1. The title of the thesis:
“An Assessment of EFL College
Students’ Use of Reported Speech”

2. The aims of the study:
The present study aims at:
•
Finding out correct and incorrect uses of English
Reported Speech made by EFL learners (i.e. what is
the ability of our learners in changing direct into
reported speech?)
•
Presenting a detailed analysis of the errors made by
college students of English Language in using reported
speech (i.e. what errors do the learners make in
reported speech?)
•
Classifying the errors (i.e. under which categories of
the situations of use can the errors be listed?)
•
Explaining the causes and sources of the errors made
by non-native students in Reported Speech (i.e. what
causes them to make such errors? or what are the
causes of these errors?)

3. The Scope of the Study:
The study is limited to third-year male and
female
college
students
in
the
Departments of English Language, at both
Colleges of Basic Education at Sulaimani
and Salahaddin/ Erbil Universities for the
academic year 2009-2010.

4. The outline of the Study:
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Chapter One
1.0 Introduction
1.1 Preliminaries
1.2 The Problem
1.3 Aims of the Study
1.4 Significance of the Study
1.5 Hypotheses
1.6 The Scope of the Study
1.7 Procedures
1.8 Definitions of Basic Terms
Chapter Two
Review of Literature
2.0 Preliminaries
2.1 Review of Previous Studies
2.2 Reported Speech
2.2.1 Reported Speech in English language
2.2.1.1 Punctuation Marks of English Reported Speech
2.2.1.2 Position of Reporting and Reported Clauses
2.2.1.3 The Reasons behind Using Reported Speech
2.2.1.4 Tense Change in Reported Speech
2.2.1.4.1 Present-Tense Reporting Verb
2.2.1.4.1.1 Situations of using Present-Tense Reporting Verb

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2.2.1.4.2 Past-tense Reporting Verbs
2.2.1.4.2.1 Tense Change after Past-Tense Reporting Verbs
2.2.1.4.2.2: Modal Auxiliaries Change
2.2.1.4.2.3: Unreal past tenses in Reported Speech
2.2.1.4.2.4: Exceptions in Tense Change1
2.2.1.5 (that) in Reported Speech
2.2.1.6 Deixis and Deictic expressions in Reported Speech
2.2.1.6.1 Pronouns and Adjectives in Reported Speech
2.2.1.6.2 Expressions of Time and Place in Reported Speech
2.2.1.7 The use of nouns and adjectives in Reporting Clause:
2.2.1.8 Statements in Reported Speech
2.2.1.9 Questions in Reported Speech
2.2.1.10 Infinitive Structures in Reported Speech
2.2.1.11 Other Ways of Reporting Future Actions
2.2.1.12 Exclamations in Reported Speech
2.2.1.13 Mixed Types in Reported Speech
Chapter Three
3.0 The preliminaries
3.1 The Sample
3.2 The Tool
3.2.1 Diagnostic Test
3.2.2 Pilot Tests
3.2.2.1 Pilot Test Administration
3.2.2.2 Item Analysis
3.2.3 Validity of The Tests (Diagnostic and Pilot tests)
3.2.4 Final Tests
3.2.4.1 Final Tests Administration
3.2.4.2 Reliability of the Tests
3.3 Scoring Scheme
3.4 Statistical Means

6. Chapter Two
This chapter is devoted to the theoretical aspect of
the thesis: explaining the rules and exceptions
(non-rule governed situations) of use while
changing direct speech into reported (indirect)
speech in English Language. And the researcher
has provided the situations of use with examples
to clarify the changes in reported speech.

7. Chapter Three
It includes the description of the data collection
procedures to achieve the purpose of the study.
The tests are appropriately used to show the
errors which the testees make and then analyze
these errors logically.
This chapter includes the following types of tests
which have been conducted successively:
1.Diagnostic Test.
2.Pilot Tests (recognition and production types of tests).
3.Final Tests (recognition and production types of tests).
4.Reliability Tests (recognition and production types of tests).

