Error Analysis Of Senior Students' English Writing

Virtually every student makes errors in one way or another. Errors seem to be inevitable no matter what painstaking efforts we make in both learning and teaching aspects. Learner's errors, therefore, have long been a difficult problem for English teachers. English writing has become a most thorny issue and a matter of utmost concern to teachers of English both in China's middle schools and colleges. Problems arise and press us to look into such fields.Using theories on error analysis, this thesis is to examine errors and mistakes gathered from the senior middle school students' English writings. 167 senior students' compositions are collected and the errors are counted and classified so as to make it possible to observe the distribution and proportion of different kinds of errors. The author also analyses the reasons that cause these errors in terms of five aspects— inter-lingual transfer, over-generalization, incomplete application of rules, limitations of thoughts and levels, and omission.This research will be conducive to the appropriate adoption of teaching strategies and decision on teaching focal points.