An Errors Analysis of Grammatical Errors in The Written Productions of Swedish Students in a Vocational High School

Abstract

As an approach to spotting and analyzing students' errors, error analysis provides information that gives us a better understanding of students' knowledge of second language grammar, so we can offer them more effective teaching. This study is an error analysis that investigates the most common grammatical errors focusing on verbs, prepositions, articles, and pronouns in English writings produced by first-year high-school students at a vocational school in southern Sweden. The findings of this study illustrate which errors cause the most difficulty for the students. Additionally, it suggests some teaching methods, based on the results of the study, which will enable the students to deal with their grammatical problems regarding word classes. In the first step, all grammatical errors from the mentioned word classes were marked when reviewing the corpus of the study. The results illustrate that most errors occur in the verb category, and these students mostly struggle with subject-verb agreement as well as time and tense. Moreover, there is a great affinity between the outcomes of this study and previous ones in the same area, i.e., error analysis of written productions. The findings suggest that the students need to do more exercises on verb usage, particularly in writing. Grammar exercises can include different types, such as recognizing verb errors, completing sentences with a correct verb, substituting the best alternative, and even peer correction in writing assignments or communicative tasks to inspire them to apply their grammar knowledge.