A Comparative Study On The Errors In The Writings Of English Major And Non-english Major Students

Writing is one of the important outputs in the process of language learning, and also the most complicated and difficult task in the four skills of language competence for most college students. Writing errors show the problems and difficulties the learners have in language learning. Error Analysis is of great significance in improving the students’ language learning ability and developing teachers’language teaching proficiency. In this thesis, the author carried out a comparative study on error analysis in the writings of English major and non-English major students.Previously, researchers in both western countries and China have explored the process of language learning employing Error Analysis (EA). This study is also conducted based on the theories of Error Analysis. The subjects of this study are English major and non-English major students, and the focus is the error analysis in their English compositions. The same writing task is given to the English major and non-English major students in a University in Qingdao. The author identifies and classifies the errors in the writings; and then does the error analysis and a comparative study. Through the comparative study of error analysis, the author found similarities and differences in English major and non-English major college students’ writings. Proportions for errors of the three types are similar:the largest proportions in their writing errors are both on the syntactic level and the second ones are on lexical level, the third are discourse errors. On the other hand, non-English major’s error proportions are always higher than English major’. It also can show English major students have a better mastery of writing than non-English major students. Based on the error characteristics in college students’ writings, the author puts forward some pedagogical suggestions for teachers and students.