A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of degree" licencié en Langue et Litterature Anglaises"

The English language in Burundi has been so far learnt as a foreign Lnguage and the teaching of in secondary schools is expected to equip learners with practical language skills needed to perform diverse functions in society.Thus, the writing skill is the correrstone of funtional use of language.Writting skills are needed not only in educational settings but also in functional or social communication. This study on "Error analysis in essay writing in second form arts section in Bujumbura private schools" aimed at finding out the causes of such errors and suggests some strategies to improve the teaching writing skill in that class. It is concerned with the improvement of learning conditions;the improvement of the learning materails with curriculum,which all of will result in better input. Moreover,it hingees on three mains hypotheses namely:

- Second Form Arts Second pupils face many difficulties in Essay writing and make different types of errors.

-Those difficulties are caused by overgeneralization of the rules,lack of background in essay writing L1 and L2 interference.

-The teaching materials available are not adequate for the teaching of the writing.