Errors Analysis In Uyghur College Students' English Writing

Language learners are bound to commit various mistakes and errors during their learning process. This ever-changing learner's language is called inter-language and it is filled with errors. One of the important means to tap inter-language is error analysis (EA), which can show us a clear picture of a learner's current level and concrete difficulty in the way, so that we can take some countermeasures accordingly. Writing is just a proper practice for error analysis. As a proof of learners'comprehensive linguistic performance, the improvement of writing is impossible without error correction.In Xinjiang, English teaching aimed at students of ethnic minority is fairly a recent event. Bilingual education was carried out in primary and middle schools. That is Uyghur and Chinese. English is not included in the curriculum except in a handful of pilot middle schools. Kashi teacher's college is the only institute of higher learning in south Xinjiang. Yet, before 2000, if a Uyghur student wanted to be an English major after high school, he had to travel more than one thousand and five hundred kilometers to pursue his goal in Urumqi. In order to foster more qualified talents for the local development, more research on the English education aimed at students who started from the very beginning is urgently needed.According to the author's teaching experience, Uyghur students pay much attention to speaking and listening, but they tend to underestimate writing. Their poor performance in English writing is definitely caused by their late starting point (around 20 years old). Another important factor that affects the written output may be caused by inter-lingual transfer since they are learning English as a third language. Both native language and the second language Chinese will have some influence in their English learning. But which weighs heavier in the process. So far, there is little research in this field. So the author made an investigation into errors committed by Uygur students in their English writing with error analysis theory. Uygur English major students in Kashi were chosen as the subjects for the research. Writing tasks were given to both classes. The results are as follows:1. Both intra-lingual and inter-lingual errors are found among most students.2. Students'inter-language is interfered by their native language and Chinese as well. And a good command of Chinese will boost their English learningFinally, the author provided some suggestions on how to improve the English teaching for Uygur students in south Xinjiang.