Deciding on the Degree of Emphasis on Micro skills for Writing Classes Based on the Frequency of Error Occurrence

International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR), India Online ISSN: 2319-7064
Volume 2 Issue 8, August 2013
www.ijsr.net
Deciding on the Degree of Emphasis on Micro skills
for Writing Classes Based on the Frequency of Error
Occurrence
Behnam Hashemi
PhD, English Department, Punjab University, Chandigarh, Punjab, India
Abstract: Good English writing competence is widely recognized as an important skill for educational, business and personal reasons.
So, English writing instruction has an important role in foreign language education. In this regard, extracted and edited from his MA
thesis, the purpose of the researcher in this study was to decide on the degree of emphasis on micro skills for writing classes based on the
frequency of error occurrence. The first step for carrying out the research was to analyze the essays of a pilot group (i. e., 30 students) to
provide the researcher with a rough checklist of the most frequent types of errors. Then the researcher administered the instrument to a
random sample of university students' essays that were majoring in TEFL, Literature and translation in Islamic Azad University,
Roudehen Branch. The analysis of the sample obtained 13 types of errors and the researcher applied the obtained checklist to categorize
the errors committed by all 300 subjects of the research. To do this the researcher used descriptive and qualitative method to gather the
research data without manipulating the research context. Based on the occurrences of errors, the researcher presented a hierarchy of
error types and suggested some strategies in the process of pre-writing, writing and post-writing.
Keywords: Writing, Micro skills, Error, Error Analysis
1. Introduction
The field of teaching has been in a great fluctuation and
variety since one hundred years ago. Richards and Rodgers
(2002) state that after diminishing the strength of the GTM,
in which the language was for the sake of itself, a lot of new
methods like DM, ALM, SL, etc…emerged. So, the oral
language was very important because of the need for oral
communication, but after sometime, the world faced the
demands of written communication and now mostly because
of the development of the World Wide Web there are a lot of
web loggers, forum writers, as well as the students and
scholars who go online and share their knowledge through
writing which is undoubtedly in English. In this new
situation, writing has been considered a unique skill in order
to communicate across the globe and the need to find
appropriate procedures to teach it effectively is felt. The
psycholinguist Eric Lenneberg (1967) once noted, in a
discussion of "species specific" human behavior, that human
being universally learn to walk and talk, but that swimming
and writing are culturally specific learned behaviors. We
learn to swim if there is a body of water available and
usually if someone teaches us. We learn to write if we are
members of a literate society and usually only if someone
teaches us (Brown, 2001, p. 334). Written expression is
probably the most difficult skill to teach because it is the
most complex form of communication. All of us must write
in some form or another throughout our lives, but some
where many of us detest writing. In school we have to and
even sometimes are threatened to write irrelevant topics.
What is often the result for all of this hard work? Papers
overwhelmed in red ink. Students participate in writing
classes with the expectations of becoming more proficient
writers in the English language. They want to write close to
error-free texts. How can it be accomplished?
In addition to the feedback on content, form, and structure of
writing, or at least as their sub-categories that Myles (2001)
believes students need to get from their teachers, there are
other types of feedback that students can benefit from.
Among them are teachers' feedback on students' errors in
organization of writing, discourse (i. e., unity, transitions,
cohesion), vocabulary (i. e., collocates), and mechanics (i. e.,
spelling, punctuation).
On the other hand, errors provide feedback for the teachers.
"They tell the teacher something about the effectiveness of
his teaching materials and his teaching techniques, and
show him what parts of the syllabus he has been following
have been inadequately learned or taught and need further
attention, " (Keshavarz, 1992, pp.23-4).
2. Statement of the Problem
Some of the problems that students have in writing stem
from inadequate preparation. Teachers need to prioritize the
micro skills for writing in order to emphasize appropriately
on the students' needs. In order to determine the students'
needs, it is necessary to analyze the errors made by the
students in compositions, and put them in different
categories (i.e. organization, content, discourse, syntax). The
outcome, then, can be used as a basis for devising remedial
lessons and exercises, or designing a new syllabus or
program of teaching for a new group of learners.
3. Research Questions
1. Regarding the frequency of the error occurrence, what
are the preferences for error correction in writing classes?
That is, which errors should be emphasized in the process
of error correction?
2. Regarding the frequency of the error occurrence, what
are the preferences for emphasizing on writing
microskills? That is, which micro skills of writing should
be emphasized based on the students' errors?
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4. Review of the Related Literature
Writing is an integral part of a language course. It is
complex and sometimes difficult to teach, requiring mastery
not only of grammatical and rhetorical devices but also of
conceptual and judgmental elements. According to Heaton
(1988), skills necessary for writing are divided into five
general components or main areas: "language use,
mechanical skills, treatment of the content, stylistic skills,
judgment skills” (p. 34). By language skills, he means the
ability to write correct and appropriate sentences.
Mechanical skills refer to punctuation and spelling.
