The Islamic University - Gaza

Deanship of Research and Graduate Studies

Faculty of Education

Master of Curricula & Teaching Methods

A Suggested Program for Tackling Tense

Errors in Writing among Female EFL Senior

Students at Al-Aqsa University of Gaza

المستوى الرابع في الباتخطاء الزمن في الكتابة لدى طأ لعالجبرنامج مقترح جنبية في جامعة االقصى بغزةألغة اللغة االنجليزية ك

Submitted by

Arafat Ibrahim Ahmed Al-Farra

Supervised by

Prof. Awad Suliman Kishta

Professor of English Teaching Methods at the Islamic University_ Gaza.

A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of

Master in Curricula and Teaching Methods

September

2018

بغزة ةـــــالميــــــة اإلســـــــــامعـالج

عمادة البحث العلمي والدراسات العليــــــا

ة التربيةــــليـــــك

ماجستـــير مناهــــــج وطرق تدريـــــــس

II

IV

Abstract

The present study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of a suggested

program for tackling tense errors in writing among female EFL senior students at

Al-Aqsa university of Gaza. The researcher adopted two approaches. The first one

is the descriptive analytical approach and the second one is the quasi-experimental

approach. An experiment was conducted on a purposive sample of English senior

majors who were enrolled in writing II course at Al-Aqsa University during the first

semester of the academic year 2017-2018. The participants of the study consisted of

(31) female students grouped as a one-group design.

The instrument required for the study was a writing test which was conducted on

the participants of the study before and after the implementation of the suggested

program. The researcher used the paired-sample T-Test to check the differences

among the participants' performances in the pre-post test which was used to identify

Al-Aqsa University EFL senior students' errors in writing.

The results revealed that the participants' performances in the post writing test

surpassed their performances in the pre writing test and most of the tense errors

which were committed by Al-Aqsa English majors in the pre writing test were not

found on the post writing test. This means that the suggested program that was

designed by the researcher is effective and fruitful in tackling EFL learners' tense

errors in writing.

In the light of the above-mentioned findings, the researcher stresses some

recommendations and suggestions for university lecturers, EFL students, and the

designers of writing books of English.

V

ملخص الدراسة

هذه الدراسة للتحقق من فعالية برنامج مقترح لمعالجة اخطاء الزمن في الكتابة لدى طلبة المستوى هدفت

حيث استخدم الباحث اداة واحدة لتحقيق هدف . الرابع في اللغة االنجليزية كلغة اجنبية في جامعة االقصى بغزة

حيث كان المنهج , لتحقيق هدف الدراسة بنى الباحث منهجين وت. صيلي للكتابةوهي االختبار التح, الدراسة

حيث بدأ دراسته مستخدما المنهج . تجريبيالشبه منهج الثاني هو المنهج وال ا تحليلي االول منهجا وصفيا

تجريبي عندما تأكد من كفاءة البرنامج الشبه عندما وصف اخطاء الزمن ثم استخدم المنهج التحليلي الوصفي

.المقترح

في البداية قام الباحث . مثل البرنامج المقترح, حيث اتبع الباحث العديد من الخطوات الثانوية لجمع البيانات

بإنشاء اختبار قبلي بعدي واعتبر االختبار القبلي كاختبار تشخيصي حيث اخذت نتائجه بعين االعتبار لجمع

برنامج المقترح الذي تكون من اربعة عشر درسا البيانات الضرورية لتحديد االهداف المرجوة لتصميم ال

.باإلضافة الى درس تمهيدي اعطي في بداية البرنامج اعتبر الدرس الخامس عشر

شاور الباحث بعض محاضري مادة الكتابة في الجامعة في تصميم كل من االختبار التحصيلي للكتابة

للكتابة على لجنة من خبراء اللغة االنجليزية من حيث عرض الباحث االختبار التحصيلي . والبرنامج المقترح

الءمت االسئلة قدرات . ثم راجعوا بعض االسئلة وأعادوا صياغة بعضا آخر, مختلف المؤسسات االكاديمية

.الطالب واهتماماتهم ومستواهم ايضا

لين في مادة الكتابة بجامعة االقصى وسل ط الضوء على طلبة هذه اختار الباحث طلبة المستوى الرابع المسج

المرحلة تحديدا ألنهم مشارف التخرج لذلك هم اكتر من يحتاجون لتحسين مهارة الكتابة كونهم يتجهون نحو

لين في مادة الكتابة للفصل الدراسي االول . حقل العمل تكونت عينة هذه الدراسة من احدى وثالثين طالبة مسج

ومن . ى االختبار القبلي على الطلبة قبل ان ينفذ البرنامج المقترحكان الباحث قد اجر. 7102-7102من العام

.ثم تم تطبيق البرنامج وبعد ذلك طبق االختبار البعدي للتحقق من تقدم الطالب ومن فاعلية البرنامج

وأظهرت نتائج الدراسة ان . قام الباحث بتحليل البيانات احصائيا مستخدما برنامج التحليل االحصائي

المضارع التام والمضارع التام المستمر والماضي البسيط : طالبات لديهن أخطاء في األزمنة التالية ال

ثم عولجت هذه األزمنة من خالل . والماضي التام والماضي المستمر والمستقبل المستمر والمستقبل التام

كانت اعلى من درجاتهن في الن الباحث وجد ان درجات الطالبات في االختبار البعد , البرنامج المقترح

لذلك يوجد فروق ذات داللة احصائية في االختبار التحصيلي للكتابة لصالح االختبار البعدي . االختبار القبلي

.يعزى لكفاءة البرنامج المقترح العالية

في ظل تلك النتائج يؤكد الباحث على بعض التوصيات والمقترحات لمحاضري الجامعات وطالب اللغة

. نجليزية كلغة اجنبية ولمصممي كتب مهارات الكتابة باللغة االنجليزيةاال

VI

﴿وما أوتيتم من العلم إال قليال ﴾

[اإلسراء: 58]

VII

Dedication

I respectfully dedicate this humble work to Allah, Who is the source of wisdom,

patience, and infinite love. The researcher, also, dedicates this work:

To our prophet Mohammed peace be upon him,

To the candle that still enlightens my way towards success,

To the meaning and hope of my life,

To the origin of kindness and good-heartedness,

To my real paradise in this life,

To my kind, beloved and good-hearted mother,

Na'ema Abdo Abdullah Al-Farra, who deserves my great love, respect and my whole life

for her long encouragement and sacrifice at every stage,

To my great father (Ibrahim Ahmed Al-Farra), brothers and my kind-hearted sisters, who

gave me a hand to accomplish this work,

To the cause of my happiness and joy,

To my other half, to my impressive-hearted wife (Alaa Kamal Othman), who motivated

and encouraged me to finish this work, and

To the souls of martyrs, who sacrificed their lives for Al-Aqsa Mosque and Palestine.

VIII

Acknowledgments

I would like to express my sincere thanks and gratitude to Allah, Who granted me

the power and provided me with energy to complete this study despite the difficulties

I faced while writing it.

I would like to thank my supervisor: Prof. Awad Suliman Kishta Professor of

Curriculum and English Instruction in Faculty of Education at The Islamic

University for his continuous support, guidance and encouragement. He generously

gave me much of his time, thoughtful guidance, stimulating ideas throughout the

implementation of this study. This work would not have been possible without his

support. Really, I submit my limitless regards and thanks to him. I managed to learn

many things from him.

Special thanks must go to Dr. Sadeq Firwana, who exerted good effort and guided

me in achieving this work.

My limitless appreciation and gratitude are extended to the jury of the program and

study instruments, who provided me with support, assistance and efforts.

In addition, I am deeply grateful to English department staff whether professors or

students at Al- Aqsa University of Gaza for all the facilities, help, cooperation and

advice they offered, especially Dr. Adham Abu Hatab and Dr. Ra'fat Abu Ghaly.

Thanks to all my friends, and colleagues, who have shown interest and

encouragement in my work, especially, Mr. Khalil Aburezeq.

IX

Table of Contents

Contents

Declaration..………………………………………………………………………………….II

يجة الحكم على اطروحة ماجستيرنت ……………………………………………………………….III

Abstract .................................................................................................................................. IV

V ............................................................................................................................. ملخص الدراسة

Dedication ............................................................................................................................. VII

Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................... VIII

List of Tables ....................................................................................................................... XII

Chapter One ............................................................................................................................. 2

Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 2

1.1 Background of the Study ........................................................................................ 2

1.2 The Context of the Problem ................................................................................... 5

1.3 Statement of the Problem ....................................................................................... 5

1.4 Questions of the Study ........................................................................................... 6

1.5 Research Hypotheses ............................................................................................. 6

1.6 Purpose of the Study .............................................................................................. 6

1.7 Significance of the Study ....................................................................................... 7

1.7 Limitations of the Study ......................................................................................... 7

1.8 Definition of Terms ............................................................................................... 7

1.9 Summary .............................................................................................................. 9

Chapter Two ........................................................................................................................... 11

Literature Review ................................................................................................................... 11

2.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 11

2.2 English Writing ................................................................................................... 11

2.2.1 Characteristics of Effective Writing ................................................................. 11

2.2.2 Importance of Writing ................................................................................... 12

2.2.3 The Writing Process ...................................................................................... 13

2.2.4 The role of Teachers in the Writing classes ..................................................... 15

2.2.5 Reasons for Learning Writing ......................................................................... 15

2.2.6 How to Teach Writing for EFL Learners ........................................................... 16

2.2.7 Approaches of Writing ................................................................................... 18

X

2.2.8 Phases of the Writing Process ........................................................................ 21

2.3 Error Analysis ..................................................................................................... 24

2.4 Error Correction Techniques in Writing ................................................................ 25

2.5 The Classification of Errors.................................................................................. 25

2.6 Previous Studies ................................................................................................... 27

2.6.1 Previous studies in relation to tense errors and errors of writing. ..................... 27

2.6.2 Previous studies related to the skills of writing................................................ 31

2.6.3 Commentary on the Previous Studies ............................................................. 34

Chapter Three ......................................................................................................................... 38

Methodology .......................................................................................................................... 38

3.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 38

3.2 Research Design................................................................................................... 38

3.3 Study Sample ...................................................................................................... 38

3.4 Variables of the Study ......................................................................................... 39

3.5 Instrumentation ................................................................................................... 39

3.6 Validity of the Writing Test ................................................................................. 41

3.6.1 Referee validity of the Test ............................................................................ 41

3.6.2 Internal Consistency Validity .......................................................................... 41

3.7 Reliability of the Test ........................................................................................... 42

3.8 The Suggested Program ....................................................................................... 42

3.8.1 Aims of the Suggested Program ...................................................................... 42

3.8.2 Principles of the Suggested Program .............................................................. 43

3.8.3 Stages of Constructing the Instructional Program ............................................ 44

3.8.4 The Program Contents ................................................................................... 46

3.8.5 Validity of Program ....................................................................................... 48

3.9 Procedures of Study ............................................................................................. 49

3.10 Problems and Challenges ................................................................................... 49

3.11 Statistical Styles ................................................................................................. 50

3.12 Summary .......................................................................................................... 50

Chapter Four .......................................................................................................................... 52

Data Analysis & Findings ...................................................................................................... 52

4.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 52

4.2 Statistical Analysis .............................................................................................. 52

XI

4.3 The Results of the First Question ........................................................................... 52

4.4 The Results of the Second Question ....................................................................... 55

4.5 The Results of the Third Question ......................................................................... 56

4.4 The Results of the Fourth Question ........................................................................ 59

4.5 Summary of the Chapter ....................................................................................... 60

Chapter Five ........................................................................................................................... 62

Discussion & and Recommendations ..................................................................................... 62

5.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 62

5.2 Summery ............................................................................................................ 62

5.3 Discussion of the Study Findings ........................................................................... 64

5.4 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 68

5.5 Recommendations ............................................................................................... 69

References .............................................................................................................................. 70

Appendices ............................................................................................................................. 77

Appendix (1) ............................................................................................................. 78

The Referees' Committee ........................................................................................... 78

Appendix (2) ............................................................................................................. 80

The Writing Achievement Test ................................................................................... 80

Appendix (3) ............................................................................................................. 84

The Suggested Program.............................................................................................. 84

Appendix (4) ........................................................................................................... 110

Permission to Apply the Suggested Program .............................................................. 110

Appendix (5) ........................................................................................................... 111

Pictures ................................................................................................................... 111

XII

List of Tables

Table (3. 1): Distribution of the study sample. ................................................................. 38

Table (3. 2): The distribution of the writing achievement test............................................ 39

Table (3. 3): The correlation coefficients between the exam questions and the overall score

of the exam. .................................................................................................................. 41

Table (3. 4): The test reliability using method of test-retest. .............................................. 42

Table (3. 5): Program time plan. ..................................................................................... 48

Table (4. 1): Frequencies, Percentages, Ranks of Tense Errors in the students' Writing

Diagnostic Exam. .......................................................................................................... 53

Table (4. 2): Descriptive Statistics and Value of "T" and its Statistical Significance between

the Mean Scores of the Research Group in the Pretest and Posttest administrations. ........... 57

Table (4. 3): Shows the results effect size of the Suggested program. ................................ 58

Table (4. 4): shows the results of the modified Blake's Gain Ratio to the suggested program. ........ 59

XIII

List of Figures

Figure (2. 1): The writing process. .................................................................................. 14

XIV

List of Abbreviations

EA Error Analysis EFL English as a foreign language

INSET In-Service Education and Training

L2 Second Language.

SPSS Statistical Package For Social Sciences

SVA Subject-Verb Agreement

TKT Teaching Knowledge Test.

TOEFL Test of English as a Foreign Language.

1

Chapter One

Introduction

2

Chapter One

Introduction

This chapter presents the background of the study and sheds lights on the

introduction, the need for study, the statement of the problem, the research questions

and hypotheses, the purpose of the study, the significance of the study, the

limitations of the study and the definitions of terms.

1.1 Background of the Study

English has become the language of international business, professions and

diplomacy, as well as the most dominate language in the world. By the course of

time, more people are learning English. Nowadays, the whole world seems to speak

English. As David (2009) asserts, it is the language of travel, tourism, science and

technology. It has become the main route to get a job and to be an outstanding among

people. Moreover, it is a universal language that has covered all aspects of life,

where people of different nationalities use it to communicate with each other. It has

also become the language of science, technology, economy, politics and education.

This universal acknowledgment of English as the language of today and the need for

good English language skills have created a huge demand for teaching English

around the world. Therefore, we have to teach our students well and take care of their

needs so that they can have a great deal of mastering English.

The nature of learners is that they sometimes make mistakes when they listen,

speak, read or when they write. We, as researchers or teachers, have to shed strong

lights on these skills, especially the writing skill as long as it is the most important

skill.

Writing, the most frequently used skill in English language, plays a significant

role in daily educational process. Bjork and Raisanen (1997) stated: 'We highlight

the importance of writing in all university curricula not only because of its immediate

practical application, i.e. as an isolated skill or ability, but because we believe that,

seen from a broader perspective, writing is a thinking tool. It is a tool for language

development, for critical thinking and, extension, for learning in all disciplines' (p.8).

3

In other words, writing is an important part of life, whether in the workplace or

school, as a hobby or in personal communication. This skill helps the writer express

feelings and thoughts to other people in a relatively permanent form. Personal

writing builds a connection between the writer and reader in a different way from

oral communication, and it helps people to organize their thoughts when seeing them

on paper or on a screen.

