Effects Of Different Error Treatment Approaches On Grammatical Accuracy In L2 Writing

This study investigates the effect of error treatment from three different approaches on grammatical accuracy in L2 writing in terms of the errors of high frequency such as Word Class, Preposition and Noun-endings. Based on the distinction of input types, students from three non-English major classes were given mini-class grammar instruction by providing positive evidence (PE) input, negative evidence (NE) input and both PE&NE input respectively during the two-month treatment in the present study.The data collected from L2 writing and grammatically tests in the pretest and posttest for 45 subjects as well as a questionnaire were analyzed from the qualitative and quantitative perspectives. It was found that: 1) Mini-class grammar instruction (10-15 minutes per lesson) was a useful method of error treatment in L2 writing. 2) The instruction of providing PE&NE input was the most powerful technique in helping students to improve the grammatical accuracy in their L2 writing. The negative evidence input with the explanation of erroneous use and correction ranked second and the last one was the positive evidence input by instructing rules and appropriate examples. 3) The negative evidence input was found to be most effective approach to treat the errors of Noun-endings while the PE&NE input was of greatest effect on reducing the errors of Preposition. 4) The error type of Word Class was not very easy to treat through giving PE input. 5) The error types of the highest frequency in students' L2 writing were Word Class, Preposition and Noun-endings. And the input of PE&NE was regarded as the most favorite way to carry out in-class grammar instruction.In addition, the pedagogical implications of the findings for further error treatment in L2 writing and grammar instruction are under discussion in the thesis.