Errors in English writing of ESL/EFL students: a systematic review

Abstract

Errors in the English writing of students have been studied in different levels of education and in different genres of writing in different countries. The study of writing errors is considered essential for improving the writing of students. This systematic review studies the research papers which have been conducted in the surrounding countries of Afghanistan to find out the most common errors in the writing of EFL/ESL learners in this region, and to find the gap in the existing literature in this region. The studies were identified through a search in three databases: The Science Direct, the Academy Publications, and the Scopus journals database. The included studies are conducted in EFL/ESL, focused on errors in the writing, and published in one of the three abovementioned journals. The three databases produced 562 articles, from which nine articles were included in the study based on inclusion/exclusion criteria. After an in-depth study of the articles, it was revealed that the EFL/ESL speakers of English in these countries commit errors in writing, and most of these errors are in the grammatical and mechanics category. The most common errors reported in the studies were in articles, prepositions, punctuation, spelling, and word choice. In these countries, a few genres of writing, such as essays and journals, have been studied.