Exploring Causes of Grammar Errors Committed by EFL Learners in Writing Essays

Abstract

English Foreign Language (EFL) students encounter many grammatical difficulties when writing essays. These difficulties lead them to commit various grammatical errors. This study aims first at finding the most recurrent errors made by EFL third year license students at the University of Mohammed Seddik Ben Yahia, Jijel. Then, it explores the causes of those grammatical errors. Two questionnaires were administered; one to 60 third year students and the other to five teachers of written expression. In the light of the obtained results from both questionnaires, it was found that the students’ most frequent grammatical errors are made in the use of tenses, punctuation, subject-verb agreement and preposition. Moreover, the findings of this research work showed that the main causes behind the students' grammatical errors are either interlingual or intralingual. The interlingual causes are related solely to negative transfer from the mother tongue. While the intralingual ones are restricted to overgeneralization, ignorance of rule restriction and incomplete application of rules. Furthermore, there are other less influential sources for the students’ grammatical errors such as time restriction, content coverage and lack of practice.