Error Patterns in Undergraduate English Writing: A Comparative Analysis of Learner Corpora

Abstract

This research examines the error patterns in the argumentative writing of undergraduate ESL learners through a comparative analysis of two intact student sections at a public-sector university in Pakistan.  The learner corpus analyzed in this study was made up of 67 argumentative essays produced by a group of students comprising Section A (n = 32) and Section B (n = 35). Corder’s Error Analysis framework is employed in this study and the error diagnosis is done by identifying, classifying, quantifying and explaining the errors based on error analysis rubric involving a set of fourteen error classes. The total number of the errors identified in the corpus is 1712; Section A students made 677 errors while Section B students incorporated 1035 errors. The most frequent types of errors made by the students in the corpus are Subject-Verb Agreement error (290; 16.94 % error), Verb Tense error (232; 13.55% error), Spelling error (212; 12.38% error), and Noun Plural Endings (-s/-es) (201; 11.74%). The findings reveal that undergraduate ESL learners continue having difficulties in grammatical accuracy, and morphology, to which interlingual transfer and intralingual learning processes contribute. Overall, the findings highlight the value of systematic error analysis for diagnosing recurrent difficulties in undergraduate ESL writing and for informing areas requiring focused writing instruction and practice in the Pakistani university context.