A Corpus-based Analysis Of High School Students’Lexical Errors Of English Writing In The Northwest Minorities Areas

This study explores lexical errors occurring in the English writing in the northwest minority areas. As a corpus-based analysis way, error analysis not only help to know learners’ mastery degree and learning strategy to the second language but also help to know learners’ common characteristics. It has a very important meaning to promote L2teaching. Vocabulary usually plays an indispensable part in creating a composition. It not only transfers information but also plays a very important role in communication. To a considerable extent, the way senior high school students learn to use vocabulary in English writing is to imitate how native writers use such words in their own writing. Due to the writing is a complicated skill, writing skills are one of the basic skills in English. it manifests the students’ English comprehensive quality. But in the northwest minority areas, the reality of the writing is not optimistic, there are some factors impacting their writing, such as dialects, cultural differences, living environment, lack of teaching resources and so on. Therefore, most of students have difficulty in learning English. The students have a low level in basic English, familiar vocabulary is very poor and the master of vocabulary structure is unstable. English writing ability is also very poor, constantly appearing different errors, especially lexical errors. In view of these, this thesis employs a corpus-based approach, such theories as Contrast Analysis (CA) and Error Analysis (EA), combining of Quantitative analysis and Qualitative analysis methods and analyzing the lexical errors of300compositions of some students in Grade two of Gannan high school. The study will adopt data from the self-made corpus, in which the data are colleted from CLEC. Based on this, some hypotheses are formed as follows:1. Will more lexical error occur in English writing from high school students in the northwest minority areas than ST2of CLEC?2. What is the main type of lexical errors?3. What are the possible causes of high school students’ lexical errors in the northwest minority areas?Using statistics analysis software Spss16.0, with the help of retrieving software AntConc3.2and classification analysis, the writer focus on spelling errors, part of speech, absence, substitution and redundancy and other the lexical errors of senior high students in the northwest minority areas, among which one of spelling errors is the most frequent. The possible cause of lexical errors is very complex, so the study mainly discusses the writing of high school students by analyzing the cause of errors from interlingual interference, intralingual interference, different cultures and individual thought, level of English, hoping to provide useful enlightenment for senior English writing teaching.