Treatment of the content means having creative thought and
developing ideas. Stylistic skills refer to the ability to
manipulate the content and language effectively. Judgment
skills refer to the ability to write in an appropriate manner
for particular audience and organize relevant information. In
order for people to communicate, they have to be able to use
both speaking and writing. Visitors to another country will
often have to leave a note for the mailman, fill out a customs
form, give written instructions, or write thank you letters.
Writing is a productive skill. It is considered the last skill
among the four skills, since it needs more mastery of the L2.
From the time of the Audio-lingual method, it has always
been ignored. However, it has recently been taken in to
consideration. Chastain (1988) believes that writing can be
used to focus on the components of language and to
manipulate them. A literate person, then, should read and
write. However, Bowen (1985) states that writing lends itself
to advanced-level training and use in specialized situations.
Indeed, without well-developed writing skills, advanced-
level training and education seem to be impossible.
4.1. Writing as Product or Process
Several scholars have differentiated between the product and
the process approach to writing. Chastain, Murry and Cohen
have paid special attention to the issue. Most students, both
in their native language and in the second language, have
received minimal or no instruction in learning how to write.
They have received feedback—often unhelpful because it
has been incomprehensible to them on the product , they
have submitted for correction and grading, but no one has
led them through the process of generating ideas, organizing
them into a coherent sequence, and putting them on
paper.What has been taken for instruction in composition
has been, in effect, evaluation of a product. Recently,
various writing specialists have proposed a distinction
between the process of writing and the written product.
Their contention is that if the teacher wants to improve the
product, she must assist the students in ways that will enable
them to improve the process they go through to produce that
product. Brown (2001) advises the writing teachers to mix
the process and product in order to have an effective writing
class. He suggests teachers to, “make sure students are
carefully through appropriate stages in the process of writing
toward final creation" (p. 346). He continues suggesting
some effective techniques in designing a writing class and
defines them, e.g accounting for cultural/literary
background, connecting reading and writing in which they
learn by observing “relevant types of texts”, framing the
techniques in terms of prewriting , drafting, and revising is
other techniques a teacher should consider in class (Brown,
2001, p.347). Schmitt (2002) states that an objective of the
process approach is: “to help students develop viable
strategies for getting started, drafting, revising, and editing
the product and the written text is of secondary concern. One
of the most controversial aspects of writing pedagogy has
been the tension between the process and the product
approach. Product-oriented approach as Nunan (2001)
shows “focuses on the final product, the coherent, error free
text and the process approach, on the other hand focuses on
the steps involved in drafting and redrafting a piece of
work”(p. 272). He adds that in product writing teachers do
not care for correctness and only want the final text. Nunan
concludes, “what we need in writing classroom are both
models and procedures .In other words, we need both
process and product in order to have a good writing
outcome” (p.274). "Since the 1980s, a process approach to
teaching writing, typically emphasizing strategies related to
the exploration of ideas, revising and editing, has been the
object of substantive research within second and foreign
language contexts"(Cumming, 1989). In the process writing
classroom, teachers plan activities which help students
understand that writing. They also need to guide students
through the writing process and help them develop effective
writing strategies (Seow, 2002).
4.2. Micro skills for Writing
Brown (2001) classifies micro skills of written production in
the following way. Mastering each of these micro skills,
students are supposed to:
a. Produce graphemes and orthographic patterns of
English.
b. Produce writing at an efficient rate of speed to suit the
purpose.
c. Produce an acceptable core of words and use
appropriate word order patterns.
d. Use acceptable grammatical systems (e.g., tense,
pluralization), patterns, and rules.
e. Express a particular meaning in different grammatical
forms. (p. 343) and…
4.3. Grading and Responding to Writing
There is no doubt that teachers invest so much time
responding to students' writing, and for that alone they
deserve a lot of credit. No matter what the writing task is,
the teachers stress the importance of providing feedback
(Zamel, 1985). Hendrickson (1980) in Ommagio Hadley
(2003) proposes three types of errors: (a) those that impair
communication (major/global), (b) those that have highly
stigmatizing effects on the reader, and (c) those that occur
frequently. Hyland (2003) also, re-emphasizes the
importance of the individual when considering students
respond to feedback. She adds that an over-focus on correct
English can restrict students to using only those structures
they feel confident of getting right. Mahili (1994) states that
teachers should abandon their preconceptions of traditional
writing classes and respond to the students, they should not
simply give feedback just to their writing. Teachers should
adopt the role of genuinely interested readers rather than that
of evaluators. Students can all learn from this reciprocal,
dialectical process. She suggests some guidelines to follow
when responding to the students’ first draft: 1. focusing on
the content and avoiding language errors. 2. making specific
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comments avoiding cryptic language, jargon, and respond
with questions as well as statements. 3. not imposing one’s
own interpretation on the students’ writing. 4. noting
strengths as well as weaknesses. She also adds that when
responding to the second draft the teacher should: 1. not
correct errors in grammar or mechanics by providing the
correct lexical or grammatical item. 2. teach students how to
use a dictionary in the editing process. 3. set a number of
priorities and provide selective feedback for better results.4.
decide carefully about which errors to correct. 5. diagnose
some general problems along with the individual errors and
work on them in class. 6. make a comment, preferably an
end comment, that is, positive— something the teachers
usually tend to forget.
