Assessing mechanical, morphological, and syntactic error patterns in written English grammatical accuracy among English language learners at SIMAD University, Somalia

Abstract

This study examined mechanical, morphological, and syntactic error patterns in the written English grammatical accuracy of first-year learners at SIMAD University. Grounded in Error Analysis theory, this study used a descriptive quantitative design and analyzed 223 in-class written essays (100–150 words) to identify, classify, and quantify learner errors. An error identification checklist grouped errors into 11 types and three operational categories: mechanical errors (punctuation, capitalization, and spelling), morphological errors (tense errors), and syntactic errors (word order, fragments, run-on sentences, comma splices, phrasing, prepositions, and general grammar). A total of 2,270 errors were noted. The results showed that syntactic errors were the most frequent category (49.87%), followed by mechanical errors (31.06%) and morphological errors (19.07%). The most frequent individual errors were tense errors (19.07%), punctuation (15.64%), sentence fragments (11.67%), and grammar errors (10.31%). The study concludes that targeted instruction should address sentence-level structure, tense accuracy, and written mechanical conventions separately, rather than treating all errors as either morphological or syntactic. Because the data were limited to short written essays and error counts, the findings were interpreted as evidence of written grammatical accuracy rather than broad English proficiency. Limitations include exclusive reliance on written data and a descriptive design. Longitudinal, cross-institutional, and mixed-method studies are recommended to further explore the development of written grammatical accuracy. Clinical trial number: Not applicable.