Abstract

During the student teacher experience, the author finds many different kinds of lexical errors in the English writings by the middle school students. The author collects 633 lexical errors from 150 compositions written by 60 Grade Two students in Hangzhou Jialvyuan Middle School. Then the author divides these lexical errors in two categories: formal errors and semantic errors. More specifically, formal errors mainly include misspelling, misusage of word form, and confusion of parts of speech. Semantic errors mainly include confusion of sense relations, collocation errors, and wordforword translation. In addition, the author does a questionnaire survey on students’ vocabulary learning. Through the error analysis and the feedbacks of the questionnaire, the author finds that the main causes of lexical errors can be ascribed to the negative transfer of native language, inadequate teaching strategies and inefficient learning strategies. Finally, the author provides some pedagogical suggestions in English teaching and learning.

Key words: middle school students ; English writing; lexical errors; error analysis; learning strategy; teaching strategy

Contents

Abstract

摘  要

1. Introduction 6

1.1 Research Background 6

1.2 Research Significances 6

2. Relevant Theories 8

2.1 Perspective of Error 8

2.1.1 Definitions of Error8

2.1.2 Error and Mistake 8

2.1.3 Significances of Error 8

2.2 Perspective of Lexical Error 9

    2.2.1 Views on Lexical Error 9

    2.2.2 Classifications of Lexical Error9

2.3 Error Analysis 12

2.3.1 Definitions of Error Analysis 12

2.3.2 Significances of Error Analysis12

3. Previous Researches 13

3.1 Researches on Lexical Errors Abroad 13

3.2 Researches on Lexical Errors in China 13

3.3 Summary of the Previous Studies 14

4. Research Methodology 15

4.1 Research Purposes 15

4.2 Research Questions 15

4.3 Research Subjects 15

4.4 Research Methods 15

4.5 Research Procedures 16

5. Results and Discussion 17

5.1 The Lexical Errors in Research Subjects’ Compositions 17

5.2 The Results of the Questionnaires 20

5.3 The Causes of Lexical Errors 22

5.4 The Pedagogical Suggestions in English Teaching and learning 23

6. Conclusion 24

References 25

Appendix 26