Mobaraki (1995) focuses on the impact of peer feedback on
the EFL learners’ paragraph writing. The findings of the
study show that teachers can take advantage of other
students, responding to their peers. Chastain (1988) divides
the grading systems into two ways: objective and holistic
ways. Objective techniques are considered to provide a
constant and reliable grading system and they are done by
for example, counting especial forms such as a verb form.
This approach is not very practical and takes a lot of time.
Therefore, global or holistic approach which attends to
content and organization as well as the language forms is
more applicable. Chastain (1988) suggests a formula for
grading writing: “Function + content – inaccuracy = score".
This formula provides an integrative approach to writing
grading. He disagrees to subjective grading such as giving
A, B, or, D, to the students' writing (p.262).
4.4. Errors and Error Analysis
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 (TL) and that TL
itself. Corder is the “Father” of Error Analysis (the EA with
the “new look”). It was with his article entitled “The
significance of Learner Errors” (1967) that EA took a new
turn. Errors used to be “flaws” that needed to be eradicated.
Corder (1967) presents a completely different point of view.
He contends that those errors are important in and of
themselves. For learners themselves, errors are
'indispensable,' since the making of errors can be regarded as
a device the learner uses in order to learn. Corder (1981)
also adds that, EA is something beyond the CA and is about
the psycholinguistic processes of language learning. There
are two branches of error analysis: theoretical and applied.
As Keshavarz states:
“The objective of applied error analysis is purely pragmatic
and pedagogical such as organizing remedial courses and
devising appropriate materials and strategies of teaching
based on the findings of error analysis. It is worth pointing
out here that long before the theoretical dimension of error
analysis came into existence, learners' errors were identified
and classified by classroom teachers in an attempt to deal
with their practical needs and to devise appropriate materials
and techniques of teaching. In fact, until recently a typical
error analysis went little beyond impressionistic collections
of 'common' errors and their classification into different
categories, such as errors of agreement, omission of articles
and prepositions, and the like. Little or no attempt was made
to systematically account for the occurrence of errors in
psycholinguistic terms.” (Keshavarz, 1992, pp. 46-7).
Moreover, according to Richards and Sampson (1974), “At
the level of pragmatic classroom experience, error analysis
will continue to provide one means by which the teacher
assesses learning and teaching and determines priorities for
future effort” (p. 15). Corder (1967) highlights the
importance of considering errors in the language learning
process. Based on his consideration, there is a shift in
emphasis towards an understanding of the problems learners
face in their study of a language. Errors are indispensable to
learners since the making of errors can be regarded as 'a
device the learner uses in order to learn. Research has
provided empirical evidence pointing to emphasis on
learners' errors as an effective means of improving
grammatical accuracy. Indeed, as Carter (2001, p.35) notes,
'Knowing more about how grammar works is to understand
more about how grammar is used and misused'. There is a
need for students to recognize the significance of errors
which occur in their writing, to fully grasp and understand
the nature of the errors made. This requires English language
teachers to be better equipped, more sensitive and aware of
the difficulties students face regarding grammar. Kitao and
Kitao (2000) suggest that error analysis in language use can
predict the learners’ type of errors which will be useful for
developing teaching materials and selecting teaching
methods. Moreover, the result of such analysis can be used
as an indicator of the learners’ achievement. It can also be
used for researching language acquisition and learners’
strategy in language learning. Richards & schmitt ( 2002)
believe that the use of linguistic item in the speech or
writing “in a way which a fluent or native speaker or writer
of the language regards as showing faulty or incomplete
learning .”(p.184). Despite its shortcomings, EA is still alive
and in the recent studies there is no mention of any
methodological problems involved in EA (Ellis, 1994). It
has made a great contribution to second language acquisition
research. And some (e.g., Mirhassani, 2003) even believe
that “CA with all its limitations is useful in teaching… ”.
Corder (1981) refers to five steps that researchers in the field
of EA should follow: collection of a sample in which the
researcher can collect errors from the learners' production,
identification of errors in which it can be either spontaneous
or preplanned, description of errors or which one comes first
and is more important than others, explanation of errors and
the source and the causes of each one, and evaluation of
errors.
4.5. Classification of Error Type
There are several classifications for the error types from
which we can mention several of them. Ho (2003) provides
samples of suggested classifications of error type as follows:
 Omissions: Is there something missing?
o Article
o He hit ^ car.
 Additions: Is there an unnecessary addition?
o Overgeneralization or Unnecessary insertion
 Suffix: past tense marker - ed
 putted for put
o Suffix: plural marker -s
 Apparatuses for Apparatus
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 Wrong combination: Is there something which shouldn't
go with another?
o Noun 'information' is Uncountable and must
therefore take a singular verb.
o Your information is false.
