Résumé:
EFL learners confront many difficulties in learning the English language, especially with
regard to the writing skill. In fact, they may commit numerous errors in their writing. This
study is an investigation of EFL learners’ most common grammatical written errors and
their causes. The aim of this study is to explore the most recurrent grammatical errors
made by second year Licence students and their causes in their writing productions at the
University of Mohammed Seddik Ben Yahia Jijel. Two questionnaires were addressed to
97 second year students and 5 teachers who are specialized in teaching writing classes. In
addition, 31 essays of second year students were analysed to find out the most frequent
errors in their writing. Based on the overall results obtained from the two research
instruments, namely questionnaire and document analysis, it was found that students’ most
frequent grammatical errors are tenses, punctuation, subject-verb agreement, and
capitalization. Moreover, the findings of this research work showed that intralingual
transfer, negative transfer of students’ mother tongue, lack of practice, and low level of
proficiency are the main causes behind students’ grammatical errors. Furthermore, there
are other less influential causes to students’ grammatical errors such as negligence,
skipping classes, misorientation in majoring, demotivation, poor teaching skills, time limit,
and lack of reading.
