Error Analysis Of Students’ English Writing In Junior High School In Minority Areas

Writing is a core skill that English learners must master and it plays an important role in language learning.However,there are still many problems in students’ English writing in ethnic minority areas.In recent years,although many scholars have carried out research on errors in students’ English writing,they mainly concentrate in high school and university,and the research subjects are mostly Han students,there is little research on ethnic minority students’ English writing in junior high school.Therefore,this study applies error analysis theory to analyze the errors and find out the main types and causes of the errors in minority students’ English writing.This paper aims to figure out the following questions:(1)What are the common errors in minority students’ writing?(2)What are the factors that lead to the errors in ethnic minority students’ English writing?(3)What are the differences between the errors in minority students’ writing and Han students?Through the analysis of data collected from students’ compositions in junior high school in minority area,the author draws the following conclusions:(1)The common errors in junior high school students’ English writing in minority areas are substance errors,text errors and discourse errors,of which text errors are the most,followed by substance errors and discourse errors.Verb,pronoun and noun errors are the most common lexical errors.Syntax errors mainly include Chinglish and structural deficiency.Spelling errors are the most common substantive errors.Coherence and cohesion errors are the most common discourse errors.(2)Students’ writing errors in ethnic minority areas are mainly affected by language transfer,learners’ English language ability and teachers’ teaching behavior,which are embodied in interlingual transfer,intralingual transfer and induced errors.Interlingual transfer can be divided into lexical transfer,syntax transfer and thinking mode transfer.Han students are mainly affected by Chinese interlingual transfer.For minority students,lexical transfer is mainly affected by the transfer of Chinese and their mother tongue.Chinese interlingual transfer has a greater impact on syntax errors than the transfer of minority language,and the way of thinking is mainly affected by the interlingual transfer of mother tongue and Chinese.Intralingual transfer includes overgeneralization,ignorance of rule restrictions,incomplete application of rules and false concepts hypothesized.Induced errors are caused by improper teaching methods.In addition to the above factors,the authors found that students’ insufficient language input,writing habits,the application of writing strategies and teachers’ attitudes and ways of written feedback also affect the quality of students’ writing.(3)Han students made more errors in verb and noun than minority students,but fewer pronoun errors.This is because minority students are affected by their language learning experience and the interlingual transfer of their mother tongue and Chinese.While the number of errors in syntax and discourse is similar since Han students and minority students are affected by interlingual transfer of Chinese.The spelling errors of ethnic minority students are less than those of Han students,mainly because minority students’ linguistic cognitive advantage plays a role in the process of language learning.Finally,combined with the errors found in this study,the author puts forward some strategies and suggestions to improve English writing teaching in minority areas.