ERROR ANALYSIS ON ENGLISH COMPOSITIONS AND PARAGRAPHS OF VIETNAMESE STUDENTS

Abstract

The present study aimed to explore the writing errors in English compositions and paragraphs of Vietnamese students at a university in Vietnam and to compare the shared common errors made in their writings. This intended to see whether students with different levels have the same errors. The study used a corpus of 36 Vietnamese students’ composition writings and 36 paragraph writings. The data committed were categorized into three different error types by the framework of Chanquoy (2001). The results showed that the three most frequent writing errors were spelling, subject-verb agreement, verb tense and form respectively in paragraphs and compositions. Results revealed the three most shared errors involved spelling, subject-verb agreement and verb tense and form; nevertheless, there is no significant difference between the number of errors. It is suggested that intensive knowledge of language teaching in vocabulary in spelling and English grammar, especially subject-verb agreement should be paid close attention. In light of the results obtained, implications and recommendations were provided to teachers to assist their students in writing and limit common errors among Vietnamese students.