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1.2 Purpose of the Research
It is the main stage to cultivate students' English writing ability when they are in junior high school. But as has mentioned before, students are weak in writing. This study is made in order to help students find out the core problem in writing and improve their capability of writing, on the basis of EA theory. By collecting and analyzing the errors students made, the author expects to find out the source of errors and the areas that need reinforcement in teaching.
The study aims to answer the following questions:
1) What are the common errors types that students would commit in English writing?
2) What are the sources of these errors?
1.3 Organization of the Paper
This paper contains six chapters. Chapter one presents the general introduction on the importance of English writing and the necessity of doing well in English writing for junior high school students. Chapter two lists several perspectives to errors and classifications of errors as well as a series of EA theories both at home and abroad. Chapter three introduces the design of this research, including research questions, research subjects and data collection. Chapter four shows the results of the research in a detailed way and analysis the possible sources of these errors. Chapter five summarizes the major findings of the study and implications for both teachers and students in their English writing teaching and learning. Chapter six gives a conclusion of the whole paper and shows the limitations of the study.
2. Literature Review
2.1 General Introduction on error and EA
Error Analysis is a type of linguistic analysis that focuses on the errors learners make. It consists of a comparison between the errors made in the target language and that target language itself. Error analysis emphasizes the significance of learners’ errors in second language, and it is beneficial to both teachers and students.
2.1.1 Definitions of errors
To analyze the error, we must first give a definition and standard to it. The study of error origin has last for a long time. However, it is not easy to define error, because it does not have clearly distinguishable characteristics.
Corder(1967) points out that errors are the result of failure in competence of the language which relates to its underlying knowledge while mistakes are the result of failure in performance, which sometimes due to memory lapses, particular physical states and unusual psychological conditions. Errors are characteristically systematic and mistakes are unsystematic. However, mistakes are inevitable, both matter native speakers and second language learners make mistakes in various kinds of situations.
Rod Ellis(1981) holds the idea that errors show the gaps in a learner’s knowledge system. When one make errors, he or she has no idea about the correct usage. However, as to mistakes, they occur occasionally because of the lapses in performance. The learner knows the language point but fails to work it out in its correct way in a particular situation.
Norrish (1987) defines an error as “ a systematic deviation when a learner has not learnt something and consistently gets it wrong” while a mistake as “ an inconsistent deviation, which means sometimes the learner ‘gets it right’ but sometimes ‘gets it wrong’.”源`自,优尔`文.论"文'网[www.youerw.com
2.1.2 Classifications of errors
Linguistics have more errors researches in the macroscopic aspect. The error classification has always been the focus of research and a number of classifications of errors have been used in EA. Corder (1967) pided errors into three stages: presystematic error, systematic error and postsystematic error. Learners tend to commit errors in presystematic stage because they don’t know the particular rules in the target language. In systematic stage, learners have some ideas about the target language rules but cannot correctly use them. In the postsystematic stage, errors decrease in frequency because learners are familiar with the target language rules and can use them correctly. This kind of classification can reflect learners’ process of language acquisition, but it’s hard to confirm the bound among these three stages in the actual operation.