An Analysis of Errors in English Essays Written by Thai Non-English Major Students

Authors

  • Prathomwat Suraprajit Kasetsart University Sriracha Campus

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1101.02

Keywords:

error analysis, Thai EFL learners, surface strategy taxonomy

Abstract

Writing is one of the vital skills for EFL learners. However, they still face some difficulties while processing a task. The present study aimed to analyze the errors that occurred on sixty English essays made by Thai University non-English major students who enrolled in the fundamental English course. The Surface Strategy Taxonomy (Dulay, Burt, & Krashen, 1982) was adopted to explore the errors of omission, addition, misformation, and misordering together with those that were excluded in the taxonomy. According to the framework of Surface Strategy Taxonomy, the findings revealed the most common errors involving omission of articles, followed by the addition of the preposition, the omission of the preposition, the omission of the subject, and misformation of subject pronoun, respectively. Then, according to the errors which were out of the stated taxonomy, the errors in subject-verb agreement were the highest detected error, followed by tense errors, ambiguous sentences, a direct translation from L1 to L2, misformation of object pronoun, misformation of using an adjective as the main verb, the addition of verb to be, and addition of conjunction, respectively. By investigating the errors in foreign language writing, the results would trigger foreign language learners to aware of the error of English writing that might occur. And the benefit also goes to the pedagogy in developing the teaching materials together with teaching strategies.

Author Biography

Prathomwat Suraprajit, Kasetsart University Sriracha Campus

Faculty of Management Sciences

References

Al-Shujairi, Y. B. J. & Tan, H. (2017). Grammar Errors in the Writing of Iraqi English Language Learners. International Journal of Education and Literacy Studies 5.1, 122-130.

Alanazi, M. S. (2017). Assessment of Learning Difficulties (LD) in Writings of Arab Learners: A Perspective. International Journal of Education and Literacy Studies 5.3, 73-81.

Anthony, L. (2005). AntConc: design and development of a freeware corpus analysis toolkit for the technical writing classroom. Paper presented at the IPCC 2005. Proceedings. International Professional Communication Conference.

Bennui, P. (2016). A study of L1 intereference in the writing of Thai EFL students. Malaysia Journal of ELT Research 4.1, 72-102.

Boonyarattanasoontorn, P. (2017). An investigation of Thai students’ English language writing difficulties and their use of writing strategies. Journal of Advanced Research in Social Sciences and Humanities 2.2, 111-118.

Brown, H. (2007). Principles of language learning and teaching. New York: Pearson Longman.

Brown, H. D. (2000). Principles of language learning and teaching (Vol. 4). New York: Pearson Longman.

Burt, M. & Kiparsky, C. (1972). The Gooficon: A repair manual for English. Rowley Massachusetts: Newbury House.

Burt, M. & Kiparsky, C. (1978). Global and local mistakes, in J. Schumann & N. Stenson (Eds.). New Frontiers in second language learning. Rowley Massachusetts: Newbury House.

Corder, S. P. (1967). The significance of learner's errors. IRAL-International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching 5.1-4, 161-170.

Corder, S. P. (1973). The elicitation of interlanguage. In Svartvik, J. (Ed.), Errata: Papers in error analysis, 36-48. Lund: CWK Gleerup.

Corder, S. P. (1981). Error analysis and interlanguage. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Crystal, D. (1999). The Penguin dictionary of language. California: Penguin.

Darasawang, P. (2007). English Language Teaching and Education in Thailand: A decade of Change. English in Southeast Asia: Varieties, Literacies and Literatures. Newcastle D. Prescott (ed.) Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 187-204.

Dulay, H. B., Burt, M. & Krashen, S. S. (1982). Language two. New York: Oxford University Press.

Ellis, R. (1994). The Study of Second Language Acquisition. New York: Oxford University Press.

Ellis, R. (2002). The place of grammar instruction in the second/foreign language curriculum. In E. Hinkel & S. Fotos, New perspectives on grammar teaching in second language classrooms, 14-34. London: Routledge.

Ellis, R. & Barkhuizen, G. P. (2005). Analysing learner language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Fareed, M., Ashraf, A. & Bilal, M. (2016). ESL learners’ writing skills: Problems, factors and suggestions. Journal of Education and Social Sciences 4.2, 81-92.

Ferris, D. (2011). Treatment of error in second language student writing: Michigan: University of Michigan Press.

Iamsiu, C. (2014). An analysis of grammatical errors in Srinakharinwirot University students’ writing. M.A. Thesis, Srinakharinwirot University.

Imaniar, F. (2018). Students’ writing errors and what lies beyond them. LANGKAWI: Journal of the Association for Arabic and English 4.2, 71-83.

Index, E. E. P. (2019). A Ranking of 100 Countries and Regions by English skills. Retrieved from https://www.ef.com/wwen.epi/ on April 13, 2019.

James, C. (2013). Error in language learning and use: Exploring error analysis. New York: Routledge.

Jobeen, A., Kazemian, B. & Shahbaz, M. (2015). The role of error analysis in teaching and learning of second and foreign language. Education and Linguistics Research 1.2, 52-62.

