Affiliation:
1. Nara Institute of Science and Technology
Abstract
Abstract
Error Analysis was developed by early Second Language Acquisition (SLA) researchers as a way to investigate
interlanguage and better understand the second-language learning processes. While it is no longer an active branch of research in
SLA, it remains a useful tool for those concerned with accuracy in language use. Given the elevated importance of accuracy in
English for Research and Publication Purposes (ERPP), this may be one area where Error Analysis may continue to inform research
and praxis. The high degree of language precision demanded in ERPP contexts can be a source of frustration for many engaged in
scholarly publication, especially those for whom English is an additional language, such as the Japanese scientists studied in
this paper. For Japanese scientists and possibly others, an empirical profile of their most frequent error patterns may help them
to better deal with accuracy in research writing. With this motivation, this study applies a corpus-assisted error analysis
framework to quantify sentence-level grammar errors and identify the most frequent error patterns in the research article
manuscripts of Japanese scientists. A corpus of 53 research article manuscripts with 4,495 errors comprises the primary data.
Additionally, two raters and a comparison of errors from scientists from six different L1 backgrounds are employed to triangulate
the data and investigate the reliability and generalizability of the findings. Findings reveal that the top ten most frequent
errors comprise 52.9%, or half of all errors in the corpus, and are dominated by errors with determiners and prepositions.
Publisher
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Reference44 articles.
1. Shapers of published NNS research articles
2. The effect of the use of L1 in a multimedia tutorial on grammar learning: An error analysis of Taiwanese beginning EFL learners’ English essays;Chen;Asian EFL Journal,2006
3. “Awkward wording. Rephrase”: linguistic injustice in ecological journals