Error Analysis

Two views about learner’s errors

behaviorist or structuralist view:
Learning a language was considered a matter of forming habits, that is, the system of a
language could be learned by habit formation through
• imitation,
• constant practice, and
• reinforcement by way of appreciation or approval by parents and teachers.
Imitation, practice, and reinforcement finally led to a stage at which the language habits
became fixed or automatic.
Those features of the system of L2 which were different from or dissimilar to the features of
the system of L1 were responsible for the learner's errors or mistakes. This phenomenon was
often referred to as 'interference' or 'transfer' (means, that second language learners tend to
carry over certain features of their L1 into the second language they are engaged in learning.).
When there is a similarity between the features of the two languages there is no learning
problem, but when there is a mismatch or dissimilarity, errors arise.
According to structuralist – behaviorist viewpoint errors indicate –
a) Errors represent a failure to learn a new set of habits,
b) Errors, if allowed to continue, will become set habits since language learning is habit
formation, and
c) Errors are caused by interference whereby features of Ll are carried over or
transferred into the L2 by the learner.
Cognitive or post-structuralist view: This view considers language a thinking process rather
than a set of habits.
It follows, therefore, that language learning (mother tongue or second language) can best be
seen as a process of problem-solving in which the learner, faced with the data (i.e. language)
tries to make sense of that data.
The learner forms hypotheses about the language system that s/he is learning. She generalises
based on these hypotheses and forms rules.
Some of her/his generalisations may turn out to be right, and others wrong.
The wrong generalisations represent errors.
But and this is important, these errors do not represent a failure to learn a new set of habits or
to modify an earlier set of habits;
Errors indicates
the creativity of the learner and give us valuable clues to the way her/his mind is working.
The shift from behaviorist psychology to cognitive psychology brought about a major change
in our attitudes towards the 'faults'/ errors of second language learners.

a) language learning (it hardly matters whether it is mother tongue learning or second
language learning) implies making assumptions about the structure of the language -
its phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics;
b) based on these assumptions, the learners formulate hypotheses about the structure of
the language they are learning. Each time they use this language (in speech or writing)
they are testing out their hypotheses;
c) the learner's incorrect hypotheses, their so-called errors give us valuable clues about
the assumptions they are making about the structure of the language that they are
learning, and
d) given a, b, and c, the learner's errors assume enormous significance for the language
teacher. They indicate what the learners are thinking and help the teacher gear her/his
teaching to correct the learner's wrong assumptions so that they can move closer to
the structure and system of the language they are learning.
This view of learner's errors does not deny that interference and transfer do have a role and
constitute a central process in second language learning.
Errors vs Mistake
Mistake refers to
• Error in language performance
• It is not a deficiency in competence
• Failure to utilize known system correctly
• Native speakers can recognize and correct such lapses/mistakes.
• They are a result of a breakdown in the process of producing speech.
Errors refer to
• A deviation from the adult grammar of a native or proficient speaker.
• Reflects a gap in learner’s knowledge of language
• It often shows a pattern and regularity in errors.

Contrastive Analysis
a) A learner of L2 has already learned a set of habits and the rules of the system of
her/his L1.
b) When the learner comes to the second language s/he has to learn a new set of habits
and the rules of another s:/stem.
c) Wherever there are dissimilarities in the system of L1 and L2 (at the level of sounds,
word formation, syntax, or semantics) the learner would face difficulties.
d) The difficulties would arise primarily because of the interference of the habits and
rules of the first language in the learning process, and the learner would tend to
transfer features of her/his L1 into the L2. This interference and transfer would take
 place both receptively and productively i.e. given an utterance or a feature of L2 s/he
would interpret it in terms of certain features of her/his first language and, while
producing utterances in the second language, she would carry over features of her/his
first language into the L2.
e) By preparing a systematic contrastive description of the two languages, it would be
possible to predict all the problems that the learner would face in learning the new
language (L2).
Contrastive analysis thus, not only claimed to offer a complete explanation of the causes of
the learner's faults in terms of interference and transfer of features of L1 into the second
language, but it also claimed to be able to predict the errors that the learner would be most
likely Lo make, in terms of the dissimilarities between the two languages in question.
Demerits of Contrastive Analysis
a) It is based on too mechanistic a view of language learning and treats the process of
language learning as nothing more than a matter of imitation, practice, and habit
formation.
b) Contrastive analysis has no explanation to offer for those errors of the learners that
come about due to reasons other than mere structural or systematic differences
between the two languages concerned, or the mistakes that learners commit while
learning their mother tongue or first language.
c) It is based on a rather prescriptive and authoritarian attitude that frowns or looks down
upon errors or mistakes as 'bad habits' that need to be nipped in the bud as early as
possible.
d) Contrastive analysis can be of little or no help in teaching situations involving large,
multilingual classrooms, consisting of students coming from diverse mother tongue
backgrounds.
Error Analysis
Language learning was no longer looked at merely as a matter of habit formation but rather as
a mental activity.
(After committing an error)
We must point out here that this new attitude to learners' errors does not imply approval of
errors, or absence of corrective or remedial teaching. It does, however, mean looking at errors
as 'attempts at learning' rather than as 'failure to learn'.
Mental activity entails –

• problem-solving and
• intelligent language data processing
In error analysis, as stated earlier, some preliminary questions need to be asked. The
questions are:
a) Are the errors random or systematic?
b) Are the mistakes or errors trivial or serious and crucially important?
c) Are there always of explaining why particular errors occur? What are the best ways to
prevent the recurrence of errors?
1. Recognising the fault
2. Describing a fault
3. Explaining the fault
4. Remedying the fault

Interlanguage
• It is the language of a learner in the process of learning L2 or target language
• It is a Structurally intermediate status between L1 and L2
• It could be a combination of L1 & L2
• But sometimes it may have elements that do not reflect either native or target
language.
• A variable system with rules of its own
• The form of inter-language is dependent on what stage and progress of L2 learning.
First proposed by Larry Selinker in 1972
Fossilization of errors,
However, if some errors of the learner do not disappear with time or if those errors persist
• ‐ Such errors are said to be ‘fossilized’.
In other words, the process whereby learners retain certain errors irrespective of the amount
of exposure to L2/TL even though-
• They may be able to use language fairly well.
• They may have attained communicative competence in their L2
And hence, not much motivation is there to adopt L2 norms.
Fossilization is most noticeable at the level of pronunciation.

Analysis of language Errors

Identification of Errors in 2nd Language

Types of Errors
1. Addition: do, the
2. Omission: article ‘the’, ‘a’
eg. I lost book instead of I lost the/ a book
3. Substitution:
4. Ordering: Eg. * You are going to the market? * I do not know when is Lata coming.
Levels of Errors
1. Phonological/ Orhtographic
2. Lexicon/ Vocabulary
3. Grammar/ Discourse
4. Semantic:
a) Global: hinders communication
b) Local: Minor violation of one segment The hearer/ reader can guess the intended meaning

A few common errors in English as a second language (ESL):

1. Subject- Verb Agreement (3rd person singular)
 She work in an office. (Omission)
 They sleeps in daytime. (Addition)
 This library have many books on India. (Substitution)
2. Question formation (Subject-Aux. Inversion)
 What you will do after B. El. Ed?

 Why you are not going for the film?

 I know who is the culprit.
3. Semantic : local
There is a French widow in every room. [Omission, Orthographic]
4. Semantic : Global
क्या आपके पति प्रचुर है ? [Substitution, lexicon]
Most of the errors result from-
• Application of first language strategies on 2nd language
• When there is a partial knowledge of L2