International Journal of Language & Linguistics

Common Linguistic Errors in the Writings of Tunisian Third-Year Undergraduates of English: Sources and Possible Remedies
Dr. Youssef Mezrigui

Abstract
Various types of linguistic errors are a fact of life among learners in the processes of first-language and second-/foreign- language learning. Certain serious errors are made even by proficient native and non-native users of English. In this frame of reference, this study focuses on specific errors, to wit: run-ons, faulty parallelism, misplaced and dangling modifiers, subject-auxiliary inversion in indirect wh-questions, and using the bare infinitive after „to‟ as a preposition instead of the gerund. The study aims at investigating and discussing the various causes of these errors and suggesting possible remedies. The subjects of the study were 43 third-year English majors from the Higher Institute of Applied Languages and Computer Science of Béja, Tunisia. The author of the study collected 396 written pieces of work from the participants, namely reading and writing classroom activities and exams during the second semester of the academic year 2018 - 2019. The results of the inquiry revealed that these linguistic inaccuracies are fossilized errors which sprung in no small measure from overgeneralization, lack or absence of formal instruction, and deficient teaching. In the light of what lies at the root of the issue, it has been put forward that both effective formal teaching and constant autonomous learning with the object of assisting learners in avoiding those errors and all the other types of errors in their different writings can really be of considerable help with linguistic accuracy and academic writing proficiency.

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