Academiccornerthenecessityforexplicitteachingintheareaofadverbialwordorderacasestudy

The Necessity for Explicit Teaching in the Area of Adverbial Word Order: A Case Study

By Gordana Vladisavljević, Educons University, Sremska Kamenica Contrastive Approach to Adverbial Word Order Errors of Adult Serbian EFL Learners Abstract This paper represents the author’s attempt to investigate the phenomenon of word order acquisition by analysing the adverbial word order errors in writing of adult Serbian learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). The aim of the paper is to highlight the L1 interference as well as to examine the necessity for explicit teaching in the area of adverbial order. In addition to this, the paper is intended to provide the teachers of the English language with possible ideas for the development and improvement of teaching materials and techniques within the particular area of difficulty.

Key words​ : adverbial word order, English language, Serbian language, error, interference

Introduction “A man’s errors are his portals of discovery.”

James Joyce Teachers, even the ones with the experience of a single class, unanimously state that mistakes and errors represent an inevitable part of every foreign language acquisition.

Error Analysis researchers refer to mistakes as failures at performance, which are unsystematic, whereas errors are referred to as errors of competence, which are systematic (Corder 1981: 10). Therefore learners’ errors provide a deeper insight into the process of foreign language acquisition (Bartlett 2002: 68).

Errors are significant in more than one way. Besides being indispensable to learners as a learning device, they are of extreme importance to teachers as well. Studying learners’ errors teachers gain insight into areas of difficulty that need reinforcement in teaching as well as ideas for the development and improvement of teaching materials and techniques (Corder 1981: 10­11).

Teachers’ attitude to errors, as well as factors potentially affecting their error judgement are various (Salem 2004: 48). The author here wishes to apply the Contrastive Analysis approach to errors, which focuses on predicting the errors in L2 which learners of various L1 backgrounds will make (Larsen­Freeman and Long 1991: 52­55), and thus highlight the

L1 interference in the area of adverbial word order in the writing of adult Serbian EFL learners.

Topic and Aims The topic of this paper is a case study the focus of which is the analysis of word order errors in the writing of adult Serbian EFL learners at the ​ Institute for Foreign Languages in Belgrade. The focus is on the usage of adverbials of frequency, time, place and manner in simple sentences. All the learners included in the research are at B1 level according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEF).

The paper focuses on interlingual errors in the usage of adverbials, i.e. the errors which represent direct transfer from Serbian as L1 to English as L2. These errors occur in cases when learners try to apply the patterns of their mother tongue, in this case Serbian, to a foreign language, in this case English. The following example illustrates the type of mistake 1

that is the focus of the research ​ : 1. On ​ loše​ govori francuski.

2. He ​ badly​ speaks French.* The aim of the paper is to examine the necessity for explicit teaching in the area of adverbial order. In addition to this, the paper is intended to provide the teachers of the English language with possible ideas for the development and improvement of teaching materials and techniques within the particular area of difficulty.

Insight into Relevant Literature Published on the Subject The phenomenon of word order, as well as error analysis, has become topic of great interest for researchers since 1970’s. A large number of works has been done on the subject so far. The works of interest for this research are the ones that deal with contrastive analysis of English and Serbian as well as with error analysis within these two languages.

Relevant works published on the subject of word order error analysis of Serbian students are the ones of Grba (1973), Kukić­Furundžić (1977), Piščević (1982), Đolić (1982) and Kitić (1995). Most of the mentioned researchers deal with language acquisition of either children or primary and secondary school students. The researchers focus mainly on syntactic errors in making questions or forming tenses.

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The asterisk (*) is used to mark ungrammatical examples, in this case the wrong position of the adverbial.

On the one hand Kukić­Furundžić concludes in her thesis that children acquire the syntax of the English language up to the age of 15 and that there is no significant interference of Serbian syntax (1977).

On the other hand Grba (1973) and Đolić (1982) state in their theses that negative transfer, i.e. the interference of Serbian as mother tongue, is the first factor in EFL learners’ making syntactic errors.

