ABSTRACT

Making mistakes is indispensable in English learning process. English learners, influenced by their mother tongue and environment, unavoidably make all kinds of mistakes in language output. Large number of researches from abroad and at home have been made on the errors in EFL learners’ language output, especially on errors in their writing. But most of them center on error analysis of college students’ writings.

Based on the theory of Error Analysis, using both quantitative and qualitative analysis method, the study takes Grade one students’ writings from the second month English exam in No.1 Middle School of Huai’an as samples to explore errors in high school students’ foreign language output. After analyzing 120 compositions, we summarize the following findings:

(1)The main errors committed by high school students in their writings include substance errors, text errors, discourse errors and pragmatic errors. And grammatical and lexical errors have been found most significant in their frequency and proportion. In addition, Chinglish errors occur frequently;

(2)Main causes of high school students’ writing errors consist in intra-language transfer and inter-language transfer; 

(3)Teachers attach little importance to English writing, rarely offering instruction to students about writing interests, writing habits and strategies;

(4)Students agree on the importance of English writing, but they take no interest in it and think of it very difficult. They regard writing errors as an important signal for 

improvement, but they have difficulty in finding out solutions.

From these, we find that the teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards writing and writing errors have a big influence on quality of English language output. Therefore, to shift their attitudes towards writing errors is a key element of improving high school students’ English writing ability and promoting their language output.

Key words: Error analysis; English writing; Language output

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABSTRACT

摘要

Chapter One INTRODUCTION-1

Chapter Two LITERATURE REVIEW-3

2.1 Error Analysis at Abroad-3

2.2 Error Analysis at Home-4

Chapter Three RESEARCH DESIGN-6

3.1 Research Questions-6

3.2 Research Object-6

3.3 Research Methods-6

3.4 Research Process-7

Chapter Four DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS-9

4.1 Data Analysis-9

4.1.1 General Description of Errors.-9

4.1.2 Detailed Analysis of Errors-10

4.2 The Causes of Writing Errors-18

4.3 Analysis of the Questionnaires-20

4.4 Analysis of the Interviews-21

4.5 Research Findings-22

Chapter Five CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS-24

REFERENCES-27

Appendix I-29

Appendix II-30