Academic Literacy: The Analysis Of First-Year Ukrainian University Students’ Errors In Essay Writing
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18662/rrem/13.1Sup1/396Keywords:
academic writing, essay error analysis, interlingual error, intralingual error, EFL learnersAbstract
Ukrainian undergraduate students face challenges in demonstrating high-level proficiency in most of their academic writing. As an integral part of academic achievement, writing skills are essential for success at the various levels of students’ future career paths. Thus, academic literacy has raised considerable attention to teaching English as a second language. This study explores the writing competence level of 90 first-year students of Computer Science and Cybernetics Faculty at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and analyzes essay errors that are identified, classified and explained. The study describes the main categories of errors and reveals the causes of their production. It is evaluated that the major types of errors committed in students’ writing are: word choice, word spelling, verb tense, articles, and prepositions. We consider that the main reasons for errors are the native language interference, the lack of English academic writing knowledge and insufficient English grammar and functional use practice. Focusing on the importance of encouraging students to develop their academic literacy, we defined the approaches and strategies that can help teachers and language learners to overcome difficulties in writing. After defining the essay errors, the students were given a set of tips on academic writing proficiency and presented with contrastive L1-L2 comparisons, which resulted in significant improvement of the required academic writing skills. Finally, we measured the impact value of error difference aimed at describing the relationships between pre-analysis and post-analysis writing. Learning academic writing literacy may be an appropriate way to arise overall disciplinary literacy with the students.
References
Al Fadda, H. (2012). Difficulties in academic writing: From the perspective of King Saud University postgraduate students. English Language Teaching, 5(3), 123-130. doi:10.5539/elt.v5n3p123.
Al-Khresheh, M. H. (2010). Interlingual Interference in English language word order structure of Jordanian EFL Learners. Europen Journal of Social Sciences, 16(1), 106-113.
Baer, J. D., Cook, A. L. & Baldi, S. (2006). The literacy of America’s college students. The National Survey of America’s College Students. American Institutes for Research.
Bartlett, T. (2003). Why Johnny can’t write, even though he went to Princeton. Chronicle of Higher Education, 49(7), 39-40.
Blanchard, K., & Root C. (2004). Ready to write more: From paragraph to essay. New York, Longman.
Brown, H. D. (1987). Principles of language learning and teaching. Englewood Cliffs, NJ. doi: 10.3138/cmlr.44.1.181.
Brown, H. D. (1980). Principles of learning and teaching English. New Jersey Prentice-Hall Inc. doi: 10.3138/cmlr.37.1.121b.
Chelli, S. (2013). Interlingual and intralingual errors in the use of preposition and articles. Thesis (M.A.): McGill University.
Corder, S. P. (1987). Error analysis and interlanguage. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi 10.3138/cmlr.40.4.649.
Dessouky, S. (1990). Error analysis: A non-stop area of research. Studies in Curricula and Methodology, 8, 146-176.
Ellis, R. (1996). Second language acquisition research and language teaching. Oxford doi 10.1017/S0261444809990139.
Harmer, J. (2004). How to teach writing. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.
Hourani, T. M. Y. (2008). An analysis of the common grammatical errors in the English writing made by 3rd secondary male students in the eastern coast of the UAE. Thesis (M.A.): Institute of Education of the British University in Dubai.
Keshavarz, M. D. (1999). Contrastive analysis and error analysis. Tehran: Rahnama Press.
Jabulani, S. (2014). An analysis of the language of attribution in university students’ academic essays. South African Journal of Education, 34(3), 1-10. doi 10.15700/201409161112.
Horváth, J. (2001). Advanced writing in English as a foreign language: A corpus-based study of processes and products. Lingua Franca Csoport. doi 10.13140/RG.2.1.3595.0168.
Liashenko, I., & Hnapovska, L. (2019). Blended education: patterns of implementation at Sumy State University. Revista Romaneasca pentru Educatie Multidimensionala, 11(3), 141-162. doi:10.18662/rrem/142.
Mahmoud, A. (2011). The role of interlingual and intralingual transfer in learner-centered EFL vocabulary instruction. Arab World English Journal, 2(3), 28-49.
Na Phuket, P. R., & Othman, N. B. (2015). Understanding EFL students’ errors in writing. Journal of Education and Practice, 6(32), 99-106.
Odell, L., & Swersey, B. (2003). Reinventing invention: Writing across the curriculum without WAS. Language and Learning across the Disciplines, 6(3), 38-53.
Ransdell, S. & Levy, C. M. (1996). Working memory constraints on writing quality and fluency. In C. M. Levy & S. Ransdell (Eds.), The Science of Writing: Theories, methods, individual differences, and applications (pp. 93-106). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erbaum Associates.
Seitova, M. (2016). Error analysis of written production: The case of 6th grade students of Kazakhstani School. Procedia – Social and Behavioural Sciences, 232, 287-293. doi 10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.10.022.
Singleton-Jackson, J. A. (2003). Writing proficiency among graduate students in higher education programs. Thesis (Doctor in Philosophy): University of North Texas.
Tillema, M. (2012). Writing in first and second language. Empirical studies on text quality and writing processes. Utrecht LOT Dissertation Series. The Netherlands.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 The Authors & LUMEN Publishing House
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant this journalright of first publication, with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work, with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g. post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g. in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as an earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
Revista Romaneasca pentru Educatie Multidimensionala Journal has an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
CC BY-NC-ND
