Written Grammatical Errors of Arabic as Second Language (ASL) Learners: An Evaluative Study

Abstract

Background: In recent years, the number of non-native speakers of Arabic language has exponentially increased.

Aims: This analytical study aims at investigating written grammatical errors committed by Arabic as second Language (ASL) learners. More specifically, it explores the reasons behind committing these errors and their effects on the daily communication of ASL learners.

Methods: Ten (10) ASL senior learners of Arabic Language Institute (ALI), College of Arts, King Saud University (KSU), Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) were randomly selected in this study. The participants were asked to write paragraphs about themselves and then their written work was linguistically analyzed and evaluated by the researchers and some Arabic Language experts before it was statistically analyzed.

Conclusions: Results outline that written grammatical errors of ASL learners are characterized by the misuse of many grammatical items. Mainly these items are: proper nouns (PN), common nouns (CN), main verbs (MV), adjectives (adj.), time adverbs (T. Adv.), manner adverbs (M. Adv.), objective pronouns (OP), and central determiners (C Det.) including demonstratives (Dem.) and articles (Artic.), pronouns (Pron.) and prepositions (Prep.).