Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Background of the study
Making errors is a natural phenomenon of learning process. Learners maymake errors while using their native language, so errors in English writing are alsoinevitable. In writing learning process,论文代写 the learners’ errors are verycommon. Although the learners’ writing errors have been studied many times, alarge proportion of the studies are about the English writing errors of English ornon-English majors, or vocational college students. Researches on the Englishwriting errors of Art and physical education college students (hereinafter referredto as Art students) are not common.Art students’ academic achievements of general courses are relatively poorbecause of their unique majors. Compared with other majors’ students in collegesand universities, Art students’ English is particularly weak. They make manyerrors in their English writing, but they have great room to improve in learning English. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the college Art students’ Englishwriting errors and to explore the causes of and solutions to the errors.
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1.2 Significance and purpose of the study
Art and sports are the effective platform and fantastic channels to enhancemutual understanding and communication among different countries and peoples.English is a bridge of art dissemination and sports competition. Art and sports arerelated to personnel who are the core of this bridge, and Art and sports majorcollege students are the source of this personnel. Hence, it is essential to carry outEnglish writing teaching and learning effectively for the Art students.In many cases, students are not aware of their mistakes, that is, they makemistakes unconsciously. Teachers collect students’ writing errors, analyze theseerrors, and find the appropriate solution strategies. Studying the Art students’English writing errors is attempted to remind students，let them develop their ownawareness of errors and correct the errors by themselves. Doing so can helpteachers know what factors affect the student’s English writing. In addition,students can also enhance their self-monitoring ability. This research will not onlybe conducive to identifying Art students’ typical errors in English writing, but alsoprovide a theoretical basis for Art students to improve writing skill.Although English writing is a productive activity, it can reflect the learners’English input and the extent to which they have grasped. Writing error is animportant sign to judge language learning for students and teachers. Throughresearch and analysis of the error, students will better understand their own writing,and even the English learning gaps. Thus, if students want to improve theirEnglish learning situation, they will pay more attention to everyday writingerrors. Teachers’ feedback to students’ errors can promote students’ Englishwriting levels. Teachers provide effective recommendations to correct the Englishwriting errors, which has great significance.
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Chapter 2 Literature Review
2.1 Error
It is necessary to figure out what is error before investigating and analyzingthe art students’ English writing errors. Many linguists have given differentdefinitions of error, which can be summarized as the following viewpoints:(i) Dulay (1982) hold the view that errors are the flawed side of learnerspeech or writing, which are those pArt of conversation or composition thatdeviate from some selected norm of mature language performance.(ii) Hu (1989) thinks errors originate from the learner’s misuse ormisunderstanding of the target language, it may be grammatical or pragmatic.(iii) Lennon (1991) insists that error is a linguistic form or combination offorms which, in the same context and under similar conditions of productionwould, in all likelihood, not be produced by the speakers’ native speakercounterpArt.(iv) Ellis (1999) defines an error as a deviation from the norms of the targetlanguage.(v) James (2001) considers that error is an unsuccessful bit of language.Although these definitions of error have different criteria, there is one thing incommon, that is, error is the incorrect form deviating from the target language. Sono matter what angle the researchers adopt, we should pay special attention tothose periodic, systematic and representative errors. Studying these errors can helpteachers know the deficiencies in their teaching methods, teaching ideas andunderstanding of the curriculum. Meanwhile, it can help students bettercommunicate in English and master English more accurately.
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2.2 Theoretical foundation of the study
Corder published “The Significance of Learner’s Errors” in 1967, and itbecame the symbol of Error analysis. Error analysis is the study and analysis of theerrors made by second language learners. EA is one of the important methods usedto investigate learners’ second language acquisition, which seek to predict theerrors that learners make by identifying the linguistic differences between theirfirst language and the target language. EA developed as a branch of appliedlanguage in the 1960s, and aimed at proving that many learner errors were not dueto the learner’s mother tongue but reflected universal learning strategies. Itreplaced the contrastive analysis and achieved the considerable popularity in the1970s. Collection of a sample of learner language: The sample could be massive,specific, or incidental and consist of natural language use or be elicited eitherclinically or experimentally. It could be collected cross-sectionally orlongitudinally. The materials for analysis are mainly from the language learners,they can be verbal content or written exercises.
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Chapter 3 Research Methodology ....... 24
3.1 Research questions .... 24
3.2 Research design .... 24
Chapter 4 Results and Discussion..... 29
4.1 Data-analysis ........ 29
4.1.1 Analysis of the sample writings........ 29
4.1.2 Analysis of the questionnaire....... 60
4.1.3 Analysis of the interviews....... 66
4.2 Causes of errors and measures to reduce errors ..... 73
Chapter 5 Conclusion .... 84
5.1 Major findings of the study ...... 84
5.2 Pedagogical implications of the study ..... 85
5.2.1 Learner-related implications ........ 86
5.2.2 Teacher-related implications........ 87
5.3 Limitations of the study....... 89
5.4 Suggestions for further study.... 89
Chapter 4 Results and Discussion
4.1 Data-analysis
After errors were collected from the three kinds of sample writings, the authorclassified them into five types (lexical errors, syntax errors, discourse errors,cultural errors, and other errors) and each type was divided into several subtypes,which are based on the error classification of chapter two. Then the author countedthe number of errors of each type. The error frequency is displayed in Table 4.1below. The table indicates that there are 351 errors collected from all the three kindsof writings of this study. Among all of the errors, we can see that most errorsbelong to the lexical errors, numbering 179, taking up 51.0%; next comes to theother errors 97, accounting for 27.6%. The number of syntax errors is 62, and thenumber of discourse errors is 12, accounting for 17.7% and 3.4% of errorsrespectively. The least one is cultural errors, numbering 1 and taking up only0.3%.
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Conclusion
This study sets out to find out: (1) What errors do Art students usually makein their English writings? What are the main manifestations of the errors? (2) Whatare the causes of the errors? (3) How to reduce the errors? In the previous chapters,the author has analyzed the Art students’ English writing errors, summarized theerror types, found the causes and sought the solutions to the errors. The author assigned three writing tasks to the subjects, gathered thecompositions as researching materials, classified them into three groups accordingto the writing topics and then labeled each group to facilitate the subsequent dataanalysis. After analyzing the Art students’ English writings, the author found theArt students usually make five types of errors. They are lexical errors, syntaxerrors, discourse errors, cultural errors, and other errors. There are 351 errorscollected from all the three kinds of writings of this study. Among all of the errors,most errors belong to the lexical errors, the least ones are discourse errors. Eachtype of errors has different manifestations. The lexical errors are usually reflectedin misspelling, inaccurate words, collocational errors, missing words, singular andplural errors, and article errors. The syntax errors are usually embodied in tenseerrors, voice errors, logical errors, incomplete sentence, redundant sentence,misuse of the special sentence pattern, misordering sentence, run-on sentence andtypical Chinglish sentence.
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Reference (omitted)