Sudanese EFL Learners' Sources of Errors in the Production of Articles

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to detect to what extent Sudanese EFL learners commit errors attributable to the differences between their L1 and L2. Furthermore discovering the types of errors in use of articles (omission of articles, redundant, or wrong use of articles) is among the objectives of the study. In the direction of checking the status of various categories of errors of articles made by Sudanese EFL learners as a result of the transitional limitations between Arabic and English, an error analysis was performed. Therefore, the researcher developed a writing task in order to find out the inter-lingual article errors committed by the participants as a result of transfer between L1 and L2. A total number of 25 male students studying English at the tertiary level took part in the study and carried out the writing task. The analysis of the results indicated significant differences between different types of errors made by the participants. Sudanese EFL learners had the most problems in terms of the errors related to the redundant use of articles. They were at the second position in the errors of wrong use of articles and finally they had the less frequent errors with respect to the omission of articles in L2 while writing into English.