Analyse des erreurs grammaticales en production écrite : le cas des apprenants maltais de FLE en milieu scolaire bilingue

Abstract

The study, based on four research questions, uses a mixed-method research design. A total of 120 pupils studying French at Forms 4 or 5 distributed equally in 6 secondary schools (2 Boys’ Church Schools, 2 Girls’ Church Schools and 2 State Schools) and 6 teachers of French (1 teacher per participating school) participate in this study. The sources of data of this research include: 120 essays written by the participating learners, 120 questionnaires completed by the same learners as well as 6 semi-structured interviews conducted with each of the participating teachers. Grammatical errors emerging from learners’ essays are analysed on the basis of seven different grammatical categories (verbs, nouns, pronouns, conjunctions, adjectives, articles/determiners, and prepositions), each of which is divided into further sub-categories to specify the type of error. Apart from determining the quantity of errors attributed to each grammatical category and its respective sub-categories, the Z Score Test for Two Population Proportions is used to determine whether two independent groups (two types of errors), within the same grammatical category, differ significantly on the basis of the frequency of occurrence. This is followed by a descriptive analysis of all the different types of grammatical errors. Learners’ questionnaire responses are analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics. Semi-structured interviews are analysed in accordance with grounded theory procedures to discern major themes. A total of 1,243 grammatical errors are identified. The results show that the most frequent errors made by secondary school learners of French are linked to verbs (32.10% of the total number of errors). More specifically, the highest number of errors is attributed to wrong verb structure or conjugation (54.14% of the total number of verb errors). The sources contributing to these errors are in part linked to the fact that learners have a tendency to neglect grammatical rules supposedly acquired at an earlier stage of learning. Some grammatical errors are a result of the influence of Maltese L1, the influence of English L2, and the incomplete mastery of grammatical rules. The questionnaires reveal that according to the learners, the most difficult grammatical aspect concerns verb moods and the fact that the application of grammatical concepts is most likely to cause difficulties when it comes to writing in French. Major themes emerging from the semi-structured interviews conducted with teachers of French include: teachers’ inability to tackle the writing skill in class due to an extensive syllabus and limited teaching time, teachers’ lack of awareness of learners’ difficulties, teachers’ lack of training as well as difficulties arising due to traditional methods of assessment.