An Analysis Of Grammatical Errors In Middle School Students’ English Writing And Countermeasures In Grammar Teaching

In the process of English learning, errors made by English learners are not only very common but also inevitable. Writing is an important output skill, and errors in it are visible and intuitive. Therefore, it is possible to do error analysis and, by so doing, to find out the causes and the countermeasures for grammar teaching. Based on the theory of error analysis, this thesis has conducted an error analysis on the English compositions of Junior3students of No.6Middle School in Changsha.120compositions written in the same period of time on the same topic by the students from the whole grade are analyzed. Altogether711grammatical errors are collected. They are classified into different groups and the causes of them are analyzed. Then the countermeasures for grammar teaching are studied accordingly.The error analysis reveals that most of the errors made by the students in their writing are local errors, especially errors of verbs. The major causes of the errors involve lack of grammar knowledge, improper generalization of rules and the impact of the negative transfer of the native language.In view of the causes leading to the grammatical errors and the specific situation of English teaching in middle schools, the following countermeasures for grammar teaching are put forward:(1) Great importance should be attached to grammar teaching in middle schools, because grammar teaching occupies an important position in English teaching, and the lack of grammar knowledge and the improper generalization of rules result in grammatical errors in writing;(2) Correct methods should be employed in grammar teaching, such as teaching grammar by way of comparison, teaching grammar according to context, and teaching grammar in combination with the task-based approach, which will help students to grasp the knowledge of grammar and improve their ability of using the language;(3) Guidance should be provided to students to help them to use learning strategies correctly and form good habits of learning, so that they can learn better and reduce or avoid grammatical errors; and (4) Proper methods should be employed to deal with and correct the grammatical errors in students’writings, important methods including distinguishing between performance errors and competence errors, distinguishing between global errors and local errors, correction by the teacher in paper marking, self-correction and mutual correction by the students after class, and collective correction by both the teacher and the students in class. The thesis holds that full use should be made of the feedback from the errors made by students in their English writings, and that effective reform in English teaching should be carried out accordingly, so that the quality of English teaching can be improved continuously.