8. The purpose of conducting the
Diagnostic Test
• the information in such a test is to diagnose the testees’
areas of strength and weakness.
In other words, the test is to know
• What situations or questions the sample can not answer
due to the difficulty or complexity of the situations or
questions.
• what errors the examinees have made, in order to
consider the problematic areas of difficulty and then
develop remedies.
• Whether the researcher can use one test involving both
production and recognition types, or use two different
tests; one for each type depending on the learners’
answers in the test.

9. The Purpose of constructing the
pilot tests
The importance of conducting the pilot study
is to uncover any problem which occurs
before the final test is carried out, check the
clarity of the instructions, determine the
difficulty level of the items, show the
discrimination power of the items, consider
the average time for the test to be
answered, and reveal the most common
errors made by the students in the use of
English reported speech.

10. Final Tests
• Relying on diagnostic and pilot test, the
researcher constructed the final tests to
assess the learners’ correct and incorrect
answers in the tests (recognition and
production tests).
• In the recognition test, multiple-choice
technique has been used, and completion
technique in the production test.

11. The tables used in the tests are:
Sample Selection.
1. The Pilot Test of the Recognition Test: Correct Use,
Situation of Use and the percentage of errors.
2. The Pilot Test of the Production Test: Correct Use,
Situation of Use and the percentage of errors.
3. The percentage of error, DL, and DP of the pilot test of
the recognition test.
4. The percentage of error, DL, and DP of the pilot test of
the Production test.
5. The Overall Performance of the 20 Students for the
Reliability of the Recognition and Production Tests.

12. The Appendices formed in the tests
are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
The Items of the Diagnostic Test.
The Items of the Recognition Test Type.
The Items of the Production Test Type.
The Students' Answers of the Recognition Test in the
Pilot Test.
5. The Students' Answers of the Production Test in the
Pilot Test.
6. The Items of the Final Test in the Recognition Test.
7. The Items of the Final Test in the Production Test.
8. The students’ Answers of the Recognition Test in the
Final Test.
9. The Students’ Answers of the Production Test in the
Final Test.
10. The Reliability of the Recognition Test.
11. The Reliability of the Production Test.

13. In the following chapters (i.e.4 &5),
I am going to
1.
Situations
Recognition
Test
classify the sample’s errors under their categories of situations of use.
Reporting
Verbs
Usage
Tense Change
Reporting
Verb Tense
Change
1
Modal
Auxiliaries
Change
Conjunction
Time
Reported Exceptions in
Clause
Tense of
Tense
Reported
Change
Clause
17
23
28
42
33
2
15
18
24
29
43
34
3
16
19
25
30
44
4
20
26
31
5
21
27
6
22
8
9
10
11
12
13
Word
Order
Deictic Expressions
14 (B)
7
14 (A)
Unreal
Past
Tenses
Change
Place
35
Person
32
Negation
in
Reporting
Reporte
yes/no
d Clause Answers
Summary
Report
Subjunctives
in R S
48
46
Infinitives
in R S
Verb of
Direction
36
37
39
40
41
38
45
47

14. 2. finding out the percentage of errors for the mentioned categories as:
Reporting Verbs usage
No. of the
items
Percentage of correct
answers for each item
Error percentage for each
item
1
45.00%
55.0%
2
72.50%
27.5%
3
25.00%
75.0%
4
37.50%
62.5%
5
62.50%
37.5%
6
20.00%
80.0%
7
57.50%
42.5%
8
30.00%
70.0%
9
30.95%
69.0%
10
15.00%
85.0%
11
27.50%
72.5%
12
30.00%
70.0%
13
50.00%
50.0%
Total percentage of error in Reporting
Verbs Usage
61.30%

15. 3. explain the causes of errors made by learners in
reported speech, and attribute their sources.
4. suggest remedial work for the causes of the
learners’ errors in reported speech.
5.Present recommendations for syllabus designers
and teachers.

16. Prepared by:
Tahsin Hussein Rassul
Supervised by:
Dr. Fatimah Rashid