Analyzing Syntactic Errors Made by Undergraduates

Abstract

This researchaimed at analyzing the syntactic errors made by EFL 1st years under graduate students at the College of languages – Sudan University of Science and Technology. Research data were collected through achievement test and questionnaire. The sample of the study has been drawn from (60) first year students. As for the questionnaire (30) teachers ofEnglish have expressed their opinions on the questionnaire’s statements. Descriptive analytical method was used as a tool to achieve the study objectives. The results of the study revealed thatStudents’ Arabic language can have a negative effect onstudent’s writing performance,differences between Arabic and English are bound to cause difficulties of writing. Moreover,Results highlighted thatStudents generalize the grammatical rules of mother tongue (Arabic) in to the foreign language (English). At the end of the study the researcher give some suggestions and recommendations for the study.