The work of Kitić (1995, 2000) bears the most significant relevance to the topic of this paper. In her doctoral dissertation the author investigates the phenomenon of word order acquisition with Serbian speakers learning English as a foreign language. In her experimental research, carried out in 1992 on Serbian primary and secondary school students, the author pays special attention to the usage and order of adverbials. The experiment tested the main hypothesis that most of the word order errors would be due to mother tongue interference. Upon completing the experiment, the author discovered that the main hypothesis was confirmed. In the conclusion the author states that findings like these provide insight into the process of foreign language learning.

Adverbial Word Order in Serbian and English Languages For the purpose of providing sufficient context for an international readership, a short theoretical overview on the adverbial word order is given in this section.

One of the central problems in speaking, as well as writing, is transformation of thoughts into language. Whereas thoughts seem to have the capacity to capture many features and relations at once, spoken languages convey these features and relations in segments that must be uttered one at a time (McDonald, Bock and Kelly 1993: 189). Thinking about language, one will have realised that, whether it is spoken or written, language has structure; it is not just a mixture of randomly distributed elements (Aarts 2001: 3). This makes word order an important device for conveying information in language.

Discussing word order one must refer to the prominent authors such as Greenberg (1966), Hockett (1966) and Rutherford (1984). The mentioned authors consider word order to be a linguistic universal, a pattern that systematically occurs through all natural languages and is potentially true for all of them. Following the terminology used by Rutherford, basic word order, i.e. the existence of constituents such as Subject, Verb and Object, is stated to be an absolute universal. The ordering of the mentioned constituents is stated to be a linguistic specific quality of a language (Kitić 2000: 29­32).

For the purpose of marking various functional relationships all languages make use of word order to a greater or lesser extent. Ordering restrictions are different in different languages.

Even within one and the same language some ordering restrictions are strict whereas some admit greater or lesser degree of latitude (Brown and Miller 1991: 263): 1. John loves basketball. (S+V+O) 2. Basketball loves John. (O+V+S)* 3. Secretly, Mary hates basketball. (Adv+S+V+O) 4. Mary secretly hates basketball. (S+Adv+V+O) When it comes to discussing the category of word order in the Serbian language most authors agree that word order in Serbian simple sentences is free (cf. Popović 1997, Piper 2005 and Stevanović 1974). Free word order implies that the constituents of syntactic constructions could be ordered and reordered with certain freedom without influencing the grammatical correctness of the sentence.

One of the main reasons for the above mentioned grammatical quality of Serbian language is that Serbian is considered to be a synthetic or inflected language. The highly developed inflection in Serbian language provides the necessary circumstances for the free word order. This implies that inflection, rather than word order, defines syntactic relationships among syntactic constituents.

The main independent syntactic constituents in the Serbian simple sentence are Subject (S) and Predicate (V). In addition to these, a number of dependent syntactic constituents amongst which are Direct and Indirect Objects (O​ , O​ ) and Adverbials (Adv) may appear in d​ i​ a sentence. All the mentioned constituents may take almost any position in a sentence; Initial, Medial or Final (End).

When it comes to Adverbials, their syntactic function is to give additional information and define more precisely a verb functioning as Predicate (Stevanović 1974: 48). Adverbials provide information on the place, time, manner, frequency, quantity, aim, reason, means and consequence of the action expressed by the verb (Piper et al. 2005: 512).

Grammarians make difference between the compulsory (obligatory, binding) adverbials which are named verbal complements, and the ones considered to be optional which are named verbal determiners. Adverbials functioning as verbal determiners are optional syntactic elements. Consequently, their position within a sentence is highly optional, too.

For these reasons adverbials are considered to be mobile elements within a Serbian simple sentence (Popović 1997: 139). Their position could be one of the three possible i.e.

Initial, Medial or Final. This means that an adverbial in a Serbian simple sentence can be ordered either in the first place in the sentence before any other syntactic element, in the

last place in the sentence after all the other syntactic elements or in a place within the sentence, namely before or after the verb. No position is conditioned by the type of adverbials i.e. any adverbial, be it adverbial of time, place, manner or frequency, can take any of the above mentioned positions as illustrated in the examples below: 1. Prošle srede​ Svetlana je posetila rođake. (Adv​ +S+V+O​ ) time​ d​ Last Wednesday​ Svetlana visited her cousins.

