Study of Arabic Syntax Errors in Compositions Written by NCE Arabic Students in Nassarawa State

The analysis of syntactic errors in Arabic compositions by Nigerian students at the Nigeria Certificate in Education level provides diagnostic insights essential for improving Arabic teacher training programmes and pre-service instructional support systems. This study analyses syntactic errors in Arabic written compositions produced by NCE Arabic students at the College of Education in Akwanga, Nassarawa State, applying an error taxonomy framework to identify, classify, and interpret patterns of syntactic difficulty. Using a sample of 100 compositions collected from students at various stages of the NCE programme, the research systematically codes all syntactic errors into categories encompassing subject-predicate agreement, verb inflection, case marking errors, and relative clause construction difficulties. Error frequency distributions are analysed quantitatively, and qualitative interpretation draws on interviews with five Arabic composition lecturers to contextualise the findings within the instructional environment. The study finds that case marking errors are the most frequent syntactic difficulty, followed by verb-subject agreement errors, particularly in sentences with postverbal subjects. The research attributes a significant proportion of these errors to inadequate treatment of Arabic syntactic rules in the NCE Arabic curriculum and to the absence of systematic error feedback in composition marking. Curriculum revision recommendations target these specific syntactic domains. Keywords: Arabic syntax, error analysis, NCE students, Nassarawa State, composition writing.