Khumpee, S. & Yodkumlue, B. (2017). Grammatical errors in English essays written by Thai EFL undergraduate students. Journal of Education 11.4, 139-153.

Kim, J. E. & Yoo, I. W. (2015). A Corpus-based Study of To-Infinitive Errors in Korean College Freshmen's Writing. Journal of Asia TEFL 12.4, 37-60.

Kirkpatrick, R. (2012). English education in Thailand: 2012. Asian EFL Journal 61, 24-40.

Kirmizi, O. & Karci, B. (2017). An investigation of Turkish higher education EFL learners’ linguistic and lexical errors. Educational Process: International Journal 6.4, 35-54.

Kongkaew, S. & Cedar, P. (2018). An Analysis of Errors in Online English Writing made by Thai EFL Authors. International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature 7.6, 86-96.

Mali, Y. & Yulia, M. (2017). Students’ subject-verb agreement errors in paragraph writing class. Language and Language Teaching Journal 15.2, 21-28.

Maniam, M. & Rajagopal, P. (2016). Simple past tense errors based on surface structure taxonomy in ESL Malaysian undergraduates writing. Global journal of advanced research Journal 15.2, 21-28.

Mitchell, R., Myles, F. & Marsden, E. (2019). Second language learning theories. New York: Routledge.

Mungungu, S. S. (2010). Error analysis: investigating the writing of ESL Namibian learners. M.A. Thesis, University of South Africa.

Mustafa, F., Kirana, M. & Bahri, S. (2017). Errors in EFL writing by junior high students in Indonesia. International Journal of Research Studies in Language Learning 6.1, 38-52.

Namkaew, C. (2015). Error analysis in English simple past tense and past progressive tense by graduate students. M.A. Thesis, Thammasat University.

Nopjirapong, R. (2011). An Analysis of Article Errors in Thai university student’s Composition. M.A. Thesis, Srinakarinwirot University.

Padgate, W. (2008). Beliefs and opinions about English writing of students at a Thai university. PASAA 42, 31-54.

Phuket, P. R. N., & Othman, N. B. (2015). Understanding EFL Students' Errors in Writing. Journal of Education and Practice, 6.32, 99-106.

Pongpairoj, N. (2002). Thai university undergraduates' errors in English writing. Language and Linguistics 20.2, 66-99.

Promsupa, P., Varasarin, P. & Brudhiprabha, P. (2017). An analysis of grammatical errors in English writing of Thai university students. HRD Journal 8.1, 93-104.

Rattanadilok Na Phuket, P. & Bidin, S. J. (2016). Native Language Interference in Writing: A case study of Thai EFL learners. International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching and Research 4.16, 25-36.

Richards, J. C., & Schmidt, R. W. (2013). Longman dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics. New York: Routledge.

Sajid, M. & Siddiqui, J. A. (2015). Lack of academic writing skills in English language at higher education level in Pakistan: causes, effects and remedies. International Journal of Language and Linguistics 2.4, 174-186.

Selinker, L., & Gass, S. M. (2008). Second language acquisition. New York: Routledge.

Sermsook, K., Liamnimit, J. & Pochakorn, R. (2017). An Analysis of Errors in Written English Sentences: A Case Study of Thai EFL Students. English Language Teaching 10.3, 101-110.

Settanan, M. J. (2016). An error analysis of written English email of senior cabin brew: A case study at a Thai airline company. M.A. Thesis, Thammasat University.

Sompong, M. (2013). Error analysis. Thammasat Review, 16.2, 109-127.

Suvarnamani, S. (2017). A study of grammatical and lexical errors in descriptive writing of first year arts students at Silpakorn University. Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences Studies 17.2, 239-264.

Suzanne, N. (2017). An analysis of preposition errors: The case of in, on, and at. Lingua Didaktika: Jurnal Bahasa dan Pembelajaran Bahasa, 11.1, 13-21.

Thumawongsa, N. (2018). L1 Transfer on Thai EFL Learners’ Utilization of Prepositions: a Corpus-Based Analysis. Journal of Community Development Research (Humanities and Social Sciences), 11.1, 35-47.

Tuaycharoen, P. (2003). A reflection of Thai English. Language and Linguistics, 21.2, 47-65.

Turtulla, S. & Lopar, E. B. (2018). Identification of Common EFL Errors in Writings of Kosovar Freshmen. European Journal of Language and Literature, 4.4, 31-42.

Waelateh, B., Boonsuk, Y., Ambele, E. A. & Jeharsae, F. (2019). An Analysis of the Written Errors of Thai EFL Students’ Essay Writing in English. Songklanakarin Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 25.3, 55-82.

Watcharapunyawong, S. & Usaha, S. (2013). Thai EFL Students' Writing Errors in Different Text Types: The Interference of the First Language. English Language Teaching, 6.1, 67-78.

Wu, H. & Garza, E. V. (2014). Types and Attributes of English Writing Errors in the EFL Context—A Study of Error Analysis. Journal of Language Teaching & Research, 5.6, 1252-1262.

Zheng, C. & Park, T. J. (2013). An analysis of errors in English writing made by Chinese and Korean university students. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 3.8, 1342-1351.

Downloads

Published

2021-01-01

Issue

Section

Articles