A Quanti - Qualitative stakeholder analysis of rural English language learners’ essay writing errors

Abstract

English First Additional Language (EFAL) Error Analysis (EA) elevates the status of errors from being undesirable to significant as errors tend to afford the educator researcher an opportunity to identify and tackle learners’ language errors optimally. Additionally, learners deserve space to practise essay writing. The research was premised on EA; EFAL learners’ written essays were analysed and educators were interviewed on the learners’ essay writing errors, respectively. Purposive sampling was used to collect data from the stakeholders; learners’ written essays and interview responses of the educators on EFAL essay writing errors. The findings suggest that EFAL educators should be adept at identifying and analyzing essay writing errors of learners of all hue in South African rural public schools. Thus, learners and educators need to work in concert towards correcting and in the long term, eradicating essay writing errors.