Correcting grammatical errors in university-level foreign language students’ written work
Correcting grammatical errors in university-level foreign language students’ written work

Summary/Abstract: This study examined the grammar errors in written work made by 30 freshmanstudents in the English Language Teaching Department at a Turkish university.The students were divided into two groups (each consisting of 15 students),with one group at a higher level than the other, according to the resultsof their proficiency exam. The students’ written work was marked andthe grammar errors were noted down. An analysis of the errors revealed thefollowing error types: plurality, articles, subject-verb agreement, word order,pronouns, prepositions, part of speech, auxiliaries, negation, tense agreementand lexis. Of these, most errors were made overall with parts of speech,plurality, subject-verb agreement, prepositions and articles. Although, as mighthave been predicted, the students in the lower group made more errors (theaverage of 3.5) than those in the higher group (the average of 2.8), the higherlevel students actually made more errors than lower level students for someerrors types (parts of speech and lexis). This phenomenon might be attributedto the more complicated language being attempted by the higher level students,which presents a higher risk of error. Implications for the teaching andlearning situation are discussed and suggestions are made for further research.

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