An Analysis of Turkish Students’ Written Errors: A Case of an EFL Context

Abstract

The present study has employed an error analysis method to identify the written errors of students from a preparatory school at a private university based in Turkey. The data has been collected from 17 English preparatory school students, whose levels are reported as intermediate according to the proficiency test of the institution based CEFR. To analyze the students’ written errors, 17 essays have been investigated thoroughly by two researchers. They have spotted the errors and categorized them accordingly. Via briefing, the researchers have come to a consensus on the categories and analyzed the frequencies of errors using descriptive statistics. According to the findings, the participants have struggled mostly in grammatical aspect, followed by lexical and mechanical aspect of language, respectively. The errors of the students have been analyzed and referred to by presenting sample errors. Furthermore, the present study has implications for teachers, curriculum designers and students.

Keywords

• error analysis,EFL writing,mechanical error,lexical error

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