 Inappropriate construction: Is there an
incomplete/inappropriate construction?
o Fragmented/Incomplete sentence:
 Because I didn't like Law. I dropped it in my 1st
year.
o Run-on sentence:
 When I was in school, I studied very hard in
every subject but I cannot success in everything
because I weak in every subject and father try to
stop learning.
 Disordering / Inversion: Is there a wrong order of items?
o Subject-verb inversion:
 Now I don't know why we are taught this.
Norris (1999) mentions to the most common error types (and
examples) that he pays attention to in his writing classes as
follows:
1. "Be" verb problems, especially (a) the use of the
nonexistent "'be' Verb + dictionary form of another verb"
pattern and (b) the lack of agreement between the subject
and noun complement in the "'be' verb + noun" pattern
a. "I was belong to the volleyball club in high school."
b. "My brother is junior high school”
2. Wrong usage of the passive and active voices
a. "I was enjoyed the movie."
b. "The library sometimes used for sleeping"
3. Omission of verbs after the auxiliary "can"
a. "He can English very well."
b. “I cannot piano."
4. Wrong usage or omission of prepositions
a. "Winter holiday starts at December 24th."
b. " I stayed hotel one night."
5. Wrong usage of articles
a. "I gave the book to a my friend."
b. " Japan is not the big country."
6. Lack of subject-verb agreement
a. "She walk to school every day."
b. "Every movie star are handsome."
4.8. Correction of Errors
Huntley (1992) maintains that feedback on content and
organization should be provided to students while feedback
on form should be avoided, and she recommends that second
language teachers incorporate peer reviews and student-
teacher conferences in their teaching as two valuable
alternative feedback methods to traditional error correction.
Truscott’s review paper on grammar correction published in
1996 has led to a great deal of discussion. He argues that
grammar correction is both ineffective and harmful;
therefore it has no place in the writing classroom. However,
Ferris (2006) rejects Truscott’s thesis after scrutinizing his
sources. It was found that some of her arguments against
Truscott were not valid. For example, she criticized the lack
of definition for the term “error correction,” which was
denied by Truscott in his response to Ferris’ article in 1999.
According to Lee (1997), attitudes towards error correction
changed from direct correction before the 1960s to
condemnation of error correction in late 1960s, and to a
more critical view of the need and value of error correction
in the 1970s and 1980s. In the 1990s, the controversy over
error correction remains unresolved.
Truscott (1996) refers to a number of studies to provide
evidence for the ineffectiveness and unhelpfulness of
grammar correction in ESL writing classes. He concludes
that there is no reason to correct grammar errors. Though
Truscott managed to find numerous negative results in many
studies to support his thesis and only few positive results
stemming from the grammar correction. It needs to be noted
that he did not conduct any actual experiment in ESL writing
classes to support his argument in the paper, and he might
have overlooked some other significant findings that
contradict arguments against grammar correction. For those
ESL teachers who find responding to students’ errors in
writing very tiring and time-consuming, or those who think
that students’ motivation might be negatively affected,
Truscott's article might be beneficial. Despite shifting
perceptions on the importance of ‘accuracy’ and current
pedagogies which reject ‘grammar practice’ orientations to
writing instruction, error correction is widely seen by
teachers as crucial for writing development and generally
expected and welcomed by L2 students ( Ferris, 2003;
Hyland, 1998).
To investigate the relationship between students’ L1 and
EFL writing, Chan (2004) examined English writing
samples from 710 Hong Kong ESL college students. The
findings revealed that, in all of the five error types
investigated, most errors were closely related to the subjects’
L1. The data from interviews with the students also
confirmed that EFL students first called upon their L1 before
producing their English writings. The use of the language
transfer was even more obvious among the learners of a
lower English proficiency level. Along the same lines, Liu,
Sung, and Chien (1998) also concluded that the less English
proficiency learners possess, the more L1 interference was
found in their English writings. In the study of Liu, et al, the
authors applied a think-aloud method to detect how
Taiwanese EFL students generated notes in the process of
writing in English. The findings revealed that beginning
EFL learners relied on their L1 to retrieve words more than
advanced EFL learners. Holmes (2000) described the first
step of a research in developing an error analysis marking
tool for ESL (English as a Second Language) learners at
Malaysian institutions of higher learning. The writing in
ESL comprised 400 essays written by 112 undergraduates.
Subject-matter experts use an error classification scheme to
identify the errors. Markin 3.1 software was used to speed
up the process of classifying these errors. In this way, the
statistical analysis of errors was made accurately. The results
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of the study showed that common errors in these essays in
decreasing order were tenses, prepositions, articles, word
choice, mechanics, and verb to be. The findings from this
phase of the study were supposed to lend to the next phase
of the research that was developing techniques and
algorithms for error analysis marking tool for ESL learners.
