The Performance of Iraqi EFL University Students in Using English Compound and Complex Sentences: An Error Analysis

Abstract

This study looks at the errors Iraqi university students who are learning English as a second language make when using complicated and compound sentences and punctuation, which is one of the basic linguistic structures. The aim of the study is to find out how well Iraqi EFL university students can identify and employ complicated and compound phrases along with their punctuation marks, as well as how well they can master these sentences to produce grammatically correct sentences and appropriately use punctuation points. It is believed that the majority of Iraqi EFL university students struggle to comprehend and differentiate between complex and compound sentences using punctuation. Sentence construction mistakes include run-on phrases, sentence fragments, comma splices, and missing words. Any break in a sentence's grammatical structure is considered a sentence structure error. Because sentence structure errors are global in nature, they can affect students' understanding of a phrase, a clause, or an entire section of any written text. Numerous problems can lead to the faults mentioned above. Missing clause components and improperly constructed compound and complex phrases are two of the most prevalent of these. In order to help the students identify and fix the aforementioned sentence construction mistakes, the study aims to first introduce them to some fundamental ideas of English clause and sentence structure.