Analyzing Egyptian EFL Secondary Stage Learners’ Grammatical Errors in Writing

Abstract

This study aimed at finding the most common grammatical errors committed by Egyptian EFL learners in writing. In order to achieve the aim of the current study, a random sample of thirty Egyptian EFL secondary stage students was selected from Dar El Taryba School. A writing diagnostic test adopted from Cambridge English preliminary teachers’ handbook and Euro exams B1 webset was used as the tool for the current study. The test consisted of three questions, and the study participants were required to answer all the questions of the test. The study results indicated that more than 90% of the study participants committed grammatical errors in their writing related to wrong tenses, incorrect subject-verb-agreement while 60% of the students committed grammatical errors in their writing related to the wrong use of comparative and superlative forms. Based on the study findings, the hypothesis was partially confirmed and partially refuted. However, the study findings cannot be generalized as the study was a small scale one that was conducted on a random sample of only thirty Egyptian EFL secondary stage students in only one Egyptian school. Therefore, it is recommended that it would be better to conduct larger scale studies in the Egyptian context in order to ensure the reliability of the findings. According to the study results, it is suggested that EFL teachers should integrate the writing classes with the grammar classes in order to help EFL learners overcome such grammatical errors in their writing