INVESTIGATING EFL STUDENTS' WRITING DIFFICULTIES AND COMMON ERRORS IN WRITING (original) (raw)

Investigating Students' Written Errors in EFL Classrooms: Faculty of Education/ Azzaytuna University

Azzaytuna University Journal , 2018

The current study aims at identifying and analyzing errors found in the writing skills of third year students who are studying English as a foreign language in the English department, faculty of education in El-gseaa / Azzaytuna University. Moreover, it endeavors to locate and identify the widely prevalent errors in grammar, punctuation, vocabulary, and spelling as well. The study seeks to suggest and provide remedial measures just to meet the students' needs in developing their command over the writing skills. The study sample consisted of thirteen junior students. The elicited data showed that the study samples have committed numerous errors in their written tasks. The current study ends with some recommendations that may help improve learners' mastery over the writing skills.

An Investigation of Writing Errors of Saudi EFL University Students

International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research, 2016

This study aims at investigating the writing errors of Saudi EFL university students of College of Science & Arts, Tanumah at King Khalid University in the academic year 2014/2015 during the first semester. The study also aims at identifying and analyzing these errors, determining the causes of these errors, as well as investigating the factors that contribute to their occurrence and suggesting suitable solutions for the problem. For this purpose, research questions are posed and the answers to these questions are provided and discussed. The sample of this study includes 20 students who are chosen from the Level Four students besides the EFL teachers in the abovementioned college. The analytical descriptive approach is adopted to handle this study. The study focuses on grammatical, punctuation, lexical, spelling and discourse errors in the writing English production of these learners .Testing, questionnaire , structured interview and personal observation of the researcher are all used as tools for collecting data. The findings of the study reveal that the students commit errors in their writing performance due to some factors such as: mother tongue interference, besides insufficient activities and practice of basic techniques of writing in addition to the lack of follow-up to the students' writing performance and some other factors.

Exploring Efl Students’ Writing Difficulties: From Dimensions to Errors

2021

The present study aimed to explore the students’ writing difficulties examined from the five dimensions and common errors faced by students in Essay Writing Course. Descriptive research with explanatory design was employed in this study to investigate the students’ writing difficulties which are analyzed from writing score and the sentence constructions in their cause-effect essay writing. This study purposively sampled 25 fourth semester students who join the Essay Writing Course. Essay Writing Tests (EWT) is used to get the data of students’ writing. The results of data collection were in the forms of students’ writing scores compared from each dimension (content, organization, grammar, vocabulary, and mechanics) and error analysis based on the word and sentential levels. The errors analyzed, then, were classified into error types. The results yielded that students’ writing dimensions are between 2-3 points based on the scoring rubric which means they are still in basic and below ...

An Analysis of Grammatical Errors in Academic Writing of EFL Students

Asian Journal of Social Science and Management Technology, 2020

This study aims to investigate Sudanese EFL undergraduate students' grammar errors. The objectives were to identify, analyze and provide some possible recommendations. A descriptive analytic method was used. The representative samples were 137 participants. The results revealed that The students produced 153 errors of 137 students' writing which was grouped into 10 categories of errors, they are errors in Singular/Plural Form is 20 errors, verb tense is 7 errors, preposition is 7 errors, subject verb agreement is 27 errors, article is 16 errors, spelling is 40 errors, verb form is 7 errors, capitalization is 8 errors, misuse word is 8 errors and missing word is 13 errors. Findings explored that the cause of the errors is the students' grammar mastery. It could be thought that the students' grammar mastery is lower. The study suggested that teacher should be aware on the students' actual level.

Analysis of EFL students’ Errors in Writing at the Higher Teachers’ Training College of N’Djamena

English Studies at NBU

This paper set to carry out an experimental study on ten students who were randomly selected and divided into two groups: control group (CG) and treatment group (TG). After being taught, the control group was asked to write a composition. The treatment group was also asked to write a composition on the same topic. This paper then compared their results. The findings in the study of the control group indicated that the most common errors committed by the learners were spelling errors which recorded the highest percentage with 24.24%, followed by word choice errors with 15.15%, and adjective related errors having 12.12%. Finally, this article indicates that the writing of learners of English as a foreign language was not free from errors even though they were appropriately taught.

