Complexity of Error Patterns in EFL Writing: Comparing Unskilled Writers’ Production and Revision

Complexity of Error Patterns in EFL Writing: Comparing Unskilled Writers’ Production and Revision

This study investigated nonnative writers’ English compositions presented in two tasks of writing (production and revision) in terms of the textual features and error patterns therein. For this purpose, the study compared EFL student writers’ productions of errors in their English composition (production task) with their own evaluations of errors in an English text written by a nonnative writer (revision task). These data were then collated with the results of the survey in which nonnative writers’ English writing needs, reasons for writing difficulties and their own definitions of successful writing were measured. In terms of linguistic and discourse features, there was salient discrepancy between production and revision tasks. The writers’ assessment of errors in revision task indicated noticeably higher markings at the discourse than the sentence (grammar and lexical) level, and this heavy marking of discourse errors in the revision related to those with lower marking of sentence-level errors. In both tasks, high scores at the discourse level are mostly from those gaining lower grammar points, indicating that those with higher grammar skills are not precisely the case with strong discourse ability in writing. These findings suggest that teaching EFL writing should be a matter that needs to be handled more comprehensively, and in this process, developing discourse competence should be conceived as a separate concern. (216 words)