Grammatical and Lexical Errors in Students＇ English Composition Writing： The Case of Three Senior High Schools （SHS） in the Central Region of Ghana

摘要

This is a qualitative study aimed at finding the lexical and grammatical errors students of three Senior High Schoolsin the Central Region of Ghana commit in their essay writing. The study also sought to examine the frequency ofthe errors and what can be done to improve the teaching of L2 （English） writing in the Senior High School. Thestudy used a corpus of essay writings of 150 second year students. The schools and the participants werepurposively selected. The data were analyzed using the content analysis approach. The study identified that thelexical errors in the students＇ writing were due to homophone problems and semantic lexical errors. Thegrammatical errors identified were agreement errors, tense errors, singular-plural （number） errors, prepositionalerrors, and article errors. The study also found that the most frequently committed grammatical error was tenseerrors followed by agreement errors. The implications of these findings to the teaching of English writing are thatteachers where possible should have understanding of both the L1 and L2 of the students and teachers shouldexplicitly teach for transfer, have adequate knowledge of how to identify students＇ writing errors, and use effectiveteaching strategies to improve students＇ English writing. Additionally, teachers should serve as models of usingappropriate English for students to emulate and also create a conducive classroom environment for students toparticipate in class activities. Lastly, teachers should create more opportunities for students to write.