Professional writing and writing for school have a different role than personal

writing. Formal writing encourages critical thinking in essays, research papers and

articles, which helps the writer learn how to interpret the world around him in a

meaningful manner. Writing about a topic improves the writer's understanding of the

topic, and papers with a slant help the writer understand how to successfully

construct professional arguments and debates about a topic. Learning how to

structure arguments and articulate opinions in writing translates well to the spoken

word, helping people to be better at presenting facts and opinions in a calm, rational

way. This is a line of thought that we shall develop.

Writing is a difficult process even in the first language. It is even more

complicated to write in a foreign language because it is a productive skill. As

Richards & Renandya (2002) claimed, “There is no doubt that writing is the most

difficult skill for L2 learners to master. The difficulty lies not only in generating and

organizing ideas, but also in translating these notions into legible text” (p. 303). In

spite of its importance, writing skill development has received only slight care in

language teaching. It is not to be doubted that various studies have been conducted

to shed lights on tense errors, syntactic, and how to differentiate among the concrete

situations and actions such as, Radwan's (1988) as long as he investigated tense

errors and tackled them. Since English language has two tenses with different

aspects that have different usages, it is very important to go through them.

Specifying the time of an action is the main core to understand whether it happens

in the past, now, or in the future. Therefore, it is essential to have this dexterity in

order to overcome confusions and misunderstandings by EFL students or even those

one talks to.

4

Many studies, like Dessouky (1990), proved that the use of the wrong verb tense, at

best, is irritating to master and it also reflects poorly on the student's writing skills. At

worst, the reader can be confused as to what facts are already known and what was

newly discovered in the actual study that is the subject of the paper. So, effective

communication skills of English language are important for the general population of

all callings. The idea of English verb tenses is imperative in setting up compelling

correspondence. Subsequently, in the event that you need to keep up both methods for

correspondence better, that is, talking and composing. Mastering English tenses

enables the speaker to communicate fluently in different situations. The meaning of a

message can be conveyed correctly by using the accurate verb tense.

From the researchers' experience, as he was a student at Al-Aqsa University, most

Al-Aqsa University English lecturers say that the majority of English majors lack the

skill of writing correctly and they misuse the tenses while they are composing, let alone

their low marks in most writing courses . Even most English graduates cannot

differentiate among tenses in writing, and they write incorrectly as they lack tense

rules.

It is of a great importance to shed light on writing skill. Because according to the

researcher's experience as he was an EFL student and now as an English language

trainer at many universities in a partnership with Al-Salam Training Group, not only

has it been neglected as an area of instruction, but it has also been unattended as an

area of research.

So, researchers should consider this skill and put it under the spot light. Hence, they

can ameliorate students' writing skills.

Therefore, the most practical way to reveal this is to construct a program to assist

English majors at Al-aqsa University to avoid such a problem throughout intensive

classes, some computerized techniques and power point shows providing the

information necessary for suitable solutions.

5

1.2 The Context of the Problem

As a trainer of English at Al-Salam Training Group and some universities, the

researcher observed weaknesses and problematic points students have while they are

learning the language of English. The researcher noticed that there is an absence of

the studies that treat tense errors in Palestinian universities. Consequently, English

majors should be trained to use the proper tense that matches their intention.

Most of the studies like Abu-Jarad (1986), Farahat (1994), and Hourani (2008),

which circumscribed tense errors, were made by Arab students and focused

commonly on grammatical errors made when Arab students write in English. These

studies did not investigate why and how Arab learners make tense errors in their

writing. Furthermore, these studies did not investigate whether Arab learners were

aware of the types of tense errors. And there are some studies, like Chen (1998),

which described tense errors with no treatment as they recommended high attention

on constructing suggested programs to tackle this problem. Therefore, this study is

driven by the need to identify the types of tense errors made by Palestinian learners

when they write statements and structures at Al-Aqsa University of Gaza.

Finally, the above narration indicated that Palestinian EFL learners (OR senior

students) need to be aware of the accurate writing using the correct tense because

each one has its own function and lack of such an awareness is a source of difficulty.

And the types of errors they make affect the quality of writing, cause ambiguity, and

misunderstanding. This study is an attempt to clarify this important topic

linguistically and methodologically.

1.3 Statement of the Problem

A great number of English majoring students face difficulties in using English

tenses correctly in writing. Thus, the present study advocates the use of a suggested

program to tackle tense errors in the students' writing.

The problem of the study is stated in the following main question:

What is the effectiveness of the suggested program for tackling tense errors in

writing among female EFL senior students at Al-Aqsa University?

6

1.4 Questions of the Study

To answer the above-mentioned question, the researcher tackled the following

questions:

1. What are the tense errors in students’ writing among female EFL senior

students at Al-Aqsa University?

2. What is the suggested program for tackling tense errors in writing among

female EFL senior students at Al-Aqsa University?

3. Are there statistically significant differences at (α ≥ 0.05) between the mean

scores the treatment group get on the writing pre-test and the mean scores

they get on the writing post-test?

4. What is the statistically significant effect of the suggested program for

tackling tense errors among female EFL senior students?

1.5 Research Hypotheses

1. There are statistically significant differences at (α ≤ 0.05) between the mean

scores the treatment group get on the writing pretest and the mean scores they

get on the writing posttest?

2. The suggested program for tackling tense errors among female EFL senior

students is expected to have a large effect size.

1.6 Purpose of the Study

This study aims at achieving the following objectives:

1. Identifying English majoring students' tense errors in writing made by the

Palestinian EFL learners among the senior level students of Al-Aqsa

University of Gaza.

2. Investigating the effectiveness of the suggested program in tackling tense

errors in writing upon the Palestinian EFL learners at the senior level of Al-

Aqsa University.

3. Providing some recommendations, suggestions and pedagogical implications

for both teachers and learners which help tackling English learners' tense

errors in writing.

7

1.7 Significance of the Study

This study is significant as it:

1. Provides a suggested program that can be used to tackle English learners'

tense errors in writing.

2. Attracts English instructors' attention about the learners' tense errors in

writing.

3. Widens the understanding of instructors and researchers about writing and

assessing its skills.

1.7 Limitations of the Study

This study was applied only on the senior (female) English majoring students

who were enrolled in writing II course during the first semester of the academic year

2017-2018 at Al-Aqsa University in Gaza. And it was concerned with their tense

errors in writing. The study was concerned with the tense errors made by Al-Aqsa

University senior students in their writing.

1.8 Definition of Terms

A program is a group of concepts, activities, and various experiences, which are

presented by an institution for learners in order to interact with it, the aim of

modifying their behaviors (Good, 1998, p. 323).

A suggested program

Here are some definitions of the suggested program:

In accordance with Al-Jamal & Al-Laqqani (1999, p. 75) the suggested

program is a curricular program connected to the learners' study at university.

It aims to attain the curriculum objectives and it is constructed by experts,

professors, and some specialists in the subject. It ameliorates the experiences,

decided by university.

Some other researchers like AL-Farra (1988, p. 175) connected the

instructional program concept to the trend of teacher's competencies. They

define it as the well-designed experiences for the teaching and training

8

purpose by the merit of the certain performance level. It depends on units that

are arranged well including the basic elements: importance, objectives,

content, timing, learning activities, instructions, and evaluation means.

Good (1998, p. 613) mentioned that the suggested program is a collection of

well-organized activities that aim at developing the students' attitudes,

performances, and skills. In addition, it boosts work competences and

experiences of the learners, especially when it guides them the way of how to

think.

Slavin (1989, p. 758) stated that the pendulum must be stopped in some way

by educators through devoting their efforts to enrich education on effective

programs, rather than on those which are only modern and seem good.

Afana (2000, p. 75) described the program as a well-organized unit that has

instructions, activities, aids, set of experiences, techniques, and the needed

evaluation means for the goal of developing the targeted skills.

In the light of the above-mentioned definitions of the suggested program, the

researcher defines the suggested program as a set of well-planned and constructed

activities aiming at ameliorating the trainees' knowledge, experiences, attitudes, ways

of how to think, and skills by well-selected and designed content, instructions, aids,

and means of evaluation.

Error is a systematic deviation by learners who have not yet mastered the rules.

Errors are usually more difficult to correct than a mistake.

The researcher defines tense error as a systematic deviation by learners who have

recognized the usage of tenses yet.

Writing is a set of visible or tactile signs used to represent units of language in a

systematic way, with the purpose of recording messages, which can be retrieved by

everyone who knows the language in question and the rules by virtue of which its

units are encoded in the writing system (Blackwell, 1999 P.560).

9

1.9 Summary

The researcher attempted to pave the way for those who are interested in this scope

through the first chapter that included an introduction, need of the study, purpose of

the study, significance of the study, statement of the study problem, major question,

three sub-questions, limitations of the study, and definition of terms.

10

Chapter Two

Literature Review

11

Chapter Two

Literature Review

2.1 Introduction

This chapter highlights the background of the variables of the study and aims at

reviewing them. In other words, this chapter is divided into two parts, the first part

focuses on the theoretical framework of this study, and it generally illustrates writing

skill and tense errors. The second part reviews the previous.

2.2 English Writing

Writing is an important skill that enables people to communicate their thoughts and

feelings by using group of symbols to constitute the speech sounds.

Regarding the encyclopedia of Omniglot, '' writing is a way of constituting

language in a tactile or a visual form. It uses group of symbols to constitute the

speech sounds, and symbols could be used for such things as numerals and

punctuation too.'' Millrood (2001) argues, '' writing is a skill for communication. We

use it to transmit, store and restore messages with a hand of the symbols, which are

written." (p.1). Harmer (2004) writes his definition about writing that it is a discovery

and productivity process, it contrasts the oral-aural skills, the chance to work at the

pace of students can be provided throughout writing (p.15). however Blackwell

(1999) defines writing as a collection of visible or tactile signs that are usually used to

constitute units of language in a systematic way, with the purpose of storing messages

which can be restored by everyone who understands the language in question and the

corpus by virtue of which its units are encoded in the writing corpus (p.560).

Eventually, from the definitions mentioned above, the researcher adopts

Blackwell's definition and adds one point that writing is the most difficult productive

skill.

2.2.1 Characteristics of Effective Writing

As mentioned in guidance on the teaching of writing skills: Welsh Assembly

Government, INSET Opportunities for Teachers of all Subjects Across the

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Curriculum at Key Stages 2 and 3 (2010), learners have to make sure that when

writing, they should have the ability to:

1. Make their writing suitable for the audience and adapt it to be appropriate to

the point of writing.

2. Attract their readers.

3. Utilize an extent of good sentence structures.

4. Utilize good features that are stylistic and grammatically written to

emphasize the obviousness and achieve a specific effect.

5. Select suitable vocabulary and use them well.

6. Make their writing a well-organized one and consider both coherence and

cohesion.

7. Utilize an extent of ways to help them spell right.

8. Consider punctuation marks and use them well to make the meaning more

obvious.

9. Write suitably by the information technology of communication or even by

hand.

2.2.2 Importance of Writing

Majority of people do not know how difficult and complex the writing skill is.

Actually, like all the academic activities, writing depends on some basic skills more

than the other ones. It is of great importance to mention the significance of learning

the writing product at elementary schools, so it is not an easy job for teachers to

emphasize this skill as long as they deal with elementary students. Howsoever, as

they treat older schoolchildren, they highly consider the use of the right vocabulary

rather than the important parts of the writing process. And succinctly,

1. Through writing, you can express who you are as a human being.

2. Writing is the basic skill that judges your intellect, learning, job, and

mentality.

3. Through writing, your thinking can be visible.

4. Writing is an everlasting product and portable.

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5. Writing gives you a hand to go through opinions, interferences, and facts

easily without confusing the reader or even yourself.

6. Your ability to question worthily can be promoted through writing.

7. Your ability to discuss a complex situation to those who are going to read

your piece or to yourself can be fostered through writing.

8. Through writing, you can give feedback on other people's writings.

9. Writing enables you to refine thoughts and intellect, especially when you give

feedback.

10. When you write down your ideas, you preserve them, and then you can

comment on them later.

11. When you write out your thoughts, it helps you recognize how adequate you

were in your argument.

12. Writing is a vital skill for getting a job.

13. Writing is a good tool to manage you to understand how they establish the

truth in any given discipline.

14. Writing provides you with the right thinking skills and the communication

ones so that you can participate powerfully and freely.

15. Writing strengthens you to expand your thoughts, motivates you to extend

your ideas, and not to stop at your first impressions.

2.2.3 The Writing Process

The process of writing is the one in which authors and writers start writing down

their thoughts and ideas, so that their piece of writing would be an irreplaceable aid

for the process of learning.

According to Capretz, Ricker and Sasak (2003), writing process consists of a

variety of stage: students pre-write, draft, revise, edit, publish and share.

The researcher emphasizes the importance of the steps used by learners that

enrich the skill of organizing specific information connected to an identified topic in

order to deliver the message to the audience. These steps must be considered to

motivate the learners and help them brain storm, classify, decide the topic, and

construct topic statements under the umbrella of the unity, cohesion, and coherence

rules.

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The University of Capella (n,d) reports that writing process consists of four steps

to be followed by whoever is going to write. The four-step writing process is as

follows:

o Prewriting: In the first stage, the writer should consider the audience needs,

determine his purpose of writing, and specify the field of what he is going to

shed lights upon, brainstorm his ideas regarding the intended topic.

o Drafting: In the second stage, the writer should make a case and structure his

evidence for that case. In other words, he should write the first rough version

of his work.

o Revising: In the third stage, the writer should put himself in the reader's

shoes, rethink about the coherence and the cohesion and make sure of them,

reconsider his way of writing, and make the needed changes, which can

enhance his work.

o Publishing: in the last stage, the writer should edit and proofread to knock

out the mistakes, to improve both coherence and cohesion, and to better the

reliability of his work. The following Figure (1) shows the writing process.

Figure (2. 1): The writing process.

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2.2.4 The role of Teachers in the Writing classes

Harmer (200l:p.261-262) states that there are so many roles that must be

considered and carried out by teachers in the classroom so that students will better

and develop themselves in writing. They are as follows:

Motivator:

Teachers should motivate students to write throughout creating a suitable

atmosphere for generating thoughts; convincing them of how efficacious the task is,

encouraging them to do their best to get benefits as much as they can. It actually

requires exerting hard efforts for longer sequences of the writing process.

Resource:

Teachers should be as a resource of knowledge for their students so they must

consider readiness to provide students with the needed information, particularly

when the extended tasks of writing are taking place. Teachers should inform their

students that they are ready all the time to give pieces of advices, to follow their

works, to offer the needed suggestions, and to guide them the way they can write

powerfully and with rich pieces of information. When students' compositions are

ready, teachers should allocate time in order to make discussions individually, in

pairs, or in groups.

Feedback provider:

Special attention is needed when giving feedback on the tasks of writing.

Teachers should comply positively and encourage students for what they have done.

When correcting students' mistakes, teachers should take into consideration what

exactly to correct and how much to concentrate on what the level of students

requires.

2.2.5 Reasons for Learning Writing

Many reasons and aims stand behind teaching writing. In conformity with

Spelkova and Hurst (n,d), there are many important reasons why students are in need

for learning writing:

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1. Writing is a crucial way to communicate, and a significant skill to be

mastered.

