Top-Rated Free Essay
Preview

Unit 11 The role of error

Better Essays
1082 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Unit 11 The role of error
UNIT 11: The role of error
What is the role of error?
This unit focuses on mistakes learners when they speak or write in English. Mistakes are often divided into errors and slips. Errors happen when learners try to say something that is beyond their current level of language processing. Usually, learners cannot correct errors themselves because they don’t understand what is wrong. Errors play a necessary and important part in language learning. Slips are the result of tiredness, worry or other temporary emotions or circumstances. These kind of mistakes can be corrected by learners once they realise they have made them.

Key concepts
There are two main reasons why second language learners make errors. The first reason is influence from the learner’s first language (L1) on the second language. This is called interference or transfer. Learners may use sound patterns, lexis, or grammatical structures from their own language in English.
The second reason why learners make errors is because they are unconsciously working out and organising language, but this process is not yet complete. This kind of error is called a developmental error. Learners of whatever mother tongue make these kinds of errors, which are often similar to those made by a young first language speaker as part of their normal language development. For example, very young first language speakers of English often make mistakes with verb forms, saying things such as ‘I goed’ instead of ‘I went’. Errors such as this one, in which learners wrongly apply a rule for one item of the language to another item, are known as overgeneralisation. Once children develop, these errors disappear, and as a second language learner’s language ability increases, these kinds of errors also disappear.
Errors are part of learners’ interlanguage, i.e. the learners’ own version of the second language which they speak as they learn. Learners unconsciously process, i.e. analyse and reorganise their interlanguage, so it is not fixed. It develops and progresses as they learn more. Expert think that interlanguage is an essential and unavoidable stage in language learning.
When children learn their mother tongue they seem to speak their own form of it for a while, to make progress on some language items, then to go backwards, and to make mistakes for a time before these mistakes finally disappear, usually without obvious correction.
Errors are a natural part of learning. They usually show that learners are learning and that their internal mental processes are working on and experimenting with language. We go through stages of learning new language, and each new piece of language we learn helps us learn other pieces of language that we already known more fully – like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, which only make full sense when they are in place.
Developmental errors and errors of interference can disappear by themselves, without correction, as the learner learns more language. In fact, correction may only help learners if they are ready for it, i.e. they are at the right stage in their individual learning process. But experts believe that learners can be helped to develop their interlanguage. There are three main ways of doing this. Firstly, learners need exposure to lots of interesting language at the right level; secondly, they need to use language with other people; and thirdly they need to focus their attention on the forms of language.
Sometimes errors do not disappear, but get ‘fossilised’. Fossilised errors are errors which a learner does not stop making and which last for a long time, even for ever, in his/her foreign language use. They often happen when learners, particularly adults, are able to communicate as much as they need to in the foreign language and so have no communicative reasons to improve their language. These fossilised errors may be the result of lack of exposure to the L2 (second language) and/or of a learner’s lack of motivation to improve their level of accuracy.

Key concepts and the language teaching classroom
We need to think hard about whether, when and how to correct learners.
We must not expect instant learning. Learning is gradual, and errors will occur.
We need to think about what kind of mistake the learner is making- a slip or an error.
If the mistake is a slip, the learner can probably correct him/herself, maybe with a little prompting from the teacher or another learner.
Sometimes, particularly in fluency activities, it is better not to pay attention to learners’ errors (i.e. ignore them) so that the learners have an opportunity to develop their confidence and their fluency, and to experiment with language.
Some errors may be more important to correct than others. Those which prevent communication are more important than those which do not, e.g. missing the final s off the third person singular of a present simple tense instead of the past simple tense can sometimes prevent communication.
We need to think about what is best for learning of each learner. Different learners within the same class may need to be corrected or not, depending on their stage of learning, learning style and level of confidence. Different learners may also need to be corrected in different ways.
Ways of helping learners get beyond their errors are:
-To expose them to lots of language that is just beyond their level through reading or listening
-To give them opportunities to focus on the form of language
-To provide them with time in class to use language to communicate and interact and see if they can do so successfully.
A good time to correct learners or to provide them with new language is when they realise they have made a mistake or need some new language. We should encourage learners to ask us for this help.
Errors are useful not only to the learner but also to the teacher. They can help the teacher see how well learners have learnt something and what kind of help they may need.

