An investigation of grammatical and punctuation errors encountered by Saudi Efl university students in writing performance : a case study of college of science and arts, Tanumah , King Khalid University

الملخص EN

This study aims at investigating the writing errors of Saudi Efl university students of college of science and arts, tanumah at king Khalid university in the academic year1435/1436 during the first semester, identifying and analyzing these errors, determining the causes of these errors, investigating factors that contribute to the learners’ writing errors and their weak writing performance and suggesting suitable solutions for this problem.

for this purpose, research questions are posed and the answers to these questions are provided and discussed.

the sample of this study includes 20 students who were chosen randomly from the fourth year.

the analytical descriptive approach is adopted to handle out this study.

the study focuses on the grammatical and punctuation errors in the written English production of those learners.

testing and personal observation of the researcher are all used as tools for collecting data.

the findings of the study reveal that the students commit errors in their writing performance due some factors such as: interference of mother tongue of Saudi Efl university students in the learning process besides insufficient activities and practice of basic techniques of writing in addition to the lack of follow- up to the students' writing performance and other factors.