| Human learning is a process involving making errors. In foreign language learning process, it has been a thorny problem for researchers, teachers and learners to solve. Firstly, there are many arguments on the definition of errors.Dulay and Burt(1982) argue that "errors are the flawed side of learners'speech or writing".According to Ellis(1994), an error can be defined as a deviation from the norms of the target language.But James (1998) defines error as an unsuccessful bit of language. Secondly, L2 learner's errors are categorized by different linguists with different research perspectives.Corder(1973) categorizes errors into three types:pre-systematic errors, systematic errors, and post-systematic errors.Three types of errors are sorted by Dulay and Burt(1974): developmental errors, interference errors,and unique errors.And further James(1998) raises twelve types of errors.As a branch of applied linguistics, Error Analysis aroused in 1960s.It took the place of Contrastive Analysis based on behaviorist psychology and structural linguists, and was in its heyday throughout 1970s.EA pays much attention to errors----not only the various definitions, but also the features and rules the errors reflect. In accordance with the interlanguage theory, the learners'errors themselves are not necessarily bad.They are simply the indicators of the stages of language development at which the learners are located.They are genuine reflection of the learners'present linguistic competence.EA is significant for EFL---it provides the researchers with evidence of how language is learnt;it provides the teacher with information about how much a learner has learnt; it serves as devices by which the learner discovers the rules of the target language.The process of EA is crucial for us to explore the rules of learners' errors and develop EFL teaching and learning.At present, the writing proficiency of the learners in vocational and technical colleges is not satisfactory. The learners keep making more errors than the learners in normal universities. The study attempts to analyze the writing errors made by the learners of vocational and technical colleges.189 compositions containing errors were extracted from the subjects of Business English Department,18-22 years old, learning English as a second language. These errors are classified into five categories and the most frequently occurring errors are figured out. Then the causes of the different kinds of errors are analyzed. The results indicate that text errors account for 53.41% of the total errors. These findings suggest that the researchers, teachers and learners should deepen the understanding of writing errors, and by providing appropriate TL exposure and remedial teaching, teachers can help the learners formulate more accurate hypotheses and make better moderations in the actual language use.All these questions are discussed in the following six chapters:Chapter One is an overall description of the thesis.The present situation of the students'writing proficiency and the significance of the present study are shown in this chapter. Chapter Two is literature review. It sets out to trace the origins and development of Error Analysis (EA),presents the main achievements of different researchers in China and abroad. And there are relatively few empirical studies about errors made by vocational and technical college students in their writings.Chapter Three introduces the research design, including the research hypotheses, research method,subjects and data collection. Chapter Four is the main body of the thesis, which explores in detail the research results, data analysis and the cause of errors. Chapter Five provides an eclectic attitude towards the implications to EFL teaching.Chapter Six is the conclusion of the thesis. Limitation of the present study and further research are stated in this chapter.
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