6/10/8
53/90/70
18/31/24
59/79/63
16/21/17
M
0/0/0
0/0/0
17/100/22
6/35/8
17/89/18
2/11/2
Table 2
Gender Based Account of WOE’s
* WOE Occurrences/Percentage by Gender/Overall Percentage
** WOE Type Occurrences/Percentage by Type and Gender/Overall Percentage
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Appendix 1 Iraqi EFL learner‘s essay sample.
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