A Study of Error Analysis of Written English at College Level: Female Teachers’ perspective

Abstract

Errors and mistakes are inevitable parts of the learning process. For an overall mastery of language all the four skills are important but for Pakistani students, and specially for the students of degree level, writing skill is more important as the students’ linguistic competence in the examination is assessed through writing only. Our examinations are writing oriented and although more time and attention is paid to writing skills yet even after so much coaching and care the performance of our students remain very poor. Students keep committing grave errors in large number and remain unable to write even a few sentences in grammatically correct English. Many students at college level fail simply because of the subject of English and many leave their education for good because of repeated failure in this subject. Therefore, the researcher felt a dire need to see into the nature, causes and frequency of errors in written English at degree level with a view to making suggestion to minimize these errors and hence help the teachers as well as students to improve the situation. The aim of the research was to highlight the weak areas of the students while writing English as well as to determine the attitude of the students and the teachers towards written errors. For this purpose, interviews of Five female teachers from different districts of Punjab were conducted for qualitative data and analysis. In the end, on the basis of the findings, conclusion is drawn and suggestions are given for the rectification of errors.