Error Analysis in English Writing by Chinese Graduate Students with Non-English Majors Pursuing Master’s Degrees: Insights from a Descriptive Linguistics

Abstract

Based on quantitative and qualitative research methods, this study explores the types of errors in English writing for non-English major graduate students in the Chinese context and the intervention in English writing teaching from the perspective of descriptive linguistics. To be specific, 59 non-English major graduate students from a university in eastern China were randomly selected for two writing samples, which were reviewed by 4 professional teachers. The consistency and difference of grading results were tested by different teachers to the same sample. Based on the mean value, the types of high frequency errors were obtained, and the teaching intervention was proposed from the perspective of descriptive linguistics. The results show that: (1) There is little difference in the grading results of the same sample, and there is a high consistency; (2) In the results of consistency testing and differential analysis of the two samples, Lexical Errors and Discourse Errors may occur more frequently, but after considering the Arithmetic Means and the above analysis results, Discourse Errors rate is the highest in the grading results; (3) The genre-based process English writing teaching intervention has benefited the non-English major graduate students greatly in English writing in the Chinese context.