Students’ Grammatical Errors in Writing English as a Foreign Language: An Error Analysis Study

Abstract

This qualitative descriptive study was conducted to find out common grammatical errors committed by EFL learners in their paragraph writings and possible factors causing their committed errors. The study focused on ten types of grammatical errors including article, preposition, singular and plural noun form, tense, subject-verb agreement, lack of subjects, lack of verbs, word order, verb form, and passive voice. The participants were tenth graders at a High School for Teaching Practice in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. In this study the paragraph writing test was the only research instrument for data collection, and the data were the participants’ written paragraphs. The findings showed that four most common grammatical error types that the participants made in their writings encompassed singular and plural noun form (30.51%), article (27.40%), subject-verb agreement (10.51%), and preposition (9.01%). Besides, the data analysis revealed that interlingual interference, intralingual interference, and lack of motivation were the factors causing the errors. Based on the findings, some pedagogical implications were suggested.