Source Of Errors In Learning English Language Essay

Source Of Errors In Learning side Language Essay onslaughtErrors are integral voice of lyric accomplishment. The phenomenon of defect has long interested SLA researchers. In a tralatitious arcminute run-in belief situation, they are regarded as the linguistic phenomena deviant from the give-and-takes determines and standard usages, inventing pupils wish in lyric competence and acquisition device. Many instructors simply correct individual faults as they extend, with shrimpy attempt to see patterns of computer wrongful conducts or to seek precedents in anything other than shower ignorance. Presently, however, with the development of linguistics, applied linguists, psychological science and other relevant subjects, peoples attitude toward illusions changed greatly. Instead of being problem to be overcome or evils to be eradicated, phantasms are believed to be separate of the assimilators stages in their rank spoken diction (TL) development. It is throug h analyzing learner errors that errors are upgrade from the statue of undesirability to that of a guide to the inner working of the voice communication information process (Ellis, 1985,p 53) In the line of merchandise of SLA, in that respect cause been three influential entreees to errors with a general movement from approaches emphasizing the product, the error itself, to approaches focusing on the underlying process under which the errors are made.The analysis of error sources has been regarded as a central survey in the study of learner errors. Researchers believe that the clearer the understanding of the sources of learners errors, the better irregular language teachers get out be able to detect the process of L2 larn.ErrorMaking errors is the most natural thing in the humans and it is evidently attached to the human beings. But, how do we define error? There are diverse definitions of the enounce as Ellis formulates learners draw errors in both comprehension and output signal, the offshoot being kinda s chiffoniertly investigated. All learners puzzle errors which read a various name harmonize to the group committing the error. Childrens errors have been seen as transitional forms, the indigen speakers ones are called slips of the tongue and the moment language errors are considered unwanted forms (George 1972).We use the edge error to relate to a systematic deviation from a selected norm or set of norms. match to Lennon (1991) an error is a linguistic form or combination of forms which in the same context and under similar conditions of production would, in all likelihood, non be produced by the speakers indigenous speakers counterparts. On one hand, it was considered to be a sign of inadequacy of the teaching techniques, something banish which must be avoided, and on the other hand it was seen as a natural result of the fact that since by nature we stackt avoid qualification errors, we should involve the reality and corr ect to deal with them.The error-as-progress conception is based on the Chomskys idea that a child generates language through innate universal mental synthesiss. So, using this symbolic code, one rump have access to different pieces of knowledge non as something robotlikely learned alone as mentally constructed through try and error. The idea is now that the molybdenum language learners form hypotheses roughly(predicate) the rules to be formed in the position language and then test them out against input data and modify them accordingly.There is an approach which concerns error as being the result of social-cognitive interaction. This content that the error implicitly carries a social norm as well as cognitive process. The error in like manner carries a social and cultural component which makes it different in different societies.Cultural struggles in the errorPrevious research has sh knowledge that cultural differences exist in the susceptibility of making fundamental at tribution error people from individualistic cultures are prone to the error plot of ground people from collectivistic cultures commit less of it (Miller, 1984). It has been found that there is a differential concern to social factors betwixt autonomous peoples and interdependent peoples in both social and nonsocial contexts Masuda and his colleagues (2004) in their resume figure presentation experiment showed that Japaneses judgments on the target characters facial expression are more influenced by surrounding faces than those of the Americans whereas Masuda and Nisbett (2001) concluded from their underwater scenes animated cartoon experiment that Americans are in like manner more plausibly than Japanese participants to mark furbish upences to focal objects (i.e. weight) instead of contexts (i.e. rocks and plants). These discrepancies in the salience of different factors to people from different cultures bespeak that Asians tend to attribute behavior to situation while Wes terners attribute the same behavior to the actor. Consistently, Morris Peng (1994) found from their fish behavior attribution experiment that more American than Chinese participants perceive the behavior (e.g. an individual fish swimming in front of a group of fish) as internally rather than externally caused. wholeness explanation for this difference in attribution lies in the way people of different cultural taste perceive themselves in the environment. Particularly, Markus and Kitayama (1991) mentioned how (individualistic) Westerners tend to see themselves as independent agents and therefore prone themselves to individual objects rather than contextual details.in the help language teaching/ breeding process the error has always been regarded as one of the most generally known approaches concerning the error throughout human history is to consider it a negative effect or result, even worth to be punished. According to Corder (1967)A learners errors then, provide endorse of the system of the language that he is using. They are significant in three different ways first to the teacher, in that they tell him is he undertakes a systematic analysis, how far towards the goal the learner has progressed. Second, they provide the researchers with evidence of how language is learned or acquired. Third they are indispensible to the