Error Analysis in EFL Students’ Writing Skill

Abstract

"Error Analysis" looks at actual errors, explains them linguistically, and explains some of the possible causes of the errors to provide an understanding of the processes underlying the second language acquisition area. The purpose of this current study is to assess, describe and analyze errors committed by students. The researchers followed the error analysis methodology proposed by Corder (1973). It was to recognize, describe and explain errors in terms of their causes. After that, errors will be evaluated. For this purpose, a written test was performed on the study samples. The aim of the study is to analyze the linguistic errors in the writing skills of EFL students in an Egyptian high school, namely the Future high school. Two instruments were applied in this study: written tasks and a semi-structured interview. For error analysis, eighty written tasks by a group of 20 students were collected and analyzed. The results showed that the frequently committed errors were at the sentential level as well as the word level. The most frequent errors were the errors of spelling, and the least were the errors of demonstratives. The marked errors were categorized as errors of omission, addition, misinformation, and disordering. Further analysis of the collected data from the semi-structured interview indicated interlingual interference, intralingual interference, inadequate practice in English writing and carelessness of students as the major sources of the errors. Hence, the study has pedagogical implications as it will help teachers to devise appropriate measures for improving the students’ writing proficiency.