2. Svetlana je(,) ​ prošle srede​ (,) posetila rođake. (S+Adv​ +V+ O​ ) time​ d​ Svetlana ​ last Wednesday​ visited her cousins.* 3. Svetlana je posetila rođake ​ prošle srede​ . (S+V+ O​ +Adv​ ) d ​ time​ Svetlana visited her cousins ​ last Wednesday​ .

4. Marko ​ rado​ čita knjige. (S+Adv​ +V+ O​ ) manner​ d​ Marko ​ gladly​ reads books.

5. Rado​ Marko čita knjige. (Adv​ r+S+V+ O​ ) manner​ d​ Gladly​ Marko reads books.* 6. Marko čita knige ​ rado​ . (S+V+ O​ +Adv​ ) d ​ manner​ Marko reads books ​ gladly​ .* 7. Ljudi su sedeli ​ u trpezariji​ . (S+V+Adv​ ) place​ The people were sitting ​ in the dining room​ .

8. U trpezariji​ su sedeli ljudi. (Adv​ +V+S) place​ In the dining room​ were sitting the people.* 9. Ljudi su ​ u trpezariji​ sedeli. (S+Adv​ +V) place​ The people ​ in the dining room​ were sitting.

10. To se dešava ​ često​ . (S+V+Adv​ ) frequency​ That happens ​ often​ .

11. To se ​ često​ dešava. (S+Adv​ +V) frequency​ That ​ often​ happens.

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12. Često​ se to dešava. (Adv​ +S+V) frequency​ Often​ that happens.* It is a common place in linguistic typology that the more relations within a sentence are realized by inflections, the more the order of the elements of this sentence is, or can be, syntactically free (Mathews 1981: 255). For this reason English, having scantily developed inflectional system, is mainly described as a language with fixed word order.

The main elements of syntactic structure of an English simple sentence are Subject (S) and Predicate (V). Additionally, Direct and Indirect Objects (O​ , O​ ), Subject and Object d​ i​ 2

It is obvious from these examples that reordering of Adverbials causes some other changes in the order of Subject and Verb (and Direct Object) but discussion of these changes exceeds the scope of this paper.

Complements (C​ s C​ o) as well as Adverbials (Adv) may appear (Quirk et al. 1985). All these elements take specific, firmly arranged positions within a sentence. The “normal”, “unmarked” word order is considered to be SV(O)(Adv). Reordering of syntactic elements usually produces stylistically “marked” word order patterns which require appropriate 3

intonation and context ​ . Not only does the changing of the fixed word order influence the meaning of the sentence but it can also, and very often, produce ungrammatical constructions.

In English, as well as in Serbian, the term Adverbial is defined mainly functionally and refers to those syntactic constituents that give additional information on, or more precisely define a verb functioning as Predicate (Brown and Miller 1991: 93­95). The mentioned additional information is mainly on time, place, manner, frequency, intensity, measure, instrument, purpose, result, condition etc. (Quirk et al 1985: 479).

In the English language, there is a distinction between compulsory and optional adverbials, which leads to certain discrepancies in terminology of different linguists (cf. Quirk et al 1985, Huddleston and Pallum 2002, Mathews 1981). For the purpose of clarity, the term Adverbials will be used and only optional adverbials of time, place, manner and frequency will be considered in this paper.

Even though adverbials are considered to be the most mobile syntactic elements, their position in the English simple sentence, contrary to the Serbian simple sentence, is not optional at all. Every adverbial, even the one named optional, takes one or more possible but strictly defined positions in a sentence.

Generally speaking, and following the terminology and taxonomy of Michael Swan, there are three possible positions in a simple sentence: Initial, Mid­ and End. Initial position refers to the position at the beginning of a clause; Mid­position refers to the position with a verb – after auxiliary verbs, after verb ​ to be​ , and before other verbs (Swan 2001: 25); End position refers to the position at the end of a clause (Swan 2001: 20­21): 1. Yesterday morning​ something very strange happened. (Initial position) 2. I have ​ never​ understood her. (Mid­position) 3. I am going to Egypt ​ tomorrow​ . (End position) Comparing English to Serbian simple sentences, the three mentioned positions in English actually correspond to the Initial, Medial and Final positions in Serbian. Even though the possible positions are the same in the two languages, not all English adverbials can take all these positions. To clarify, this means that, contrary to Serbian, the position of an adverbial in the English simple sentence is conditioned by the type of the adverbial.