learner himself because he can regard the making of errors as a device used in order to learn. The sources of error might be psycholinguistic, sociolinguistic, epistemological or residing in the discourse body structures. Richards(1971),when trying to expose the causes of competence errors he came up with three events of errors racket errors, which reflect the use of elements from one language to the other, intralingual errors, subdivided into errors overdue to overgeneralization, or to ignorance of rules restriction, which is incomplete application of the rules, or finally due to the false concept hypothesis, which demonstrate t he general characteristics of rule larn and third developmental errors when the learner builds hypothesis about the target language based on limited experience.Assuming a name hierarchy of errors, Burt and Kiparasky (1974) suggest that there is a difference between global and local errors. They say orbiculate mistakes are those that violate rules involving the overall structure of a sentence, the relations among constituent clauses, or, in a simple sentence, the relations among major constituents. Local mistakes cause trouble in a particular constituent, or in clause of a complex sentence.They claim that global errors are more serious and rank high in the error hierarchy than local ones, and they should be corrected prior to all others in language classrooms. Accordingly, errors in tense and aspect are regarded as local errors. They whitethorn be minor errors, for they may not cause grave breakdowns in communication. However, they are extremely commonalty mistakes among spli t second language learners of English and very ofttimes worth investigating since tense and aspect represent one of the most necessary parts of English grammar.Corder (1967) goes a step further to propose different terminologies for these two kinds of errors and stresses that we must make a clear distinction between mistakes and errors the former refers to non-systematic mathematical process errors of chance circumstances, whereas the latter can be defined as the systematic errors of the learner from which we are able to reconstruct his knowledge of the language to date. In the following discussion, the analysis focuses on competence errorsThere are two major approaches to analyzing errors committed by a target language learner.Contrastive digest (CA), Error Analysis (EA). Theoretical base of CA lies in Behaviorist Learning scheme while the EA is closely related with the emergence of koine Theory (Ellis, 2005)Behaviorist encyclopedism theory accounts of errorsThe behaviourist learning theory illustrates the TL learning is a mechanical process of habilitate formation. Habits entail over-learning, which ensures that learning of new habits as a result of proactive inhibition. Thus, the argufy facing the L2 learner is to overcome the mental disturbance of L1 habits. Basing on the habit formation, contrastive analysis sought to identify the features of the L2 that differed from those of the L1 so that learners could be helped to form the new habits of the L2 by practicing them intensively. Most errors made by L2 learners were the result of differences between L1 and L2 structure. (Martin 1996)Interference, the CA insists, is the result of unfamiliarity with the rules of a TL and psychological causes, such as inadequate learning (Swan, 2001). Transfer can be positive or negative linguistic features of the L1 that are similar to those of the TL exit facilitate learning (positive ship) those aspects of the L1 that are different to the TL grammatic and phon ological system will hinder SLA and cause the learner to make numerous production errors(negative transfer). Thus difference between the L1 and L2 render learning difficulty which results in errors, while the similarities between them facilitate rapid and easy learning (Ellis, 1985 cited Corder). According to behaviorist learning theory, both types of transfer are the outcome of automatic and subconscious use of aged habits in new learning situations (Dulay, Burt Krashen)Rod Ellis (1985) assesses, errors, according to the theory, were the result of non-learning, rather than wrong learning. By examine the L1 with TL, differences could be identified and used to predict areas of potential errors. The idea of the error as an effect to be avoided has been especially supported by behaviorism, being considered an obstacle to language learning. To them error has been a symptom of ineffective teaching or as evidence of failure and they believed that when they go by they are to be remedi ed by preparedness of correct forms that is to say, use of intensive drilling and over-teaching. It was also believed that interference takes place whenever there is a difference between ingrained mother tongue and the target language. A hypothesis based on Lados hypnotism in linguistic across cultures where he states in comparison between native and foreign language lies the key to ease all difficulties in foreign language learning (Lado, 1957)2. Interlanguage (IL) theory accounts of errors(i) Selinker (1972) coined the term interlanguage to refer to the systematic knowledge of an L2 which is independent of both these learners L1 and the target language. The term has come to be used with different but related meaningsTo refer to the series of interlocking systems which characterize acquisitionTo refer to the system that is observed at a single stage of developmentTo refer to particular L1, L2 combinations. former(a) terms that refer to the same basic idea are approximate system and transitional competence.(ii) Interlanguage is the type of language produced by second and foreign language learners who are in the process of learning a language, whose errors are caused by several different processes. These includeBorrowing patterns from the mother tongue.Extending patterns from the target languageExpressing meanings using the words and grammar which are already known from Richards, Jack et al (1992).