Analysis of writing errors made by grade 11 learners in English: A case study of two secondary schools in the Omusati education region in Namibia

English Second Language (ESL) writing is a challenge to most of the learners in the Namibian schools. It is against this background that this study deals with the analysis of writing errors that are made by grade 11 learners in ESL from the two selected secondary schools in the Omusati Education Region in Namibia. It aims at identifying and analyzing writing errors in 400 essays written in English by 400 grade 11 learners. Errors were also compared in terms of gender and mother tongue, as the learners had different first languages which are Oshindonga and Oshikwanyama, in addition to ESL. The researcher applied a mixed method which comprises of quantitative and qualitative approaches. The quantitative method was used to identify the writing errors while qualitative method was used to analyse the writing errors. Both approaches considered the first languages and gender in terms of errors made. Four hundred essays were analysed and errors were categorized into 16 types. The most common errors identified were poor choice of words, spelling, punctuation, tenses, word omitted, singular/plural and capitalisation. The qualitative analyses of the errors clearly showed that learners made many errors in the identified categories and they were influenced by their first language. Intra-lingual transfer, fossilization and overgeneralisation were also observed in their writing. The results of the t test showed that female learners made more errors than male learners. It is vital that the Ministry of Education and teachers in particular consider the findings of this study and implement teaching and learning strategies that will improve learners‟ English writing.

Author dc:creator

• Kapolo, Frieda L.

• Writing errors

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

thesis

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.unam.edu.na:11070/893