A contrastive error analysis on the written errors of Turkish students learning English

Abstract

It is self-evident that langnaffe learning takes place over a period of time and learners will produce some forms correctly, some incorrectly and others inconsistently throughout this period. The aim of this paper is to explore and explain the linguistic difficulties which Turkish students meet during their mastery of English. An error analysis was conducted on the writing samples of Bilkent University Preparatory School students. In accordance with the results the most problematic areas for the learners were determined and some suggestions for the error correction were given. Without a study based on error an-alysis it is difficult to determine which errors play a ma.jor role in the student's ability t o ’manipulate grammatical elements to build up sentences. We need to know which part of the language they have most difficulty with so that we can conduct remedial teaching.