Subject-Verb Agreement Errors in ESL Students' AcademicWriting: A Surface Taxonomy Approach

Abstract

This qualitative research study aims to analyze subject-verb agreement errors made by non-native English-speaking ESL students in their writing. The researcher assigned a task to the students to write a 200-sentence paragraph on the importance of education, and their writing samples were analyzed using a surface taxonomy approach. The study used purposive sampling to select 10 students from a public university in Lahore. The results showed that omission errors were the most common type of error, followed by misformation, addition, and misordering errors. This study provides insights into the challenges that ESL students face in mastering subject-verb agreement in their writing. These findings have implications for ESL teachers in designing effective language instruction that can help students improve their writing skills and avoid common subject-verb agreement errors.