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Since the “marked” Word Order patterns are not included into the syllabus of B1 level according to CEF, for the purpose of this paper only the “unmarked” Word Order patterns will be considered.

Adverbials of manner most often and most naturally take the End position, following the verb phrase of the sentence (Brown and Miller 1991: 95). These adverbials, namely those ending in –ly, can also take the Mid­position providing they are not the main focus of the message. To illustrate this, the following examples are given: 1. You speak English ​ well​ . (S+V+O​ + Adv​ ) d ​ manner​ 2. She slammed the door ​ angrily​ . (S+V+O​ +Adv​ ) d​ manner​ 3. She ​ angrily​ slammed the door. (S+Adv​ +V+O​ ) manner​ d​ 4. You speak ​ well​ English. (S+V+Adv​ +O​ )* manner​ d​ 5. She slammed ​ angrily​ the door. (S+V+Adv​ +O​ )* manner​ d​ Adverbials of place cover two main spatial concepts: location (position) and direction.

Location adverbials of place most often follow position verbs such as ​ be, live, stay​ , and answer the question “where”. On the other hand direction adverbials of place most often follow movement verbs such as ​ go, run, travel​ , and answer the question “where to/where from” ​ (Alexander 2001:127). ​ These adverbials most naturally take the End position, after adverbials of manner, following the verb phrase of a sentence. The Initial position is also possible, but most usually in literary descriptive writing. They never take the Mid­position.

Providing that more than one adverbials of place appear in the same sentence, those that denote ‘smaller places’ precede ‘bigger places’ in ascending order. If both adverbials of location and direction appear in the same sentence, those of direction precede the ones of location: 1. She lives ​ in a small house​ . (S+V+Adv​ ) loc​ 2. Marry travelled ​ to Scotland​ . (S+V+Adv​ ) dir​ 3. Indoors​ it was nice and warm. (Adv​ +S+V) loc​ 4. Susan used to live ​ in a big house ​ in a village ​ outside London​ . (S+V+Adv​ + loc1​ Adv​ + Adv​ ) loc2​ loc3​ 5. The children are running ​ around​ ​ upstairs​ . (S+V+Adv​ +Adv​ ) dir​ loc​ 6. Sarah ​ in the garden​ works. (S+Adv​ +V)* loc​ 7. John ​ from Belgrade​ comes. (S+Adv​ +V)* dir​ The most common position for adverbials of time is the End position, after adverbials of manner and place, following the verb phrase of a sentence. If more than one adverbials of time appear in the same sentence, the usual progress is from particular to general time.

Initial position is also possible if the adverbial is not the main focus of the message (Swan 2001: 25). Some special adverbials of time such as ​ ever, never, just, lately, recently, already, finally, eventually ​ and​ soon ​ can also take the Mid­position: 1. We checked in ​ on Monday​ . (S+V+Adv​ ) time​

t​ h 2. Gilbert was born ​ at 6.05 ​ on Saturday ​ November 29​ ​ 1983​ . (S+V+ Adv​ time1 + ​

Adv​ + Adv​ + Adv​ ) time2 ​ time3 ​ time4​ 3. Every week​ she has a new hair style. (Adv​ +S+V+O​ ) time ​ d​ 4. I have ​ never​ seen anything similar. (S+V​ + Adv​ +V​ +O​ ) aux ​ time​ main ​ d​ 5. Sarah ​ in June​ will join us. (S+ Adv​ +V+O​ )* time ​ d​ Most commonly adverbials of frequency ​ take the Mid­position. Some adverbials of frequency such as ​ usually, normally, occasionally, frequently, generally, ordinarily, sometimes ​ and often can also take the End and Initial positions where special emphasis or contrast is required. The following examples illustrate the possible positions of adverbials of frequency: 1. My boss is ​ often​ bad­tempered. (S+V​ +Adv​ +C) be ​ freq​ 2. She has ​ never​ seen a whale. (S+V​ + Adv​ +V​ +O​ ) aux​ freq ​ main​ d​ 3. She must ​ sometimes have wanted a change. (S+ V​ aux +Adv​ freq + ​ V​ aux + ​ V​ main +O​ ) d​ 4. We ​ often​ visit our grandparents. (S+ Adv​ +V​ +O​ ) freq​ main​ d​ 5. Normally​ we get a lot of snow in December. (Adv​ +S+V+O​ +Adv​ ) freq ​ d​ time​ 6. Sarah plays that song ​ very often​ . (S+V+O​ + Adv​ ) d​ freq​ 7. John gets up at 7 o’clock ​ always​ . (S+V+Adv​ + Adv​ )* time​ freq​ 8. Always​ I get up at 6 o’clock. (Adv​ +S+V+Adv​ )* freq ​ time​ Empirical Research on Adverbial Word Order Errors: Experiment Focus, Hypothesis and Set­up The experiment focuses on the analysis of interlingual adverbial order errors in writing of adult Serbian EFL learners. The experiment was conducted at the ​ Institute for Foreign Languages​ in Belgrade during the 2009 spring term courses.

