ERROR PATTERNS IN THE INTERLANGUAGE OF VIETNAMESE EFL LEARNERS: A DUAL-TAXONOMY ANALYSIS OF ESSAY WRITING

Authors

  • Nguyen Minh Duc Faculty of Foreign Languages, Nguyen Tat Thanh University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
  • Tran Thi Huynh Nhu Faculty of Foreign Languages, Nguyen Tat Thanh University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.46827/ejfl.v10i3.6979

Keywords:

error analysis, EFL writing, interlanguage, surface strategy taxonomy, linguistic category taxonomy, Vietnamese learners

Abstract

Errors constitute an inevitable yet informative feature of second language acquisition, offering direct evidence of a learner's developing interlanguage. Whereas error analysis in Vietnam has predominantly examined undergraduates in degree programmes, learners at intensive foreign language centres remain under-researched, and studies providing an integrated taxonomy of their errors are scarce. The present study, therefore, investigated the categories and prevalence of linguistic errors in argumentative essays by EFL learners in IELTS preparation courses at a foreign language centre in Ho Chi Minh City. Adopting a descriptive mixed-methods design, the study analysed 63 end-of-course essays, in which errors were manually classified using a Linguistic Category Taxonomy synthesised from Politzer and Ramirez (1973), James (1998) and Langan (2001), and re-examined through the Surface Strategy Taxonomy (Dulay, Burt, & Krashen, 1982). Of the 1,685 errors, lexical errors were the most frequent (29.3%), followed by morphology (27.4%), syntax (21.5%), sentence structure and discourse (11.7%) and mechanics (10.1%); misformation (52.58%) dominated the surface strategy dimension. The findings indicate that word choice, number, subject-verb agreement and spelling remain the most persistent difficulties, arguably attributable to L1 negative transfer coupled with intralingual overgeneralisation. It is contended that intensive, exam-oriented instruction does not by itself remedy fundamental linguistic deficits; pedagogical implications for form-focused writing instruction are discussed.

Author Biographies

  • Nguyen Minh Duc, Faculty of Foreign Languages, Nguyen Tat Thanh University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

    Nguyen Minh Duc, an MA in TESOL from Edith Cowan University, Western Australia, works as a full-time lecturer at the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Nguyen Tat Thanh University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. His research interests include students’ motivation, intercultural communication, language assessment and computer-assisted language teaching and learning.

  • Tran Thi Huynh Nhu, Faculty of Foreign Languages, Nguyen Tat Thanh University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

    Tran Thi Huynh Nhu is a recent graduate in English Language at Nguyen Tat Thanh University. She currently serves as a customer service staff member at Tam Anh Hospital. Her research interests include Technology & AI in Language Learning, Machine Translation and post-editing.

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Published

2026-09-03

Issue

Vol. 10 No. 3 (2026)

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Articles

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