A Study Of Errors In English Writing Of Tenth Graders

As one of the basic English skills, writing is an important productive skill. However, in China, the writing ability of senior high school students is weak, and they always commit all kinds of errors or mistakes in their writing. The inevitable errors in the process of second language learning really make both teachers and students annoyed, but they can not only provide the teacher with learners’ mastery condition of every part of English knowledge, and improve teaching accordingly, but also help the students rethink their learning methods. Therefore, the study of students’errors in writing is of great value.Based on contrastive analysis theory, error analysis theory and inter-language theory, the study was conducted to explore the answers to the following three questions by systematically analyzing the errors in 82 sample writings with text analysis method.1. What types of errors do tenth graders most often commit?2.What differences are there in terms of error distribution between groups?① What differences are there in terms of error distribution between arts students and science students?② What differences are there in terms of error distribution between higher achievers and lower achievers?3.What are the causes of errors?After establishing criteria of errors, the study classified and analyzed the errors in the sample writings and finally got four main findings,(1) In 82 sample writings, there are a total of 912 errors. Grammar errors occupy the largest percentage, followed by substance errors, lexical errors, and discourse errors in that order.(2) Differences between groups:① Arts students are quite different from science students in terms of substance errors, grammar errors, and discourse errors, while they remain almost the same in terms of lexical errors. To be more specific, compared with science students, arts students are poorer at punctuation, but better at spelling, singular and plural forms of English nouns, and authentically expressing themselves in English.② Lower achievers are quite different from higher achievers in terms of substance errors and grammar errors, while they remain almost the same in terms of lexical errors and discourse errors. Specifically, lower achievers tend to commit much more punctuation errors and noun errors than higher achievers. In addition, teachers give scores to the compositions according to error types rather than numbers of errors.(3) Causes of errors include Chinese negative transfer, target language causes, and learning environment influence. Chinese negative transfer includes negative transfer of punctuation, vocabulary, grammar, and culture. Target language causes refer to over-generalization, ignorance of rule restriction, incomplete application of rules, false concepts hypothesized, and application of communicative strategy. Learning environment influence involves the teachers’unclear explanations, inappropriate teaching methods, and teaching materials that are not well designed.