Abstract:
This research has been carried out to investigate the learners' lexical errors and their effect on the students’ written performance.
The researcher used the descriptive analytical approach. Data has been collected through a questionnaire for university English language teachers. In addition to a composition test for the university students from differnrt English departments. The questionnaire was designed to compile responses made by the EFL teachers at the university level while the composition test was to complile, analyse, classify and find relations between the lexical errors made.
The most important of the findings of the study are that a big number of university students make extensive and varied lexial errors. The causes of the university students’ lexical errors are attributed to many factors chief among them are the the interference of the mother tongue, and absence of strategies followed in dealing with such errors. It has also been found that the percentage of lexical errors made by the university students is high with regard to their comprehensibility and have negative effect on their written performance.
In the light of the research’s findings, it is recommended that lexical errors discussion technique should be encouraged and used for correcting lexical errors and testing learners’ written performance. In addition to naturally activate the learner's productive vocabulary through conducting further studies on vocabulary acquisitions in general and lexcial usage in particular.
