| Summary: | English language is now deemed as one of the most important languages in the world
that has been widely used in many aspects of life such as education, economy, politics,
etc. where its usage is equally important both in written and spoken forms. Although
the English language has become the world's main language for communication, many
EFL students in Jordan have troubles in speaking the English language. In light of
speaking skills, most of them fail to communicate well. Students commit errors in
various aspects of language including phonetics, morphology, semantics and grammar.
This study aims to investigate the structural errors that occur in spoken English language
among Jordanian secondary school students. This study involved thirty-one students,
four English teachers and one officer from the Ministry of Education in Jordan. The
data were obtained from semi-structured interviews. The researcher adopted thematic
analysis to analyse the interview in order to shed light on some issues related to the
causes of errors made by the students on spoken English language. Subsequently, the
interview data were transcribed and analysed by using the Error analysis procedures
with the Surface Strategy Taxonomy as the main theory consisting of four categories,
they are errors of omission, addition, misinformation and misordering. Besides, the
analysis of errors was also made from the syntactical aspects. The study revealed that
most students committed four categories of errors in their spoken English language
according to the Surface Strategy Taxonomy, namely errors of omission, errors of
addition, errors of misinformation and errors of misordering. It was also revealed that
the highest errors involved errors on omission and addition, and errors were also found
in the use of auxiliary verbs, articles, subject-verb agreements, etc. It was also shown
from the research that the causes of errors in their spoken English language were not
merely due to the influence of their mother tongue, but also sourced from the
curriculum, teachers and students themselves. Some other factors that impeded their
excellence and progress in spoken language were related to the number of school hours,
teaching methods, equipment and lack of language environment to stimulate language
learning. Motivation and lack of practice were also identified as the stumbling blocks
in improving their ability to speak the English language well. The study has managed
to shed light on some issues related to the causes of errors in spoken English language
among secondary school students in Jordan by getting some feedback from the teachers,
officer of education ministry and from the students themselves. The study has some
implications on the pedagogical and practical aspects of teaching and learning of the
English language. It is necessary for students to take part in classroom speaking
activities and to be involved in group work. Motivation is much needed because
students need to be encouraged to express themselves, their ideas, to ask questions and
communicate with the others.
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