All the learners included in the experiment were at the same level of knowledge, namely B1 level according to CEF. The learners were between 18 and 40 years of age and typically had learnt English during their regular compulsory education in primary and secondary schools. Only a minority of them had completed the preceding A1 and A2 level courses at the ​ Institute​ .

The learners in the experiment were divided into two groups of ten – the control group and the test group. Both groups were taking the same B1 level course at the ​ Institute for .

Foreign Languages at the same time​ According to CEF, learners at B1 level are

considered independent learners who can understand the main points of input connected

to everyday topics of work, school, leisure etc. They can deal with most situations that can arise whilst travelling in an area where the language is spoken. In addition to this, they can describe experiences, events, dreams, hopes, ambitions and give reasons for opinions and plans. As far as writing is concerned, they can produce simple connected text on topics which are familiar or of personal interest (Council of Europe 2001: 24).

Adverbial word order is not included in the syllabus of B1 level course at the ​ Institute for Foreign Languages​ . This syntactic unit is addressed briefly and only as byways of grammar at A2 level. The problem was that not all the students had completed the previous A2 level at the ​ Institute for Foreign Languages​ . And even if they had, the problem of extensive error­making in adverbial word order still appeared.

The test group was additionally explicitly pre­thought the basic rules of adverbial order in English simple sentences with respect to adverbials of frequency, time, place and manner.

Furthermore, the group was supplied with additional exercises on the same topic. It is important to state that the exercise type was varied. Drills, gapped exercises, word insertion, word reordering, correcting the mistakes and question answering were all included. The time used for explicit pre­teaching and additional exercises was approximately fifteen minutes per class. In this way the experiment provides English language teachers with the possible ideas for the improvement of teaching materials.

The linguistic performance of the learners was examined using the data collected from the total of six guided writing tasks (see Appendix A) in the form of essays with a limited word count, as well as one final test (see Appendix B) specifically designed by the author of the paper to test adverbial order.

The results of the control group and the test group were compared expecting them to validate the initial hypothesis of the experiment that, due to the additional pre­teaching and exercises, the test group will perform better, i.e. make fewer errors with respect to adverbial word order.

Relying on the relevant literature published on the subject as well as on the teaching experience of the author, the experiment in this paper is based on the conclusion that the older the learners are the more significant the negative transfer is. The hypothesis of the experiment is that the negative transfer, i.e. the occurrence of interlingual errors, will be obvious with adult EFL learners and that explicit pre­teaching will cause the learners to perform better, i.e. make fewer errors.

Analysis of guided writing samples – control group and test group compared The analysis of the first guided writing sample in the control group has shown that the students used 30 adverbials altogether. Ten of these adverbials were erroneously used.

The percentage of erroneous sentences is 33.33%. The following examples, all of which are taken from the essays of EFL learners included in the experiment, illustrate different types of errors that occurred: 1. I have been working as an account manager ​ since I graduated ​ for Clio advertising agency​ .* 2. I am looking forward to ​ soon​ hearing from You.* 3. I ​ now​ don’t have enough experience.* 4. I speak ​ well​ English.* Before the first guided writing task was carried out in the test group, the learners were explicitly pre­taught the basic rules of adverbial word order of frequency and time adverbials. The pre­teaching was done in two separate classes neither of which was the guided writing class. The learners were also given two groups of additional exercises.

