An Analysis of Errors Made by EFL College Students in Using Speech Act of Directives

Abstract

The study deals with English speech act of directives. It aims at (1) identifying and classifying the errors made by the EFL College students in using speech act of directives (2) Finding whether there are significant differences in students’ performance between the two areas of the test .To achieve these aims, a diagnostic test has been conducted on forty students from the fourth stage at the College of Education for Humanities - University of Tikrit for the academic year 2017/2016. In order to ensure the face validity, the test is exposed to a jury of specialists in the fields of linguistics and methodology of teaching EFL who agreed upon its validity and suitability. Twenty students are randomly chosen for the pilot study which revealed that the time needed to complete the test items is 50 minutes. As for the clarity of the items, it is noticed that most of the items are clear and the students find no difficulty in answering the test items. As for reliability, the items are divided into two halves (odd and even). Using the Pearson correlation formula, it is found out that the test reliability is 0.76 . After applying the Spearman Brown formula, it is found out the test reliability is 0.86 . This shows that the test is quite reliable and acceptable. The results of this study show that EFL College students make errors of different sources of the test . It is also clear that EFL College students encounter more and complex errors at the first part of the test ( Intended Speech Act) and that their performance is inefficient in this area .The study ends up with a number of recommendations and suggestions for further work in future .