University Students’ Writing Error Analysis and Corresponding Strategies: A Case Study of an EFL Composition Class in Taiwan

• Main Authors: Yu, Chengyen, 余政諺
• Other Authors: Chen, Yuehmiao
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2012
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/13843955230573827710

碩士 === 國立中正大學 === 外國語文研究所 === 100 === The thesis aims to analyze students’ grammatical error types found in EFL compositions, via error analysis, as a method to identify students’ possible difficulties in the area of English writing. Moreover, this study also investigates the possible underlying factors causing their grammatical errors in order to understand the writing strategies employed by the EFL students. Participants consisted of twenty-four English majors enrolled in a junior-level EFL writing class in Taiwan. Sources of data were collected by gathering students’ sample writings throughout a semester. Data analysis procedures were adopted from Corder’s (1981) error analysis framework including (1) selecting written corpora, (2) identifying errors, (3) classifying errors into categories, (4) counting frequency of each type, and (5) interpreting the causes for the errors committed. Results reveal that the hierarchy of error frequency is verbs, nouns, articles, and prepositions, in which verbs exert the highest rate of errors. Comparatively, lower error ratios are found in adjectives, adverbs, and inversion. The sources of errors are mainly discussed from two linguistic perspectives: interlingual errors and intralingual errors. Specifically, three criteria from Selinker’s (1972) interlanguage hypothesis were utilized: overgeneralization of the target language, simplification, and transfer from the native language. Results indicate that L1 transfer appears to be one of the most prominent factors in committing writing errors. Based on the findings, it is of great importance for learners to understand the similarities and differences between their native language and target language. Ideally this understanding will lead to L1 having facilitating effects rather than interfering influences on second language writing. This study concludes that language teachers can better comprehend the problems and obstacles found in students’ writing through analysis of high frequency errors so that appropriate teaching approaches to dealing with those common errors can be offered and students will be able to maximally benefit from corrective feedback, thus gradually increase writing proficiency. Key Words: Contrastive Analysis, Error Analysis, Interlanguage, EFL Writing