The Study Of Lexical Errors In English Writing

How English learners master and use vocabulary in writing is not only an important criterion for their English writing, but also a crucial aspect to show their ability to express in English. Moreover, the use of English vocabulary in their writing can further represent how well they learn English vocabulary. But it can also reflect some existing faults in the vocabulary teaching and learning. How to improve vocabulary and how to help learners use words effectively are the main problems vocabulary teaching has to deal with. This thesis tries to do an experimental study, analyzing lexical errors in the hope of contributing to vocabulary teaching.This study, based on theories of error analysis, language transfer, and lexical relations between words, is carried out by collecting in-class compositions written by 115 non-English majors from Suzhou Vocational University. Altogether 110 of the 115 copies are valid. These errors are classified into three categorizations: errors in synforms, errors in formation, and errors in lexical relations. As required, each category is further divided and five subcategories are obtained finally, that is, errors in spelling, errors in word class, errors of caiques, errors in lexical collocations, errors in synforms and errors in hyponyms. Causes of each type are offered by illustration. The major causes are as follows: interlingual errors, intralingual errors, the influence of communication strategy, the effect of teachers and inadequate learning strategies. Finally, according to the previous analysis and discussion, the author tries to give some suggestions on vocabulary teaching, hoping to contribute to the development of vocabulary teaching.