A Corpus-based Study of Word Errors in Senior High School Students’ English Writing

Yujia Kang; Huaqing He

doi:10.63313/EH.9084

Authors

Yujia Kang China West Normal University, Nanchong 637000, China Author
Huaqing He China West Normal University, Nanchong 637000, China Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.63313/EH.9084

Keywords:

Word Errors, High School Students, English Writing, Vocabulary Instruction

Abstract

Vocabulary serves as a cornerstone of English writing, yet word errors remain a prevalent and under-addressed issue in senior high school students’ compositions. This study constructs a corpus from 242 student writings from a Sichuan high school. Employing CLEC error classification guidelines for analysis, it investigated the distribution and causes of word errors. In terms of frequency, these errors were ranked from highest to lowest as follows: ambiguity, substitution, absence, part-of-speech errors, redundancy, repetition, and word order errors. Key contributing factors included mother tongue interference, insufficient language knowledge, and limited exposure to authentic English. Based on these insights, the study proposed targeted teaching suggestions aimed at reducing word errors and enhancing overall writing proficiency among high school students.

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