Error analysis of articles written by Japanese learners of English

This thesis analyses article errors made in written English by Japanese students of English as a foreign language. The study attempts to determine whether the use of articles is a fossilizable item for the Japanese learner of English, and, if so, what types of article errors trouble the learner most. The hypotheses set up are: 1) there is no significant correlation between frequency of article errors in a student's writing and the student's level of English proficiency; 2) of the types of errors under study, the omission error is prevalent; and 3) the first language interference is the main cause of the omission error.By means of careful error analysis, the investigator substantiates the hypotheses showing that the group which was in the higher grade in school was not always the one which made fewer errors, that in all the groups but one, the percentage of omission errors was conspicuously high, and that the subjects made fewer errors when the specific use in English had a lexical counterpart in Japanese.Thesis (M.A.