Error analysis

General information of EA
The goals of traditional EA were pedagogic-
errors (give information to sequence items for
teaching or to devise remedial lessons)
The resurgence of the interest in EA (late
1960s).
Corder (1974) published a series articles
related to this resurgence in EA
 Error analysis

Coder (1974) explained the procedure for EA:

1. A corpus of language is selected
2. The errors in the corpus are identified
3. The errors are classified
4. The errors are explained
5. The errors are evaluated
 Error analysis

The two questions

1. What light can the study of learner errors
throw on the sequence of development-the IL
continuum-through which learn pass?
2. What light can errors shed on the strategies
that the learner uses to assimilate the rules of
L2?
 1. What light can the study of learner errors throw on
the sequence of development-the IL continuum-
through which learn pass?
Q1 related to the linguistic type of errors of L2
learners
Richards ( 1974) provides a list of the different
types of errors involving verbs
ex: I am speak English
Not very useful to understand the
developmental sequence.
 Error analysis
2. What light can errors shed on the strategies
that the learner uses to assimilate the rules of L2?
Strategies associated with developmental or
psycholinguistic type errors:
Richards (1974) identifies strategies related to intralingual
errors (overgeneralization,ignorance of rule
restrictions,incomplete application,False concepts
hypothesized)
Richards + George (1972) assumed that some causes of
errors are universial
EA used to investigate various process of Interlanguage
development
 Error analysis
The significant contribution of EA
the reassessment of the Contrastive
Analysis Hypothesis
The evaluation of the status of errors
 First study
Title: Error Analysis of Present Simple Tense in
the Interlanguage of Adult Arab English
Language Learners
Authors: Muneera Muftah
& Shameem Rafik Galea
Journal: English Language Teaching
Volume: 6, issue: 2
Year: 2013
 Goals of the study

Analyze common grammatical errors Arab

EFLs make in Present Simple tense
Provide better understanding of the acquisition
Suggest pedagogical implication for teachers
 Findings
Omission
He complain that I am too slow (taken from AG 16)
Phonological similarity
Every time Tam says a new word, Liam tryes to repeat
it (taken from LIG 11)
Incorrect suffixation and substitution
Every time Tam says a new word, Liam trying to repeat
it (taken from UIG 5)
He always walks ahead of me and is complaining that I
am too slow (taken from LIG 13)
 Suggestion

Highlight the use of third person verb with s/es

Notice the list of verbs taking suffix s/ es
and phonological changes
Highlight the subject verb agreement in
Present Simple tense.
 Second study

Title: Implications of Interlanguage Error

Analysis and Research on English Language
Testing and Teaching
Author: Mi Ning
Journal: Higher Education of Social Science
Volume: 2, Issue: 2
Year: 2012
 Goal of the research

Aimed at advanced English learners writing

errors
Finding out the errors
Analyzing the errors
Showing some implications on English
teaching and testing.
 Findings
Lexical Errors of Text
Formal errors, semantic errors
Grammar Errors of Text
S V agreement, count and non-count N, article
Ambiguous Errors
expressive
errors, logic errors, literal translation and
redundancy
Discourse Errors
topical
coherence, relational coherence and sequential
coherence
 Suggestion
Testing:
Testing: good way promoting learner not
only a test
Must adjust the English testing
Writing structure, type of writing test, marking method
Teaching:
Lexical: explain new word in English, put in
context
Grammar: emphasize core grammar
 Application
EA implication for language teachers
Provide rich information about learners progress
Select strategy
Make remedial lessons
Ex: Teaching // sound
 Application
EA implication for syllabus designers:
As an important part in English teaching course,
syllabus should be designed to fit all aspects of L2
learning process
Decide on what to teach to what level
Ex: Kids-> Lets go
Identify learners difficulties and needs
Provide suitable materials and activities
Ex: week pronunciation->provide word repetition drills