Grammatical Problems in the Writings of EFL Undergraduate Learners

This study investigates the most persistent grammatical problems as well as the pattern of development in the writings of Iranian university students studying English. First, 120 students were selected among whom 80 students including 42 low-proficient and 38 high- proficient were selected for the main study based on TOEFL proficiency test. Then, they were asked to write a composition on a topic of their own interest for 40 minutes. Thirty compositions from each level were chosen randomly and three judges rated the compositions. The structural errors in each composition and at each proficiency level were identified, categorized and finally tabulated. Then, frequency, proportion and percentage of errors in each category were calculated. Finally, chi-square tests were applied to see if there was a significant difference between categories of error types at and across each of the proficiency levels under investigation. The results indicated that students' problems in certain areas including proposition, lack of concord, article and distribution of verb groups and tense figured more prominently. Moreover, in a few cases such as relative clauses and the plural morphemes a pattern of development was detected. Key terms: Error Analysis, EFL, Proficiency level