Errors in Essays of Technical University Students: A Case Study at Sunyani Technical University

Abstract

Making grammatical errors is a common part of learning a second language. This study examines grammatical errors committed by English as second language (ESL) learners of Sunyani Technical University in Ghana. The population used is year-one students from the Faculty of Built Environment and Applied Art. 46 written essays between 150 to 200-word long were included in the analysis. As a qualitative study with descriptive method, it adopted Corder's (1967) and Ellis (1997) steps of error analysis, which include identifying, classifying, describing, and explaining errors in the essays to ascertain (1) the types of grammatical errors made, (2) the frequency of these errors. The results include 866 grammatical errors in the following order of frequencies: punctuation errors (24.48%), capitalization problem (20.21%), inappropriate word choice (19.75%), incorrect spelling (11.89%), incorrect verb form (6.70%), wrong preposition (4.39%), subject-verb disagreement (3.93%), article errors (3.93%), number disagreement (3.00%), and incorrect verb tense (1.73%). The study has implications for the teaching of English writing with reference to grammatical competence. It informs the areas of grammar that require more attention and the need to adapt teaching strategies to improve students' grammatical competence.