An Analysis of English Writing Errors of Thai EFL Students: A Case of Undergraduates in English for Communication

Abstract

This research article aimed to: 1) Investigate grammatical errors in English writing produced by students enrolled in an English for Communication course and 2) Analyze the causes of these errors. A qualitative research design was employed. The sample consisted of 39 students enrolled in the second semester of the 2023 academic year, selected through simple random sampling. The research instrument consisted of 39 students’ English sentence-writing tasks on the topic “My Routine,” each approximately 10 sentences in length. Content analysis was employed to analyze the data, and the statistics used were frequency and percentage.

The research found that:

1. Grammatical errors included spelling, verb tenses and verb forms, inappropriate word choices or incorrect word forms, the use of articles (a/an/the), capitalizations and punctuations, sentence structures and sentence fragments, subject–verb agreement errors, incorrect or missing prepositions, pronouns, and run-on sentences.
2. Grammatical errors were caused by mother-tongue interference in second-language learning and students’ limited knowledge of English grammar and vocabulary. Due to significant differences between Thai and English sentence structures and word order, students often translate directly from Thai into English, resulting in word-for-word translations, structural transfers, and incomplete sentence constructions. The findings of this study suggest that English instructors can use the results to design appropriate instructional materials and grammar-focused exercises, and to develop more effective teaching strategies to enhance students’ English writing skills.