(iii)Interlanguage refers to the separateness of a second language learners system, a system that has a structurally intermediate status between the native and target language. Interlanguage is neither the system of target language nor the system of the native language, but instead waterfall between the two it is a system based upon the best attempt of learners to provide order and structure to the linguistic stimuli surrounding them. By gradual process of trial and error and hypothesis testing, learners slowly and tediously succeed in establishing closer and clo ser approximations to the system used by native speakers of the language.(iv)Rod Ellis (2005, 54) views Error Analysis as being based on emergence of IL theory, that is known to be used to explain effectively the errors committed in SLA processes. Slinker (1972) tried to find a way to explain the errors that some students make, have nothing to do with their foreign language for example a Spanish speaker, an Arabic speaker and a Japanese speaker might all make the same mistake in English which was not related to their respective languages. According to Slinker, L2 learners go through a process of making and testing hypotheses about the target language. They begin with knowledge about language in general, gained from their native language, and move toward the target language. procedure by bit, they readjust their mental model of the new language, improving their communicative competency in that language. thriving hypotheses become mental constructions that correspond to the rules of the new language. Brown(1993) viewed ,truly successful students make the journey to a high take aim of competency in the target language, while less successful students become fossilized somewhere on the IL continuum. For around 35 years Selinker has viewed learners errors as evidence of positive efforts by the learner to learn a new language. This view of language learning allowed for the possibilities of learners making deliberate attempts to control their own learning and, along with theories of cognitive processes in language learning. Errors are indispensable to learners since the making of errors can be regarded as a device the learner uses in order to learn. A modern definition of language transfer is provided by Slinker (1992) language transfer is best thought of as a cover term for a whole class of behaviors, processes and constraints, each of which has to do with CLI (Cross Linguistic Influence), the influence and use of prior linguistic knowledge, usually but exclusive ly native language knowledge. Selinker (1992) pointed two highly significant contributions that Corder made that the errors of a learner, whether adult or child, are not random, but are in fact systematic and are not negative or interfering in any way with learning a TL but are, on the contrary, a necessary positive factor, indicative of testing hypothesis. In 1994 Gass and Slinker defined errors as red flags that provide evidence of the learners knowledge of the second language. The learners development knowledge of second language may have characteristics of the learners native language, characteristics of the second language, and some characteristics which seem to be very general and tend to occur in all or most interlanguage systems. Interlanguages are systematic, but they are also dynamic, continually evolving as learners receive more input and revise their hypotheses about the second language.L2 learners process through an interlanguage, which is an independent knowledge of L 1 and L2 system. Interlanguage Is systematic, because the learner selects the rules consistently, learners bases plans on the rule system, in the same way as the native speaker bases on the internalized knowledge of L1 system.(iv)One of the crucial contributions of IL was its underlying assumption that the learners knowledge is integrated and systematically reorganized with previous knowledge of the native language. By a gradual process of trial-and-error or hypothesis testing, learners slowly and tediously succeed in establishing closer approximations to the system used by the native speaker of the language.The characteristics of IL are described by many researchers as followsPermeable, in the sense that rules that embed the learners knowledge at any one stage are not fixed, but are yield to amendment(Ellis198550)Dynamic, in the sense that L2 learner slowly revises their variable interim systems to accommodate new hypothesis about the TL system.Systematic, in that L2 learners IL is rule-governed, that is, the learner bases his performance plans on his existing rule system much the same way as the native speaker bases his plans on his internalized knowledge of the L1 system.The variable shape of interlanguageThe concept of interlanguage has had a major impact on the field of second language acquisition, studies on interlanguage focus on the linguistic and psychological aspects of second language acquisition research. I will first outline how the interlanguage assumption substantial .since the interlanguage concept is not only grave for the development of the students grammar system I will then explore how it applies to other components of language. I will also focus on the consequences of the concept for the teacher and his work in the classroom. Before the 1960s language was not considered to be a mental phenomenon. Like other forms of human behavior language is learnt by processes of habit formation. A child learns his mother tongue by imitating the soun ds and patterns he hears around him. By approval or disapproval, adults reinforce the childs attempts and lead the efforts to the correct forms. Under the influence of cognitive linguists this explanation of first language acquisition was criticized. Language cant be verbal behavior only since children are able to produce an unnumbered number of voxs that have never heard before. This creativity is only possible because a child develops a system of rules. A large number of studies have shown that children actually do construct their own rule system, which develops gradually until it corresponds to the system of the adults. There is also evidence that they pass through similar stages acquiring grammatical rules. Through the influence of cognitive linguists and first language acquisition research the notion developed that second language learners, too, could be viewed as actively constructing rules from the data they encounter and that they gradually adapt these rules in the advoca te of the target language. However