2. Writing buttresses the other language learning linguistic rules (semantics,

syntax).

3. Writing is an unsophisticated way of using language and rehearsing it outside

the school.

4. Learning writing can achieve needs for business, especially when learners

have to write emails, reports, or even formal letters in English.

5. Many exams require the skill of writing.

6. The change of pace in any lesson can be provided by the writing stage.

2.2.6 How to Teach Writing for EFL Learners

It is very rare to shed light upon the skill of writing. Teachers offer students one

or two topics to write about, and then students start writing and construct their texts.

Then, teachers correct and evaluate the grammar, spelling mistakes and vocabulary

in their compositions. Then, writing becomes a pure examining tool. That is why

they say writing is difficult and hardly ever do they get high marks in such questions,

so this skill got bad reputation.

Here are some tips to change this reputation into a good one:

According to the IATEFL journal (2000), the precepts to enhance teaching

writing for EFL learners are as follows:

You should provide opportunities for students in order to make

brainstorming, planning, drafting, and revising throughout paying attention to

their products of writing. You, as a teacher, should remember that young

students might not use these techniques even in their mother tongue language.

Many of these activities may group ones that help writing process be less

lonely.

You should choose relevant topics so that learners can write about from their

own experiences, such as, a holiday they spent on the beach.

You should give your students something visible to write about so they can

write easily. Pictures and silent videos are so much encouraging aids for

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learners because they are just like texts when students are going to provide

their words. Thus, the process of writing becomes easier.

You can motivate your students' creativity throughout giving them two

familiar things in a way that is unfamiliar to them such as forest and fish.

Then, they are going to describe a scene about fish in a forest.

You should be attentive about your students' vocabulary, structure, and

suitable expressions at the pre-writing phase, i.e. be sure that learners have

the ability to write using the language they do have.

If time is not enough, you can ask your students to do the writing task home,

but you should leave some time to prepare some work in the class.

It is a good idea for teachers to get their students involved with their work.

For example, you should give them the many opportunities to choose a

character's role in the story or in the narrating.

You should be a well-prepared teacher for the high-achievement level

students. You can prepare some extra exercises for those who finish early.

You should motivate your students to decorate their work, for example, by

pictures. You should praise the well- written tasks, especially those who took

pride in their presentations.

Audience has to be considered by your students, especially, when they are

writing postcards. You should invite them to imagine to whom they should

write, a friend, a brother, a sister or a parent.

You should be a positive audience, not only to respond to the language, but

also to respond to the ideas of the students' writing.

You should not only mark the writing accuracy, but also consider the content.

It is recommended to shed lights on some appropriate parts of the content as

long as you are assessing and commenting on them.

You should consider the good use of the language and mark in a positive

way. Do not only judge mistakes. You must tell you students what they are

writing well and show them the strengths of their work. It would be an

encouraging way to improve a positive attitude toward writing since they are

young.

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You should let your students be involved in their improvement. It is well

worth considering motivating learners to read their work again trying to make

the essential correction. It is a motivational idea to tell learners in advance

what aspects and parts that are going to be assessed when marking. This will

grant them the enough ability and the clear criteria to assess their work and

enhance it before they hand it in. It is preferable to invite learners to enlist

their feelings and grades about every writing piece such as drawing a sad face

if they are unhappy with their work and vice versa. Thus, they become more

involved in their writing, especially when they outline their progress.

It is worth mentioning that looking for ways to utilize students' completed

writings would encourage them to appreciate other's writings. For example,

you can ask learners to work in pairs questioning and answering about the

theme, the plot, the characters, or even any piece of information.

To ameliorate the learners' confidence, you should find a way of how you

could publish your students' work. You can show it to the other classes, hang

it on the class wall, invite them to make a magazine in order to publish their

work on it, or on any social media program.

2.2.7 Approaches of Writing

It is worthwhile to discuss briefly the approaches of writing. According to

Bachani (n, d, p.3), there are many approaches to teaching this skill:

1. The Controlled to Free Approach

In early 1950s and 1960s, the audio- lingual method had the lion share of

second language learning, which assured writing and speech by perfecting syntactic

and grammatical forms.

In this approach, teachers give learners sentence exercises, then small passages

to copy, to change their grammar or to paraphrase. After that, teachers follow these

controlled writings by correction of errors. Hence, it leads to the free composition.

Generally, this approach concentrates on accuracy rather than fluency.

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2. The Free Writing Approach

This approach emphasizes the quantity of writing rather than its quality. This

stresses fluency rather than accuracy. Actually, this approach is built on a principle

that if there are ideas, there is organization.

3. The Paragraph Pattern Approach

The organization is highly stressed in this approach through copying the

passages or emulating well-organized paragraphs. The principle in this approach is

that whenever there are different situations or cultures, communication can be

organized and constructed by people to debate with each other in various ways.

4. The Grammar-Syntax Organization Approach

This approach focuses on how to work simultaneously on more than one feature

of writing. And writing here is a process that consists of intertwined skills which

cannot be separate, but learned sequentially. Thus, learners should be aware of the

organization while working on the essential syntax and grammar.

5. Communicative Approach

Raimes (1993) emphasized another way to be followed in teaching writing,

which is The Communicative Approach. In accordance with it, audience and the

purpose of a piece of writing are taken into accounts. It motivates learners to behave

and act like real writers while writing. Teachers are not the only reader, other pupils

are also considered as readers. They can respond, summarize or rewrite their

colleagues' writing, but not correcting it.

In the classroom:

Classroom activities guided by the communicative approach are characterized

by trying to produce meaningful and real communication, at all levels. As a result

there may be more emphasis on skills than systems, lessons are more learner-

centered, and there may be use of authentic materials.

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We, as researchers, need to work hard on developing ways of responding to

the content of what our learners write - the message - and not just the level of

language. If we can do this effectively, then our learners will make more effort to

communicate when they write for us. This can support an emphasis on the

importance of writing for a real audience, but we do also need to find real audiences

for learner writing.

So, the main concern of this approach is the writing purpose and its audience.

They are given the chance to behave like writers and do some tasks. Hence, they can

learn through doing it.

- Why am I composing this?

- Who is going to read it?

Therefore, the nature of this approach is to be used functionally especially

when it provides the real experience to the students.

6. The Process Approach

Leki (1991) defines the process writing approach as a way to teach writing

which concentrates basically on the writing process itself than on the final product.

This approach focuses on what students firstly write on a paper not importantly

perfect. Giving learners the opportunity to try out the process to write and receiving

teacher or peer-feedback . Absolutely this makes the students find out new items to

modify on their first draft.

Brookes and Grundy (1990) believed that sometimes there can't be a cut-line

when differentiating between process and product approach since there might be

alternative final product for various relationships.

Here in this approach, it has to be shown that there is a shift from product to

process that explicates:

How could it be written? (How to write).

How could I begin writing? (How to start).

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We should train learners to produce ideas for writing, to decide an object, to

think of audience, and to choose the suitable ways of communication. Actually, an

evolutionary process starts when the students create ideas, develop them, express

them, draft them, redraft them, organize them and so forth. This writing process has

three phases: The first one is to pre-write, then learner moves to write, and the last

phase is to post-write.

2.2.8 Phases of the Writing Process

The study of Seow (1995, p.316-319) showed that the process of writing in the

classroom is an instruction program that includes a collection of well-organized

learning expertise for learners to support them in understanding the writing nature at

each phase. Writing process as an activity of classroom comprises four primary

phases of writing. At first, a student plans then drafts, after that revises, and finally

edits. In addition, teacher externally requires three other phases from his students.

For instance, a student can respond, evaluate, and post-write too. Writing calls for

organized teaching of the skills of process, so it is greatly well planned. Thence,

teachers regulate convenient classroom activities, which consolidate learning

particular skills of writing at every phase.

The phases of the process of writing are as follows:

2.2.8.1 Pre-writing (planning)

This stage of writing is an activity, which heartens learners to generate ideas

for writing. Here are different activities that can be used at this phase:

Group brainstorming: learners, in groups, try to brainstorm as much as

possible thinking about the subject and creating good ideas.

Clustering technique: It refers to a number of similar things, so learners

compose words according to the stimulus that the teacher provides. Then they

circle the words and link them using lines to make clusters visible. This

activity is usually done in groups.

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Prompt-free writing: Learners, in an individual form, start writing down

single words and sentences regarding the subject rapidly and freely, but in an

allocated time of 3miutes or less.

When the time is limited, students are obliged to think and work swiftly.

Wh-questions: learners create wh-questions, namely, using what, when, why,

how, where, and who to question about the subject, so that they can have a lot

of information about any subject.

Clustering technique can be implemented not only throughout asking students

to think and create words, but also sub-titles. Then circle them and write a

paragraph about each of them.

2.2.8.2 Drafting

At this phase, learners have to be attentive enough to the writing fluency not to

concentrate on the accuracy of grammar and on how neat the draft is. We, as

teachers, have to motivate students to write for different public as counterparts, other

colleges, pen pals and members of family. If learners are aware of whom they are

writing to, they will have the ability to choose and adopt a suitable style for their

audience. On top of that, they have to take into consideration that they are going to

communicate with the audiences with a view to give instructions to their written

language.

2.2.8.3 Responding

The stage of responding usually takes place between the drafting stage and the

revising one. Here in this phase, teachers respond rapidly to the learners' drafts. They

should respond either orally or by writing after the first draft has been written and

quite before they commence revising. What will help learners ease and smooth the

revision of rudimentary drafts and rediscover purport are certain responses under the

umbrella of useful proposals and questions instead of comments, which are officially

approved by the teacher. Such kind of responses could be important either between

sentence lines or at the end of pupils' writings. Sometimes these responses can be

furnished in the margin. Furthermore, fellow responding could be efficiently

implemented throughout asking pupils to respond to the texts of each other in

couples or groups by the checklist of peer responding.

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2.2.8.4 Editing

At the phase of editing, pupils should edit their fellow's writings considering

spelling, grammar, writing style, diction, sentence construction and accuracy of

supplementary textual materials as examples and questions. Teachers should give

students a checklist on some common mistakes that are discovered in the pupils'

works. This phase is a significant one because it is as a substantial part of the writing

process, especially when editing makes communications explicit and clear to the

readers.

2.2.8.5 Revising

Pupils start revising their drafts in light of the given feedback with a view to

see how efficaciously they communicated their meaning to the audience.

There are different activities at this phase, and they are as follows:

It is of great importance to gather and keep the pupils' drafts and ask them to

re-draft their works.

We, as teachers, can ask our pupils to individually tape-record their writings.

Such activities are substantial, particularly when a pupil gets the chance to hear

her/his work. Thence, she/he will be percipient of thinking again of what she/he

wrote. After all, unclear meaning becomes clear enough as she/he listens to her/his

text that is read by them.

2.2.8.6 Evaluation

The pupils writing score can be either comprehensive (depends on a holistic

interpretation of the writing efficacy) or analytical (focuses on certain points of the

ability of writing). We should inform students of the evaluation criteria and make

them clear in advance. These criteria should involve full commentary on the task,

views of readers, organization and improvement of the ideas, design or the shape,

structure and grammar, suitability of words, punctuation and spelling, how relevant

the work is, and how clear the communication is. Pupils also have to be heartened to

assess their writing and to comment on each other's works as teachers have already

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taught them how to do it. Thus, students have become more capable and responsible

for their texts and writings.

2.2.8.7 Post-Writing

Here is the last stage, the writer is going to publish, share, read aloud,

transform texts for the phase of performances, or simply display their works on

boards or any noticeable mean. It is commonly utilized as a stimulus for writing and

preventing students from giving excuses for not writing down.

So, the writer should follow the above-narrated phases carefully to ease the

process of writing and construct a well-designed piece of writing. He has to consider

each stage in the correct order to avoid writing problems.

2.3 Error Analysis

Error analysis is the most substantial theory of second language acquisition. It

is an analysis, description, categorizing, and interpretation of the errors made by

second language learners through comparing the norms acquired by learners and the

norms of the target language (James, 1988).

Crystal (1999, p. 108) asserted that EA is the study of the inadmissible and

inappropriate forms formed by a language learner (particularly, a foreign language)

in the field of language teaching and learning.

In accordance with James (2001, p. 62), error analysis directs attention to the

study of linguistic neglect, the examination of where participants find difficulties and

how they try to overcome their problems and ignorance.

According to Jeremy Harmer (2001, p.99), Mistakes are divided into three

broad categories:

1. Slips are mistakes which can be corrected by students when they have been

pointed out to them.

2. Errors: They are mistakes when students cannot correct themselves and need

explanation.

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3. Attempts: They happen when a student tries to say something, but doesn’t

know the correct way yet.

2.4 Error Correction Techniques in Writing

Error Analysis is a linguistic study approach focusing on the errors that

learners make and helping educators understand the process of language learning.

Since many errors are noted, researchers come to find suitable techniques that can

make the teaching and learning a powerful process. Hence, it is simple to evaluate

the competency of language, ability to remember, and ability to think through writing

(Javed et al., 2013).

Corder (1967, p. 19-27) presented a different perspective through mentioning

that those errors are significant in themselves. Based on his idea, orderly error

analysis helps teachers identify the type of encouragement that is needed in the

process of teaching and learning. In respect of what is mentioned, the present study

stressed how learners can absorb and take in the language. Teachers can benefit from

EA as it furnishes them with the needed information about the weakness points of the

students and the common problems in language learning. Error analysis helps

teachers determine the effective and powerful materials, too.

2.5 The Classification of Errors

It is clear that errors classification into separated categories relies widely on

the way we formulate the incorrect strings. There are various errors that seems to be

classified into more than one category. For example, ''business letter deals with

business affairs''.

The above sentence is wrong and could be reformed in three ways. They are as

follows:

A business letter deals with business affairs.

The business letter deals with business affairs.

Business letters deal with business affairs.

In the first reformulation, we categorize the error under the classification of

indefinite article deletion. In the second reformulation, we categorize the error under

26

the classification of definite article deletion. In the last one, we classify the error

under the classification of subject- verb agreement.

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2.6 Previous Studies

Previous studies are classified, in this research, into two parts. The first focuses

on previous studies concerning tense errors and errors of writing. The second sheds

light on studies in accordance with developing the skills of writing.

2.6.1 Previous studies in relation to tense errors and errors of writing.

Abu-Jarad (1986)

Abu-Jarad (1986) investigated English interlanguage of Palestinian University

students in Gaza strip. He attempted to analyze relative clauses and verb tenses. The

sample of his study was 32 participants aged between 19 and 20 who were first-year

students at the colleges of Islamic University in Gaza. The researcher use three

paragraphs of free writing to collect the data. He found out that Palestinians

University students lack the skill of using English language tenses correctly in writing

because they switch the tense when they write. And it was because of using English

tense morphology as a means for the expression of an aspectual system.

Obeidat, (1986)

Obeidat (1986) checked the semantic and syntactic errors in the compositions of

Arab EFL students. It was noticeable that learners made inter-lingual errors in the use

of prepositions and determiners, subject-verb agreement, misuse in relative clauses,

order of word, copula, omitting subjects, conjugations and preposition idioms. And it

was found that students made inter-lingual errors in idioms, proverbs, prefabricated

expressions, and address forms. The researcher affirms that some error like copula and

the omitting of singular (–s) are proof of universal grammar.

