The Use of the Grammatical Morphemes of Plurality and Subject-Verb Agreement in Creative Writing in English in Sri Lankan Context

Abstract

Writing is one of the prime productive skills for second language learners. Students have problem in the application of grammatical morphemes correctly. This paper investigates the use of the grammatical morphemes of plurality and subject-verb agreement such as the plural -s and the simple present tense third person singulars in the creative writing in English. The objective of this study is to make the students be clear in the plural -s, simple present tense third person singular -s and produce error-free piece of writing. For this study four students from the first year Faculty of Business Studies, were selected as a random convenient sample. It analyzes the texts written on the same topic in Sri Lankan context of different degrees of performance. It is an error analysis of the linguistic constructions of these grammatical morphemes. Importantly, four types of errors were identified as omission; addition; wrong selection and malformation. Both forms and functions and the erroneous forms and functions of the uses are analyzed regardless of age, first language (L1), length of ESL instruction or the amount of exposure to English. It identifies, classifies and analyzes them systematically and relates them to pedagogical consequence. These written texts were produced in a controlled environment of examination. Though the methodology is mainly qualitative, some quantitative analysis surfaces in certain aspects. It contributes to the research corpus of Sri Lankan data on the use of the grammatical morphemes in English. The findings suggest paying special attention on grammatical morphemes help minimize students’ errors in their writing.