DEVELOPING COMMUNITY THROUGH LANGUAGE LEARNING: ANALYSING PAST TENSE ERRORS IN ESL STUDENTS WRITING PERFORMANCE

Language learning which involves the making of mistakes like any other human learning process is vital in a community development. The incorrect usage of tenses is one of the major errors committed by English as a second language (ESL) learners when writing. They are perplexed and do not know which tense is appropriate to be used in different contexts of writing, especially in the use of past tenses (simple past tense, past continuous tense, past perfect tense, and past perfect continuous tense). This case study focused on the errors in past tenses by ESL students who were asked to write in a journal twice a week for four consecutive weeks. The journals were then analysed using error analysis procedures: data collection, error identification, error classification, error description, data explanation, and pedagogical application. It was found that the simple past tense category had the most errors. The findings revealed that the instruments and the nature of the journal writing are appropriate to be used in future studies. Suggestions are also offered to enhance students writing performance. It is hoped that this study will pave the way to develop the community s interest in learning English as a second language.