An Analysis of English Article Usage by ESL Students: A Case Study of Malaysian Students

Abstract

The research was to study Malaysian ESL students’ English article usage in 5 types of noun phrase contexts. The purposes of the research were to explore what extent Malaysian ESL students’ use of English articles accuracy is and to examine which types of English articles are most frequently used accurately and inaccurately by Malaysian ESL students. The participants, who were selected by random sampling, included 40 second-year students studying in academic year 2017 at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The research instrument was a forty-item English article test which is composed of five different contexts of noun phrases. As for the findings of the research, based on a criterion of Malaysian grading system, the students’ accuracy of using English article was at a fairly good level with the mean scores of 60.83%. In addition, the result demonstrated that, among 5 types of noun phrase contexts, type 2 (+Specific Referent; +Hearer Knowledge) which requires ‘the’ as a correct article was used most accurately. On the other hand, another finding performed that, in type 1 (Generic) which requires ‘a’, ‘an’, or ‘no article’, most of the students was found to use English article most inaccurately.