Determination of errors in the writing samples of bilingual students studying in Dutch (the case of Rotterdam)

Abstract

Many people from Turkey emigrated to European countries as a result of the bilateral agreements signed between Turkey and related countries after the 1950s. The temporary travels to these countries left their place to permanent settlements, and the Turkish children living there were faced with the danger of alienation from their mother tongue and culture in time. Many academic studies have emphasized that these children who experience L1 acquisition and learning problems will also have difficulties in learning a second language (L2), and consequently their academic achievement will be adversely affected by this situation. The data of the study were obtained from the analysis of the writing samples in which 14 students who studied in various schools in the city of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, one of the countries receiving migration, responded to two open-ended questions. In the study, within the scope of qualitative research, document analysis method was employed. During data analysis, errors were categorized in line with error analysis steps proposed by Corder (1973) and according to the codes created during the analysis process. As a result of word count in the documents, out of a 3,053-word data set, 2,676 errors were identified in total. It was determined that errors mainly occurred under the headings of deficiency in learning the mother tongue (80.79%), word transfer from L2 to L1(6.05%), writing according to L2 syntax (4.93%), and mixed language use (2.8%). Besides, letter or syllabus omission-addition in writing (5.36%) were determined to be errors resulting from writing as one hears it. Based on writing samples, it was concluded that the number of errors was too high, and that there was a great need for learning and practicing mother tongue, including writing skills.