Research On Errors In English Writing Samples Of Senior High School Students

As we know, writing, which is one of the four skills in language learning. plays an important role in many kinds of tests or examinations both in China and abroad. such as senior high school entrance examination, college entrance examination, IELTS. TOEFL and so on. Therefore, writing should never be overlooked by any teacher or students. Despite all that, writing is mostly considered to be quite painful when someone mentions it.Influenced by these most influential theories. which are CA (Contrastive Analysis), EA (Error Analysis) and IL (Interlanguage). the researcher firstly collected56writing samples as the research data. all of which come from the learners in Class Six. Senior One of Cheng Du No.3Senior High School who took part in the Achievement Test for Senior One in Cheng Du at the end of their first semester and were required to finish the writing task with the same topic during the same period. After identifying and analyzing, the researcher totally found618errors and then categorized them into different types, for instance, errors of form including punctuation, spelling, the form of the verb, using the wrong word, the pattern of sentence; errors of addition consisting of overinclusion; errors of omission comprising of simplification; errors of clarity, discourse, fact and so on.In this research, the source for errors derives from two universally accepted aspects: interlingual and intralingual. in which the latter takes high percentage. The non-native expression and incorrect use of words or sentences seem to be attributed to learners’low language proficiency and inappropriate writing techniques; however, it is actually caused by many factors, including different writing modes between Chinese and English (interference), learners’cognitive competence in the application of incomplete writing knowledge. Furthermore, learners have so many problems in writing strategies and techniques that they lose the interests in writing. Moreover, both the teacher and her students’ insufficient attention to writing skill lead to inadequate input and drilling of writing in class. In the end, some pedagogical suggestions are put forward, with a hope that both the teacher and her students will benefit from this study.