An Investigation into Punctuation and Capitalization Errors Made by Hebron University EFL Students

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the most frequent punctuation and capitalization errors made by EFL learners and to find out whether there were significant differences in the frequency of such errors due to the learners’ academic level, major, and / or gender. The sample consisted of 157 students from the English Department of Hebron University/ Palestine in the academic year 2014/2015. Specially designed test was administered whereby the students were asked to fill in necessary punctuation marks and to correct capitalization errors. The results revealed that the most frequent errors were made in capitalization, comma, semicolon, period, quotation, hyphen, apostrophe, and the question mark respectively from the highest to the lowest occurrence. Unexpectedly, there were no significant differences in the frequency of the punctuation and capitalization errors made by the students due to their academic level, major, or gender.