AN ERROR ANALYSIS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC ESSAYS

Camille Jean T. Blanco, Maxine M. Tancinco, Maxine M. Tancinco, John Harry S. Caballo, John Harry S. Caballo

Abstract


This study conducted an error analysis of 100 academic essays written by junior high school students at a private university in the Philippines, employing Corder’s (1967) Error Analysis Framework. Essays, at least three paragraphs long and on uniform topics, were examined for lexical, morphological, and syntactic errors categorized as substitution, omission, addition, permutation, and mechanics. A total of 1,208 errors were identified, with mechanics predominant (43.46%; n=525), followed by substitution (18.38%; n=222), omission (18.21%; n=220), addition (14.73%; n=178), and permutation (5.22%; n=63). Within mechanics, punctuation errors were most frequent (40.38%), driven by comma misuse; spelling (33.33%) and capitalization (26.29%) followed. Substitution errors were evenly distributed across lexical (36.47%), syntactic (35.15%), and morphological (28.38%) levels, often involving prepositions, articles, and subject-verb agreement. Omission was primarily syntactic (65.90%), notably missing articles; addition was led by syntactic redundancy (49.44%); and permutation was exclusively syntactic (100%), reflecting word-order confusion. Findings align with interlanguage theory, attributing errors to L1 interference, overgeneralization, and insufficient grammar mastery. The study underscores the analytical value of error analysis for junior high school ESL writing and recommends targeted grammar instruction, error-specific feedback, and iterative drafting with peer review to enhance proficiency.

 

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error analysis, junior high school, academic essays, Corder’s framework

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References


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejel.v10i4.6410

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