VEDA’S JOURNAL OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE (JOELL)
An International Peer Reviewed (Refereed) Journal
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ERROR ANALYSIS AS A TOOL TO IMPROVE WRITING SKILL: A JOURNEY FROM PRETEST TO POSTTEST

Iftakhar Ahmed^1*, Mohammed Jasim Uddin Khan²

^1*(Lecturer (English), Faculty of Life Science, Mawlana Bhashani Science & Technology University, Bangladesh.)

Email: iftakharahmedju@gmail.com

²(Lecturer, English Language, Prime University Language Institute, Prime University, Dhaka, Bangladesh.)

Email: jasimkhanbd19@yahoo.com

doi: https://doi.org/10.33329/joell.61.68

ABSTRACT

               This study aims to make the English language learners writing skill more effective at the undergraduate level of Bangladesh.  For this purpose the evaluation of the writing component of a four months’ Communicative English language course was conducted at a public university of Bangladesh. Firstly, a pre-test based on essay writing was given to the learners at the beginning of the semester as a first evaluation, the results were saved. The errors that are noted down from the first evaluation are: Subject Verb Agreement, Collocation, Discontinuous Constituent, Mechanics, Complementary Clause, Gerund,  Mix of American and British English Words, Mix of formal and Informal/semiformal form of words, Copula “be”, Modal Verb, Modal Verb, Run-Ons, Word Order, Quantifier, Pronoun, Redundancy, Capitalization, Conditionals, Determiner, Punctuation Marks and Double Negatives. Based on the outcomes of this study, these errors were the main focus in the remedial English Teaching that followed during the whole semester. It saved valuable teaching time, and made the English classes for the students more effective. Secondly, overt grammar practice was given to them during the following four months focusing on the specific errors which were collected from the pretest. Thirdly, a final assignment was given to see if their writing skills had improved after four month program. The comparison of the pre-test and post-test produced valuable data that exposed that the learners improved their writing skill significantly at the end of the four month semester.  

Keywords:  Error Analysis, Essays, Pretest, Posttest.

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