GRAMMATICAL DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED BY SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNERS OF ENGLISH

Abstract

Grammatical rule is among other difficulties found in the process oflearning other languages. this truth also applies to those who are studying english in different levels of education.  second language learners usually make mistakes in certain grammatical rules. this research aimed to identify and analyse such grammatical difficulties in order to give a contribution to the study of linguistics and help students in identifying grammatical errors commonly made by second language learners of english. the data taken for the purpose of this research were from second language students. the writings of the students were copied both from them and from their teachers to be analysed. reading the papers to find grammatical errors was the first thing to do. after underlining those mistakes, the next step was to take notes on the kinds of the errors found. this led the present researchers to group the data into smaller classifications, based on the characteristics the data showed. the data were then analysed in details in order to answer the research question. the result of this research shows that the major kinds of errors made by the students are related to plural markers, articles, verbs, and tenses. hopefully these findings would be beneficial to those studying and teaching english to l2 learners.