Duskova (1969) identified a total of 1007 errors based on the
writings of 50 Czech learners of English and analyzed them
in terms of 9 categories. She discovered that errors in
articles (260) were most frequent, followed by errors in lexis
(233) while there were 54 errors in syntax and only 31 in
word order. Kim (1987) identified a total of 2455 errors in
the English compositions of 12th grade Korean EFL
learners. The findings showed that errors in BE and
auxiliaries were most common (419), followed by errors in
prepositions (287) and that intralingual errors arose more
than transfer errors. In the following year, Kim (1988)
investigated errors in English verbs with reference to tense,
mood, and voice. The 120 subjects were the 11th grade
Korean EFL learners who were asked to translate 42 Korean
sentences into English. Results revealed that errors in mood
were most frequent (903), followed by errors in voice (885)
and tense (720), among the total of 2508 errors.
With regard to the sources of the errors, overgeneralization
(65%) occurred the most while L1 transfer occurred at 22%
and simplification at 13%. Kim (1989) conducted EA with
200 students at the 10th grade Korean EFL learners, using
their English translations of 30 Korean sentences. She
identified 1122 errors in which transfer errors resulting from
L1 structures were higher (24%) than overgeneralization
errors (23%). In the essay writings of 200 students at the
10th grade Korean EFL learners, Kim (1998) identified 2122
errors and classified them in terms of 6 domains and
subdivided them into 22 linguistic categories. Her findings
revealed that errors in articles were most common (354) and
that there were only 8 errors in word order and 2 in voice.
5. Methodology
5.1. Participants
The participants of this study were 300 male and female
university students majoring in TEFL, English Translation
and English language and literature who chose the course of
essay writing in the second semester in Islamic Azad
University, Roudehen Branch. The method of sampling was
simple random selection. All the subjects had passed the
prerequisite courses of essay writing i. e., paragraph
development, basic structure one and two.
5.2. Instrumentation
The research instrument was a researcher-made checklist
designed based on reviewing the essays written by a group
of students randomly chosen as a pilot group. The results
obtained from the analysis of the group which comprised 30
university students majoring English language (i.e.,
Literature, Translation, or Teaching) provided the researcher
with the most frequent writing errors. Taking the committed
errors into account, the researcher designed the desired
checklist which later was administered to the essays written
by research subjects.
5.3. Procedure
The researcher went through the following steps to obtain
the required data and analyze the results:
First, the researcher randomly selected the students who had
taken “essay writing” course. Second, to find the common
errors made by students, the researcher conducted a pilot
study through which the most frequent errors were
categorized and a checklist was designed to be administered
for the research subjects. Third, at the end of academic
course, some topics (from 2 to 4) were given to the subjects.
The students were supposed to write a five-paragraph essay
according to the organization of essay writing emphasized
during the course. Fourth, the researcher analyzed the essays
and categorized the errors made by the students. Finally,
based on the hierarchies of errors i.e., from the most
frequent errors to the least frequent ones, the researcher
suggested the related micro skills which could be included in
the process of teaching writing skill.
6. Data Analysis
The obtained data have been represented and analyzed using
the frequency counts, bar graphs, and pie charts. To answer
each of the research questions, the related data have been
tabulated and analyzed. The final step in the data analysis
section was suggesting a hierarchy of error occurrence
which presents the error types based on the number of
occurrence from the most frequent to the least frequent types
of errors.
6.1. Results
To represent the obtained data in a graphic form, the
following bar graphs and pie chart have been provided using
the SPSS software.
Figure 1: Bar Graph for Micro Skill Errors
As the bar graph shows the more frequent type is spelling
error (i.e., the number of occurrences equals 2287), and the
least frequent one is passive verb error (i.e., the number of
occurrences equals 139). The occurrences of the other
eleven errors types range from 1053 to 393 which relate to
"Capitalization" to "Word Order" respectively.
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Figure 2: Pie Chart for the Obtained Data
The pie chart represents the same data in the form of
percentage. The lion share has been devoted to spelling error
with 21.7 % and the smallest share has been given to Passive
voice errors with just 0.013 %. The percentages related to
the remaining types of errors are as follows: Capitalization,
10%; Singular/ Plural Nouns, 9.5%; Choice of Word, 9.2%;
Articles, 8.7%; Preposition, 7.1%; Parts of Speech, 6.8%;
Subject/Verb Agreement, 6%; Verbs, 5.8%; Punctuation,
5.4%; and Pronouns, 4.8%.
6.2. Discussion
Presenting a hierarchy of error types based on the frequency
of their occurrences and comparing the results of the study
with the findings of other researches done in the same field
are among the different topics that will be dealt with in this
part. As table 4.1 shows, the major errors committed by the
students have been categorized in 13 types and each type of
errors has been repeated from 0.5 to 7.6 times in each
student's writing. Regarding the frequency of the error
occurrences, the following hierarchy of error occurrences is
represented.
