Errors in L1 and L2 University Students’ Writing in English: Grammar, Spelling and Punctuation

Cristina Lastres-López; Gianpaolo Manalastas

Authors

Cristina Lastres-López Universidad de Santiago de Compostela
Gianpaolo Manalastas University College London

Abstract

Abstract

This paper explores the writing of students at British universities, considering both L1 and L2 speakers of English. Our aim is to identify university students’ most common errors and areas of difficulty with respect to 1) grammar, 2) spelling, and 3) punctuation. For our purposes, we analysed samples of writing collected at University College London and we identified and examined frequent problems in native and non-native university student’s writing. Our findings report that university students make twice the number of errors in punctuation compared to grammar or spelling; and that their typology of errors is very heterogeneous, showing differences between English L1 and L2 university students in terms of the types of errors they commit.

Keywords: error analysis; writing; grammar; spelling; punctuation

Resumen

Este artículo explora la escritura de los estudiantes en universidades británicas, considerando tanto hablantes de inglés como L1 como L2. Nuestro objetivo es identificar los errores y áreas de dificultad más comunes de los estudiantes universitarios con respecto a 1) gramática, 2) ortografía, y 3) puntuación. Con estos fines, analizamos muestras escritas recogidas en University College London e identificamos y examinamos los problemas más frecuentes en la escritura de los estudiantes universitarios nativos y no nativos. Nuestros resultados indican que los estudiantes universitarios cometen el doble de errores en puntuación, si lo comparamos con gramática u ortografía; y que su tipología de errores es muy heterogénea, mostrando diferencias entre los estudiantes universitarios de inglés como L1 y L2 en cuanto a los tipos de errores que cometen.

Palabras clave: análisis de errores; escritura; gramática; ortografía; puntuación

References

Beason, L. (2001). Ethos and error: How business people react to errors. College Composition and Communication, 53(1), 33-64.

Butler, Y. G. (2002). Second language learners' theories on the use of English articles. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 24, 451-480.

Connors, R. J. & Lunsford, A. A. (1988). Frequency of formal errors in current college writing, or, Ma and Pa Kettle do research. College Composition and Communication, 39(4), 395-409.

Cook, D. (2010). The location of error: Reflections on a research project. Teaching English in the Two-Year College, 38(1), 22-33.

Crystal, D. (2005). The Stories of English. London: Penguin.

Crystal, D. (2006). Language and the Internet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Crystal, D. (2012). Spell It Out: The Singular Story of English Spelling. Suffolk: Profile Books.

Culpeper, J. (1997). History of English. London: Routledge.

Díez-Bedmar, M. B. (2015). Article use and criterial features in Spanish EFL writing: A pilot study from CEFR A2 to B2 levels. In M. Callis & S. GÃ¶tz (Eds.), Learner Corpora in Language Testing and Assessment (pp. 163-190). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Díez-Bedmar, M. B. & Pérez-Paredes, P. (2012). A cross-sectional analysis of the use of the English article system in Spanish learner writing. In Y. Tono, Y. Kawaguchi, & M. Minegishi (Eds.), Developmental and Crosslinguistic Perspectives in Learner Corpus Research (pp. 139-158). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Dusková, L. (1969). On sources of errors in foreign language learning. International Review of Applied Linguistics, 7(1), 11-36.

Elliott, G. & Johnson, N. (2008). All the right letters - just not necessarily in the right order. Spelling errors in a sample of GCSE English scripts. Paper presented at the British Educational Research Association Conference. Edinburgh, September 2008. Retrieved from http://www.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/Images/109772-all-the-right-letters-just-not-necessarily-in-the-right-order.-spelling-errors-in-a-sample-of-gcse-english-scripts.pdf

Ferris, D. (1999). The case for grammar correction in L2 writing classes: A response to Truscott (1996). Journal of Second Language Writing, 8(1), 1-11.

Halford, G. S., Wilson, W. H., Andrews, G. & Phillips, S. (2014). Categorizing Cognition: Toward Conceptual Coherence in the Foundations of Psychology. Cambridge: MIT Press.

Hirsh-Pasek, K. A. & Golinkoff, R. M. (2006). (Eds.). Action meets Word: How Children learn Verbs. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Horobin, S. (2013). Does Spelling Matter? Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Lastres-López, C. (forthcoming). Examining English spelling at British universities. In M. Díaz Ferro, J. Diz Ferreira, A. Pérez Pérez & A. Varela Suárez (Eds.), Title pending. Lugo: AXAC.

Lunsford, A. A. & Lunsford, K. J. (2008). "Mistakes are a fact of life": A national comparative study. College Composition and Communication, 59(4), 781-806.

Massey, A. J., Elliott, G .L. & Johnson, N. K. (2005). Variations in aspects of writing in 16+ English examinations between 1980 and 2004: Vocabulary, spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, non-standard English. Research Matters, Special Issue 1. Retrieved from http://www.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/Images/340982-research-matters-special-issue-4-aspects-of-writing-1980-2014.pdf

McDonald, P. (2016). «We All Make Mistakes!». Analysing an Error-coded Corpus of Spanish University Students’ Written English. Complutense Journal of English Studies, 24, 103-129.

Mediero Durán, M. E. & Robles Baena, A. (2012). Exploring the errors made by EFL students at the university level. In Álvarez Mosquera, P., Fernández Gil, M. J., Borham Puyal, M., Díez García, M. J., Bautista Martín, S., Ruano García, J. & B. García Riaza (Eds.). Research challenges for Anglophone studies in the 21st century (pp. 63-75). Salamanca: Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca.

Milroy, J. (1992). Linguistic Variation and Change: On the Historical Sociolinguistics of English. Oxford: Blackwell.

Nelson, G., Wallis, S. & Aarts, B. (2002). Exploring Natural Language: The British Component of the International Corpus of English. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Robertson, D. (2000). Variability in the use of the English article system by Chinese learners of English. Second Language Research, 16(2), 135-172.

Tagliamonte, S. (2016). Teen Talk: The Language of Adolescents. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Thomas, M. (1989). The acquisition of English articles by first- and second-language learners. Applied Psycholinguistics, 10(3), 335-355.

Truscott, J. (1996). The case against grammar correction in L2 writing classes. Language Learning, 46(2), 327-369.

Van Gelderen, E. (2006). A History of the English Language. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Wilcox, K.C., Yagelski, R. & Yu, F. (2014). The nature of error in adolescent student writing. Reading and Writing, 27(6), 1073-1094.

Wolfe-Quintero, K., Inagaki, S. & Kim, H.Y. (1998). Second language development in writing: Measures of fluency, accuracy, and complexity. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.