A Discourse Error Analysis of English Majors’ English Writing: Based on Micro-Level

Xiaoli Bao

Abstract


Based on the theories of error analysis, discourse analysis and language transfer, this thesis aims to investigate the discourse errors made by English majors’ in their English writing. Discourse errors are analyzed at micro-level, cohesion. Cohesion errors are examined from four aspects: reference, conjunction, substitution and ellipsis, lexical cohesion. The results indicate that the students’ essays display some common weaknesses in term of discourse errors at the micro-level, which includes ambiguity in reference, misuse or overuse of conjunction and repetition, misuse of lexical items, etc.. The possible causes of errors are pointed out.


Keywords


Discourse analysis; Error analysis; English majors; English writing

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References


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/n

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