English Through the Filter of the Mother Tongue in Economics Students’ Formal Writing

Abstract

This study presents an analysis of a series of errors made in English by Romanian economics students, which are due to associations with the mother tongue. The study specifically dwells on formal misselection, misformations and distortions. 125 papers were used in the study, which were collected in the academic year 2016/2017 from 59 first year finances and banking students, 26 third year marketing students and 40 first year management students. Finances and banking students wrote a report starting from a chart, marketing students wrote a cover letter, while management students wrote a business email. Different topics were provided in order not to limit the students’ vocabulary to one topic only.

Keywords

• formal misselection
• misformations
• distortions
• ESL
• mental lexicon