The data of this analysis shows that there were 7 erroneous sentences with misused adverbials out of the total of 37 sentences in which adverbials were used. The percentage of adverbial word order error making in this sample was 18.9%. The following examples illustrate different types of errors in the first writing sample of the test group: 1. I have been working ​ since 2003​ ​ in the Findomestic Bank AD​ .* 2. I ​ successfully​ have finished The Faculty of Agriculture.* 3. As You will ​ from my CV​ see.* From the data of the second guided writing sample analysis it is concluded that the percentage of erroneous sentences in the control group is 37.5%. Namely, 3 out of 8 sentences containing adverbials were erroneous. The following examples illustrate the types of errors that appeared in this session: 1. I have ​ in Your brochure​ seen.* 2. I am employed ​ in Belgrade​ ​ in a construction company​ .* Prior to the second guided writing task, explicit teaching of place and time adverbial word order was carried out in the test group. The learners were also given a group of additional exercises. The pre­teaching class was not the one in which the guided writing task was conducted.

The data of the second guided writing sample analysis in the test group shows that there are 10% of erroneous sentences. Namely, 1 out of 10 sentences containing adverbials was erroneous. The following example illustrates the type of error that appeared in this session: 1. It is possible to ​ sometimes​ have one­to­one classes.*

The data of the third control group guided writing sample analysis shows that, out of 23 sentences with adverbials, 7 were erroneous. The percentage of erroneous sentences is 30.43%. The following examples illustrate different types of errors that appeared in the third control group session: 2. The film was set ​ in London​ ​ at the beautiful locations​ .* 3. He ​ to London​ moved.* 4. He met ​ few days later​ Tom Hewitt.* th​ 5. The film is set ​ in the 20​ century​ ​ in London​ .*

Before the third guided writing task was carried out, there were two classes of explicit pre­teaching of adverbial word order conducted in the test group. In the first class time and frequency adverbials that are most commonly used with Present Perfect Simple and Present Perfect Continuous Tenses were addressed. The second class was dedicated to time adverbials most commonly used with Past Simple Tense. Additionally, a set of exercises was given to the learners.

The data of the test group guided writing sample analysis shows that there were no errors in adverbial word order in the third guided writing sample of the test group learners.

Therefore, the percentage of erroneous sentences is 0%.

The data of the fourth control group guided writing sample analysis shows that there are 7 sentences with erroneous adverbial orders out of the total number of 35 sentences containing adverbials. The percentage of erroneously ordered adverbials is 20%. The following examples illustrate different types of errors that appeared in the fourth guided writing sample of the control group learners: 1. We went ​ in the evening​ ​ to the club​ .* 2. I was ​ in Maribor​ ​ at my aunt’s​ .* Prior to the fourth guided writing task in the test group, there was a class of brief revision of formerly explicitly taught adverbial word order. Additionally, the group was given an extensive exercise on adverbial word order.

The data from the test group guided writing sample analysis shows that there are 5 sentences containing erroneously ordered adverbials out of the total of 48 sentences with

adverbials used in the sample. Thus, the erroneous sentences percentage is 10.42%. The following examples illustrate different types of these errors: 1. It is ​ there​ hot and humid.* 2. There ​ usually​ are parties on the beach.* 3. I found a room ​ on the island​ ​ in the centre​ ​ in an old house​ .* 4. It was ​ all day​ sunny.* The data from the fifth control group guided writing sample analysis shows that there are 4 erroneous sentences, out of the total of 12 sentences containing adverbials in the sample.

Thus, the percentage of erroneously ordered adverbials is 33.33%. The following examples illustrate these errors: 1. I can have ​ in free time​ opportunity to play some sports.* 2. I will work ​ in the course​ ​ hard​ .* Prior to the fifth guided writing task in the test group, there were two classes of revision of formerly explicitly taught adverbial word order. Firstly, frequency adverbials were revised.

Secondly, all the other relevant adverbial types were revised. On both occasions the group was given extensive exercises on adverbial word order.

