Advances in Language and Literary Studies - Volume 11 Issue 2 - Error Analysis of Higher Education Students’ Errors in English Writing Tasks

Oct 15, 2026

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The study analyzes errors made by higher education students in English writing tasks. Exam paragraphs from 57 preparatory class students at a Turkish state university (2017–2018) were examined through qualitative case study and document analysis. Errors were identified and classified using Surface Strategy Taxonomy. A total of 381 errors were found: 192 misformation, 113 omission, 65 addition, and 11 misordering, with misformation most frequent (50.39%). Instruction should emphasize prepositions, “to be”, spelling, articles, noun number, word formation, tenses, word choice, and subject-verb agreement, while maintaining a supportive error-friendly atmosphere.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages11

Reading Time28 min

AccessFree to download

Article info and abstract

Error analysis purpose and method

Introduction

Background on learning English (ESL/EFL)

Related research on error analysis in writing

Advances in Language and Literary Studies ISSN: 2203-4714 [www.alls.aiac.org.au](www.alls.aiac.org.au) | Analysis of Higher Education Students’Errors in English Writing Tasks
Ali Özkayran1, Emrullah Yılmaz2*
1Division of Curriculum and Instruction, Institute of Educational Sciences, Bartın University, Turkey 2Department of Educational Sciences, Faculty of Education, Bartın University, Bartın, Turkey Corresponding Author: Emrullah Yılmaz, E-mail: [emrullahyilmaz@bartin.edu.tr](emrullahyilmaz@bartin.edu.tr)
*This article was produced from the MA thesis prepared by the first author and supervised by the second athor | | | --- | --- | | ARTICLE INFO | ABSTRACT
The aim of this study is to analyse the errors of higher education students in English writing tasks. In the study, the paragraphs in the exam papers of 57 preparatory class students, studying at a state university in Turkey in 2017-2018 academic year, were analysed. The study was conducted using qualitative research method. Case study was used in the research. Document analysis was used to collect data. The collected data were analysed in line with Surface Strategy Taxonomy and errors were identified and classified. As a result of the error analysis process, it was observed that the students made a total of 381 errors on 57 exam papers; 192 of them were misformation errors, 113 were omission errors, 65 were addition errors and only 11 were misordering errors. Misformation was the most frequent error among the students with a percentage of 50.39. In addition, the percentage of omission errors was 29.66%, that of addition errors was 17.06% and misordering errors was 2.89% . The professionals teaching English as a foreign language should focus more on prepositions, verb “to be”, spelling, articles, singular/plural forms of nouns, word formation, tenses, word choice and subject-verb agreement, which were the most problematic areas of language listed under the four main categories by developing efficient instructional techniques and materials. They should also respect learners’ errors and set up a positive atmosphere where learners can easily express themselves in the target language without the fear of committing errors. | | Article history
Received: January 16, 2020
Accepted: March 18, 2020
Published: April 30, 2020
Volume: 11 Issue: 2
Advance access: April 2020 | | | Conflicts of interest: None
Funding: None | | | Key words:
Error Analysis,
Writing,
English,
Higher Education,
Language Learning | | INTRODUCTION There are lots of languages in the world and some of them have come to the fore due to the fact that they are spoken by millions and even billions of people. People generally learn the language spoken where they are born, however; the developments in the fields such as communication, transportation, tourism and trade forced people to learn the languages that they didn’t need to learn in the past. English is the most popular one of those languages and for some it is the lingua franca (Modiano, 2004; Becker and Kluge, 2014) of our age. Millions of people in the world speak English as their mother tongue while others must learn it as a second (ESL) or foreign language (EFL) . Learning English as second or foreign language differs with respect to learners’ attitudes towards English and the people who speak it as their native language, exposure to English, their sources of motivation and so on. The main focus of this study is learning English as a foreign language as English is not the primary language in the country where the study was carried out. A considerable number of studies have been carried out on error analysis in writing (Miko, 2018; Hasan and Munandar, 2018; Al-husban, 2017; Suwastini and Yukti, 2017; Tiarina, 2017; Suhono, 2016; Alfiyani, 2013; Limengka and Kuntjara, Published by Australian International Academic Centre PTY.LTD. 2013; Noviyanti, 2013 and so on) to identify different types of error

FAQs

What is the main purpose of the study?

To analyze the errors made by higher education students in English writing tasks.

Which research approach and error framework are used?

A qualitative case study with document analysis is conducted, and errors are classified using Surface Strategy Taxonomy.

What types of errors were most frequent in the students’ exam writing?

Misformation errors were most frequent (50.39%), followed by omission (29.66%), addition (17.06%), and misordering (2.89%).

What instructional areas does the study recommend focusing on?

Prepositions, the verb “to be”, spelling, articles, noun singular/plural forms, word formation, tenses, word choice, and subject-verb agreement are highlighted as key problematic areas.

Oct 15, 2026

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