Lexical errors in the writing of EFL students in the Armenian context

Abstract

This study was conducted to analyze Armenian EFL learners’ major difficulties in the written output in terms of lexical errors by illustrating their nature and distribution. A corpus-aided approach was used to compile the tokens of thirty-nine essays of EFL undergraduate students in an English medium university in Armenia to analyze the lexical errors inductively. Following the analysis of the learners’ corpus, a taxonomy was adopted, based on the one introduced by Dodigovic; Li; Chen & Guo (2014). All types of lexical errors were identified and systematize under corresponding categories. The result of the analysis showed that most frequent lexical errors fall under criteria of Context, followed by Word Form. Causes of errors were identified as either interlingual (L1 transfer) or intralingual (developmental errors). Examination of the main factors that caused these errors revealed, that the number of interlingual errors exceeded intralingual errors in five criteria of the taxonomy. At the end, specific implications are drawn for the EFL teachers to become aware of the areas of difficulties on lexical level that the Armenian EFL students have and help them overcome those difficulties by suggesting some pre-emptive steps and strategies in teaching vocabulary in order to avoid those errors in the writing production.