Türk İngilizce öğretmeni adaylarının tartışmacı kompozisyonlarındaki kelime hatalarının sıklığı ve türleri

The aim of this study is to identify and categorize the lexical errors in the argumentative essays of Turkish students studying English Language Teaching, and then examine the relationship between lexical errors, lexical features and overall quality of writing. The data were collected from argumentative essays written by the first and third-year students of the English Language Teaching Department, Eskişehir Osmangazi University, Turkey. The participants' lexical errors were identified and categorized using Schmitt and Hemchua's (2006) taxonomy. The lexical features were examined using the Lexical Frequency Profile (LFP), the Wordsmith Tools Keywords program and the Flesch-Kincaid Readability tests. The participants' lexical errors, lexical features and overall writing scores were analyzed using statistical methods, and the relationship between them was examined. The results showed that the participants made more semantic errors than formal errors, and most of these errors were in the semantic word selection category. In terms of the effects of lexical features and errors on the overall quality of writings, lexical errors were proved to affect the total writing score and the vocabulary part score. However, the participants' year of study did not have a statistically significant effect on the number of lexical errors, total writing score, vocabulary part score, readability ease score or lexical density.