The data from the fifth test group guided writing sample analysis shows that there are only 2 erroneously ordered adverbials out of the total of 49 adverbials used in the sample. Thus, the error percentage is 4.08%. The following examples illustrate different types of errors that appeared in the fifth guided writing sample of the test group: 1. We were dancing ​ at night​ ​ in discotheques​ .* 2. It was ​ last two days​ rainy.* The data from the sixth control group guided writing sample analysis shows that there are 10 errors in adverbial order out of the total of 30 adverbials used in the sample. Thus, the percentage of errors is 33.33%. The following examples illustrate the mentioned errors: 1. The most unusual thing happened ​ last week​ ​ in my home​ .* 2. Some woman crossed ​ in one moment​ my road.* 3. It was ​ in Budva​ great.* 4. My daughter went ​ from me​ ​ away​ .* 5. I got up early ​ last week​ ​ every morning​ .* Before the sixth guided writing task was carried out, there was a brief revision of adverbial word order conducted in the test group. In the revision, frequency adverbials word order was addressed. In addition, an exercise was given to the learners.

The data from the sixth test group guided writing sample analysis shows that there was only 1 erroneously ordered adverbial out of the total of 62 adverbials used in the sample.

Thus, the percentage of errors is 1.61%. The following example illustrates the error that appeared in this session: 1. My boss ​ in the car​ was.* Summary of guided writing samples analysis For the purpose of clear perception of the guided writing analysis, the overall summary of the results is necessary. In this summary the author will try to represent the trend in the total number of adverbials used in writing samples as well as the trend in the number of adverbial word order errors in both control and test groups. Hopefully, such summary will provide an insight into the correctness of the experiment hypothesis as well as a possibility for further conclusions.

Figure 1 represents the number of adverbial word order errors in both control and test groups in every of the six guided writing samples. Next to it, Figure 2 represents the same analysis result expressed in percentages.

Figure 1: ​ Adverbial word order errors

Figure 2: ​ Adverbial word order error percentage

As is obvious from the two charts above, the number of adverbial word order errors was constantly higher in the control group in comparison to the test group. Expressed in percentages, that number was almost unchangeably around 30%. On the other hand, the number of adverbial word order errors in the test group was gradually decreasing from the highest point of 18.9% to the lowest point of 1.61%.

In addition to the analysis of adverbial word order errors, the total number of sentences containing adverbials was also analysed. Figure 3 shows the relation of the total number of adverbials used by the control and the test groups.

Figure 3: ​ Total number of adverbials From the results of the analysis presented in Figure 3, it is obvious that the total number of adverbials used by the test group learners was increasing whereas that of the control group was almost constant, showing no increasing tendency.

Final test analysis – control group and test group compared In the final phase of the experiment the author provided both groups of learners with a specially designed test (see Appendix B). The main reason for using a final uniformed test was that the guided writing tasks always left a possibility for the learners not to use adverbials in order to evade errors. In addition to that, the writing tasks were guided which means that the learners were provided with typical phrases to use in the essays.

The data from the final test analysis shows that the percentage of erroneous sentences in the control group was 33.33%. ​ The following examples illustrate the errors that appeared in the control group final test: 1. The ballet group performed ​ last night​ ​ in the theatre​ ​ beautifully​ .* 2. I get up ​ every morning​ ​ at 7 o’clock​ .* 3. The company is building ​ now​ a hotel ​ in my neighbourhood​ .*

4. I speak ​ well​ English.* 5. Jessica speaks to John politely ​ rarely​ .* The data from the final test analysis shows that the percentage of erroneous sentences in the test group was 5.83%. The following examples illustrate the errors that appeared in the test group final test: 1. They were jogging ​ yesterday​ ​ all afternoon​ ​ around the block​ .* 2. I think I will work late ​ next week​ ​ every evening​ .* 3. I ​ well​ speak English.* 4. Jessica speaks ​ rarely​ to John politely.* 5. The school organizes excursions ​ every year​ ​ successfully​ .* The analysis of the final test data in both groups shows that the number of adverbial word order errors was much higher with the control group. The test group performed much better at the final test.

Furthermore, as it is obvious from the examples of erroneous sentences presented in this section as well as in the section dealing with the guided writing tasks analysis, all the adverbial word order errors were caused by L1 interference. To elaborate, the adverbial word order that attested erroneous in English sentences is perfectly correct in Serbian counterparts.

