A Tentative Study On Overcoming Four Grammatical Errors In Non-English Majors' Writing

Error in writing is frequently a topic among college English teachers and has aroused considerable academic attention on how to diminish the frequency of errors in non-English majors' writing. Because of the differences between Chinese and English, many researchers argued that Chinese has a negative transfer in students' English learning process; therefore, there is the rise of errors related to the influence of Chinese on English writing.This dissertation first describes four remarkable errors, namely, errors of Chinglish, errors in preposition usage, verb tense and spelling, which the author has found in students' writing and then focuses on seeking the causes of the errors by gathering information from literature review, students' compositions and questionnaires. As many researchers claim that language transfer, especially its negative transfer, has a great influence on foreign language learning, the author tried to certify the negative influence of Chinese in English learning among the students. The dissertation also analysizes the particular origins of the other three errors based on the questionnaire. The goal of the study in this thesis is to find feasible ways to solve four major grammatical problems among non-English major college students.This thesis employed quantitative and qualitative methods by analyzing errors collected from 140 compositions from the author's students and 35 questionnaires were designed to find the causes of the four errors and feasibility of possible ways of solving the errors. By processing the data gathered, the author used Microsoft Office Excel 2007 and SPSS 13.0 software; it was evident that most of the students committed the four commonly seen errors in writing. Then, the author divided the students into two groups with equal numbers, namely, Group A and Group B. By two months' intensive training on Group A students and analysis of the half hour writing test for both groups, the author could see the effects of intensive training, that is, Group A students committed fewer grammatical mistakes in writing compared with Group B students. Therefore, college English teachers should pay special attention to grammar teaching; give students more access to English culture by watching English films and peer discussion; seek for the distinctive features of the students and their major in order to find appropriate ways in vocabulary teaching. In addition, the author also found that repetition could be a good approach to reinforce students' alertness of English grammar usage and could help students remember new words as well.