Innovation in Language Learning

The present study aimed at studying and categorizing grammatical errors in student essays;  identifying sources of errors, using related theories, i.e. contrastive analysis, error analysis, and interlanguage, and proposing instructional implications which enhance student learning in essay writing. The analysis of 120 essays written by English reading and writing 1 course students at Mae Fah Luang University was done to explore grammatical errror types and to examine the error sources. Further, interviews of teachers and students who experienced the reading and writing course were implemented to examine the writing errors in depth. Results showed grammatical errors existed in both sentential and lexical levels. The remarkably made errors in the sentential level were subject-verb agreement and fragments, and errors in the word  level were singular/plural nouns, articles, word and verb forms. The major sources of errors were interlingual interference and intralingual interference. Given evidence of depth information from teacher and student interviews, the insufficient knowledge of grammatical rules of the target language as well as students’carelessness reinforce the findings. Implications for effective writing instruction, and course syllabus were suggested as follows: 1) To develop remedial lessons and activities to mainly correct global errors that cause miscommunication; 2) to study effective ways of giving corrective feedback to allow students to be aware of their errors and correct them accurately;  3) to provide students more opportunities to expose to variety of reading materials which illustrate various grammatical sentence patterns; and 4) to develop linguistic sources pertaining to grammar uses, such as language learner corpus, or grammar applications to support students’ writing skills.

Keywords: essay writing, grammatical errors, error analysis, interlingual interference, intralingual interference, writing skills.

References:
[1] Chinnawong, S. “A study of the writing ability of EAP science students”, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand, 2000.
[2] Al-Khresheh, M. H. “A review study of error analysis theory”, International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Research, 2, 2016, 49-59. 
[3] Atmaca, C. “Error analysis of Turkish EFL learners: A case study”, Procedia-Social and behavioral sciences, 232, 2016, 234-241. 
[4] Chin, B.A. “The role of grammar in improving student's writing”, ResearchGate, 2000.
[5] Corder, S. P. “Error Analysis and Interlanguage”, Hong Kong, Oxford University Press, 1985.
[6] Erdoğan, V. “Contribution of error analysis to foreign language teaching”, Mersin University Journal of the Faculty of Education, 1(2), 2005, 261-270.
[7] Gass, S. M.  & Selinker, L. “Second language acquisition: An introductory course” (Third edition), New York, Routledge, 2008.
[8] Jabeen, A., Kazemian, B., & Mustafai, M. S. “The role of error analysis in teaching and learning of second and foreign language”, ELR Education and Linguistics Research, 1(2), 2015, 52-61.
[9] Khansir, A. A. “Error analysis and second language acquisition”, Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 2(5), 2012, 1027-1032.   
[10] Promsupa, P.,Varasarin, P., & Brudhiprabha, P. “An analysis of grammatical errors in English writing of Thai university students”, Human Resource Development Journal, 8(1), 2017, 267-296.
[11] Sermsook, K., Liamnimitr, J., & Pochakorn, R. “An analysis of errors in written English Sentence: A case study of Thai EFL students”, English language Teaching, 10(3), 2017, 101-110.
[12] Touchie, H.Y. “Second Language Learning errors : Their types, causes, and treatment”, JALT Journal, 8(1), 1986, 75-80.