Conclusion Taking into consideration the analysis of the guided writing samples as well as the analysis of the final test, it is possible to argue that the test group performed better than the control group both during the course, as shown in the guided writing samples, and at the end in the final test, as shown in the test results. Not only did the test group make fewer errors in adverbial word order, but the test group learners also used adverbials more frequently than the control group learners.

The results of the experiment lead to the conclusion that the explicit pre­teaching of adverbial word order, together with the additional exercises that the test group learners were provided with, influenced the learners’ performance positively. Thus the initial hypothesis of the experiment is confirmed.

Implications for further research

Negative transfer between a mother and a foreign language obviously cannot be ignored. It is an important factor both in foreign language learning and foreign language teaching. For these reasons pedagogical implications of this and similar papers are crucial.

Questions on teaching materials and techniques could be raised and studied. In the experiment carried out within this paper the technique of explicit teaching was used. The teaching material was varied. For this reason there could be no specific conclusion about the efficiency of any specific teaching material or any other teaching technique. Research in methodology of English language teaching could be done on the influence of different types of exercises and different teaching methodology on the learners’ performance.

Apstrakt Ovaj rad predstavlja pokušaj autora da istraži fenomen usvajanja gramatičke kategorije reda reči. Autor analizira greške u redu reči adverbijala koje u pisanju prave odrasli učenici engleskog kao stranog jezika kojima je maternji jezik srpski. Cilj rada je da istakne interferenciju maternjeg jezika (L1) na učenje stranog jezika (L2), kao i da ispita neophodnost metodologije eksplicitnog podučavanja u oblasti adverbijala. Pored gore navedenog, rad ima za cilj da da ideje nastavnicima engleskog jezika kako da unaprede material koji predaju kao i svoju predavačku metodologiju u pomenutoj problematičnoj oblasti.

Ključne reči​ : red reči adverbijala, engleski jezik, srpski jezik, greška, interferencija

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APPENDIX A: Guided Writing Tasks 1. Guided Writing Task1: Cover Letter (3 March 2009) 2. Guided Writing Task2: An E­mail to a Summer School (17 March 2009) 3. Guided Writing Task3: Film Review (9 April 2009) 4. Guided Writing Task4: A Personal E­mail/Letter (19 May 2009) 5. Guided Writing Task5: A Story about Summer Holiday (2 June 2009) 6. Guided Writing Task6: A Story about Personal Experience (11 June 2009) APPENDIX B: Final Test I ­​ Put in the adverbs from brackets into the right position in the sentences: 1. They read newspapers. (around 6 o’clock, in the living room, usually) 2. I get up. (every morning, at 7 o’clock) 3. Peter writes to his brother. (from abroad, often) 4. I have gone. (in summer, to England, never) 5. I think I will work. (every evening, late, next week) 6. They were jogging. (yesterday, around the block, all afternoon) 7. The company is building a hotel. (now, in my neighbourhood) 8. The ballet group performed. (last night, in the theatre, beautifully) 9. Jessica speaks to John. (politely, rarely) 10. Tom arrived. (late, home, last night)

II ­​ Translate into English using the words from the brackets: 1. Ja dobro govorim engleski. (I, well, speak, English)

2. Tom me uvek zove kasno uveče na mobilni. (Tom, me, always, call, late, at night, on my mobile phone)

3. Škola svake godine uspešno organizuje ekskurziju. (school, every year, organize, successfully, excursion)

4. Ona mu svaki put žustro odgovori. (she, him, every time, briskly, reply)

5. Meri često leti ustaje rano svako jutro. (Mary, often, in summer, get up, every morning, early)

*****

Gordana Vladisavljević ​ was born in Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia, in 1983. She completed her primary and secondary education in Sremska Mitrovica. In 2002 she enrolled at the Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade. She earned her BA in English Language and Literature in 2006 and MA in linguistics in 2009, both from the Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade. She is currently a student of the PhD programme of linguistics at the Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade.

She lives in Novi Sad and works as an ELT professional at the Educons University in Sremska Kamenica.

Her interests include: methodology of ELT, IT in teaching, PBL, learner styles and interdisciplinary approach to language teaching.