A Schema-Based Classification of Present Tense Errors in the Linguistic Performance of Iraqi EFL University Students

Classifying tense-related errors committed by the students of English as a foreign language (henceforth EFL students) has always been a matter of attributing errors' observable surface features to some causes determined by the researcher's analytic orientation.Such classification causes confusion when the same error can potentially fit multiple categories; failing to uncover the specific knowledge that patterns these errors and sets them distinct on the conceptual level.This study proposes the cognitive schema as a principled tool for error analysis and classification.It is a culturally determined cognitive template of knowledge that constructs language structures and unveils the systematic connection between the observable errors and the deep conceptual structures from which they arise.The study aims at: first, identifying the schemas patterning the tense systems in English and Arabic; and second analyzing the students' errors by mapping them onto the structural components of the target schema.Data are collected from authentic responses of Iraqi EFL students to tense related tasks within their curriculum.These responses were examined in terms of which schematic component was distorted or missed; which allows both the specific depiction of errors and the identification of the cognitive structures that cause their emergence.The findings reflect that time-event construal of the students' native tense system does not align with its English counterpart; pointing to the specific schematic operator underlying each type of errors.Situating errors within a schema-based framework can effectively address the specific gap that impedes the accurate use of English tense and dismiss errors overlapping issue.