Error Analysis In Written English Sentences:Grade Eleven Efl Learners Ra-E Meles Preparatory School In Focus

Abstract

The prime objective of this study was to examine types of syntactic writing errors most frequently committed by learners as well as possible causes of these errors at preparatory level. To this end, the data for this research were drawn from 11 EFL teachers and 46 students. Writing test and questionnaire were used as instruments of data collection for the present study. First, the EFL learners’ written productions, specifically paragraphs and sentences, were analyzed using error analysis approach to find out the most frequent syntactic errors that the EFL learners commit. The errors were identified and calculated in percentages. The results of the study indicate that the total number of errors committed by the 39 EFL students was 967 in written paragraphs. The result showed that the errors committed in the use of verb tense had the highest percentage, which accounts for 11.58% of the total errors. The second most common error was wrong use of English articles, which accounts for 10.9% of the total error. Errors of capitalization which accounts for 9.4% of the errors came as the third most common error committed by the students. Apart from this, the researcher designed erroneous English sentence to notice learners’ ability in detecting types of written syntactic errors. Results displayed that run-on sentence, verb tense, and wrong uses of articles were the most difficult structural elements for EFL learners to master. Furthermore, the analysis of the data collected from EFL teachers close-ended questionnaire showed that errors related to use of active /passive form with the frequency rate of (4.27), part of speech (4.18), articles (4.09), and conjunction (4.0) mean value were more frequently committed as compared to other syntactic errors. Regarding communication effect taxonomy, a comparison of error types was made. Results indicated that of the 14 syntactic errors provided to the EFL teachers, eight errors were viewed local. Other four errors were considered global. These include verb tens, wrong word order, run-on sentence, and fragment. In connection to the sources of second language learners’ syntactic writing errors, all the EFL teacher participants responded that complexity of the English language, learners’ lack of knowledge about certain language structures were among the major causes of errors. The error analysis also revealed that among all given intra-lingual causes, false concept hypothesized followed by over generalization received higher percentages than others. In light of the obtained results, group of recommendations were suggested in order to help EFL teachers in their attempt to reduce the difficulties concerning writing English sentences among English learners as second language.