Ecuadorian public high school students´ errors in EFL writing skills

Abstract

This study is aimed to investigate the Ecuadorian public high school students´ errors in EFL writing skills; which purpose is to identify different types of writing errors, the most frequent errors, causes and reasons of those errors. This research was done in the city of Zaruma, being the sample for the investigation 80 students and 5 teachers from second year senior public high school. The instruments for data collection were students and teachers questionnaires, as well as a written text. The information gathered was organized and analyzed using the quantitative and qualitative methods. Findings from this study reveal that in the areas: grammar, mechanics, and content were found various errors that marked a high level of occurrence. The most frequent errors about grammar were incorrect literal translation, misuse of prepositions, and pluralization of adjectives; the mechanical errors were spelling mistakes and lack of punctuation; while among the content errors, the major problem lied on incorrect organization of ideas and omission of transition words.