AN ERROR ANALYSIS OF THE SCIENTIFIC WRITING OF IRAQI EFL POSTGRADUATES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

Abstract

This study purports to identify linguistic difficulties that hamper the post-graduate students at the University of Technology from well-formedly writing scientific texts and explain the identified errors in the light of psycholinguistic theories. To fulfil the aims of the present research, ten M.A. and Ph.D. theses written in different branches such as computer engineering, laser engineering, and electrical engineering were analyzed to identify the linguistic difficulties those students face. The results of an error analysis procedures show that syntactico-morphological errors constitute the majority of errors in scientific writing made by Iraqi postgraduates, followed by stylistic and lexico-semantic errors. Within the category of syntactico-morphological errors, errors in the use of tenses are the highest ones, followed by those in the use of articles, verb groups and lack of concord. Intralingual errors seem to outweigh transfer or interference errors. Finally, a number of conclusions are drawn, recommendations are put forward, and further studies are suggested.