Radwan (1988)

Radwan (1988) carried out a linguistic analysis of the grammatical and lexical

errors in the nominal group that is found in the written English of Syrian University

students. He examined the different kinds of lexical and grammatical errors in the

nominal group. He aimed to give a clear descriptive account of the nominal group in

Arabic and English. The researcher wanted to specify the areas of difficulty

especially with reference to premodifiers and postmodifiers. He gathered the data

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from 175 English language students at Aleppo University who were asked to do the

writing test. The findings of the study showed that the percentages of article errors to

the overall number of grammatical errors that were made by the candidates were:

52%, 50%, 54%, and 50%. These error percentages were correspondingly made by

first, second, third, and fourth year students.

Farahat (1994)

Farahat (1994) investigated an error analysis study of the written performance of

the university of Khartoum Freshmen. He attempted to locate and analyze the most

common and recurrent grammatical errors students commit and explain the reasons

behind their appearance in order to detect the areas which obstruct the correct and

proper use of English grammar. His sample consisted of 300 Sudanese students in

their first year in the faculty of Arts. They were 180 female students and 120 male

students aged between 19 to 20 years. The findings of the study showed that the

students committed different types of errors with different percentages as shown in

the following:

35.9% of articles errors.

30.9% of tenses errors.

24% of grammatical concord errors.

5.1% pronominal errors.

1.5% copula omission errors.

1.1% adverb positioning errors.

0.6% adjective positioning errors.

The researcher recommends more emphasis on the following:

Usage of English article system.

English tense system especially the perfect tense.

Third person singular marker (s) and plural morpheme (s)

The difference between attributive and predicative pronouns and their

classifications into subject and object.

English adverbs and adjectives positions.

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Belhaaj (1997)

Belhaaj (1997) examined the errors that his students committed in their writing.

The researcher attempted to identify bi-directional translation problems through a

description, classification, and interpretation of the students' errors and to check the

inclusion of students' errors for their competence in English language as a target one.

This study investigated a comprehensive frame of texts that were translated by senior

students majoring English at Umm Al-Qura University in Makkah Al-Mukarramah.

After the researcher had analyzed the collected data, he found out that there were

many grammatical errors made by the participants. These errors are as follows:

Conjugations and tense errors were 82 with a percentage of 9.88%.

Relative clauses errors were 46 with a percentage of 5.54%.

Adjective errors were 40 with a percentage of 4.82%.

Preposition errors were 38 with a percentage of 4.58%.

Noun errors were 32 with a percentage of 3.61%.

Article errors were 27 with a percentage of 3.25%.

Various errors were 25 with a percentage of 3.01%.

Chen (1998)

Chen (1998) found that the majority of Taiwanese students had problems in the

usage of English tenses because they misuse conjugations in Mandarin as it's not an

inflected language. And also in Fang's study (1999), it was found out that teaching

verb forms, in English language, to help Taiwanese EFL learners use tenses of

English right is attributed to the difference of linguistic. And the absence of English

Articles is another error that is commonly found in the grammar of the Taiwanese

EFL students' writing. So, the researcher recommended high attention on constructing

suggested programs to tackle this problem through focusing on teaching tenses as a

vehicle to perfect writing.

Kao (1999)

Kao (1999) investigated 169 compositions written by 53 Taiwanese students who

were English majors in a college. From Soochow University were 22 students and the

30

rest were from the College of Fu Hsing Kang. It was found 928 errors, the highest

frequency was grammatical errors, (66%), then semantic ones, (18%), and the least rate

was lexical errors, (16%).

Khuwaileh and Al Shoumali (2000)

Khuwaileh and Al Shoumali (2000) applied a study to check the writing errors of

the Jordanian students and they found that tense errors were the most common ones

made by Arab learners. And they said that these errors were attributable to the Arabic

language as it has only three tenses. Data were gathered from 150 students (chosen

randomly) who wrote about the same topic in English and Arabic. The test was

assessed respectively by ELT specialists. The study proves that tense errors in English

writing correlates with similar weaknesses in the mother tongue.

Lin (2002)

Lin (2002) investigated the writing of 26 Taiwanese EFL students throughout their

essays. It was found that The highest error rates were sentence structures (30.43%),

wrong conjugations (21.01%), sentence fragments (15.94%), and word-wrong use

(15.94%). The researcher recommended more emphasis on structure, tense, and verb

forms through holding some extra classes to explain how to write correctly. He also

recommended new techniques for explaining grammar.

Hourani (2008)

Hourani (2008) applied his study in five leading schools on the UAE Eastern Coast.

The most common and salient tense errors which were made by the students, who wrote

essays, included: passivization, verb tense and form, subject-verb agreement,

prepositions, word order, plurality, articles and auxiliaries. These errors were

categorized and tabled regarding their number of frequency in the students' essays. 105

students and 20 teachers shared in completing two seceded questionnaires reflecting

their opinion and attitude towards the English writing skill. The researcher

recommended more focus on teaching tenses and grammar so that the students can

avoid any kind of mistakes such as, subject-verb agreement and verb tense. He also

recommended that teachers and lecturers should adopt new methods for teaching

31

tenses.

2.6.2 Previous studies related to the skills of writing.

Naeem (2007)

The researcher investigated the effectiveness of a suggested CALL program on

developing EFL learners' mechanics of writing in English. An impartial random

sample of eighty fourth-year pupils (2006 / 2007) of the English Department at the

Education Faculty in Kafr El-Sheikh was selected to implement the experiment.

Forty pupils were assigned to the experimental group to study writing throughout the

program of CALL. Same number of pupils was selected to the control group to go

through the same content as is customary. The researcher designed Material and tools

that were used either to collect data or to implement the experiment of the research. The

experiment was carried out in ten weeks including the pre-test and post-test running.

Thereafter, the researcher used the One- Way ANOVA and the t-test in order to analyze

the gathered data statistically.

The researcher found out that the suggested CALL program developed spelling,

punctuation marks, and capitalization for the students of EFL college.

Lundstorm, & Bakers (2009)

The researcher tried to improve the students' writing through transferring abilities

that they learn when reviewing peer texts. This study was conducted on 91 students

enrolled in 9 divisions of writing classes at the English language center at Brigham

Young University participated in the study. The findings says that the participants who

were taught to give peer feedback wrote more correctly than those who were taught to

use peer feedback. The researcher concluded that learning by reviewing others' writing

develops the learners' abilities because learners can learn from these activities to self

evaluate critically so that they can make the appropriate revisions. The researcher

advised teachers to adopt this technique in order to improve students' writing.

Salah (2010)

The researcher investigated the impact of a suggested program for developing

32

teaching the skills of writing among secondary school teachers. Two tools were used:

the suggested program that treated all the points that teachers require in teaching the

skills of writing and an observation card. The suggested program was conducted

throughout ten training lectures for teaching writing. It encompassed a collection of

activities, teaching aids, techniques that should be employed in teaching writing. The

findings of this study detected substantial differences in the performances of teachers

who work in a secondary school `before and after carrying out the program.

Afterwards, the level of teachers reached 87%. In view of the above findings, the

researcher recommended that teaching the skills of writing calls for a writing process so

as to improve the abilities of teachers who work in secondary schools.

El-Shami (2011)

This study aimed at examining the effectiveness of using interactive writing on

improving the techniques of writing of eighth graders in Gaza private schools. The

researcher selected Ebad Elrahman Private School where he worked as an English

language teacher. A purposeful sample was selected. The Sample was composed of

37 male pupils of eighth graders. It was distributed into 2 groups; an experimental

including 18 students and a control group consisting of 19 students. Two tools were

used, pre-posttest and a portfolio. The researcher carried out the pre-test before the

experiment started. The findings indicated that the two sets were equivalent in their

background and general achievement. The findings were statistically analyzed using

(SPSS). The study revealed that there were statistically significant differences

between the mean scores gained by the experimental group and that gained by the

control one in favor of the experimental group due to the method of interactive

writing.

Armana (2011)

Armana explored the effectiveness of a reconditioned Program on Writing Skills

of the Seventh Graders, especially Low Achievers at UNRWA Schools in Rafah. The

researcher tested the effect of the mentioned reconditioned program. Two

experimental groups; the male group was composed of (31) pupils and the female

33

one was composed of (37) pupils. The other two groups are control ones, the male

group was composed of (25) pupils and the female one was composed of (34)

students. The researcher used (SPSS) to analyze the collected data and to prove the

reliability and the validity of the test. Besides, he used Mann Whitney, t. test paired

and independent sample to assess the statistical differences in the mean scores

between the experimental groups due to the use of the reconditioned program. The

study pointed out that there were statistically significant differences at the level (α =

0.05) in English writing skills of the low achievers in favor of the experimental

groups. It implied that the use of the program treated and tackled the weakness points

of the writing skills of the low-achievement level students. According to the above-

mentioned findings, the researcher highly recommended the significance of carrying

out the remedial programs for the low achievers to fulfill better results in writing

skills of students. He suggested that researchers should conduct related studies to the

other writing skills.

Junaidi, Alfan and Anjar (2013)

This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of metacognitive strategies

On the achievement of students' writing and awareness of using metacognitive

writing strategies. The quasi-experimental approach was adopted by the researcher.

The analysis of this study revealed no significant differences in students' skill of

writing among those who used the strategies and those who did use strategies. In

spite of that, the analysis of the t-test results pointed out that the participants'

awareness with strategy training was better than the participants' awareness with

strategy use.

El-Salahat (2014)

This study aimed at investigating the effect of using interactive writing strategy on

improving the skills of writing among seventh graders and their attitudes towards

writing. It sought to detect how much the use of interactive writing strategy, based on

groups and pair activities and other missions, improves the skills of writing for

Palestinian seventh graders and their attitudes towards writing. To achieve this goal,

34

the researcher used the experimental approach. Two tools were used to collect data.

The first one is the pre-posttest and the other one is the questionnaire. A purposive

sample of (76) female seventh graders was selected from Ian Goliath (B) in the East

Directorate of Gaza in the year of (2012-2013) and equally divided into an

experimental group and a control one. The researcher conducted the achievement

pre-posttest and the questionnaire to collect the needed data. The findings of the

study found out that there were statistically significant differences in the writing

achievement between the mean scores gained by the experimental group and the

control one in favor of the experimental group.

Javid And Umer (2014)

This study investigated the important writing tasks and the basic problems in the

academic writing. The study sample consisted of 194 Saudi English as a foreign

language learners who were 108 male students and 86 female ones. The researcher

discovered special writing difficulties which EFL Saudi learners faced in their

academic writing. The recommendation of this study was to carry out a stricter

admission policy, provide opportunities to practice academic writing, make language

courses more, and improve activities.

Cole and Feng (2015)

This study aimed at investigating the difficulties that encounter English language

students specially in the field of writing. And it also attempted to examine the

effectiveness of the techniques the researcher based his research upon in developing

the writing skills of 184 ESL students. The findings recommended the use of

technology in teaching writing and other language skills.

2.6.3 Commentary on the Previous Studies

Having reviewed the previous studies, the researcher could conclude that

reasonable attention was devoted to tense errors in both Arabic and English regarding

the writing skill. One could also notice that most error analysis studies focused on

prepositional and grammatical mistakes in writing, whereas a few studies

concentrated on tense errors in writing in one or both directions.

35

It can be summed up, in this part, that there is a vital interest in solving the

problems of writing, especially tense errors, as they are the main core of constructing

English. Avoiding tense errors grant you the opportunity to write correctly. It was

found out that there is a primary issue of tense errors for English language learners as

they cannot write accurately even in advanced stages.

Over and above, the researcher believes that there is a concrete need to work on

tackling tense errors in writing, particularly as this skill is sensitive and important as

a productive one.

The above-mentioned studies showed the importance of tackling writing errors, as

it has become the main concern that most researchers shed light on. And through the

above studies, it was shown that handling this problem will lead English language

learners to better their English so that they can master the language as researchers

consider tense rules the core brick for mastering any language.

After I had come through the previous studies, I became aware of the intricate

cases regarding the writing skill, especially the tense problems.

The selected previous studies were conducted and worked out by several researchers in

different universities, schools, colleges, and places around the world. All of them

debated the skill of writing, specifically problems related to the tense. There were slight

differences and some propinquity among these previous studies and the present one.

Many researchers like Hourani's (2008), Abu-Jarad (1986), Radwan (1988), Farahat

(1994), Belhaaj (1997), Khuwaileh and Shoumali's (2000), Kao's (1999), and Chen's

(1998) discussed and tackled tense errors in the students' writing. Then, they confirmed

the importance of handling tense errors to use English language properly. And in the

studies of Obeidat, (1986) and Mukattash, (1981), they showed the problems that make

EFL learners write erroneously such as syntactic errors, subject-verb agreement,

conjugation, and copula. In other words, they investigated tense errors and found out

that there were different kinds of tense inaccuracy as I mentioned above. Thus, they

theoretically referred to some common mistakes that Arab students often make when

they write in English. And it is worth mentioning that Fang (1999) asserted that

teaching tenses is a pivotal issue for researchers, teachers, and those who are

responsible for the development of EFL students in this regard. Therefore, our EFL

students must have an ample chance to study tenses well in order to be capable enough

36

in writing. Researchers like Naeem (2007), Salah (2010), and Armana (2011)

constructed various programs for developing students' writing skill especially, low-

achievement level ones. Afterwards they applied their programs stressing the

researchers' role to help English language majors recognize writing errors. El-Salahat

(2014) and El-Shami (2011) affirmed that interactive writing strategies could improve

the writing skill of the EFL learners. Consequently, they need opportunities to study the

writing skill through these strategies so that they can get good writing techniques.

The current study provides suggested program to tackle the common tense errors

students at Al-Aqsa University commit. This study presents a well-designed program

which is made basically in light of the EFL students' mistakes.

37

Chapter Three

Research Methodology

38

Chapter Three

Methodology

3.1 Introduction

In this study, the researcher concentrates on research design, study sample,

variables of the study, instrumentation, and the suggested program. In addition, this

chapter presents the obstacles and challenges that face the researcher while

implementing this study. This chapter also includes the procedures of the study.

3.2 Research Design

The researcher adopted two approaches: (1) the quasi-experimental approach,

and (2) the descriptive analytical approach. The descriptive analytical approach was

used to conduct a diagnostic test to investigate the tense errors made by EFL senior

students at Al-Aqsa University in their writing, while the quasi-experimental

approach was used to investigate the effectiveness of the suggested program in

tackling the tense errors which English majors at Al-Aqsa university encounter in

their writing. The researcher conducted a pre-post writing test on a one group

sample design.

3.3 Study Sample

A sample of (31) female students was purposively chosen from the EFL senior

students at Al-Aqsa University in Gaza. This sample percentage was 16.4% from the

whole population of the study which included (189). Table (3.1) shows the

distribution of the sample and the population of the study.

Table (3. 1): Distribution of the study sample.

Group Population Sample

Female 189 31

39

3.4 Variables of the Study

The study included two variables:

1. The independent variable was the suggested program.

2. The dependent variable was tense errors in writing among EFL senior students.

3.5 Instrumentation

The instrument required for the study was a pre-post writing achievement test. so

the researcher used it to fulfill the purpose of the study. The researcher depended

upon his literature review to build the tool of the study which is a writing test. this

test includes three parts: The first question was a free writing one to check the

present perfect since it is used to write about general experiences happened in the

past at the beginning of writing. And to examine past simple, past continuous and

past perfect as narrative tenses in the students' writings. Ten marks were given to this

question. The second one was writing some suggested actions occurring according to

a given table containing some specified periods covering the targeted tenses. Ten

marks were given to this question. The last question was MCQ (Multiple-Choice

Question).It included ten items and half a mark was given to each one. This question

covered the specified eight tenses and evaluated the students' ability to choose the

right answer. For more details about this test, See appendix (2).

