Misuse of Punctuation by EFL Students: Third Year LMD Students as a Case Study

Abstract

Incorporating punctuation into the sentence is challenging for many EFL classes. This study aims at investigating the common punctuation errors committed by third year EFL students at Adrar University. Such errors occur systematically based on the obtained results from the analysis of the questions and the exam papers. The questionnaire contained 13 sentences and a paragraph. It was distributed to a total sample of 100 students who were chosen from the department of English in order to see their ability to use punctuation in an English text. Both instruments that used for data collection include the insertion of the fourteen English punctuation. The researcher used a quantitative method to analyze the questions. The findings revealed that EFL students at Adrar University commit errors repeatedly in the placement of most punctuation marks including commas, periods, capitalization, hyphens, semicolons and dashes. In addition, the study also aimed at identifying the different causes that lead to error occurrence when applying punctuation in writing.