Error analysis of English expository paragraphs written by third year scientific stream students at Badi Mekki high school, Biskra

Abstract EN

This study was conducted to analyze the errors in 28 expository paragraphs written by third year scientific students of Badi Mekki high school, Biskra.

The main objective of this work is to identify, describe and explain the types and the causes of errors committed by 18 female and 11 male students.

The results revealed that the participants made lots of errors in terms of: spelling, punctuation, verb forms and tenses, prepositions, subject-verb agreement, articles, word order, demonstratives, French interference, sentence fragment and singular / plural form.

The findings also provided useful guidelines to teachers that would enable them prepare and choose the best strategies and materials for teaching paragraph writing.