Table (3. 2): The distribution of the writing achievement test.

No. of

Questions

Question

type

Tested tenses Items

Number

marks

Question

No. 1

Essay

question

Present perfect, past

simple, past continuous,

and past perfect

1 10

Question

No. 2

Essay

question

The targeted tenses

(Eight Tenses)

1 10

Question

No. 3

MCQ The targeted tenses

(Eight Tenses)

10 5

40

The aim of the test is to check if the students face difficulties in their writing

regarding the tense, and to examine the impact of the suggested program refereed by

some specialists and experts. The pretest was to diagnose the problematic areas of

English language tenses. The test was based on the general tense rules, so the

researcher depended on the standard tense usages that are in Longman book for the

TOEFL test, Al-Quds Open University books of grammar and structure, TKT book,

and English Grammar In Use book; the third edition of a self- study reference and

practice book for intermediate learners of English language. Over and above, he

depended on his experience as a certified trainer of IELTS and TOEFL at Alslam

Training Group. Furthermore, the researcher consulted some colleagues, teachers,

doctors, and some supervisors.

The researcher introduced the test to the referee committee to consider their

opinions for changing, adding, or omitting, and then he considered all their

suggestions. The instructions of the test were given to the students through attaching

them to the test. The researcher told the students about the aim of the test

emphasizing that the results of the test are not related to the University writing

course. The questions of the test were read and clarified well for the students so that

the researcher made sure of their understanding.

To decide the time for the test, the researcher wrote down the time the first and

the last student finished the diagnostic test; it helped him estimate the time needed

for answering the questions of the writing achievement test. The researcher could get

the suitable time for the test through the following equation:

Time of the first student + time of the last student =

2

20 + 30 ÷ 2 = 25

So the time for the writing achievement test was 25 minutes.

41

3.6 Validity of the Writing Test

Al-Agha (2004, p.104) states that a valid test is the test that measures what it is

designed to measure. The study used the referee validity and the internal consistency

validity.

3.6.1 Referee validity of the Test

The researcher constructed a covering letter accompanied by the test to referee.

Then, the first version of the test was distributed to a panel of professors, specialists,

colleagues, and supervisors from Palestinian Universities in Gaza, see appendix (1).

Those experts kindly reviewed it and their tips were considered accordingly.

3.6.2 Internal Consistency Validity

Internal Consistency Validity as consistency in individual's performance from a

part to another which mean that all the parts of the referendum (list) share measuring

a characteristics in an individual" (Abu Libda 1982, p.72).

The researcher used Pearson Correlation Coefficient to calculate the internal

consistency of the test items. To measure the validity, Pearson Correlation computed

the correlation of the following: The correlation between the exam questions and the

overall score of the exam. Table (3.3) illustrates the internal consistency of the test.

Table (3. 3): The correlation coefficients between the exam questions and the overall

score of the exam.

The above table shows that there is a correlation between the exam questions

and the overall score of the exam (30 marks). This also indicates that the exam

measures what it designed to measure.

Sig Correlation Question

0.01 136.0 Q1

0.01 136.0 Q2

0.01 136.. Q3

42

3.7 Reliability of the Test

What is meant by reliability is that " measurement accuracy or giving nearly the

same results in each time is applied on the members in the same group" (Abu libda,

1982, p. 261)

The reliability of the test was measured through the method of test-retest

reliability. The exam reliability was measured through applying the test on a sample

study of (20) EFL senior students at Al Aqsa University of Gaza. The exam was

given to them two times. There were (20) days between the first time and the second

time of the exam. Then, the researcher calculated the two marks of the first and the

second exam and calculated the correlation coefficient. Table (3.4) shows the

reliability of the test.

Table (3. 4): The test reliability using method of test-retest.

Person

Correlation St. Deviation Mean Number of students Application

0.766**

03.11 6.850

20 First

03.62 6.839 Second

Table (3.4) shows that Pearson correlation coefficient between the first and second

application of the test was (0.766). This value is educationally and statistically

acceptable. It also indicates the reliability of the test.

3.8 The Suggested Program

The researcher exposed the suggested program to the students for teaching the

specified eight tenses through some strategies, techniques, activities, and some

recommended videos. The researcher introduced the needed details and descriptions

including the objectives, teaching aids, content, the evaluation part, and the timing.

The basis that the program was built on is presented in this chapter, too.

3.8.1 Aims of the Suggested Program

The main reason that led to constructing the suggested program sprang from the

great need for ameliorating tense errors in writing among EFL Senior Students at Al-

Aqsa University. The program was designed taking into consideration that it fits the

43

students’ levels and needs, the language employed suits their understanding and

abilities, the clear presentation of the material of the program, and eventually the

educational atmosphere where the program is going to take place. A group of

education specialists refereed the suggested program and experts edited, modified,

revised, and organized the content of the former program. In other words, The main

objective of the suggested program is to enhance the students’ writing through

tackling tense errors. It is by the guidance of the professors, specialists, and some

educators and considering the results of the diagnostic test, the objectives were

specified. At the end of the program, the students are expected to able to:

a. Recognize the tense classifications based on timeframe.

b. Recognize the tense classifications based on aspect.

c. Differentiate between the use & the usage.

d. Recognize the difference between present participle and the past participle.

e. Use the present participle and the past participle correctly.

f. Realize the right usage of English language tenses.

g. Avoid the errors of subject-verb agreement.

H. Be able to write freely without any kind of tense errors.

3.8.2 Principles of the Suggested Program

The researcher took into consideration the following principles while constructing

the suggested program:

1. Tense errors in writing are common among students, so they need to be

focused on.

2. The suggested program considers the individual differences among students

through using a variety of questions and activities.

3. The researcher used two kinds of evaluation (the formative and the

summative).

4. The program aims at helping students distinguish among tenses and avoid

tense errors in their writings.

44

5. Most students lack the ability to use tenses correctly in their writings due to

the lack of exposure to the authentic language and ignoring teaching this skill

at schools.

6. The learning activities should suit the learners’ interests.

7. The suggested program should include several teaching means.

8. It is crucial that the suggested program suits participants' preferences and

interests.

9. The allocated time in the suggested program is important.

10. In the world of technology, the teacher’s role has become a guide, a promoter,

a developer, and a trainer not only a giver of information.

3.8.3 Stages of Constructing the Instructional Program

According to Canale & Swain (1998, p. 33), there are five steps that can make a

model of a suitable instructional program. The description of these steps and the

explanation of how the researcher considered every step in constructing the

suggested program is as follows:

o Diagnosis

Diagnosis is the primary assessment and evaluation of the teaching learning

process. Here in this phase, teachers try to identify the learners' state of knowledge,

competencies, skills, and the needs as a basic stage to shed light on what is missing

and trying to tackle it. The background of the researcher (as a certified trainer who

trains at universities in a partnership with Al Slam Training Group) about the low-

performing students in the writing skill was a substantial step and also form his past

experience when he was a university student as he faced the problem of tense errors

in writing. The writing diagnostic test is the basic pillar for identifying the aims of

the program.

o Preparation

In this stage, teachers attempt to decide the instruction. The researcher must

define the purpose of the program, and the setting must be managed and well

45

organized so that the learners can be highly motivated. The researcher took into

accounts the results of the diagnostic test to determine the goals of the program. Then

the content was collected and organized and after that, some strategies, techniques

and aids to apply in lectures were identified.

It is of great importance to emphasize the readiness of the students since the

program is a computerized one so they have to attend the whole program from the

first lecture to the last one in order not to miss any of spoken or written instructions

that are given and clarified by the researcher.

o Learning Guidance

In order to give the students the chance to improve the way they use the

investigated tenses, the researcher provided them with a variety of activities and

techniques. In this stage, the teacher presents some instructions that cover the skills

and information that help the students to be more motivated, energetic, and

encourage them to respond to the learning situations, and finally make sure that the

students are participating in the different presented activities.

o Evaluation

Evaluation is used to ascertain the degree of achievement or to gain insight into

the progress of both parties of the educational process: the teacher and the students.

The suggested program contained on-going evaluation (formative and summative)

during all the stages.

o Follow – Up

In this phase, the researcher comes to reorganize the learning knowledge and

experiences with the program goal. Follow-up stage is the final one in which the

researcher selects activities that grant the students many opportunities and helps them

manage to apply learnt knowledge and experience. The given activities are possible

to be applied not only inside the class, but also outside the class. The researcher

considered the suggested programs carried out by previous researchers in the same

field. Some main principles suggested by the researcher should be taken into

46

accounts to plan the program such as specifying the vital objectives behind it,

selecting the appropriate content that suits the students' ability and the objectives,

arranging the topic and deciding how much stress is placed on each topic,

determining the suitable time for each class, identifying the right techniques,

activities and strategies, deciding some procedures to assess and evaluating the

participants' achievement of the goals.

3.8.4 The Program Contents

The researcher selected the content of the program carefully to make the process

of training easier for the participants and to better their writing skills through

learning the concrete usage of each tense. The content of the instructional program is

the main core of teaching. The facts, attitudes, skills, and concepts are the

components of it as aforementioned.

Canale & Swain (1998, p. 34) emphasized that if students are not taught how to

express their points of view freely and clearly, they will not be able to explain their

ideas and use the language functionally. The content of the present program is

deemed as recurrent models for the learners so that they can be taught and trained to

avoid the tense errors in their writing.

The researcher used many resources such as Al-Quds Open University structure

books, which provide the self-study system so that students can refer to the suggested

program when needed. Also, he made use of the TOFEL book whose content suits

the determined objectives of the program and students' needs and abilities in addition

to the TKT book (Teaching Knowledge Test) which is a test developed by

Cambridge University. The researcher utilized some activities, techniques, and steps

of presenting the material of the program. Moreover, English Grammar in Use book

was highly considered as it is taught at Al-Aqsa University. Over and above,

Headway series (The third Edition) and variety of websites were used by the

researcher to extract some information and suitable questions to be included in the

program. Here are some used websites:

www.differencebetween.com.

https://www.youtube.com.

47

www.cmu.edu/teaching.

The researcher chose the content of the suggested program in conformity with its

main aims. The content considers the following:

Appropriate subjects

Suitable time

A variety of teaching aids

Several resources

Standard language

Clear instructions

Students' levels

Students' needs

Students' abilities

Students' interests

The suggested program covers the eight tenses and consists of fifteen lessons. It

is implemented in fifteen classes (a lesson a class) so each session is an hour. See

Appendix (3).

The researcher put the suggested program into practice in fifteen classes

covering fifteen lessons. Each class is an hour. The whole program was carried out in

five-hour classes weekly so it took three weeks.

Note: The lessons are originally fourteen, but there is an additional class given at the

beginning of the program as an introductory one.

48

Table (3. 5): Program time plan.

Week Lesson Class No. Time

The first

1 Introductory class 1 An hour

2 - 3 2 - 3 Two hours

4 - 5 4 - 5 Two hour

The second

6 - 7 6 - 7 Two hour

8 - 9 8 - 9 Two hour

10 - 11 8 - 9 Two hour

The third

12 - 13 12 - 13 Two hour

14 14 An hour

15 practice and evaluation 15 An hour

The researcher used two types of evaluation, which are the formative, and the

summative evaluation. The former is an ongoing evaluation that consists of some

related tasks given to the students to do at home or at the beginning of each class.

Their answers were followed then by an immediate feedback. The latter took the

form of a ten-question test at the end of the program to check how far aims were

achieved.

The nature of the program required a language lab that is equipped with the

necessary materials and equipment such as computers, LCD, internet connection in

addition to a white board and colored board markers.

3.8.5 Validity of Program

To ensure the program validity, the researcher invited many specialists, lecturers,

supervisors, and doctors in different academic institutions to review the first version

of the program. All of them emphasized the clarity of the objectives, the variety of

techniques and activities, and the good design of the program. They highly

appreciated the work since it fitted the students' ability and level.

49

According to what was mentioned by the jury of referees, the program is valid to be

carried out.

3.9 Procedures of Study

The researcher followed many steps, which are organized well, to fulfill the

present the study's purpose. They are as follows:

1) The researcher administered the pretest on the female students enrolled in the

writing course in the first semester of the academic year 2017-2018.

2) The researcher designed a suggested program in the light of the most frequent

tense errors in the participants' writing, which were investigated by the

diagnostic test.

3) After the suggested program had been refereed, a trial implementation of the

program was given.

4) The activities of the suggested program were conducted and they lasted for

about three weeks.

5) At the end of the semester, the post test was administered to the same group

of the students who were enrolled in the writing course and who attended the

whole sessions of the program.

6) The researcher used the SPSS Program to analyze the collected data.

7) Eventually, the researcher presented some suggestions and recommendations

to the lecturers and the future studies.

3.10 Problems and Challenges

Every successful work may face obstacles and challenges. In this study, the

researcher faced some obstacles and difficulties. At the beginning, collecting

grammar books was not an easy job as long as he had to visit majority of Gaza

universities. Then, the researcher faced difficulties when he obtained the permission

50

to inter Al-Aqsa University for getting the sample of this study. Furthermore, it was a

bit difficult when the researcher got the sample and found spare time to give his

program with the help of some doctors. Over and above, he struggled when he

achieved the statistics. At the end, the researcher got the hang of all the challenges he

faced.

3.11 Statistical Styles

Percentages.

Frequencies.

T-test for one sample.

Eta square (Effect Size).

3.12 Summary

In this chapter, the researcher illustrated the methodology and the research design.

At first, he presented the distribution of the population and the study sample

according to the variables of the study. Hence, the validity and reliability of the study

tools were ensured. Finally, the researcher explained the procedures that he followed

in detail.

51

Chapter Four

Data Analysis & Findings

52

Chapter Four

Data Analysis & Findings

4.1 Introduction

Chapter four presents the study results. In this chapter, the researcher writes

about the statistical analysis then he goes through the study four questions. In

addition, the researcher analyzes the results of the four questions.

4.2 Statistical Analysis

In the present study, the researcher used different statistical techniques to answer

the questions of the study and fulfill the purpose of it. The researcher used

percentages and frequencies. Therefore, he used Paired Sample T-Test to verify the

accuracy of the first hypothesis. Then he used the ETA2 equation to test the validity

of hypothesis. Thus, the researcher used two ways to find out the effectiveness of the

suggested program: the ETA2 equation as explained above, and the other one was

the modified Blake's Gain Ratio to test the validity of the second research hypothesis

4.3 The Results of the First Question

The first question is stated as “What are the tense errors in students’ writing

among EFL senior students at Al-Aqsa University?”

In order to answer the question, the researcher made a diagnostic test based on

specific number of tenses and was given to EFL senior students at Al-Aqsa

University of Gaza to answer. After collecting the papers of exam, the researcher

analyzed the tense errors in the writing exam that was purposively constructed to

investigate the students’ employability and their errors in dealing with eight tenses;

present continuous, present perfect, present perfect continuous, past continuous, past

perfect, past simple, future continuous, and future perfect. After analyzing the

students’ writing and defining the nature of errors, the researcher came up with a

number of errors committed by EFL senior students at Al-Aqsa University of Gaza in

writing diagnostic exam. Table (4.1) shows these errors.

