Structure and Written Expression Error Analysis on TOEFL Test 3 and Test 4

Oct 1, 2026

Structure and Written Expression Error Analysis on TOEFL focuses on students’ difficulties in answering inverted subject-verb, adjective clause, and noun clause items in TOEFL tests 3 and 4. A library research design used document analysis of question and answer sheets from 9 students in the English Education Department. Data were processed through five steps: managing, reading/memoing, description, classifying, and interpreting, with member checking for trustworthiness. Results identify 22 errors in test 3 and 26 errors in test 4, with dominant error types detailed by item.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages93

Reading Time3 h 54 min

AccessFree to download

Problem of the Research

Research Objectives

Research Method

Participants

Data Collection and Analysis

Data Trustworthiness

Research Results

Test 3 Error Classification

Test 4 Error Classification

Key Findings

ABSTRACT Name : Feri Sandi Nasution Reg. Number : 15 203 00003 Department : English Education Title : Structure and Written Expression Error Analysis on TOEFL Test Students of English Department Padangsidimpuan State Institute for Islamic Studies The problem of this research came from students’ errors in answering inverted subject-verb item, adjective clause item, and noun clause item in TOEFL test. The errors found in their in their answer sheets could be analyzed, so that it rose a study of error analysis. By the error analysis, it could describe the analyzed errors clearly. Those errors became something important for the students to study, even if it became a further study. The objectives of this research are to identify and to analyze the errors found in inverted subject-verb item, adjective clause item, and noun clause item in structure and written expression section of TOEFL test 3 and test 4, and to find the dominant errors of each analyzed item in TOEFL test 3 and test 4. This was a library research which used document analysis method. The participants of this research were 9 students of English departments. The data were collected from students’ documents of question sheets and answer sheets in TOEFL test 3 and test 4. Analysis of the data consisted of 5 steps; they are data managing, reading/memoing, description, classifying, and interpreting. This research used member checking to check data trustworthiness. Based on the result of the research, there were 22 errors found in test 3 and 26 errors found in test 4. In the test 3, all 22 errors were classified into error of addition with the detail as follows; 8 errors in inverted subject-verb, 2 errors in adjective clause, and 12 errors in noun clause. In the test 4, 26 errors were classified into different kinds of error. 7 errors found in inverted subject-verb; 1 error of addition and 6 errors of misordering. 6 errors found in adjective clause; 5 errors of omission and 1 error of misformation. 5 errors found in noun clause number 9; 3 errors of addition and 2 errors of misformation. 8 errors found in noun clause number 11; 7 errors of omission and 1 error of misordering. Key Words : Error Analysis, Inverted Subject-Verb, Adjective Clause, Noun Clause

FAQs

What TOEFL items were analyzed in this study?

The study analyzed inverted subject-verb items, adjective clause items, and noun clause items in the TOEFL Structure and Written Expression section for tests 3 and 4.

What method and data sources were used?

It used library research with document analysis, collecting data from students’ question sheets and answer sheets for TOEFL test 3 and test 4 from 9 students.

How many errors were found in TOEFL test 3 and test 4?

The study found 22 errors in test 3 and 26 errors in test 4, with test 3 errors classified into addition errors across inverted subject-verb, adjective clause, and noun clause categories.

What were the dominant error types in test 4?

In test 4, inverted subject-verb errors were mainly misordering (6) and addition (1), adjective clause errors were mainly omission (5), and noun clause errors were split across addition, omission, misformation, and misordering based on specific numbered items.

Oct 1, 2026

Uploaded by Sophia Brooks