Research Results and Their Analysis
Challenges for students in subject–verb agreement
The test has revealed the fact that students have major issues in coordinating the subject and the verb in a sentence. Indeed, according to the responses provided by the teachers, the students in most cases demonstrate rather good knowledge of the general rule, yet fail to carry out the basic practical tasks.
Table 1. Responses of teachers to the first question.
Table 2. Responses of teachers to the first question.
Table 3. Responses of teachers to the first question.
Table 4. Responses of teachers to the first question.
Table 5. Responses of teachers to the first question.
Table 6. Responses of teachers to the first question.
Table 7. Responses of teachers to the first question.
Table 8. Responses of teachers to the first question.
Table 9. Responses of teachers to the first question.
Table 10. Responses of teachers to the first question.
Table 11. Responses of teachers to the first question.
As the research results show, the problem clearly exists, and it is not to be ignored. The test has provided the information concerning both the scale and the possible root causes of the problem. As most of the teachers have shown, a major part of the students fails to carry out the code switching process required to switch from Arabic, which is the students’ native language, to English and its exotic rules.
Why do students make mistakes in subject–verb agreement?
A closer look at the results of the evaluation carried out among the students will reveal that in most cases, students are aware of the general rule, according to which a subject and a verb are joined in a sentence.
The fact that in most cases, students have little to no background knowledge on what a subject-verb agreement is does not seem to be a problem. Indeed, building knowledge on the subject from scratch is difficult, yet it still is possible with efficient guidance of the teacher and the enthusiasm of the student. The problem emerges when the need to explain the nature of the subject–verb agreement to the student appears. According to the test results, only 70% of all students at best master the subject–verb agreement within the required amount of time.
In addition, the study has also shown that students make most mistakes when it comes to practicing the newly acquired knowledge. To be more exact, in the process of writing and speaking, most students fail to pick the correct subject–verb combination. The aforementioned fact is especially remarkable when considering the evidence of students having no problem in identifying the subject in a sentence.
The aforementioned detail shows that students might need both more practice and a specific approach towards learning the pattern. More to the point, a strategy that will make them see the pattern in the subject–verb agreement is required. Hence, it can be suggested that a range of exercises, which show the correlation between the subject and the verb in a sentence, will help the students learn the principle of a subject–verb correlation.
The answers to the open questions provide a lot of food for thoughts as well. More to the point, since this type of questions is not related to a specific set of answers, the teachers are free to formulate their answers the way that they consider to be the most appropriate. Despite the length limitation, these answers are much more informative than the responses to the multiple choice questions.
Based on the results of the test, it can be assumed that the key challenge faced by students in the process of learning the key principles of subject–verb agreement concerns understanding the mechanisms of coordination between the two. The test results show that students tend to memorize the rule instead of analyzing it, which leads to their further failure to apply the theory to a practical problem.
How to reduce these errors?
In addition to an impressive amount of information concerning the key obstacles, which students usually face when dealing with the issue of subject–verb agreement, the questionnaire filled out by teachers may also provides a range of ideas concerning the mans to improve the process of teaching students the subject–verb agreement rule. As it has been stressed above, the key complexity that students have to deal with concerns the lack of practice and the need for the teacher to prompt their intuitional understanding of the rule. Hence, two key strategies must be used to address the issue.
First and most important, a number of drills must be carried out on a daily basis. By including small exercises, in the course of which students will drill the correct subject–verb agreement, a teacher will be able to help students develop a habit of applying the rule to practice.
Secondly, a teacher must prompt the students to discover the rule on their own. It will be much more efficient if the students will come to a conclusion regarding the rule of subject–verb agreement on their own. Thus, instead of learning the rule by heart, they will develop an intuitional understanding of it, thus, being able to apply it even in the situations, which they have not dealt with yet (e.g., the use of a singular form of the verb in the sentences with a complex subject).
It should be noted, though, that the problem in question is not going to dissolve instantly. A teacher must get ready for hours of drilling exercises that students must complete until they develop the required reflexive skills, thus, making the process of coordinating the subject and the verb occur on a subconscious level. More to the point, students have to understand the mechanics of the process in order to develop the aforementioned skills. The more effort a teacher puts into developing the new strategy, the more efficient it is going to be.
Conclusion: When the Time to Make Changes Comes
Introducing ESL students to the issue of subject–verb agreement is very tricky and requires considerable patients from a teacher, along with an ability to be flexible enough. The latter quality is important for developing the strategies that will help every single student not only learn the basic rules of the subject–verb agreement by heart, but also to understand the mechanism of the subject–verb agreement, thus, being able to apply the acquired skills to practice. Therefore, as long as the teacher provides the students with the required drills and is capable of finding creative and efficient ways of explaining students the principles of the subject–verb agreement, efficient learning process is guaranteed.