A DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS OF COMMON GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN UNDERGRADUATE EFL WRITING

The research examines common grammatical error patterns in the written work of undergraduate Uzbek English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. Writing samples were collected from 20 essays produced in response to IELTS Task 1 prompts. The main purpose of the study was to identify, classify, and quantitatively analyze frequent grammatical errors and to provide pedagogical insights for improving academic writing accuracy. A corpus-based Error Analysis (EA) approach was applied, using a synthesized 13-category tagging system adapted from Divsar and Heydari (2017) and Kutlimuratova (2021). Descriptive statistical analysis was used to calculate frequency distributions and compare error categories across the learner corpus. The participants included 12 female and 8 male undergraduate students, and all texts were anonymized to ensure confidentiality. The results indicated that verb-related errors represented the most dominant category, followed by article and preposition errors. These difficulties were mainly associated with tense usage, subject–verb agreement, article omission, and inappropriate preposition selection. Additional errors were observed in noun number agreement, sentence structure, spelling, and punctuation, though at lower frequencies. The findings highlight persistent challenges in morphosyntactic accuracy among EFL learners and suggest the need for more focused grammar instruction, meaningful writing practice, and effective corrective feedback strategies in academic writing classrooms.

本研究聚焦乌兹别克英语作为外语（English as a Foreign Language, EFL）本科学习者书面习作中的常见语法错误模式。研究样本取自20篇针对雅思（IELTS）任务1（Task 1）命题要求完成的习作。本研究的核心目的为识别、分类并定量分析高频语法错误，同时为提升学术写作准确性提供教学启示。本研究采用基于语料库的错误分析（Error Analysis, EA）方法，使用了一套改编自Divsar与Heydari（2017）、Kutlimuratova（2021）的13类别综合标注体系。研究采用描述性统计分析方法，计算错误的频率分布，并对比学习者语料库内各错误类别的差异。参与者为12名女性与8名男性本科学生，所有习作均已匿名处理以保障信息保密性。研究结果显示，动词相关错误为占比最高的错误类别，其次为冠词与介词错误。此类困难主要集中在时态使用、主谓一致、冠词遗漏以及介词选用不当等方面。此外，研究还观察到名词数一致、句子结构、拼写及标点符号类错误，不过出现频率相对较低。本研究结果凸显了EFL学习者在形态句法准确性层面存在的持续性挑战，并指出学术写作课堂亟需更具针对性的语法教学、更具实践意义的写作练习以及行之有效的纠错反馈策略。