Abstract:

Writing in a foreign language is a complex skill as it requires using many different components at a time. Writing requires students not only to write down the information in their minds on paper but also to know the grammar rules, sentence structures, syntax, and spelling rules of that language. In view of the fact that writing is a productive skill, it is possible to create a written text by receiving feedback, and this can only be best achieved with teacher feedback. Students’ awareness of their spelling errors in their previous writing experiences in a foreign language is one of the most effective ways to improve writing skills. It is expected that the students who see their errors will write better text and improve their writing skills in the process. For this very reason, the present research aimed to reveal the errors made by pre-service German teachers in written texts. The research was carried out on the written texts of 23 students studying at Ondokuz Mayıs University, Faculty of Education, German Language Education program. Errors in the texts were analyzed under four main categories: syntactic errors, word choice errors, grammatical errors, and punctuation errors. As a result of the research, it was found that the most common errors made by students in written texts were grammatical errors and syntax errors.

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