A Study on Word Choice Errors in EFL Writing at the Tertiary Level : The Impact of L1 and Cultural Background

Claudia Sangmi Yun (윤상미)

doi:10.14353/sjk.2020.28.3.06

A Study on Word Choice Errors in EFL Writing at the Tertiary Level : The Impact of L1 and Cultural Background

The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea
Abbr : 사회언어학
2022, 30(3), pp.165-186
DOI : 10.14353/sjk.2020.28.3.06
Publisher : The Sociolinguistic Society Of Korea
Research Area : Humanities > Linguistics
Received : August 10, 2022
Accepted : September 1, 2022
Published : September 30, 2022

Claudia Sangmi Yun ¹

Accredited

ABSTRACT

The present study aims to categorize common word choice errors in Korean EFL writing and help teachers understand students’ word choice patterns. This study reassures that both L1 and its background cultures affect language learners’ choice of vocabulary in English learning. Korean first-year undergraduate students with low levels of English proficiency participated in this study. The students were required to carry out a writing log, a collection of nine pieces of weekly assignments of paragraph writing during the semester. They were allowed to use any type of automatic translation such as Google Translate or Papago for revision and editing. The errors that the students produced were classified into three categories, and significant findings were obtained regarding lexical errors caused by literal translation, cultural differences, and L1 word order. The findings are interpreted in terms of cultural and linguistic differences between the first and target languages. They can give ideas for teachers to instruct EFL writing strategies on students’ word choice errors.

KEYWORDS

EFL Writing, Word Choice Error, Cultural Difference, Literal Translation, L1 Transfer, ELT

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The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.57

A Study on Word Choice Errors in EFL Writing at the Tertiary Level : The Impact of L1 and Cultural Background

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Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.57

A Study on Word Choice Errors in EFL Writing at the Tertiary Level : The Impact of L1 and Cultural Background

ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS

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