wrong and inappropriate learners own language system, they are grammatical in their own terms, since they are a product of the learners own language system. This system gradually develops toward the rule-system of the target language. The various shapes of the learners language competence are called interlanguage. This draws to the fact that the learners language system is neither that of his mother tongue nor that of the second language, but contains elements of both. Therefore, errors need not be seen as signs of failure only, but as evidence of the learners developing system. succession the behaviorist approach led to teaching methods which use drills and consider errors as signs of failure, the concept of interlanguage turn language teaching and paved the way for communicative teaching methods. Since errors are considered a reflection of the students fugacious language system and therefore a natural part of the learning process, teachers cou ld now use teaching activities which did not call for constant supervision of the students language. Group work and pair work became suitable means for language learning.A brief review of approaches to analyses of errorsContrastive Analysis (CA) Contrastive analysis is an approach generated from behaviorist learning theory. Through CA applied linguists sought to use the formal distinctions between the learners first and second languages to predict errors. The basic concept behind CA was that a structural depicting of any language could be constructed which might then be used in direct comparison with the structural picture of another language. Through a process of mapping one system onto another, similarities and differences could be identified. Identifying the differences would lead to a better understanding of the problems that a learner of the particular L2 would face. (Corder , 1983). CA stresses the influence of mother tongue in learning a second language in phonological, morp hological, lexical and syntactic levels. It holds that L2 would be affected by L1. Here, language is taken as a set of habits and learning as the establishment of new habits, a view sprung from behaviorism, under which language is essentially a system of habits. In the course of language learning, L1 learning habits will be transferred into L2 learning habits. Therefore, in the side of L1 transfer into L2, if structures in the MT have their identical structures in the TL and L1 habits can be successfully used in the L2, learners would transfer similar properties successfully used in the L2, learners would transfer similar properties successfully and that would result in positive transfer. Contrastively, in the case of negative transfer or interference, certain elements of the MT have no corresponding counterparts in the TL, L1 habits would cause errors in the L2 and learners would transfer inappropriate properties of L1. CA places the environment as the predominant factor in SLA, while learners are believed to play only a passive role in accepting the impositions of the environment. We must not forget that there are numbers of errors made by language learners seem to be misrelated to the learners native language. According to SLA researchers non-interference errors were more pervasive in learner performance than CA were ready to recognize. Dulay and Burt (1973) study the errors made by Spanish-speaking children learning English as an L2 and claimed that all of the learners errors had collected, 85% were developmental (non-interference), 12% were unique and only 3% were results of L1 interference.Primary tenets of CA arePrime cause of difficulty and error in foreign language learning is interference coming from the learners native language.Difficulties are chiefly due to differences between the two languagesThe greater the difference s, the more acute the learning difficulties will beThe results of a comparison between the two languages are needed to predic t th e difficulties and errors which will occur in learning the target languageWhat needs to be taught is discovered by comparing the languages and subtracting what is common to them. (Corder, 1981)3. Error analysis (EA)It is defined as the study of linguistics ignorance, the investigation of what people do not know and how they attempt to cope with their ignorance, by James (2001).Error analysis was first introduced by Fries (1945) and Lado (1957) who have claimed that foreign or second language learners errors could be predicted on the solid ground of the differences between the learners native and second languages. They have also suggested that where the aspects of the target language are similar to those of the learners native language, learning will be easy otherwise, it will be difficult and second language learners are expected to make errors .The field of error analysis in SLA was established in the 1970s by S. P. Corder and colleagues. A widely-available survey can be foun d in chapter 8 of Brown (2000). Error analysis was an alternative to contrastive analysis, an approach influenced by behaviorism through which applied linguists sought to use the formal distinctions between the learners first and second languages to predict errors. Error analysis showed that contrastive analysis was unable to predict a great bulk of errors, although its more valuable aspects have been incorporated into the study of language transfer. A key finding of error analysis has been that many learner errors are produced by learners making faulty inferences about the rules of the new language. This is the interrogatory of those errors committed by students in both the spoken and written medium. Corder, who has contributed enormously to EA, writes thisThe study of error is part of the investigation of the process of language learning. In this respect it resembles methodologically the study of the acquisition of the mother tongue. It provides us with a picture of the linguisti c development of a learner and may give us indications as the learning process.Error analysts distinguish between errors, which are systematic, and mistakes, which are not. Corder(1967) made use of Chomskys the competence versus performance distinction by associating errors with failures in competence and mistakes with failures in performance. In his view, a