Error analysis of primary 6 guided compositions three selected Kuching schools / Wes Mirid

Most ESL teachers face challenges in teaching writing as it involves demanding processes and requires some conscious mental effort to combine and arrange the sentences. As a result, errors and mistakes in learners' writings are common and inevitable. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine some linguistic errors that were found in the Primary 6 students' guided compositions in three selected schools in Kuching Districts, Sarawak Malaysia. The samples comprised 60 students, randomly selected from Sekolah Kebangsaan Laksamana, Kuching, Sekolah Kebangsaan Satria Jaya, Kuching and Sekolah Kebangsaan Green Road, Kuching.Authentic learners' compositions were collected and analyzed according to the seven categories derived from the UCL Editor error-tagging scheme (Granger, Dagneaux, Denness, and Meunier, 1996) and follows the principles of Error Analysis suggested by Corder (1974). Findings revealed that generally students made high frequency errors in grammatical items, especially with tenses and use of verbs. The errors were mainly misselection of tenses and verbs used as a result of overgeneralization and ignorance of rule restrictions