The point that should be taken into consideration is that
some of these types of errors occur at the level of words
(e.g., spelling) and the others are made at the level of
sentence; therefore, it is natural to observe that the high
number of occurrences of errors are made at the level of
word. Taking this fact into account, the researcher randomly
chose a sample of 30 papers and counted the number of
words and sentences written by the students. Then, the
obtained data were generalized to show the approximate
number of the sentences and words written by all 300
students who had been considered as the subjects of the
study. The results are as follows:
 The number of sentences comprised 6400 sentences.
Figure 4.4: The Hierarchy of Error Occurrences
 The number of words comprised 97000 words. It can be
concluded that the average number of sentences in each
essay was approximately 21 and, in turn, the numbers of
words in each essay and sentence were 323 and 15
respectively. Reviewing the papers once again showed
that students mostly had problems with the spelling of
content words. If the number of content words are just
taken into account, it can be concluded that the chance of
occurring spelling errors are two times more than the other
errors; so, it is more logical to divide the number of error
occurrences of this type by two to have a more sensible
interpretation. Although the number of errors was divided
into two, spelling errors proved to be high again and
needed to be emphasized. On the other hand, the
reviewing of the papers showed that the majority of
spelling errors were "local", i.e., it was possible for the
reader to guess the intended word out of the misspelled
one. The following extracted errors illustrate the issue.
 It depends on our habbits [habits], our way of thinking,
interesting things and other ways.
 The employess [employees], secreteris [secretaries],
insurance igents [agents] and accountents [accountants].
Aside from the findings of the present research, there were
lots of specialists whose findings confirm the findings in this
research. In addition to the related studies mentioned in
chapter two (i.e., Lee, 1997; Sattayatham and Honsa, 2007;
Chan, 2004; Holmes 2000; Duskova, 1969; Kim 1987; and
Huang, 2001), there are other studies which have focused on
the students errors in ESL and EFL contexts. Erel and Bulut
(2007) whose findings were in line with the present study
studied the effect of coded error feedback in a Turkish
university context with regard to accuracy in writing. The
results showed that the group which received coded error
feedback committed fewer errors. The study worked on 18
different types of errors. Comparing the categories included
in the present study with the abovementioned research, it is
revealed that all 13 types of errors under investigation have
been included in the Erel and Bulut's study except the
category of "parts of speech". In his study, Chen (2007)
found that students could correct each other's writing and
give appropriate feedback to their peers. He considered 10
types of errors in his study, all of which have roughly been
included in the present study. Chun-Xian further found out
that although students could provide their classmates with
suitable feedback, they failed to correct the errors related to
the categories of "word choice", "collocation", and some
other global errors. His findings showed the importance of
teachers' role in giving feedback to students through
teaching microskills of writing, which also was truly in line
with our study.
7. Summary and Conclusion
The research problem for this study arose when the
researcher found some errors in students' writing. Then the
researcher felt the need to analyze the errors made by
students in compositions and put them in different
categories. The researcher figured out that the outcome
would be effective for devising remedial lessons and
exercises. The questions of the study were: "Regarding the
frequency of error occurrences, what are the preferences for
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error correction in writing classes? And, regarding the
frequency of error occurrences what are the preferences for
emphasizing on microskills? So, the purpose of the study
was to decide on the degree of the emphasis on microskills
in writing classes based on the frequency of error
occurrences. In order to become more familiar with the field,
the researcher reviewed lots of related literature and
contradictory theories about writing, error analysis, error
correction and error categories. The preliminary studies
showed that, at first, writing was viewed as a supportive skill
for practicing literature and handwriting, but now, it is an
important skill in universities and colleges. It is used for
communication between teachers and scholars. So, special
attention should be paid to this skill in international forums.
Different approaches were seen during these times. Some
believed that the students should begin with a limited
amount of writing with the help of a teacher and after
sometimes gradually move toward the free writing, while,
others believe that the quantity of writing is more important
than the quality. Some believe that the process of writing
should be emphasized during teaching writing and some
believed that the end product should be focused. In learning
writing stages the students began copying, combining and
finally writing creatively. The researcher also tried to find
the relationship between the writing skills and reviewed
other scholar's findings in the field. Also, there were lots of
contradictions about error and error correction. In this
regard, some educators believe that errors should be totally
avoided from the learners' production; on the contrary
otherwise, some believe that errors are the indicator of
learning process and should be tolerated and even sometimes
ignored. Some specialists assert that by analyzing errors and
classifying them, teachers can be aware of their students'
needs and, in turn, improve or even change their teaching
techniques. Also there are some educators who maintain that
error occurrences are due to transfer of first language,
training, strategies and overgeneralization. Classification of
error types is another area in which various kinds of
classification are represented. In order to find the results of
the study the researcher chose 300 students majoring in
TEFL, translation, and literature that had chosen the course
of essay writing. All the students were taught how to write a
paragraph essay. The research was descriptive and no
manipulation was needed. Based on the frequency and types
of errors the researcher classified the errors. So, the results
were presented in form of nominal and ordinal data. So, at
the final stage the data were represented in some graphs and
a pie chart. Also, by a hierarchy the number of errors was
shown which the preference for error correction from the
most to the least is as follows: spelling, capitalization,
singular/plural, and choice of word, article, preposition,
parts of speech, subject/verb agreement, verb, punctuation,
pronoun, word order and passive. In order to apply the
described and presented data the researcher decided to
prepare pedagogical applications which are as follows.
