Common Errors in the Use of English Verb Forms

Abstract

English has been taught as the first foreign language in the schools of Latvia for more than 10 years and is a compulsory subject from the age of nine, but university professors frequently observe that undergraduates who study English make verb errors when both formal and informal register is required. Therefore, the goal of the research was to find the common errors in the use of English finite verb forms and explain their causes. Research participants were first-year students who have studied English for at least ten years at school and now are majoring in language and business studies at a university in Latvia. A case study was used as a research method. Fifty students’ tests on the use of English verb tense, aspect and voice forms were analysed. A questionnaire survey was applied to analyse the potential causes of the verb errors the students make. The analysis allows us to conclude that the most common errors are in the use of the verb aspect forms, followed by the use of the verb tense forms, and that they can be classified as intralingual errors. The most typical causes of these errors are simplifications, the fact that some students have not yet reached the required language level for advanced studies and the use of English, the students’ misconceptions about their real knowledge of verb forms, lack of independent learning habits and also the metalanguage to deal with tertiary level tasks.