A DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS OF COMMON GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN UNDERGRADUATE EFL WRITING

Abstract

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.