53

Based on the analysis to EFL senior students' errors in writing diagnostic exam,

the researcher constructed the suggested program for tackling tense errors in writing

among EFL senior students at Al-Aqsa University of Gaza. Thus, the nature and

number of errors in each tense helped the researcher to properly construct an

appropriate suggested program.

Table (4. 1): Frequencies, Percentages, Ranks of Tense Errors in the students'

Writing Diagnostic Exam.

No. Tense Frequency Percentag

e %

Rank Number of

classes for each

tense

1. Present Continuous 0 0 0 0

2. Present Perfect 49 34.27 1 4

3. Present Perfect

Continuous

01 6.99 6 1

4. Past Continuous 22 15.38 3 2

5. Past Perfect 20 14.69 4 2

6. Past Simple 10 6.99 5 1

7. Future Continuous 1 3.50 7 1

8. Future Perfect 26 18.18 2 3

Total 143 100 14 classes

The above table shows the frequency, percentages, rank and number of classes

specified by the researcher in the suggested program for tacking tense errors in

writing in each given tense. As shown, the total frequency of tense errors among EFL

senior students at Al-Aqsa University of Gaza is (143). In addition, the total number

of classes for tenses is (14) and the total number of the program classes is (15)

including the evaluation and practice lecture which is the last one.

The table tells that EFL senior students did not make any mistakes in the present

continuous tense. The students answered the questions of the present continuous

54

tense properly and that illustrate that Al-Aqsa English majors don’t face any trouble

in using this tense.

As illustrated in table (4.1), present perfect tense is the tense, which got the largest

frequency and percentage of Al-Aqsa University /English majors' errors. The total

frequency of the errors in present perfect tense made by EFL senior students at Al-

Aqsa University of Gaza was (.9). This frequency percentage was (34.27%). Present

perfect tense is the first rank of tense errors in writing. Nearly half of the mistakes

made by the students were in present perfect tense. Therefore, the researcher focused

on this tense in his program for tackling tense errors in writing. The researcher

specified (4) classes to tackle present perfect tense errors. Accordingly, students’

major difficulties were in present perfect tense.

Table (4.1) shows that the frequency of errors in present perfect continuous is

(10) representing (6.99%)3 This was a low percentage compared with the present

perfect tense. It was apparent that students faced some minor difficulties in present

perfect continuous. This made the researcher to allocate just (1) class for tacking

present perfect continuous tense errors in writing. Present perfect continuous

occupied the sixth rank of tense errors in writing in the writing exam.

Table (4.1) also shows that past continuous tense had a considerable frequency

of the errors and got a high percentage. The frequency of errors in this tense is (22).

According to the study results, (15.38%) of EFL senior students’ errors in the writing

exam are in past continuous tense. Therefore, this tense needed tackling in the

suggested program. The researcher specified (2) classes for developing this tense.

Past continuous tense ranked third of tense errors in writing in the writing exam.

Past perfect tense also had a similar frequency to past continuous tense. The

frequency of errors in Past perfect tense reached (21) representing (14.69%). This

tense needed to be developed among the students. Therefore, the researcher specified

(2) classes for developing this tense among the EFL senior students at Al-Aqsa

University of Gaza. Past perfect tense ranked fourth in tense errors in writing in the

writing exam.

55

Past simple tense was found a little bit difficult among the EFL senior students

at Al-Aqsa University of Gaza. The frequency of errors in the writing exam was (10).

This frequency constituted (6.99%). The percentage showed, to some extent, that

there was a difficulty in mastering past simple tense. The tense was addressed by the

researcher to be developed by specifying (1) class in the program that was

constructed. Past simple tense ranked fifth rank in tense errors in writing in the

writing exam.

Table (4.1) shows that future continuous tense was found to have a small

number of frequency of errors. The total number of errors of future continuous tense

was (5). This was a very small number that represented (3.50%). As this tense did

not constitute a major difficulty among the EFL senior students at Al-Aqsa

University of Gaza, the researcher just assigned (1) class for developing their

understanding to future continuous tense. Future continuous tense ranked seventh

among the students’ errors in writing.

Future perfect tense ranked second in the errors made by the EFL senior students

at Al-Aqsa University of Gaza in the writing exam. The total frequency of the errors

in this tense was (26). This frequency represented (18.18%). Based on this

percentage, the researcher

-specified (3) classes for the EFL senior students to be taught future perfect tense

during giving the classes of the suggested program for tackling tense errors in writing

among EFL senior students at Al-Aqsa University of Gaza.

4.4 The Results of the Second Question

The second question reads, “What is the suggested program for tackling tense

errors in writing among EFL senior students at Al-Aqsa University”

Reviewing the literature helped the researcher construct the activities of the

suggested program. This program aims at tackling tense errors in writing among EFL

senior students at Al-Aqsa University of Gaza was constructed in (14) classes to

address the errors made in each tense. The researcher built the suggested program in

the shape of separate classes that dealt with the tenses. Each tense was given a

56

different number of classes. The researcher varied the classes to suit the degree and

level of errors in each tense. For example, present perfect tense percentage was

(34.27 %) and as a result, the researcher specified (3) classes to it in the suggested

program to tackle the students’ errors. For more details about the suggested program,

please see appendix (3) as you will find full information regarding the suggested

program.

4.5 The Results of the Third Question

The third question says “Are there statistically significant differences at (α ≤ 0.05)

between the mean scores the treatment group get on the writing pretest and the mean

scores they get on the writing posttest?” To answer the question, the researcher

formulated the following non-directional hypothesis “There are statistically

significant differences at (α ≤ 0.05) between the mean scores the treatment group get

on the writing pretest and the mean scores they get on the writing posttest?”

The researcher utilized Paired Sample T-Test to verify the accuracy of the above

hypothesis. Table (4.2) shows the results of this test.

57

Table (4. 2): Paired Sample T-Test Comparing the pre post writing test results.

Question Application The descriptive Statistics T-Test

N. of

Group

Overall

Degree

Mean St.

Deviation

df T.

Calculated

Sig

V.

sig

1st Q Pre .0 01 3.81 1.167

30 203728 0.00

Sig

Post .0 01 8.90 0.791

2nd

Q Pre .0 01 3.39 1.476

30 0.301. 0.00

Sig

Post .0 01 8.42 1.026

3rd

Q Pre .0 01 1.06 1.365

30 0830.0 0.00

Sig

Post .0 01 8.90 0.981

All

Degree

Pre .0 .1 11.26 2.16

30 2731.2 0.00

Sig

Post .0 .1 26.23 1.783

The above table shows that the value of "T" calculated in the test and its questions

is greater than its Tabled (T) which is (2.750) at the degree of freedom (30) at the

level of significance (0.000). It is less than (0.01). This means that there is a real

difference between the scores of the research group in the pretest and posttest

applications in favor of the bigger mean. The overall mean of post application of the

test is (26.33) compared to (11.26) for pretest application. This means that there is a

significant improvement in the total score of the achievement test in the research

group.

Thus, the researcher accepts the non-directional hypothesis. Then, We can conclude

that there were statistically significant differences at (α = 0.01) between the mean

scores the treatment group get on the writing pretest and the mean scores they get on

the writing posttest in favor of the posttest. This means that the suggested program

for tackling tense errors in writing among EFL senior students at Al-Aqsa University

of Gaza is effective and fruitful for the students.

58

To calculate the practical significance, the researcher calculated the effect size

as follows:

Calculation of the effect size of the Suggested program

The outcomes of the statistical test "T" showed a statistically significant difference

in favor of the posttest application in the achievement test. The researcher calculated

the practical significance by calculating the size of the effect of the suggested

program in tackling tense errors among EFL senior students at Al Aqsa University of

Gaza. The researcher used the ETA2 equation to test the validity of hypothesis

“There are statistically significant differences at (α ≤ 0.05) between the mean scores

the treatment group get on the writing pretest and the mean scores they get on the

writing posttest”.

Table (4. 3): Shows the results effect size of the Suggested program.

Effect Size

Level eta2 t-value Df Question

High 130.0

203728 .1 Q1

High 13766

0.301. .1 Q2

High 13018

0830.0 .1 Q3

High 1306.

2731.2 .1 Overall

It is clear from the above table that the value of the practical significance of the

achievement test as a whole is (0.963), while the three dimensions ranged from

(0.866 - 0.941). All values are greater than the upper limit of the effect size,

according to the reference of frame size (0.14). This means that the suggested

program had a significant impact on the development of the research group. Thus,

their tense errors were tackled.

59

4.4 The Results of the Fourth Question

The calculation of the effectiveness of the suggested program

The fourth question is stated as “What is the statistically significant effect of the

suggested program for tackling tense errors among EFL senior students?”

The suggested program for tackling errors among EFL senior students has a large

effectiveness in achievement not less than 1.2 as measured with respect to the

modified Black’s Gain Ratio.

To find out the effectiveness of the suggested program in tackling tense errors

among the research group, the researcher used two ways: the first one was the ETA2

equation as shown above, and the other one was the modified Blake's Gain Ratio to

test the validity of the research hypothesis. ''The suggested program for tackling

tense errors among EFL senior students is expected to have a large effect size''. The

researcher found out that the suggested program achieved effectiveness in tackling

the tense errors among EFL senior students more than (1.2) according to modified

Blake's Gain Ratio.

Table (4. 4): shows the results of the modified Blake's Gain Ratio to the suggested

program.

The Gain Ratio The ultimate

mark

The mean of

the posttest

The

mean of

pretest

Questions

1.331 01 730 .370 Q1

1.264 01 8.42 .3.0 Q2

1.299 01 8.9 .316 Q3

1.298 .1 2632. 00326 Overall

The above table showed that modified Blake's Gain Ratio for the test as a whole

reached (1.298) and for the test questions reached (1.331, 1.264, 1.299) respectively.

All of these percentages are above the percentage that was determined by Blake,

which is (1.2). Therefore, the suggested program is highly effective in tackling tense

errors among the EFL senior students.

60

4.5 Summary of the Chapter

In this chapter, the researcher went through the four questions of the study and

answered them. He analyzed the results using the SPSS program and stated the data

for each question. In the first question, the researcher stated the tense errors in

students' writing. In the second question, the researcher wrote about the classes of the

suggested program. In the third question, the researcher used Paired Sample T-Test

to verify the hypothesis. In the last question, the researcher checked the effectiveness

of the suggested program.

61

Chapter Five

Discussion

&

Recommendations

62

Chapter Five

Discussion & and Recommendations

5.1 Introduction

Chapter 5 deals with the study main findings, discussion, conclusions, and

recommendations of the study.

5.2 Summery

The main aim of the study was to tackle tense errors among female EFL senior

students' writing at Al-Aqsa University.

The researcher adopted two approaches. The first one is the descriptive

analytical approach and the second one is the quasi-experimental approach. An

experiment was conducted on a purposive sample of English senior majors who were

enrolled in writing II course at Al-Aqsa University during the first semester of the

academic year 2017-2018. The participants of the study consisted of (31) female

students grouped as a one-group design.

The researcher started this work since he worked in some universities, and was a

teacher of English. He noticed the most frequent errors in the students' writing were

tense ones. He started to shed lights on this field, so he decided to get the hang of this

problem through constructing a program to tackle this obstacle. He moved to IUG to

take a permission in order to conduct his work at Al-Aqsa University. The researcher

focused on the senior students as long as they are about to graduate and took writing-

one course. He found only one group who were enrolled in writing course (Female

students), then he took them as a sample and gave them a diagnostic test so that he

can recognize the real problem. After that, he corrected the test and uncovered that

the most frequent errors in the students' writing were in seven tenses that are

mentioned in the suggested program. Thereafter, the researcher constructed a

suggested program in the light of the diagnostic test results. See appendix (3). The

researcher considered the diagnostic test as a pre one then he conducted the program.

In the end, a posttest was given and the results were analyzed using (SPSS).

This study consists of five chapters. The first chapter starts with an introduction,

proceeds the state of problem, the context of the study, the research questions and

63

hypothesis. After that it deals with the objectives of the study, limitations of the

study, significance of the study, and finally the definition of terms.

The second chapter includes a review of relevant literature and previous studies

related to the current study. First, Part one is organized in the form of subtitles each

of which tackles a certain area such as : writing as a skill, definitions of writing,

characteristics of effective writing, importance of writing, the writing process, the

role of the teacher in the writing class, reasons for learning writing, how to teach

writing for EFL learners, approaches of writing, approaches of writing process,

writing stages, purposes of teaching writing, approaches of writing, and strategies of

teaching writing, error analysis, error correction techniques in writing, the

classification of errors. Secondly, part two, In this part, the researcher sheds light on

the previous studies related to the current study. It includes two sections of previous

studies. The first section deals with previous studies in relation to tense errors and

errors of writing and the second section deals with the studies related to writing

skills. Finally comments on the previous studies.

In chapter three, the researcher introduces the procedures followed throughout

the study. It includes a description of the methodology of the study, the population,

the sample, the variables, the tools. It also presents the research design in addition to

the statistical treatment for the study findings.

Chapter four presents the results of the study that have been reached with the use

of the statistical program (SPSS) for data processing. The researcher found out that

the program was very effective and fruitful for the students as long as their marks in

the post test were higher than their marks in the pre test.

In chapter five, the researcher came up with some recommendations and

suggestions for the universities, the future studies, English majoring students, and

even teacher at schools.

64

5.3 Discussion of the Study Findings

The study revealed the following findings:

1. The tense errors the students face were in the following (7) tenses: Present

perfect, present perfect continuous, past continuous, past perfect, past simple,

future continuous, and future perfect.

2. There are statistically significant differences at (α ≤ 0.05) in the mean scores

between the pre-test and the post-test in favor of the posttest. This means that

the students found the suggested program to tackle tense errors effective and

thus, their marks were higher in the posttest.

3. The study found that the suggested program for tackling tense errors among

EFL senior students is effective. See the suggested program in appendix (3).

4. The suggested program for tackling tense errors among EFL senior students

had a large effectiveness in achievement more than 1.2 as measured with

respect to the modified Black’s Gain Ratio.

The researcher discussed the questions as follows: The first question is stated as

“What are the tense errors in students’ writing among female EFL senior students at

Al-Aqsa University?”.

It was found that English majors at Al-Aqsa University face serious difficulties

in using the following tenses: present perfect, present perfect continuous, pas

continuous, past perfect, past simple, future continuous, and future perfect. The

researcher reached specific information regarding the tense errors as stated in table

(4.1). Then he attributed these difficulties to the lack of exercises students required in

such a topic, to the methods which are usually used, and to the switch that students

make when they write. This was also indicated by Abu-Jarad (1986), Farahat (1994),

Belhaaj (1997), and Khuwaileh and Al Shoumali (2000) who stated that the most

common errors in the students' writing were in tenses and these errors were

committed because of the lack of exercises learners required and the switch students

make when they write.

