Cogent Education (Dec 2022)
The effect of writing exercises in classroom on the production of written sentences at undergraduate level by Saudi EFL learners: A case study of error analysis
Abstract
This study aims to analyze the types, and frequency of errors in written sentences by undergraduate Saudi English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners, following a quasi-experimental design. Data were collected from two groups: the control group (CG) and the experimental group (EG) through written sentences. The control group (CG) did not receive the treatment whereas the experimental group (EG) did to show the effect of writing exercises in the classroom on the production of written sentences. The experimental group (EG) received extra 3 hours of teaching and writing practice in a week to show the effect of classroom writing on the production of written sentences. The researcher assigned extra writing exercises in the classroom for the experimental group (EG) from the coursebook (Unlock 1, and 2) for 2 months. The age of the participants ranged from 18 to 25. The findings revealed that both groups committed overall errors with a significantly different frequency such as the control group with 199, whereas the experimental group with 116. Moreover, the control group committed errors in 9 categories out of 11 like “wrong word order”, “wrong use of preposition”, “wrong use of article”, “wrong com-adjectives”, “wrong subject verb-tense”, “faulty capitalization”, “punctuations”, “spelling errors”, and “wrong word choice”. In contrast, the experimental group produced errors only in 7 categories out of 11, and these are, “wrong use of preposition”, “wrong use of article”, “wrong subject verb-tense”, “faulty capitalization”, “punctuations”, “spelling errors”, and “wrong word choice”. The study has important implications for the teachers to modify their instructional strategies and focus on writing exercises in the classroom, and course designers to add more writing course content consisting of writing materials to provide a wide range of opportunities to the EFL learners and minimize their errors in writing skills.
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