CORRECTION OF FIRST YEAR STUDENTS’ WRITINGS : A PSYCHOLINGUISTIC APPROACH

Abstract

The present work undertakes an Error Analysis at the level of first year students in the English Department of Tlemcen University Abou Bakr Belkaïd. More precisely, it is a study devoted to the correction of heir essays written in English, i.e., it is a comparison between the number of errors produced before correction ad those made, by the same students, after the teacher’s correction for two purposes : 1- To recognise the difficulties faced by the targeted group when writing in English, thanks to the analysis of he produced errors; explain their causes and provide the suitable remedial wok. 2- The second objective is to reveal if there is an impact of the teacher’s correction strategies on learners in writing, through a comparison between the number of errors produced in English writings before correction and those made after correction. The first chapter presents a survey of Error Analysis with an introduction and explanation of some Error Analysis concepts; in addition to correction, including the choice of errors to be corrected, and the type of errors’ correction. The second chapter shifts to practice. It presents the methodology of the undertaken research, describes the subjects (who are first year University students in the Department of English of Tlemcen), procedure and materials used in the present Error Analysis. Moreover, it deals with the description and explanation of the produced errors, and gives their possible causes. In addition to this, it sums some results found through the comparison between the errors de before and after correction. Finally, the third chapter tries to give some solutions in order to avoid errors in writing, by presenting a set of suggestions like dictation, re-teaching, translation, the use of games in teaching, and some additional activities.