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Cause Analysis of Common Errors in Senior High School Students’ Writing

Author: WangJun
Tutor: DiYanHua
School: Northeast Normal University
Course: English Teaching
Keywords: Contrastive Analysis Error Analysis Intralingual error Interlingual error Communicative strategy
CLC: G633.41
Type: Master's thesis
Year: 2011
Downloads: 157
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Abstract

As is known to us all,language is the most important means of communication .And one of the major goals of language teaching is to cultivate and develop students’communicative competence in oral practice and the ability to express their ideas in writing practice. Among the four skills (listening, speaking ,reading and writing ),writing is considered to be the most difficult to master ,for it shows not only the learners’intake ability but also that of their output of target language. Also, writing is the comprehensive competence sign of language learners in cognition, thinking, and the use of language. It is thought that writing is a form of language output,which reflects both learners’capacity of target language and the skills to use it.Many aspects can be seen in the writing,such as accuracy,fluency ,and fitness of the target language ,and these can be improved through writing. Writing practice has a unique effect on developing students’ability of thinking and expressing in target language .And it is also an efficient means of measurement of language teaching.In the course of English learning, the errors committed by the learners are very common and inevitable. Writing as an important output skill,the errors in it are more visible and intuitive. Many researches have been done on the errors in English learners’writings. But many of them are focused on the errors in the writing of English major or non-English major students,vocational and technical college students,or correspondence students. The studies of the errors committed by high school students are not sufficient. Many researches are cross-sectional in design but not longitudinal. Based on the Contrastive Analysis,Error Analysis ,Interlanguage theory,language transfer and language fossilization, this thesis tries to explore the common linguistic errors in the Chinese high school students’English writings.This thesis analyzes the 135 English compositions written by 45 senior school students(now they are in senior III) in Changchun Experimental Middle School. The 3 compositions of each student were chosen respectively from the English test of the mid-term exams when they were in senior one, senior two and senior three.In all 1235 errors are identified and classified.The possible causes of these errors are analyzed and discussed.Through the analysis ,the author finds that interlingual errors and intralingual errors are the main causes. Communication strategy-based errors and induced errors are also the important causes In the meanwhile,from the point of senior school students’English learning development, longitudinal comparison and contrast are made among the errors identified respectively in the compositions written in senior one, senior two and senior three by the 45 students so as to find out the similarities and differences. Through the comparison, the author finds the linguistic fossilization problems in the students’compositions and lists out the significant fossilization at each language level, which occur the most frequently in the compositons. And the possible causes of fossilization are generally stated.Through the constrast, the author also finds out that at the three learning stages,the amount of the errors committed by the students at each level changes.The possible factors are learned according to the interviews to the students.On the basis of the overall and long term analysis of the errors committed by the students in their compositions,the author acquires some implications for itself,as well as teachers and students.Besides,according to the present situation of English language teaching in senior school, relevant error correction methods and some English pedagogical suggestions are put forward. The author suggests that both teachers and students should give their special attention to the errors in English teaching and learning.And the author also offers some suggestions on language teaching(lexical,grammar and culture teaching) and writing teaching(error correction and writing teaching approach).Hopefully,the study will be of help to both the English learners and teachers in senior schools.

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