earticle

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This study attempts an error analysis on the use of English verbs by Korean students attending a mid-leveled local university. After classifying 11 important items on the basis of tense and other features, the total of 27 detailed sub-items (concerning forms and usages) are introduced. The study has analysed the results of final exams of 250 non-English major students. In order to have correct interpretations of the results, Statistical Analysis System has been applied for ANOVA at the level of 5%. According to Duncan Grouping Method, each of the sub-items has been assigned a certain group based on the mean score of errors. The results show that Korean college students are likely to make more or less errors for some particular English items. It is noticeable that most errors are found in future-related verbal constructions. Some of the interesting findings are the uses of: 1) the present tense in subordinate clauses, and 2) the present progressive for a sentence subject’s strong intention about future events. Contrary to our expectations, much fewer errors are found in such peculiar English constructions as: 1) the present perfect tense for meanings of continuation and experience, 2) the inflectional morpheme ‘-s’ for a 3rd person singular subject, and 3) the present progressive tense for its common usage. It is suggested that teachers need to be more informed about the problems of their students regarding the use of English verbal constructions. More data-based and experimental study should be done on detailed aspects of errors of English verbs.