Research article

A study of question formation in the English writing of Omani Efl learners

Mohammad Abdu Ahmad Al-Mekhlafi

Department of English, Faculty of Education, Sana’a University, Yemen
 

Email: malmekhlafi@yahoo.com

showkat80ahmad@gmail.com
Accepted 8 May, 2013

Abstract

This study analyzed the question formation errors generated by 46 English major students registered in the first semester of the academic year 2009/2010 in Sohar University in the Sultanate of Oman. The aim of the current study was to find out the kinds of errors the student teachers make while forming questions in English. Data were derived from an Advanced Writing class. The students were asked to write 10 questions on the topic: Wedding in the Sultanate of Oman. The analysis of the data suggests that the difficulties that Omani student teachers face while forming questions in English are: auxiliary omission, auxiliary replacement, auxiliary subject agreement, verbal form concord, auxiliary subject inversion, auxiliary redundant, wrong question word and verb inverted. The differences in the structures of question formation in L1 and L2 cause most of the errors.

Keywords: Question formation, English writing, EFL learners, Oman