Follow-up activities
1) This conversation shows that the learner manage to communicate with one another although they make many mistakes. They seem to be experimenting with language and really using all their knowledge of it to get their message across to each other.
As this is a fluency activity, it would be probably be better for the teacher not to correct these learners, and to make notes of important mistakes and correct them after the conversation.

TKT PRACTICE TASK
1. C
2. A
3. A
4. B
5. C
6. A
7. B

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    The languages of human beings are very complex in many different ways. Throughout the world there are hundreds of different languages, English, German, French, Spanish, etc. There are even dead languages that people no longer speak in but records are still found in, such as Latin. Each language has it's own grammatical construction and it's own words. As one grows up he or she is usually taught their native language, if he or she lives in America it's English, Mexico it's Spanish, etc. Then after he or she has mastered her native language, he or she can go off and learn other languages. However, learning a foreign language is not just an activity someone does one day because he or she is bored, learning a foreign language takes time, effort, and a certain amount of skill. However, there are people who are gifted with this skill and can (and do) learn many different languages The person who is learning the language is so used to speaking and thinking in their native language that it can be hard to learn how to speak and think in the foreign language. For example, Latin has declensions (to form nouns), conjugations (to form verbs), three different genders, five different cases of nouns, six different tenses of verbs, and of course all nouns or verbs must be either singular or plural, all of these are factors…

    • 1632 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Errors are made when learners of L2 produce incorrect language because they do not know the correct form, while mistakes are made when learners produce incorrect language although they know the correct form (macmillandictionary.com). Learners can correct their own mistakes, but by definition, they can not correct errors. Errors are considered to be partial acquisition of the target language. In fact, errors should be viewed as "the tip of the iceberg" of a dynamic process of foreign language acquisition (brj.asu.edu). Instead of treating the developmental stages in learners ' language as errors, it may be better to view these errors as partial acquisition.…

    • 866 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    ELL Grammar Errors

    • 535 Words
    • 3 Pages

    I proceeded to analyze the sample writing, “prompt” activity 5.2, further exposing my ability to recognize grammar errors and corrective actions. A previously assigned reading mentioned native speaker know what sound correct automatically. Therefore, after silently reading through the 5.2 activity, reading it out loud allowed me to hear more inaccuracies. The quandary I am challenged with is what and how much to correct or ignore taking into consideration the following factors. First, will the corrections still preserve the voice of the original writer? Next, what effects will “marking” all needed corrections have on the learner’s motivation? Lastly, do the mistakes interfere with the intended audiences’ comprehension (Vann, Meyer, & Lorenza, 1984)? For me, the correct conclusion is, it depends on the context of the writing, the level and goals of the learner, and the intended audience of the text being written to determine the accuracy required and extent of the corrective…

    • 535 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Dolati, R (2012) Overview on three core theories of second language acquisition and criticism, Advences in natural and applied sciences,vol6,issue 6, p 752…

    • 6976 Words
    • 24 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    When we make mistakes in our own mother tongue (or even our national language for…

    • 969 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Cat In The Rain Full Text

    • 26210 Words
    • 82 Pages

    Hoey, M. (2005). Lexical priming : A new theory of words and language. New York: Routledge.…