The majority of errors are found in present perfect as student’s errors reached

(34, 27%). This percentage is high when it is compared with other percentages to

65

tense errors. Present perfect tense is a difficult tense among EFL senior students at

Al-Aqsa University of Gaza as they did not know how to use this tense. It is a tense

that talks about past actions ended and affect the present. Thus, the students

mistakenly use the past simple tense to talk about unspecified actions that happened

in the past and also they use past simple to write about actions happened in the past

up to the present . This confusion between past simple tense and present perfect tense

is largely used in the exam papers. It seems that students need the right use of some

keywords to use this tense. For example, the word ‘already’ leads students to use

present perfect tense to express actions that happened sooner than expected, not past

simple tense. The problem in present perfect tense is in the employability of the

tense.

Present perfect did not constitute a big source of difficulty. It just counted for

(6.99%). This little number of errors is normal. As the researcher was one of the EFL

students at Al-Aqsa University of Gaza, he understands that it is easy for students to

deal with tenses if there are keywords. Therefore, the questions that test present

perfect continuous have some specific keywords for this tense. Consequently, few

numbers of students made errors in this tense, as it is very easy for students to know

the tense from its keywords.

Past continuous tense was found to have a big percentage of errors. The errors

constituted (15.38%). The researcher attributes this large percentage of errors in past

continuous tense as this tense was tested through ‘free writing’ question. The

students made many errors in using the tense properly. In the same issue, past perfect

was mainly tested in the same kind of question. The percentage of errors in past

perfect was (14.69). This is also a big percentage. The students’ main errors were in

free writing question. Most of them answered the present perfect question in ‘choose

from the following’ correctly. In the same spot, past simple was of small percentage.

It was just (6.99%). From the researcher’s experience in the field to teaching, he can

say that past simple tense is an easy tense for students. They do not normally make

errors in it. The tense was also checked by ‘free writing’ question. To conclude, past

tenses were of a major difficulty to students, except past simple tense.

66

Future continuous tense was not a tense of major errors. The percentage of the

tense errors is (3.50%). This small percentage could be referred to the keywords that

are mentioned to students to indicate future continuous tense. The majority of the

students answered the questions of this tense properly. On the other hand, future

perfect tense was found to have great number of errors. The percentage of errors

reached (18.18%). From the researcher’s experience, future perfect tense is a difficult

tense for students and students rarely use it. Thus, they commit mistakes in it despite

mentioning the keywords for this tense.

The results of this question are partly in conformity with Hourani (2008), Farhat

(1994), Belhaaj (1997), Radwan (1988), Khuwaileh, and Al Shoumali (2000). These

studies focused on investigating the tense errors among students. The results of this

question and its nature are inconsistent with the following studies: Armana (2011), El

Shami (2011), Cole and Feg (2015), and Salah (2010) as these studies are to be used

for commenting on the second question of this study.

The second question was stated as “What is the suggested program for tackling

tense errors in writing among EFL senior students at Al-Aqsa University” This

question was the main aim of the study. The researcher systematically built the

program for tackling the students’ errors in tenses. In order to build a reliable

program to deal with tense errors, the researcher has to check students’ errors first in

order to know where the tense is mostly difficult to students to be addressed. Then,

after checking the tense errors of students in the exam papers, the researcher reached

the results in table (4.1). Based on these results, the researcher constructed his

program to deal with the students’ tense errors’. The researcher considered while

applying the program the number of classes for each tense. This also depended on the

number of errors in each tense as presented in table (4.1). The researcher did his best

to define the errors first. Thus, to succeed in treating the students’ weakness in

tenses, you have first to know their weakness points and address them.

The suggested program of this study is like a doctors’ prescription to deal with

patients’ illness. Therefore, good checking means good dealing. This was the right

procedure of the suggested program. Please, for more details, see appendix (3)

67

The third question is stated as “Are there statistically significant differences at (α

≤ 0.05) between the mean scores the treatment group get on the writing pretest and

the mean scores they get on the writing posttest?”

To answer the question, the researcher formulated the following non-directional

hypothesis “There are statistically significant differences at (α ≤ 0.05) between the

mean scores the treatment group get on the writing pretest and the mean scores they

get on the writing posttest”. After the statistical treatment for the results of the pretest

and the posttest, and after comparing the two results, the researcher found that the

marks of the posttest are more than the marks of the pretest as it is listed in table

(4.3). The students got more marks after they were treated during the suggested

program to master tenses and avoid tense errors. This means that the suggested

program is effective for tackling errors among EFL senior students at Al-Aqsa

University of Gaza.

The researcher conducted an interview with the participants of the study asking

about their attitudes towards the program. 87% of them mentioned that they admired

most of the program activities as the activities are varied and suit them perfectly.

Moreover, the group work technique which has been adopted in teaching the

activities of the program motivated students to participate, compete, create, and

cooperate with each other to produce a well- written texts.

The success of the suggested program was based on the success of defining the

tense errors among the students. The researcher expected the students’ marks in the

posttest as he was noticing a transparent development among the students during the

program. The other reason that made the program effective is the reasonable

distribution of classes for each tense. This allowed the students to overcome the

difficulties. The results of this study are in conformity with the following studies: El-

Salahat (2014), and El Shami (2011) as these two studies found that the posttest had

better marks among the students than the pretest.

What is the statistically significant effect of the suggested program for tackling

tense errors among female EFL senior students?

68

After implementing the suggested program, it was come up that there is high

effectiveness in the participants' achievement, which was more than 1.2 in respect of

the modified Black's Gain Ratio as it is shown in table (4.4). And this was attributed

to the perfect design, construction, organization, arrangement, activities, and the

suitable techniques that were taken into consideration by the researcher when

designing the program.

5.4 Conclusion

The study concluded that:

1. The suggested program for tackling tense errors among EFL senior students

at Al Aqsa University of Gaza was effective.

2. Present continuous tense was not found difficult among the EFL senior

students at Al Aqsa University of Gaza and thus it was excluded from the

suggested program.

3. The most difficult tense among the students was present perfect tense. The

students did not know what the uses of the tense are. They have confusion

between past simple and present perfect.

4. The least difficult tenses among the students were present perfect, past

simple, and future perfect.

5. Although the students knew the formation of tenses, they make errors in

using them.

6. The students get lost regarding what tense to use if the keywords of tenses are

missed.

7. The majority of the tense errors made by the students were in the questions of

‘free writing’. The majority of students had difficulties in writing freely.

8. The students, to some extent, were very good in answering ‘multiple choices’

questions since most of the questions have keywords that indicate the tense

directly. However, in free writing there are no keywords, to some extent, for

specific tenses specially when students use the narrative tenses. They should

depend on logic, concrete situations to link actions. over and above, they

should consider cohesion, too.

69

5.5 Recommendations

Based on the results, the study suggests the following recommendations:

1. University lecturers ought to pay attention to the necessity of adopting new

ways and strategies to teaching tenses, especially the problematic ones the

researcher mentioned in this work.

2. Stressing the practical side rather than the theoretical one.

3. University lecturers ought to teach students the concrete usage for each tense

so that they can understand and connect each tense to the real life.

4. Lecturers ought to give students more time for practice. It is noticed that

despite the students’ understanding of the tenses, they still make errors while

they write.

5. Holding extra sessions and training courses about tenses for English majoring

students.

6. A study should be conducted to check the tense errors among EFL students in

other universities.

7. A study should be conducted to investigate writing errors among university

students in Gaza.

8. A study should be conducted to collect students’ responses regarding their

difficulties in tenses.

9. Supervisors should conduct workshops that aim at familiarizing teachers with

Students' problems regarding tenses.

10. English language teachers should benefit from the suggested program of the

researcher which should be distributed to them.

70

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71

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Appendices

78

Appendix (1)

The Referees' Committee

Islamic University of Gaza

Faculty of Education

Curricula And English Methodology Department

Master Program

An Invitation to Referee a Writing Skills Checklist

The researcher is conducting a study in partial fulfillment of Master Degree in

Curricula and Teaching Methods. The study title is:

A Suggested Program for Tackling Tense Errors in Writing Among EFL Senior

Students at Al-Aqsa University of Gaza

This study aims to tackle tense errors in writing to develop and improve writing

skills of English major students at Al-Aqsa university.

The gathered information will be used for research purposes aiming to investigate

the effectiveness of the suggested program to enhance and ameliorate some writing

skills of English majors at Al-Aqsa University and to come up with concrete

conclusions and recommendations to enrich writing courses at the university.

This test is going to be applied on a focus group of English Department Students

at Al-Aqsa University to check the main tense errors in writing.

Experts, lecturers, and professors of EL are kindly invited to comment, modify,

change or omit any irrelevant items.

Thanks in Advance

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List of referees

Institution Doctor's Name

Islamic University . 1. Awad Suliman Kishta

Al-Aqsa University. 2. Ra'afat Abu Ghali

Islamic University . 3. Mosheer Amer

Al-Aqsa University. 4. Mustafa Abu Taha

Islamic University. 5. Mohammed Al-Haj Ahmed

Al-Aqsa University. 6. Adham Abu Hatab

Al-Quds Open University. 7. Ryad Suliman Alfarra

Al-Aqsa University. 8. Ala'a Aldin Al-seqaly

Researcher

Arafat Ibrahim Al-Farra.

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Appendix (2)

The Writing Achievement Test

Student's name: --------------------------------.

Student's level: ( ).

Allocated time: 25 Minutes

PART ONE: Writing: (10 points /10 minutes)

" Imagine you have been to Egypt."

Write a topic about your journey there.

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PART TWO: Write some suggested actions that occur according to the table. (10

points. 10 minutes).

Simon is a student at Cambridge Uni. He is ambitious and usually makes use of his

time for study in order to make his dream come true.

Tomorrow Today Yesterday

Will finish tomorrow

within a period of time or

by a particular time

Right now From 8:00 to 11:00 am

Will be in progress

tomorrow at 1pm. (Use

this time tomorrow).

Finished now An action at 1pm before

An action at 4pm

Still happening until now

in a specific period of

time.

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PART THREE: Select the right answer . (10 points. 1 m/q, 5 minutes)

1. I …………… to Italy three times ever in my life, they were fascinating

experiences.

(went– have been –have gone – had been)

2. How long ………………. English? For 4 years.

( have you been learning – did you learn – have you learnt – are you learning ).

3. Dad ………………. Our washing machine when the power went off.

( fixes – had fixed – was fixing – has been fixing ).

4. After I ………………… the exam I went to do the oral test in Rafah.

( constructed –had constructed – have constructed – have been constructing ).

5. My father asked me to clean his car, after awhile I told him ( I have …………

cleaned it.)

( just – already – been – still).

6. I think, he ……………. Pass the exam.

(is going to – is passing – will).

7. The teacher asked us to do a homework, but I raised my hand and said,( I

have ……….. done).

(just – already – been – still).

8. I ………………. Late tonight

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(am going to work – will work – am working – am going to working ).

9. I predict, nobody ………………….. the course.

(is going to pass – will pass– is passing).

10. In 5 years time I ………………… university and I’ll be able to earn some

money at last

(will finish – will have finished – will be finishing).

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Appendix (3)

The Suggested Program

CONTENTS

Objectives.

Class (1) Introduction: block diagram of Tenses, list of Rules, classification

based on Time Frame, and classification based on Aspect.

Class (2) present perfect (1) and the difference between the word USE and

the word USAGE.

Class (3) present perfect (2) and the difference between present participle

and past participle.

Class (4) present perfect (3).

Class (5) present prefect (4) and quiz (1).

Class (6) present perfect continuous and quiz (2).

Class (7) past simple and quiz (3).

Class (8) past continuous (1).

Class (9) past continuous (2) and quiz (4).

Class (10) past perfect (1).

Class (11) past perfect (2) and quiz (5).

Class (12) future continuous and quiz (6).

Class (13) future perfect (1).

Class (14) Future perfect (2).

Class (15) future perfect (3), quiz, and practice.

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Objectives

Students are expected to:

• Recognize the tense classifications based on time frame.

• Recognize the tense classifications based on aspect.

• Differentiate between the word use & usage.

• Recognize the difference between present participle and the past participle and

• Use present participle and the past participle correctly.

• Realize the right usage of English language tenses.

• Avoid the errors of subject-verb agreement.

• Be able to write freely without any kind of tense errors.

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Lesson (1)

Introduction

The word Tense is derived from Latin word “tempus” which means time. A verb

indicates the time of an action, event or condition by changing its form.

a. Based on Time frame

The verb tenses may be categorized according to the time frame:

• Present Tense

• Past Tense

• Future Tense

Present Tense: Present tense expresses an unchanging, repeated, or reoccurring

action or situation that exists only now. It can also represent a widespread truth.

Past Tense :- Past tense expresses an action or situation that occurred in the past.

Future Tense :- Future tense expresses an action or situation that will occur in the

future

b. Based on Aspect

Verb tenses may also be categorized according to aspect. Aspect refers to the nature

of the action described by the verb.

There are four aspects:

• Indefinite or Simple

• Continuous or Progressive

• Perfect or Complete

• Perfect Continuous

1. Indefinite Tense: The three indefinite tenses, or simple tenses, describe an action

but do not state whether the action is finished.

2. Continuous Tense: The three continuous tenses, incomplete tenses, or progressive

tenses, describe an unfinished action.

3. Perfect Tense: The three complete tenses, or perfect tenses, describe a finished

action.

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4. Perfect Continuous Tense To combine the complete tenses and the incomplete

tenses, to describe an action which was in progress and then finished.

There are twelve possible tenses in English language, they are shown in the table

below:

Here is a list of the twelve tense rules:

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Lesson (2)

Presents perfect (Part One)

At the beginning, students have to know the answer of the following question: What is

the difference between Use and Usage?

• The word use is used in the sense of EMPLOY.

• The word use is used as a verb as well as a noun.

• The word use is also used in the sense APPLY.

• On the other hand, the word usage is used in the sense of PRACTICE, CONVETION

or the act of using something.

• The word usage is frequently used in English grammar..

• Usage in terms of grammar is used in concrete situations.

• Usage is how something is used.

Present Perfect Tense

The present perfect tense is used to describe action that began in the past and

continues into the present or has just been completed. In other words, it indicates a

period of time that stretches into an earlier time but related to a present moment in

one way or another.

For Example:

I have played.

He / She has played.

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Study the following usages of present perfect:

a. It is of great importance to mention some adverbs that have different usages in

this tense.

Already: used to talk about actions that happened sooner than expected.

Just: used to talk about actions that happened in the expected time.

For: used with a period of time.

Since: used with a point in time.

Yet: used in questions and negatives.

Ever: used to question about experiences if you ever have in your life until

the moment of speaking.

Never: used to negate an experience at any time of your life or not on any

occasion.

See these examples:

I have already finished. (I finished before you expect me to finish).

I have just finished. (I finished in the expected time).

I have never eaten pizza. (at all in my life up to now).

Have you ever tried hamburger. (did you try it before in your life?).

She has not eaten pizza yet. (she ate pizza before).

I have planted 10 trees since morning. (unspecified period of time)

We have known each other for five years.

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Lesson (3)

Present perfect (Part Two)

Be attentive when dealing with past participle & present participle

1. Present participle

The present participle is often used when we want to express an active action. In

English we add -ing to the base form of the verb.

Progressive: The donkey is braying.

Gerung: Reading books is fun.

Adjective: Look at the reading boy.

2. Past participle

The past participle is the 3rd conjugation of the verb.

It has three types:

Perfect tenses: She has accomplished the mission.

Passive voice: The mission has been accomplished.

Adjective: look at the washed car

b. Note the difference between (been to) and (gone to):

Carlos is on holyday. He has gone to Paris.