An Analysis of Errors in English Writing: A Case Study the Third Semester Students of UBSI

2021

The objectives of this research are to know the errors in the third semester students’ writing of Bina Sarana Informatika University and the most frequent error. It is concerned to the grammatical and semantic and substance errors. The data is analyzed by using James’ theory in (Mungungu, 2010). The findings show that errors done by the students are spelling 50.9%, fragment 15.7%, punctuation 9.8%, adjective 3%, subject- verb agreement 3.9%, preposition 3.9%, capitalization 3.9%, tenses 2%, verb 2%, literal translation 2%. It can be concluded that the most frequent error is spelling. It because the students missed a letter, added more letter in a word, and exchange the letter. While In grammatical category, the most frequent error is fragment. It is because the most students do not put a subject in a sentence.

The Most Detected Errors in Secondary Secondary School Students in Writing Composition

2019

This study is conducted as an attempt to examine the errors in English writings committed by Sudanese learners. These students were required to write an essay in English. The participants were 22 students, four males and 18 females. For error identifications and categorizations, the researchers developed, based on the Sudanese matriculation, and on the literature (Ellis, 2004; Fries, 1974 and Robertson, 2000), a table of categories and subcategories. The findings of the current study reveal that the participants committed four types of error in varying degrees, they are: Errors in content and organization, vocabulary, language use and mechanism. The most frequent error type is 'language use'. This type of errors consists of word order, negation, copula and auxiliary omission, subject-verb agreement and prepositions. The causes of these errors are attributed to interlingual factors, i.e. negative transfer of interference and overgeneralization, especially in cases of differen...

Error Analysis in EFL Students' Writing Skill

Journal of English Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics, 2023

Error Analysis" looks at actual errors, explains them linguistically, and explains some of the possible causes of the errors to provide an understanding of the processes underlying the second language acquisition area. The purpose of this current study is to assess, describe and analyze errors committed by students. The researchers followed the error analysis methodology proposed by Corder (1973). It was to recognize, describe and explain errors in terms of their causes. After that, errors will be evaluated. For this purpose, a written test was performed on the study samples. The aim of the study is to analyze the linguistic errors in the writing skills of EFL students in an Egyptian high school, namely the Future high school. Two instruments were applied in this study: written tasks and a semi-structured interview. For error analysis, eighty written tasks by a group of 20 students were collected and analyzed. The results showed that the frequently committed errors were at the sentential level as well as the word level. The most frequent errors were the errors of spelling, and the least were the errors of demonstratives. The marked errors were categorized as errors of omission, addition, misinformation, and disordering. Further analysis of the collected data from the semi-structured interview indicated interlingual interference, intralingual interference, inadequate practice in English writing and carelessness of students as the major sources of the errors. Hence, the study has pedagogical implications as it will help teachers to devise appropriate measures for improving the students' writing proficiency.

An Analysis of Turkish EFL Students' Writing Errors

Journal of Teacher Education and Lifelong Learning, 2023

Various errors come out during writing as it is a highly complicated skill and requires higher-order thinking skills to activate the cognitive processes. Determining these errors is crucial for eliminating them. Mostly preferred way for determining them is performing an Error Analysis (EA). Hence, employing a screening model, the study aimed to reveal types, categories, and sources of errors in Turkish English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students' writings as well as to explore potential differences in error frequencies based on their departments and genders by performing an EA. The data obtained from the research were analyzed through document analysis. The sample of the study included 42 students studying at English Language Teaching (ELT) and English Language and Literature (ELL) departments of a state university in Türkiye. All of them were in English preparatory classes and at B2 level. They were asked to write an essay in 150-250 words about one of the given topics. The error analysis revealed a total of 962 errors in Turkish EFL students' writings. The errors were gathered under three types: grammatical, semantical, and mechanical errors. Among these, grammatical errors were the most prevalent, encompassing a wide range of categories including verb/tense errors, article errors, preposition errors, and others. Semantical errors, involving word choice, coherence, and ambiguity, followed next in frequency. Mechanical errors namely spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and contractions, were also prominent. The current study sought to explore whether there were statistically significant differences in error frequencies between students studying in the departments of ELT and ELL, as well as between female and male students. The analysis revealed no significant differences between the error frequencies of ELT and ELL students. On the other hand, a statistically significant difference was observed between error frequencies of female and male students. Female students produced less errors compared to the male ones.