    • 26210 Words
    • 82 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Linguistic errors, violating the language rule of English, cover such errors as spelling mistakes, subject-verb disagreements and so on. Linguistic errors are usually caused by the translator’s linguistic incompetence. In addition, each text is not purely a linguistic phenomenon, but “must be seen in terms of communication function, as a unit embedded in a given situation, and as part of a broader socio-cultural background” (Hornby, 2001,69). Since translation is regarded as an activity of intercultural communication, if the translator ignores the shift of the social and cultural situations, the transfer of pragmatic rules from his native language to the target language will lead to various pragmatic failures or errors during the inter-cultural communication. Therefore, pragmatic transfer is the main cause of pragmatic failures or errors, which can be classified into two categories: pragmalinguistic failure and sociopragmatic failure. Different from linguistic errors, the pragmatic failure or error conforms to the language rule and can be detected only in the context. In translation, pragmatic failures or errors are usually attributed to the ignorance of the translator toward the intentions of the source text sender and expectations and conventions of the target readers.…

    • 2184 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Language Learning vs Language Acquisition ● What is language learning and language acquisition? Terminologies Language : is the human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication Acquisition: the act of acquiring or gaining possession, something acquired, a person or thing of special merit added to a group Learning: Something we acquire or get through experience So, anu gid na sila bla? na Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive and comprehend language, as well as to produce and use words and sentences to communicate.…

    • 961 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Even people who master English in his/her own country maybe make some mistakes, especially in speaking. For instance, Chinese and English are very different in structure, the differences between English and Chinese vowels, students are not aware of the lack of long and short vowels in Mandarin Chinese which might have a negative effect on English vowels. ( Yiing, I. 2011)…

    • 1465 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Linguistic Confusion – this occurs only for simultaneous acquisition, and only for a few months early in the life of a child. It is not a large degree of confusion, and it quickly is overcome (and some researchers propose that it is never really confusing at any stage of acquisition).…

    • 705 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The present study focuses on the way in which error correction is done and the significance of errors in the Romanian context. In designing it, I did not use my knowledge on causes of errors as I was not interested to find out whether it can be established a correlation between students’ mother tongue, the target language and the production of errors. I oriented this study towards a narrower issue: the attitudes of teachers, students and native speakers of Romanian towards error correction. In order to do this, I used the following classification of correction techniques: self – correction, peer correction and teacher correction.…

    • 2930 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    References: Kim, J. (2004). Issues of corrective feedback in second language acquisition,Teachers College, Columbia University Working Papers in TESOL & Applied Linguistics 4(2), 1.…

    • 1870 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Best Essays

    Negative Transfer

    • 3171 Words
    • 13 Pages

    At the beginning of the assignment, I will define language transfer and its historical origin. However, the main focus of my assignment is on negative transfer and its impact on pronunciation development, occurrence of errors, and their identification. In essence, I will discuss how the learner’s existing linguistic knowledge influences second language pronunciation development, and then try to establish the extent to which learners’ awareness of transfer can influence language development.…

    • 3171 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Error Analysis Efl

    • 2441 Words
    • 10 Pages

    References: Brown, H. D. (2000). Principles of language learning and teaching. Longman, Inc. Burt, M. K. (1975). Error analysis in the adult EFL classroom. TESOL Quarterly, 9: 53-63. Corder, S.P. (1971). Idiosyncratic dialects and error analysis. International Review of Applied Linguistics, (9): 147-159. Hendrickson, J. M. (1980). Error correction in foreign language teaching: Recent theory, research, and practice // K. Croft. Readings on English as a second language (2nd ed.). Cambridge, MA: Winthrop Publishers. Jame, C. (1998). Errors in language learning and use. Addison Wesley Longman Limited. Nemser, W. (1971). Approximative systems of foreign language learners. International Review of Applied Linguistics, (9): 115-123. Selinker, L. (1972). Interlanguage. International Review of Applied Linguistics, (10): 201-231.…

    • 2441 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Best Essays

    contrastive analysis

    • 3387 Words
    • 14 Pages

    Plank, F. (1984). Verbs and objects in semantic agreement. Minos differences that might suggest a…

    • 3387 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Best Essays