Error Analysis of Written Essays: Do Private School Students Show Better EFL Writing Performance?

Abstract

This study investigated writing errors committed by engineering students at An-Najah National University in Palestine and compared these errors based on school type. It analyzed errors in essays of 54 undergraduate students, 28 attended governmental schools, and 26 attended private schools. Errors were classified based on James's taxonomy. Results showed that both groups faced the same problems when writing in English, as the frequency of committed errors for both groups had the order of morphology, spelling, punctuation, formal, syntactic, semantic and ordering, except for formal errors being higher than punctuation for private school students. The study also concluded that no statistical significant differences were apparent in frequency of errors committed by the two groups. This indicates that private school students do not outperform their governmental school peers in school performance. Such results are necessary for parents and for the Ministry of Education as they oppose the general belief that performance of private school students is better.

Teaching Writing to EFL Students through Error Analysis: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…To fully understand error analysis, the concept of interlanguage transfers must also be studied because of their close relationship (AlKhazaleh, 2021). Alsher (2021) believed that in English as a Second Language classroom instructors were required to educate students about the intricacies of English grammar and develop their logical and analytical thinking by combining different pedagogical strategies which can draw and motivate language learners towards the learning process by becoming committed and enthusiastic learners. He stressed the need for teachers to put emphasis on the process of learning and not merely on the content, and desist from using outmoded methodologies such as, structured drills and memorization (Alsher, 2021).…”

Errors on Efl Students’ Paragraph Writings

“…(Khairunnisa, Ibrahim, & Othman, 2021) State that writing skill is crucial for students to provide knowledge of the text, and it makes them able to express their opinions by producing written essays when responding to tasks given as an evaluation. According to (Alsher, 2021), writing is a problem for some students in creating engaging, obvious, short, and effective written work. Furthermore, (Srinivas, 2019) states that writing is regarded as the most challenging of the four language skills, which needs more practising time and makes students unable to distinguish its forms and get the main idea stated.…”