mistake occurs as the results of bear upon limitations rather than lack of competence. It signifies L2 learners failure of utilizing their knowledge of a TL rule. They a great deal seek to develop a typology of errors. Error can be classified according to basic type omissive, additive, substitutive or related to word order. They can be classified by how apparent they are overt errors such as I angry are obvious even out of context, whereas covert errors are evident only in context. Closely related to this is the classification according to domain, the breadth of context which the analyst must examine, and extent, the breadth o f the utterance which must be changed in order to fix the error. Errors may also be classified according to the level of language phonological errors, vocabulary or lexical errors, syntactic errors, and so on. They may be assessed according to the degree to which they interfere with communication global errors make an utterance difficult to understand, while local errors do not. In the above example, I angry would be a local error, since the meaning is apparent.From the beginning, error analysis was beset with methodological problems. In particular, the above typologies are problematic from linguistic data alone, it is often impossible to reliably determine what kind of error a learner is making. Also, error analysis can deal effectively only with learner production (speaking and writing) and not with learner reception (listening and reading). Furthermore, it cannot account for learner use of communicative strategies such as avoidance, in which learners simply do not use a form with which they are uncomfortable. For these reasons, although error analysis is still used to investigate specific pointions in SLA, the quest for an overarching theory of learner errors has largely been abandoned. In the mid-1970s, Corder and others moved on to a more wide-ranging approach to learner language, known as interlanguage.Error analysis is closely related to the study of error treatment in language teaching. Today, the study of errors is particularly relevant for focus on form teaching methodology.EA emphasizes on the significance of errors in learners IL system, Brown (1994) may be, carried out directly for pedagogic purposes.Carl James (1998) viewed, EA developed out of the belief that errors indicate the learners stage of language learning and acquisition.th learner is seen as an active participant in the development of hypotheses regarding the rules of the target language just as a young child learning the first language. Errors are considered to be evidence of the lea rners strategy as he or she builds competence in the target language. These errors are defined as global which inhibit understanding and local which do not interfere with communication.Error analysis has been criticized as being an inefficient tool for studying the way second language learners develop their target language. It is argued that error analysis deals with the learners productive competence rather than the receptive one, and it is also an imperfect instrument for categorizing errors and explaining them.In the book Error and Interlanguage written by Pit Corder, he stated that various classifications of these error systems have been developed by error analysis researchers, three of which can be helpful for the teacher and are as follows.Pre-systematic errors occur before the language learner has realize any system for classifying items being learned the learner can neither correct nor explain this type of error.Systematic errors occur after the learner has noticed a syst em and error consistently occurs learner can explain but not correct the error. This classification relies on three major groups (1) interference errors (2) intralingual errors (3)development errors.Interference errors are caused by the influence of the native language, in presumably those areas where the languages differ markedly. Intralingual errors originate with the structure to TL itself. The complexity of language encourages over-generalization, incomplete application of rules, and the failure to learn conditions for rule application. Development errors reflect the students attempt to make hypotheses about the language from the native language.Post-systematic errors occur when learner is consistent in his or her recognition of systems can explain and correct the error.The following steps are distinguished in conducting an EA gathering of a sample of learner language identification of errors explanation of errors error evaluation (Ellis cited in 2005)Richards (1971) centre on the intralingual and developmental errors observed in the acquisition of English as a second language and further classified them into four categories(i) Overgeneralization covering instances where the learners create a deviant structure on the basis of his experience of other structure of the TL.(ii)Ignorance of the rule restriction, occurring as a result of failure to observe the restrictions or existing structures(iii) Incomplete application of rules, arising when the learners fail to fully develop a certain structure mandatory to produce acceptable sentences(iv) False concepts hypothesized, deriving from faulty comprehension of distinctions in the TL.from the analyses of errors to the practice of error subject areaWe know that in traditional classroom instruction is laid on accuracy, errors frequently corrected because the teacher thinks the error as a thorn in his/her flesh. Yet with the understanding of IL theory, the role of error correction has changed. Errors are consider ed natural products in language learning and in fact reflect the modes of learners developing system.What are the sources and causes of Errors?The following factors are identified as the source and causes of ErrorsMother tongue interferenceWilkins (1972) observesWhen learning a foreign language an individual already knows his mother tongue, and it is this which he attempts to transfer. The transfer may put up to be justified because the structure of the two languages is similar-in that case we get positive transfer or facilitation- or may prove unjustified because the structure of the two languages are different- in that case we get negative transfer- or interference.Loan Words