A Structural Analysis of the Writing Errors Committed by Foundation Students at Arab Open University, Oman

Teaching is a journey of reciprocal learning, teachers acquire knowledge while teaching and sharing their knowledge with others. Simultaneously, language teaching reveals to be frustrating when students keep committing the same errors in their writings. English is considered as Arab students‟ second language which is not used frequently in their daily conversations. Since writing in English is a challenging and complicated experience for Arab students in Oman, errors in grammar and sentence structures were identified in bridging language courses (foundation level 2) in the field of ESL. Learners‟ errors were considered positively as the best sources to identify and to diagnose students‟ limitations in English writing. The present study investigates the structure errors of Omani students‟ writings in English in foundation level 2 at Arab Open University. The focal aim is to study the errors that Omani students as ESL learners commit when they are using adjectives + nouns, indefinite articles, and subordinate conjunction “because”. Results show that Omani students, as native Arabic speakers, committed the following common errors: misplacement of adjectives, omission of indefinite articles and wrong structure of the subordinate conjunction (because). The prime aim of this study is to examine the students‟ aforementioned structural errors which are the result of the interference of their mother-tongue. In order to achieve these aims, students were asked to write two different topics. This study was conducted in one of the English Foundation level two classes consisting of 24 Omani students. Finally, this research suggests further recommendations for further studies which might ameliorate students‟ learning by adopting appropriate strategies for teaching.