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Error Analysis

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Error Analysis
Error Analysis Khalid Shamkhi

1.Definition Crystal (2003:165)defines error analysis(henceforth EA) as ‘a technique for identifying, classifying and systematically interpreting the unacceptable forms produced by someone learning a foreign language ,using any of the principles and procedures provided by linguistics.’ EA was established in the 1960s by Stephen Pit Corder and colleagues as an alternative to contrastive analysis. It showed that contrastive analysis was unable to predict a great majority of errors. A key finding of EA has been that many errors are produced by learners’ making faulty inferences about the rules of the new language(http://en.wikipedia.org.).
2.Objectives
Error analysis may be carried out in order to:
a. identify strategies which learners use in language learning.
b. try to identify the causes of learner errors.
c. obtain information on common difficulties in language learning, as an aid to teaching or in the preparation of teaching materials(Richards and Schmidt,2002)
3.Lapses ,Mistakes Errors Corder (1973:256ff) contrasts ‘lapses’ , ‘mistakes’ and ‘errors’. The first refers to slips or false starts or confusion of structures .These produce unacceptable utterances as shown in the examples below:
*1.It didn’t bother me in the sleast….slightest.
*2.It’s a bit –it hasn’t –I mean ,I wouldn’t really care to have one just like that….
‘Mistakes’ result from producing inappropriate utterances ,i.e, utterances that do not match the situations. In other words ,such mistakes are a case of the selection of the wrong style ,dialect or variety. Language learners are certainly liable to lapses and mistakes of the sort described above .However, the great majority of their errors are of a different kind. They result in unacceptable utterances .Such errors are the sign of an imperfect knowledge of the language .The learners have not yet internalized the formation rules of



References: Brown, H.D. (1980) Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc. Brown, H.D. (2000). Principles of language learning and teaching. New York, Longman. Corder, S.P. (1973). Introducing applied linguistics. Middlesex, Penguin. Crystal, D Ellis, R. (1997). Second language acquisition. Oxford, Oxford University Press. Els,Theo van et al.(1984)Applied Linguistics and the Learning and Teaching of Foreign Languages.London:Edward Arnold. Keshavarz,M.(2010)Contrastive Analysis and Error Analysis. Tehran:Rahnama Press Richards,Jack C. & Richard Schmidt(2002)Longman Dictionnary of Language Teaching & Applied Linguistics. London: Pearson Education Ltd.

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