This research aims to describe English language errors in the scientific papers. The research data consists of 104 scientific articles that authors sent to Journal of Thu Dau Mot University. The quantitative method was applied in the form of frequency charts for each category of surface strategy taxonomy and comparative analysis. Based on the analysis theory of grammatical errors, all of the errors in these articles were identified and classified into different categorizations. The findings of the study showed that the authors’ writings were committed three main error groups: Lexical errors are the highest with 281 (49%); the number of Syntactic errors are ranked the second with 222 (39%); Morphological errors are the lowest with 69 (12%). On the basis of these results it is figured out that the authors still have difficulties in writing a research papers in English because they are not English major. Moreover the grammar of English is known as their foreign language. Another reason that the writer made errors is uninterested in organization of their papers. From the study findings above, the researcher suggests some implications to help authors improve their academic writing and meet English international standard.

This study investigated grammatical difficulties encountered by students of the People’s Police University while learning grammar in ESP courses. The design included questionnaires to teachers and students, and classroom participant observations. The findings indicated that the student respondents only perceived four target features to be difficult to learn. The results also showed that the students’ perceptions of grammatical difficulty were influenced by several factors including the inherent complexity of rules, L1 transfer, students’ differences in language aptitude, students’ infrequency of practice, and teaching methodology. The findings will hopefully be useful for teachers and researchers with an interest in this line of research.