A Study Of English Writing Errors Of Rural Junior High School Students From The Perspective Of Error Analysis

English writing is one of the four basic skills an English learner must master and that is the important criterion to measure learner's ability.It plays a significant role in English learning.In recent years,many reforms have been implemented to improve English level of general junior school students.The new English Curriculum Standard for Ordinary Middle School made greater demands on English Writing ability and skill for junior school students.English writing is the synthetic expression which students use the knowledge of English.It's also the focus and difficult part of English teaching.However,English writing has always been the problem of English,especially for junior middle school students whose English foundation is weak.The findings of investigation in recent years,many junior school students have a lot of problems in English writing.However,compared with students in city junior high school,rural junior high school students have more problems in English writing.The theory of Error Analys is not only provides the theoretical support but methodological guidance for studying the writing errors of the second language learners.The most significant contribution of EA lies in its success in elevating the status of learners' errors.It considers that the error should not be avoided,but should be regarded as a natural phenomenon in the process of learners' internalizing the target language.It enriches the theoretical study of foreign language teaching achievements,deepens people's understanding of the educational process,and provides practical help form teaching activities.This thesis studies errors occurring in English writing with the guidance of error analysis.The study takes collection of text,think-aloud protocols and interview as instruments,students in Hexi Experiment Middle school in Tongliao as research partic ipants,aims to solve two problems :(1)What are the most common errors the rural junior high school students make in their English writing?(2)What main factors cause the errors in their English writing? The author randomly collects one hundred and twenty pieces of compositions as samples from one classes students in Grade Two in Hexi Experiment Middle school in Tongliao and find out 462 errors.The author classifies errors into three categories,namely,technical errors,text errors and errors in discourse.Then,the author explores the reasons of the errors through think-aloud protocols and interview.The causes of errors can be clarified as inter-lingual transfer,intra-lingual transfer and other causes such as learning motivation and interest,learners' personal habit,inadequate input and factors related with teachers in the English compositions.This thesis may provide effective suggestions and approaches for rural high school teachers and students in writing and improve the English writing level.As for English teachers,they can get some inspiration for their teaching writing from the causes of errors;they make an adjustment for writing teaching.As for students,they may have a clear mind for the errors they may make in the writing,and then avoid the errors in later study and perfect their writing.