Author's Name:	Dr. Mahendran Maniam & Punethawathi Rajagopal
Subject Area:	Social Science and Humanities
Subject	Education
Section	Research Paper

Surface structure taxonomy, mother tongue interference and rule application.

This study aims to investigate simple past tense errors according to surface structure taxonomy by analyzing the document analysis of students. This study also aims to investigate the sources of simple past tense errors. To achieve this, 30 respondents were chosen from a random sampling. The research design chosen is survey design. This design is suitable for collection of quantitative data from document analysis and questionnaire. The information gathered from the instruments was further analyzed to report the types and sources of simple past tense errors based on the surface structure taxonomy. The findings from this study indicate that the types of simple past tense errors are omission, addition and misinformation. The findings also indicate that the sources of simple past tense errors are mother tongue interference, application of translation, ignorance of rule application and overgeneralization of grammar rules. This research is significant as it provides insights to educators and practitioners a better understanding of the conceptualization of theories and grammar teaching methodology in the ESL context.