Analysis of students' morphological errors in Spanish: A pedagogical orientation

Abstract

This article presents and discusses the findings of a quantitative and linguistic analysis of morphological errors in Spanish produced by a sample of 205 Grade 8 students and 181 Grade 10 students in Jamaican high schools. The main purpose of the study was to ascertain frequency and types of errors, as indications of the level and nature of difficulty experienced by learners at these two grade levels. Significantly higher proportions of errors were observed at Grade 10 with respect to two concepts (adjectives and definite articles) and very high error rates were recorded for this grade, especially in the verb structure of the language. These errors attest to the increasing complexity and difficulty of the learning task. While some errors clearly demonstrated relationship to the base language, most errors were of a developmental kind. A major finding of the study is the advantage seemingly offered by the inherent repetition within the system of the target language itself, and the repetition achieved through the structuring of the Spanish course. It is suggested that earlier introduction than is customary of some of the more difficult features of the new language, affording longer practice time, may be a means of facilitating learning and minimizing errors