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Diagnosis of Some Contributory

Factors To Some Students’Errors in

Written English

Mounia HAMMAR

Outline

1. Statement of the Problem

2. Research Aim and Research Questions

3. Hypothesis

4. Methodology

Subjects

Data collection tools

5. Results and Discussion (writing tasks and interviews)

6. Recommendations

7. Conclusion

1) Statement of the Problem

The inspiration to conduct a research on learners’writing

errors goes back to an experience that has taken place in

the beginning of the academic year 2011/2012; during

which we were allowed to be the teacher of a group of

second year learners at the Department of English. After

just few sessions, we noticed that most, if not all the

learners, make a lot of errors in all the modules that

require a good mastery of writing skills.

Hence, we decided to shed light on

this problem, and decided to

investigate the potential causes of

errors as perceived by the learners

themselves and their teachers.

2) Research Aim and Research Questions

Our investigation aims at assessing the present

state of writing among second year learners of

English at the University of Bejaia. It identifies

students ‘errors in the area of writing and

diagnoses the factors that contribute to these

errors.

 

Therefore, the study seeks to answer the following

questions:

What are the frequent writing errors made by second year

LMD learners of English?

What are the factors that prevent our learners to write

correctly?

3) Hypothesis

Our study is based on Algerian students studying at the

University of Béjaia. These students share the same linguistic

background: Arabic, kabyle and even French which are

extensively used. However, English is a foreign language

which is not used widely in our Algerian society (linguistic

factors).

Moreover, the fact that we live in a world of technology

where mobile phones are widely used. Students are

influenced by the SMS language in writing (technological

factors). In addition, the fact that we are individually different

in our personality traits (affective factors) and each person

has his/her own strategies to learn (tactical factors).

So according to the aim of this research, our hypothesis is

the following:

Writing skill errors of our research participants may come from

linguistic, technological, affective and tactical factors

intermingling.

4) Methodology

The selected participants in this investigation were second

year English LMD system students and the teachers of

writing.

The tools used to gather data required for this study are the

interviews and the writing assignments.

we have opted for the quantitative research design in order to

get exact calculation occurrence of errors, and it also provides

more insights into the frequent errors. Using the qualitative

method helped the identification of factors that led to learners’

errors in written English

5) Results and Discussion

Errors Subject –Verb Agreement

French interference

Regular and irregular verbs

spelling punctuation

percentages 10.21% 1.02% 14.56% 40.09% 25.53%

Results

Examples

Subject-verb agreement

French interference

Regular and irregular verbs

spelling punctuation

One of the students are ill

Researcheurs’investigations are focsed on geography

My brother bayed a car

The weak after

It’s amazing!!!!

Teachers’ interview Learners’interview

Teachers confirmed that mechanics (punctuation and spelling) and grammatical errors are due to the lack of practice ,lack of reading , the influence of language of SMS,low motivation , language interference and overgeneralization.

Learners admitted that the difficulties that they encountered in written English are due to anxiety, language interference,overgeneralization,lack of reading,lack of self confidence and low motivation towards writing which is due to the teacher’method .

Discussion

Summary

Mecanics (Spelling and Punctuation)

Grammatical (Subject-verb agreement and the use of regular and irregular verbs)

Errors caused by French interference

Errors

Linguisti

c factors

•Language interference

•overgeneralization

Affectiv

e factors

•Anxiety

•Low motivation

•Lack of self-Confidence

Technologic

al factors

•The influence of the SMS language

Tactical factors

•Lack of practice

•Lack of reading

The factors

6) Recommendations

Spelling could be easily corrected if learners are encouraged

to read and to use a dictionary to check word spelling.

Punctuation and irregular verbs could be integrated in all

topics, and teachers may include, in their courses, any difficult

grammatical features.

Practicing writing in the module of writing should be done from

the first year and not in the second year because writing is a

process so it should be practiced along the five years in order

to reinforce students’writing and reduce their errors.

Teacher should correct the students’ errors by explaining for

them the cause of each error.

Teachers’ feedback in writing is important. It should not be limited by giving marks because the most important thing is to giving remarks because in order to help the learners to know their weakness in writing.

Teachers should underline or circle errors when they correct their students’ assignment because it helps the students to locate their errors in order to correct them after.

Learners should reinforce practice at home because it is an

effective mean to overcome their limitations in the target

language.

7) Conclusion

The results obtained ,confirmed our hypothesis. It revealed that linguistic

(overgeneralization,language interference,language tansfer and transfer of

training), affective factors(anxiety, lack of self confidence and low motivation),

technological factors (the effect of SMS language) and the tactical factors( lack

of reading and practice) contribute to errors in writing.

Thank You For Your Attention!

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