(He is there now or in his way to Paris).

Carlos is back home now. He has been to Paris.

(He has come back so he may be in Britain).

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Lesson (4)

Present perfect (Part Three)

c. Sometimes we use present perfect to express something has happened, this is

usually new information.

Oops! I have broken the vase.

The road is closed. There has been an accident.

The police have arrested three men in a connection with the robbery.

d. In the following examples too, present perfect is used:

Have you heard from Jane recently?

I have met new friend in the last few days.

I haven’t had anything since morning. I am famished.

I haven’t seen you for a long time, do you fancy visiting me?

We haven’t come through any problems so far. Everything is going well.

The mentioned examples refer to a period that continues until now (past up to

present).

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Lesson (5)

Present perfect (Part Four)

e. Present perfect is also used to describe actions which occurred in an

unspecified (indefinite) past time with some connection to the current situation.

study the following examples:

Someone has taken my phone.

I have been mugged up. (passive voice)

Dave has been to Egypt four times.

I have read Harry Potter three times.

All of the mentioned examples were in an unspecified time.

At the end of this lesson, you are supposed to answer the following questions:

1. The teacher asked me to answer the question am I immediately said,

"I have ------------ answered it".

a. Just b. already c. recently

2. Oh! My meal is eaten, someone ----------------- it.

a. Has aten b. has eaten c. ate it

3. I am thirsty. I haven’t drunk ------------------.

a. Four hours b. since 4:00 c. for four hours

4. I ------------------ Fast and Furious five times.

a. Watched b. have been watched c. have watched

5. She has ------------- to Australia. She is there now.

a. Gone b. been c. been going

6. I --------------- the novel of Little Princess.

a. Have red b. read c. have read

7. He finished the painting of the room. Look he is full of paint, he ------------- the

room.

a. Has painted b. painted c. is painting.

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Lesson (6)

Present perfect continuous

The present perfect continuous is used to describe an action, event, or condition that

began in the past and is continuing now for a specific period of time.

For Example:

I / You have been playing for 3 hours.

He / She has been playing since 8:00 am.

Present prefect continuous expresses:

a. An activity that began in the past and is continuing now and in a specific period

of time.

See these examples:

I have been studying English for four years.

How long have you been working here?

I have been waiting for you since morning.

b. Past activity that has caused a present result.

See these examples:

Bill has been cutting the grass. (I can smell it)

My phone’s battery is about to die. Someone has been using my phone.

Have you been crying? (your eyes are red).

Look out of the window! It has been snowing!

c. Recognize the difference between present perfect and present perfect

continuous.

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Study the following examples:

I’ve played piano since I was young.

I’ve been playing piano since I was young.

So, present perfect, in the first example, expresses a permanent state while the

present perfect continuous example expresses a temporary activity.

Remember: State verbs are rarely used in the continuous.

After you have come through present perfect continuous, you are supposed to

answer the following questions:

1. She --------------- English for four years.

a. Has been studied b. has studied c. has been studying

2. I -------------- for you for two hours.

a. Have waited b. have been waiting c. waited

3. You look exhausted, ----------- you --------------- hard?

a. Have/been working b. have/worked c. did/work

4. How long -------------------- this story.

a. Have you read b. have you been reading c. did you read

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Lesson (7)

Past simple

We can form past simple using the second conjugation.

Examples:

Regular verbs

I played…

I studied…

Or irregular verbs

I saw…

I drove…

remember to study and memorize them.

Past simple is used to express:

a. A finished action in the past.

See the following examples:

I met Jane in 2003. (started and finished in the past).

I went to Paris last week. (started and finished in the past).

I left three minutes ago. (started and finished in the past).

I didn’t see you in the park last night.

b. Actions that follow each other.

Study the situation below:

Elissa walked into the room and stopped. She listened carefully. She heard

a noise coming behind the curtain. She saw a cat…

c. A past situation or a past habit.

Study the following situation:

When I was a child, we lived in a small house by the sea. Every day I

walked for miles on the beach with my dog.

This usage is usually expressed by used to.

See the examples below:

I used to walk with my dog.

I used to drink milk when I was a child.

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Note: Past simple often comes with continuous to be the short event.

See the examples:

When I opened the door, Dad was watching TV.

(opining the door was the short action, but watching TV was the long one).

I was reading when the power went off. (See the next lesson).

Note that we don’t use did in negatives and questions with was/were.

See this example:

I was tired. (negative = I wasn’t tired).

You are supposed to answer the following questions after you've studied

this lesson:

1. She ----------- here three hours ago.

a. Was b. has been c. was been

2. It was cold, so I ----------- the door

a. Shut b. have shut c. chutted

3. They --------------- invite me yesterday.

a. Did not b. was c. haven’t invited me

4. Negate this sentence. She was hungry.

a. Didn’t b. didn’t was c. wasn’t

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Lesson (8)

Past continuous (Part One)

We use was/were + V + ing to form this tense.

The past continuous tense is used to describe ongoing actions in a certain time in

the past or an unfinished action that was interrupted by another event or action.

For Example:

I was having a beautiful dream when the alarm clock rang."

I was playing.

He / She was playing yesterday at 5:00 pm.

You / they were playing.

Tom wasn’t studying when I got into the room.

a. we often use the past simple tense and past continuous together to say that

something happened in the middle of something else.

See the following examples:

Matt phoned while we were having dinner.

It was raining when I got up.

I saw you in the park yesterday while you were reading a book.

I hurt my back while I was working in the garden.

b. Compare:

I was walking home when I met Dave.

(meeting Dave was in the middle of the action of walking).

or

I walked home after the party last night.

(the action is completed).

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Lesson (9)

Past continuous (Part Two)

c. Compare:

when Lubna arrived, we were having dinner.

(we had already started before she arrived)

or

when Lubna arrived, we had dinner.

(Lubna arrived, and then we had dinner).

d. Past continuous is usually used for descriptions.

Study these situations:

Jane looked pretty, she was wearing a green cotton dress. Her eyes were

shining in the light of the candles that were burning nearby.

Did you see my girl friend? She the one who was wearing blue jeans and

red shirt.

The mentioned examples shed lights on past continuous as it is used for

descriptions.

e. We also use past continuous to express activities in progress before, and

probably after, a particular time in the past.

see this situation:

at seven o’clock this morning I was having my breakfast.

you made a lot of noise last night, what were you doing?

f. Past continuous is used to express an incomplete activities in the past.

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Compare:

I was reading a book during the flight. (Incomplete action).

I watched a movie during the flight. (complete action).

g. Compare between past simple and continuous:

Past simple focuses on complete actions, but past continuous stresses the

duration of past activities.

Compare the following examples:

A: I did not see you at the party last night.

B: No. I stayed at home and watched the football.

A: I did not see you at the party last night.

B: No. I was watching the football at home.

h. Questions in the past simple and past continuous refer to different periods of

time:

the past continuous asks about activities before; the past simple asks about

what happened after.

Study the following situations:

A: What were you doing when the accident happened?

B: I was shopping.

A: What did you do when you saw the accident?

B: I phoned the police.

After you have studied this lesson, you are supposed to answer the following

question:

1. At 8:00 am yesterday evening, I ----------------- a dinner

a. Had b. was having c. have had

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2. Matt phoned while I --------------------.

a. Was slept b. was sleeping c. slept

3. The television was on, but nobody ------------------.

a. Were watching b. watched c. was watching

4. I saw Jao last week, but he didn’t see me. He ------------------ the other way.

a. Looked b. was looking c. has looked

5. I didn’t see you at school yesterday at this time. What -----------------.

a. Were you been b. did you do c. were you doing

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Lesson (9)

Past perfect (Part One)

We use had + the third conjugation to form past perfect.

The past perfect tense is used to refer to action that took place and was

completed in the past before another action.

For Example:

I had played before I went to bed.

He / She had played.

a. Both past simple and past perfect tell stories. Past simple tells a story in

chronological order, but past perfect tells a story in a different order

See the difference between the following situations:

Sue met Peter at university. They were together for six years. They divorced

last month.

Sue and Peter divorced last month. They had met at university, and had

been together for six years.

The difference in the above-mentioned examples is clear.

So, in past perfect there is no chronological order when a narrative story is

taking place.

See the difference in the following examples:

When I got to the party, Peter went home.

When I got to the party, Peter had gone home.

In the first example, I arrived and then Peter left.

In the second example, Peter left then I arrived.

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Lesson (10)

Past perfect (Part Two)

Compare the present perfect (I have seen) and past perfect (I had seen).

(Have seen) is past up to know while (had seen) is past up to past.

See the examples of (have seen):

Who is that man? I have never seen him before.

We are not hungry. We have just had lunch.

The house is dirty. They haven’t cleaned it for weeks.

All of the mentioned examples are past up to present.

See the examples of (had seen):

I didn’t know who she was. I had never seen her before. (Past up to past).

We weren’t hungry. We had just had lunch.

The house was dirty. They hadn’t cleaned it for weeks.

Now the difference is clear, and you can recognize it through the structure of

both situations.

After you have studied this lesson, you are supposed to answer the following

questions:

1. I felt tired when I got home, so I --------------- straight to bed.

a. Went b. had gone c. have gone

2. The house was very quiet when I got home. everybody ----------------

to bed

a. Went b. have gone c. had gone

3. Was Paul at the party when you arrived? No, he --------------------

home.

a. Went b. had gone c. have been

4. We went to Sue's house, but he wasn’t there. She -------------- out.

a. Went b. had gone c. have gone.

5. It was his first flight. He ------------------- before.

a. Has never flown b. has not flown c. had never flown.

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Lesson (11)

Future continuous

We use will + be + v + ing to form future continuous.

The future continuous tense is used to describe an ongoing action in the future or

to refer to a continuing action that will be occurring in the future.

For Example:

This time next week I will be sun-bathing on the beach

He / She will be playing tomorrow at 4:00 pm .

a. We use future continuous to talk about actions that you will be in the

middle of doing it.

See the following examples:

This time next week, I will be lying on the beach.

Half an hour from now, the cinema will be full. Everyone will be

watching the movie.

b. Recognize the difference between will be (doing) and will (do).

Note the examples below:

Don’t phone between 5 to 7, I will be studying for the exam.

Let's wait for Chris to arrive and then we will have lunch.

c. We also use future continuous to express complete actions in the future.

Note the following examples:

The government will be making a statement about the crisis later

today.

Will you be going away this summer?

Our best player is injured, and won't be playing in the game on

Sunday.

Note that future continuous talks about actions that will be in progress

around a specific time in the future, but past continuous talks about the

same but in the past.

See the difference:

104

I was studying yesterday at 5 am.

tomorrow at 5 am, I will be studying.

After you have studied this lesson, you are supposed to answer the following

questions:

1. yesterday at 8 pm, I -------------------- the room.

a. Will be painting b. was painting c. painted

2. Don’t call me tomorrow at 8 am, I ---------------------- my breakfast.

a. Will have b. will be having c. will be had

3. Later in the program, I --------------------- to the minister.

a. Will be taking b. talk c. have talked

4. Can we meet tomorrow? Yes, but not in the afternoon I ------------------.

a. Will work b. am working c. will be working.

5. Will you be free at 5:30 tomorrow? No, I ---------------------- football.

a. Will play b. will be playing c. play

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Lesson (12)

Future Perfect (Part one)

we use will + have + third conjugation to form future perfect sentences.

The future perfect is used to refer to an action that will be completed sometime

in the future before another action takes place.

For Example:

I shall have played.

He / She will have played

a. The future perfect expresses an action that will be completed before a

definite time in the future.

See the following examples:

Most of the leaves will have fallen by the end of November.

Sally always leaves for work at 7:30 in the morning. She won't be at home

at 8 o'clock. She will have gone to work.

By the time he graduates, he will have completed five years of study.

The snow will have stopped by April.

We will have returned home by five o'clock.

The above-mentioned examples shows that future perfect is used to say that

something will already be complete before a time in the future.

.

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Lesson (13)

Future Perfect (Part Two)

b. The Future Perfect tense is use also to express an action that will be

completed before another action in the future.

Study the following examples:

By tomorrow, their life will have changed completely.

We are on vacation. So by the time we get back, we will have

rested and relaxed.

Her heel will have fully healed by the summer.

By next month, you will have received your promotion.

By the time he wakes up, we will have prepared lunch for everyone.

Recognize the difference among future perfect, present perfect, and past perfect.

Study the following examples:

Diana and Hady have been married for 20 years.

Next year, they will have been married for 21 years.

When their son was born, they had been married for three years.

In the first example, the action started in the past and continues to present

(past up to present). So, this is present perfect.

In the second example, the action will complete before a definite time in

the future. So, this is future perfect.

In the third sentence, the action happened before an action in the past (past

up to past). So, this is past perfect.

Remember: When we use this tense we are projecting ourselves forward

into the future and looking back at an action that will be completed

sometime later than now. It is most often used with a time expression.

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Lesson (14)

Future Perfect (Part Three)

a. A state that will continue to sometime in the future (Note: This is a border

usage of this tense . it is usually used with states, not actions).

Look at the examples below:

Next Monday we will have been married for ten years.

Tomorrow Justin will have been single for a whole week.

In September I will have lived here for eight years.

Luke will have been sick for two weeks tomorrow.

Next week you will have had this car for twenty five years!

Note that there are many expressions that are used in future perfect and

indicate the presence of it. They are as follows:

o By the end of this year.

o By the end of tomorrow.

o By the end of this week.

o By the end of this month.

o In two years time.

o In another five years / months / days / weeks.

o By this time tomorrow / week / month / year.

o In July next year.

After you have studied this lesson, you are supposed to do the following activity:

Write some suggested situations using future perfect.

1. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

3. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

4. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

5. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

6. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Lesson (15)

Practice

1. Write about an unforgettable experience happened with you. (At least 6

lines)

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2. Choose the correct answer and why:

1. My grandfather died 10 years before I was born, so I was not meeting him. I -

------------------ my father.

a. Meet not b. didn’t meet c. have not met d. was not meeting

Why? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------.

2. By next month, you ------------------- your promotion.

a. Will received b. will receive c. will have received d. have received

Why? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------.

3. John phoned while I --------------------.

a. Was play b. played c. was playing d. have played

Why? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------.

4. Dad asked me to make him breakfast. After half an hour l said, "I -----------

the breakfast".

a. Have just b. have already c. already finished d. finished

Why? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------.

5. I ------------------- Chris 3 days ago.

a. Meet b. was meeting c. met d. have met

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Why? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------.

6. Israeli bulldozers -------------------- over 70000 olive trees since 2000.

a. Uprooted b. have uprooted c. had uprooted d. have been uprooted

Why? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------.

7. Oh look! There is so much traffic. There -------------------- an accident.

a. Was b. had been c. has been d. is

Why? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------.

8. Joe doesn't live here. He will travel home after a specific time. He ----------

here for 3 years.

a. lived b. has lived c. has been living d. had lived

Why? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------.

9. When we got home last night, we found that somebody -------------------- into

our flat.

a. broke b. has broken d. had broken d. has been breaking

Why? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------.

10. Don't visit me at 10 pm. I --------------------.

a. will sleep b. will have slept c. will be sleeping d. have slept.

Why? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------.

110

Appendix (4)

Permission to Apply the Suggested Program

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Appendix (5)

Pictures

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