Abstract：Nowadays, with the development of China, English, especially English writing , plays an important role in culture, politics, economy, science and technology. English writing ability is a comprehensive reflection of human cognitive ability, thinking ability and application ability (Li, 2005). The writing ability of Business English’s students is a comprehensive reflection of their level of English.

In this paper, the author establishes a small linguistic corpus of ten compositions written by Business English’s senior students, and adopts the methods of quantitative and qualitative to analyze linguistic errors in the compositions. It is found that there are many errors in the composition and the errors have the following features:

1.Vocabulary errors are very common, which include spelling errors, alphabetic errors, attributive errors, noun errors and the comparative degree of adjective errors.

2.In the aspect of syntax, syntactical structure is simple and there are more low-level errors, such as the errors of tense and the third person singular and so on.

3.The semantic expression is not authentic or genuine.

4.On the discourse errors, the way of expression is improper and inappropriate. 

As a result, the study finds out that negative transfer of mother tongue has a great impact on the English acquisition of English Majors. This paper thinks that students should summarize the difference of English and Chinese in the level of language in daily study, and teachers should adjust the order of teaching and pay enough attention to the correction of errors of compositions. 

Key words: English Major; Composition; Linguistic Errors; Negative Transfer

CONTENTS

ABSTRACT

中文摘要

Chapter One  INTRODUCTION-1

Chapter Two  LITERATURE REVIEW-2

2.1 Previous Foreign Research-3

2.2 Previous Domestic Researh-4

2.3 Summary-5

Chapter Three  RESEARCH DESIGN-7

3.1 Research Questions and Objective-7

3.2 Research Procedure-7

3.3 Data Collection-8

3.4 Summary-8

Chapter Four  DATA ANALYSES AND FINDINGS-9

4.1 Data Analyses9

4.1.1  Vocabulary Errors.10

4.1.2  Syntax Errors12

4.1.3  Semantic Errors14

4.1.4  Discourse Errors.14

4.2 Reasons of Errors.15 

4.3 Findings-16

Chapter Five  CONCLUSION-18

REFERENCES-20