Measures of Eliminating EFL Students’ Errors in Writing

Abstract

As far as the writing skill is concerned, our EFL students are suffering from a serious problem while writing using the target language “English”. For this reason through this paper we seek an answer to the following question: What mainly lead our students to commit such number of errors when writing in English? And what measures should be taken to eliminate their occurrences again? This presentation aims at spotting the light on those factors behind EFL students’ deficiencies in the writing skill and finding the way that help them write correctly and effectively. We relied mainly on: 1. Observation made while correcting students’ exam papers, homework, research papers, and classroom production and the number of errors they commit. 2. Questionnaires addressed to around 25 teachers of the English Department Mohamed Khider University (full-time and part-time teachers) in addition to 60students of different levels (10 students of each level L1, L2, L3, M1, M2 and 4th Classic) to collect information about their awareness of the writing skill importance, their motivation to write in English and the way they correct their errors. More than 60% of the respondents from the teachers pointed out those EFL students are unaware of the importance of the writing skill, in addition to their poor level in writing. Over 50% of the informants from the students link their weaknesses in writing to their lack of concentration while writing, and around 30% of them stated that they have a lack in mastering English grammar rules and that they are unaware of the writing skill importance. students’ deficiencies in the writing skill are the result of their poor background knowledge in the target language and the lack of practice, and their low motivation to write in English. In addition, the teachers agreed that the most suitable measures are to encourage students to write more, supply feedback immediately and call for peer correction.

DOI: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.11.416