8. Pedagogical Implications
Focusing on writing process rather than writing product, the
teacher is supposed to teach the students in a way that covers
the following steps: The first one is prewriting and brain
storming, the second step in this process is organizing, the
third one is drafting; the next one is revising, editing is the
next step and; the last one is publishing. Now the question
that comes to mind is that where the teacher can emphasize
on the microskills to improve the students' writing skill.
Based on the present research findings, there are thirteen
types of errors that most of the students have committed in
their writing. Some of these writing errors can be
emphasized in prewriting and brain storming, it makes
students avoid some global errors that violates their writing
and cannot be understood by the readers. The second type of
errors can be emphasized in editing. There is no unique way
of teaching microskills and also, there is no unique way to
correct students writing. Therefore, the suggested techniques
that have been gathered based on the findings of the research
are recommended as a guide to the writing teachers.
According to Messenger and Tailor (1989) who suggest the
teachers to follow a specific process for teaching writing this
is where the students are taught or guided to correct their
writing. First, the errors that are related to microskills of
passive voice, different forms of verb, and choice of word
are considered. Normally the teachers decide on two things
in prewriting. When students are supposed to brain storm
and find the suitable materials or whatever is related to the
writing, the first thing that the teachers can focus on is the
grammatical structure. The structures that the students need
to write their writing. The second area that can be
emphasized in pre writing is content, that is, what they want
to write. In this part; therefore, the teacher focuses on the
structure. The grammatical points that the students need to
know when they want to write, and the content while
focusing on the content the teacher can represent the
appropriate words and verbs that are related and have
appropriate collocation with the other content words in
students' writing.
The other part that can be emphasized by the teacher in pre
writing stage is passive voice because if the students do not
know how to use passive voice correctly, the intended
meaning will not be conveyed to the reader. According to
the present research findings students have made just 139
errors related to the structure of passive voice. In the other
words, the students have had 139 errors in their 300 papers.
It shows that the students have used avoidance strategy, that
is, they have not used passive form in their writing whenever
they have been supposed to. Because they have not been
able to write passive forms so they have ignored that
structure. Then it is better for the teachers to teach
appropriate form of passive voice in order to teach students
to use them correctly in their writing. "Choice of word" and
"proper form of verb", are the two types of errors that can be
emphasized in pre writing stage. The remaining types of
errors can be emphasized in editing stage, that is, the fourth
stage of writing process. As it has been mentioned in
different books, errors related to punctuation, spelling, or
language usage can be emphasized in this way. But, the
problem is that, students have not been taught any of these
microskills in their writing class. So, as the findings of the
present show students have had a lot of errors regarding
these types of errors. Although it is not recommended to
teach all these microskills before hand, before students write
their own first draft, but the teachers are supposed to focus
on at least, two or three types of errors between two pieces
of writing i.e., when students hand over their final draft of an
essay and want to work on another topic . In other words, it
is better to devote time to re emphasize on the errors that
students have mostly made and the hierarchy of errors that
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has been provided in the previous chapter can help the
teachers find the priorities.
A study done by Tan (2007) under the title of "the Study of
EFL Learners Writing Errors and Instruction of Strategies"
shows that in order to be successful, students should already
know about two thousand words and these words should be
of productive type or active words rather than passive . The
reason is that, when the students want to write a simple
sentence they have to know the collocation of the words and
its appropriate preposition, especially when it is a verb. The
university students in this study are supposed to have
mastery of more than two thousand words; so, this
prerequisite according to Tens study is satisfied but the point
is that the students should be encouraged to use the
knowledge that they have had as linguistic competence as he
refers to these research findings. Because he believes that
aside from the words students need to upgrade their basic
linguistic competence. Explicit teaching of grammar points
like types of sentences, syntax, verb forms and some
commonly used tenses is highly recommended; so, he
believes that grammatical points should be taught
deductively. Again, university students have passed these
courses before, as the prerequisite for essay writing. So, they
have had these things, just reminder is necessary because the
kind of errors that the students make are really mistakes that
they have the knowledge but they are not able to apply it.
Tan (2007) also believes that good writing is certainly
beyond grammar manipulation, yet it will be very difficult to
compose a clear, logical, and fluent paragraph if a writer is
unable to write a reasonably acceptable simple sentence and
does not possess the mastery of some complex sentence
structures. According to Rivers (1981) one of the exercises
which can make students think through the rules and select
the ones applicable to the particular case is convergence.
