Abstract

This study aims to investigate and analyze the errors of English for specific purposes college students in using synonyms. It also discovers the difficulties that faced ESP students in using synonyms. A descriptive-analytical method was used in this study. The population of the study were (60) ESP college students from the college of Political Sciences at Al-Nahrain University, in the academic year 2018–2019. The sample consists of (50) ESP for college students, which were chosen randomly. Data for the study were collected from the written test which consisted of different five questions and each question contains five items, so the total items were 25. The findings of the study showed the importance of error analysis for the learners and teachers; it can provide a good methodology for investigating learners’ errors in English. The study discovered that the most occurred errors are due to their limited knowledge of acquisition of vocabulary especially for learners who study English for specific purposes. The insufficient of vocabulary knowledge causes many difficulties for learners in choosing the correct synonyms and, hence, they committed errors which prevent their advance in learning natural English. Finally, the study concludes with some recommendations for further research.

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