QUESTION FORMATION ERRORS AMONG EFL LEARNERS AT SOHAR UNIVERSITY: FREQUENCY, TYPES, AND L1 INTERFERENCE

Abstract: The cultural requirements of students as well as the specific language in a variety of regions should be studied to create suitable material and a curriculum which best suits the specific needs of the learners. This study attempts to explore the reasons behind the difficulties that Omani students face in forming English questions and provides some to improve learning and teaching English question formation. Two research tools have been used, which are quantitative and qualitative. The results of the data collection show that the most common types of errors produced by learners while trying to ask questions are in the Auxiliary omission and auxiliary replacement. The researcher then tried to figure out the possible reasons behind such errors and how the students utilize L1 to produce L2 in questions formation. The results of this study serve both teachers (particularly foreign teacher who are non-Arabic speaker) and students who learn English as a foreign language. Such studies will raise Omani students' awareness of the difficulties in mastering the structures of English questions. Hopefully it will help to identify suitable solutions to reduce learners' repeated occurrence of common mistakes.