Convergences are cognitive exercises which require the
students to think through the rules and select the appropriate
and applicable rules to the particular case under
consideration. She suggests two commonest ways as
follows. Students are supposed to write the sentence, replace
the singular nouns with plurals and make all necessary
changes. This kind of exercise can make students focus on
subject verb agreement, parts of speech, word order, and
other errors that have been taken into consideration in the
present study. Regarding the spelling errors, there are some
spelling rules that students can work on with the help of the
teacher. Some of these spelling rules have been mentioned
here. The teacher can focus the students' attention on
spelling conventions by asking them to work out for
themselves, from reading passages or dialogues they have
studied. Probable rules of spelling are like the following:
/s/ maybe spelled c before e, I, or, y. Example: Certain,
receive, city, recipe, bicycle
/k/ maybe spelled c before a, o, or u:
Example: cat, came, college, cut, current.
/k/ usually is spelled ck finally in monosyllables:
Example: back, lock. It may also be spelled "que" as in
liquor, or "que" as in antique.
This is a suitable small group activity. It can be undertaken
whenever particular spelling problems emerge in dictation or
writing practice. Similarly, there are some rules for the
correct application of punctuations that can be taught by the
teacher. As an example of application and correct use of
apostrophe the following is presented. The uses of
apostrophe pose persistent problems for students. To become
familiar with current practice they may be given a research
project of finding out from printed texts how apostrophes are
used. Through personal observation students will easily
discover facts like the following: The apostrophe is used to
represent the omitted letter or letters in contracted forms.
The commonest contractions are those of "NOT" and have:
Is not = isn’t; he is not = he isn’t, etc...
When students have discovered regular patterns in the use of
the apostrophe, they find it easier to remember. This project
may be continued to cover more intricate rules for the use of
the apostrophe e.g., in expressions of time and measure. To
help some exercise related to word order Rivers (1981)
suggests scrambled sentences. She believes that scrambled
sentences are good exercises in which they are used as
stimulus to the reproduction of pieces of writing. This
technique makes the students think of the meaning of what
they are reproducing. Regarding the errors related to the
passive and active voices, it is recommended that students
are asked to underline some sentences that they have read in
their texts. They are also required to list them on the board
and bring some real examples to show how the rule works in
English. The teacher can demonstrate the use of passive and
active voice in the class. An example has been mentioned to
clarify this point. After teaching a lesson which contains
passive and active sentences, students are asked to underline
them in the texts. They are also required to list them on the
board and bring some examples in reality to show how the
rule works in English. The teacher can throw his keys on the
ground and ask students to make sentences. At first, they
may brainstorm some rules and this will help the teacher to
identify which students know the related grammatical rules
and which of them do not. Then, the teacher can ask those
who knows the rules to and show others how one can use the
passive form of the verb to write a sentence about that
action.
Student A: You throw your keys.
Student B: The keys are thrown.
The teacher: Yes, you can say: The keys are thrown.
Therefore, the correct forms of verbs are written on the
board and the teacher tries to give more active and passive
examples.
Regarding teaching prepositions, a good example has been
mentioned here to show that the teachers can let students be
involved in the process of correct application of preposition
in their own writing. The example is as follows.
Teachers introduce prepositions to the students by thinking
of two words that describe what they could do with a box.
You could even draw a box on the board or have a box to
use as a visual aid. Brainstorm these words and write them
on the board. Most of the word will be prepositions (e.g.,
inside, into, by, over, beneath, beside). After that, try to
show one thing for example inside, beside, behind the box.
Aside from the fact that when the students read a lot and see
authentic texts written by native speakers, they can
experience the real use of capitalization, the other way that
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students can be taught to become familiar with capitalization
is to give them some original and authentic texts and ask
them to underline capital letters. This will help them get
familiar with the rules of capitalization. Another activity is
that asking the students correct each other's writing and find
the problems related to correct use of capitalization.
Students can have some exercises to focus on the correct
application of pronouns. At first, the teacher should teach
the students the appropriate kinds of pronouns and places of
them in various grammatical structures. Then, they can be
asked to underline some authentic materials in order to
become familiar with the rules and appropriate places of
pronouns in the texts.
Articles can be taught inductively. Students are presented
some examples; then, they are asked to underline the articles
in a text. After completing this procedure, through
explaining the reason behind this application of the proper
articles or without explaining, they can internalize the rules.
Because choice of word and verb forms are two categories
which are too broad and require a lot of time to make the
mastery of these two types of errors, it is better to make
students consult a dictionary in the cases that they need any
guideline. In that way, they will be familiar with the choice
of correct words whenever they need to choose the
appropriate word out of different options.
Collocation is another category which can help students
focus on the appropriate verb form. By comparing the
present situation that they want to write a sentence and the
examples given in a learners' dictionary they can find a
suitable verb that can suffice their need.
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Author Profile
Behnam Hashemi received his M.A from Khatam
University, Tehran. At present, has received Ph. D
from Panjab University and has been teaching and
researching for 10 years in government and private
sections. His specialization is more on technology and
ELT.
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