ANALYZING GRAMMATICAL AND SYNTACTIC ERRORS IN ESSAY WRITING BY ESL LEARNERS AT NUML PESHAWAR

Abstract

This study addresses two main objectives, viz.to identify the grammatical and syntactic error patterns in ESL essay writing at NUML Peshawar, KP, Pakistan and to investigate the underlying causes of these errors from the students' perspectives. Correspondingly, while providing the scarcity of localized research in the arena of Error Analysis (EA), especially at the intermediate level, the study in hand   contributes significantly to ESL teaching pedagogy and assessment practices prevailing in the peculiar context of Pakistan. Likewise, this study intends to examine the grammatical and the syntactic errors in the essays written by intermediate-level ESL students at NUML Peshawar. The study finds typical error patterns, including problems with verb tense and aspects subject-verb agreement, inappropriate usage of articles, sentence structure, and word order among others while using a randomly chosen sample of students’ essays. More crucially, in this study, focus groups have also been held to get better understanding of learners' viewpoints and identify potential causes behind these errors for instance, first language interference during the instructional design processes, lack of interest in reading for writing and the constraints of vocabulary.  The results of the study reveal that persistent syntactic and grammatical errors hinder textual communication and ultimately break proficiency in writing competence. In same line, the current study provides pedagogical recommendations, suggestions and practical implications for teachers and language practitioners in ESL context in order to have investigation of errors and to provide remedies for the rectification of errors simultaneously, in students various types of creative writing at different levels.