A Survey On Prepositional Errors In English Writing Of Senior High School

English learning is divided into four parts: listening,speaking,reading,and writing.Listening and reading are important input of language;speaking and writing are the main output of language.As the only indicator of students’ written ability,English writing plays an important role in learning English.However,under the current circumstances,English writing of ordinary high schools has not yet received enough attention,especially English prepositions have been frequently misused by students in their English writing.Thus,this survey aims to provide guidance for improving teachers’ teaching and students’ prepositional uses in their English writing.Through the survey and analysis of the use of prepositions of the senior high school students,the types of prepositional errors are summarized and the causes of prepositional errors are also analyzed,which can help students to avoid making prepositional errors in their writing and allow English teachers to improve their teaching methods accordingly.Based on the error analysis theory and contrastive analysis theory,this survey selected 300 senior high school students and 30 English teachers from No.5 Senior High School in Mudanjiang as the research objects.By collecting the writing samples of these300 students,the number of overall errors in their writing,prepositional errors,and the types of prepositional errors were summarized.Statistical analysis was processed on the collected data by using SPSS 25.At the same time,questionnaires were conducted among150 students and 30 teachers;thereafter,interviews for 10 students and 10 teachers were arranged to answer some questions.There are two research questions: 1 What are the categories of prepositional errors in high school students’ English writing,and what is the ratio of each category of prepositional errors? 2 What are the causes resulting in the prepositional errors in students’ English writing?The results of the survey showed that the prepositional errors of senior high school students were not concentrated on a certain preposition.The errors were distributed in the collocation errors,fixed phrase usage errors,omission,and overuse of prepositions.Through questionnaires and interviews for both students and teachers,the author found out the causes of prepositional errors in students’ English writing: mother language’s interference,the contradiction between incomplete language knowledge and the use of the language,lack of motivation of students to learn prepositions,and insufficient attention of teachers to their teaching of prepositions,all of which attributed to prepositional errors in students’ writing.Finally,the author put forward some suggestions for English teachers by summarizing the results of the survey in hope of helping teachers to improve their teaching of prepositions,and suggested that both teachers and students should pay more attention to English prepositions in the future so as to improve students’ English proficiency comprehensively.