A Study of Narrative Writing Errors among Chinese Majors at Kasetsart University in Thailand

Abstract

This study investigates narrative writing errors in compositions produced by two cohorts of third-year Chinese majors at Kasetsart University, Thailand. Grounded in interlanguage theory and guided by the error annotation framework outlined in the HSK Dynamic Composition Corpus Annotation and Coding Manual (Version 2.0), the study analyzes learner errors across three dimensions—linguistic form, discourse, and pragmatics— using 50 specific error categories. Drawing on insights from Chinese linguistics and discourse analysis, the research aims to identify both common and salient issues in learners’ narrative writing. Findings indicate that errors in linguistic form constitute 80.77% of all errors, followed by discourse errors (18.53%) and pragmatic errors (0.70%). Within the linguistic form dimension, lexical errors were most frequent, followed by syntactic and punctuation errors. Within the discourse dimension, errors related to aspect and tense were most prominent, followed by reference, cohesion, ellipsis, and substitution errors. Both student cohorts exhibited similar error patterns across these dimensions. This problem-driven analysis seeks to uncover the main challenges faced by Chinese majors in narrative writing, with the goal of informing targeted instructional strategies to enhance learners’ written communication skills and overall narrative competence.