Concord Feud: An Analysis of Subject–Verb Agreement Errors amongUndergraduate English Majors

Abstract

This qualitative study investigated subject-verb agreement (SVA) errors in the writings of Semester 4 English major students at the University of Eswatini (UNESWA). Guided by the Contrastive Error Analysis (CEA) framework, the study examined how first language (L1) siSwati and second language (L2) English interactions shaped grammatical performance accuracy. Data were purposively collected from student essays and  reflective writings, from which 55 sentences containing SVA errors were extracted and analysed for patterns and causes. The findings revealed a hierarchy of error types: omission (most frequent) → addition (moderate) → misinformation (least frequent). These patterns were primarily attributed to interlingual and intralingual influences (overgeneralization, incomplete grammatical knowledge) and processing difficulties. Omission errors dominated due to the low salience of English inflectional morphemes, while addition and misinformation errors resulted from L1 transfer, overgeneralization, and syntactic complexity. Contributing factors included incomplete understanding of grammatical rules, test anxiety, time constraints, and inadequate editing. The study recommended supportive pedagogical interventions such as low-stakes writing tasks, time management guidance, and constructive feedback to reduce learner anxiety and improve grammatical accuracy