Error analysis Rod Ellis

Presenter: F.Faryabi

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Content • Introduction

• Historical background

• Theoretical background

• Conducting Error Analysis (EA)

• Error Evaluation (EE)

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Introduction • Error Analysis (EA): consists of a set of procedures for

identifying, describing and explaining learner errors

• Error Evaluation (EE): is a set of procedure for assessing the relative seriousness of learner errors

• Contrastive Analysis (CA):

a. Why learners make errors

b. Which structural area of the TL teachers need to teach

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(1)provided the teacher with information about how much the

learner had learnt

reflects traditional role of EA

(2) provided the researcher with evidence of how language was learnt

provides new role on L2 research

(3)Acting as devices by which the learner discovered the rules of the target language

process of L2 acquisition

Corder (1974) the study of errors:

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Historical Background

Mid-1970

1970s1960s

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Contrastive analysis (1960)*CA was not itself a method for analysing learner language

*contrasting two native-speaker language systems- that’s of MT and TL-

*Errors were the product of negative transfer brought about by differences between MT and TL

*Many of the errors predicted to occur by CA did not in fact occur and, furthermore that some errors that were not predicted to occur did occur

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Error analysis (1970)

*Alternative and superior approach to CA

* Provided a methodology

*Starting point for the study of learner language and L2 acquisition

*EA is not restricted to errors caused by negative transfer from the L1, it covers all types of errors.

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Mid- 1970 *Heyday of EA was short-lived

*Give away to other types of analysis( e.g. obligatory occasion analysis)

*Interest in EA has not faded entirely in Applied Linguistic

Measure of accuracy

CA also lived on the form of contrastive rhetoric

Describe the typical theoretical structures in writing of different languages with a view to showing how they differ and thus how the rhetorical structure of writing in the L1 influence the L2 writer.

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Theoretical backgroundCA_ behaviorists_ new habit_ proactive inhibition

Sought to identify the features of the L2 that differed from those of the L1. So learners could be helped to form the ‘new habits’ of the L2 by practicing them intensively

overcome interface of L1 habit

EA_ nativists_ interlanguage theory

Emphasize the mental process that occur in the ‘black box’ of the mind when learning take place

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The mental grammar that a learner construct at a specific stage in the learning process.

Theoretical background

Selinker (1972)Interlanguage

Corder (1971) Idiosyncratic

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Conducting Error Analysis: Corder (1974)

1. Collection of a sample of learner language

2. Identification of errors

3. Description of errors

4. Explanation of errors

5. Evaluation of errors

Many studies do not include Step 5 .

It is seen as separate issue with its own

methods of enquiry

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1. Collection of a sample of learner language

The learner, language and production factors can influence the sample collected.

a) They can control for them, by narrowly specifying the sample they intend to collect.

e.g. advanced, instructed, Iranian, learner of English producing oral narratives.

b) Collecting a broader sample reflecting different learners, different types of language and different production conditions.

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2. Identification of errors

• A comparison between what the learner has produced and what a native speaker counterpart would produce in the same context.

1. Prepare a reconstruction of the sample as this would have been produced by the learner’s native speaker counterpart.

2. Assume that every utterance/sentence produced by the learner is erroneous and systematically eliminate those that an initial comparison with the native speaker sample shows to be well-formed

3. Identify which part(s) of each learner utterance/sentence differfrom the reconstructed version

Key procedure

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The policeman was in this corner whistlebut it was too late

Reconstructions for identifying the error on whistle

The policemen who was in this corner whistled but it was too late

Missing relative pronoun

The policemen was in this corner andwhistled but it was too late

Missing co-ordinator

The policemen in this corner whistled but it was too late

Superfluous copula verb

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3. Description of errors

*Comparative process

*Specifying how the forms produced by the learner differ from those produced by the learners’ native speaker counterparts

*Focuses on the surface properties of learner utterances

*Dualy, Burt, Krashen (1982) surface structure taxonomy is based on ‘the ways surface structure are altered ‘ in erroneous utterances.

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1.omission omission of copula be “ my sister very pretty”

2.addition the presence of the form that does not appear in well-formed utterances

Regularization “eated for ate”

Double marking he didn’t came

Simple addition additions not describable as regularization or as double marking

3.misinformation the use of wrong form of the morpheme or structure

Regularization Do they be happy?

Archi-form the learner use me as both object and subject pronoun

Alternating forms Don’t + v and No+v

4.misordering incorrect placement of morphemes. “she fights all the time her brother”

James (1998)5. Blends

errors that reflect the learners’ uncertainty as to which of two forms is required

“ the only one thing I want which is an amalgam of the only thing I want and the one thing I want”16

4. Explanation of errors

• The most important stage in an EA

• Determining the source of errors in order to account for why they were made

• Concern here will be with psycholinguistic sources of error

• Why learners make errors?

- The difficulty they experience in accessing their L2 knowledge

- If L2 forms have not been yet automatized & Ls require control processing

resort to use of non-standard forms

( acquired earlier)

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Corder (1974) it is useful to distinguish between errors and mistakeserror analysis should focus attention to ERRORS

Errors: arise because of gaps in L2 KnowledgeMistakes: occur because of the difficulty of processing forms that are not yet fully mastered

HOW Errors & Mistakes can be distinguished?a)To check whether learner alternates between the erroneous form the correct target-language formb) Consult the learners_ if they are able to self-correct mistake

Not practicable

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Interlanguage Errors

• Result of mother tongue influences

• Transfer: introduction of an L1 form into the interlanguage system

• Borrowing: temporary use of an L1 form as a communication strategy but does not entail incorporation of the form into the interlanguage system.

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• Universal strategies

1. False analogy (a kind of over-generalization) boy boys

child childs

2. Misanalysis: the learner wrongly assume that the singular possessive pronoun Its is plural because of the –s

3. Incomplete rule application: a kind of under generalization.

The failure to utilize indicative word order in “ nobody know where was Bashie”

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4.Exploiting redundancy: omitting the grammatical features that do not contributes to the meaning of an utterance. “ Martin like tennis”

5.Overlooking co-occurrence restrictions: failing to recognize that although quick and fast are synonyms, quick food is not possible collection

6. System- simplification: simplifying the burden of learning by substituting a single form where the TL uses two or more

e.g. The use of that as a ubiquitous relative pronoun

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Error EvaluationEE is not so much a stage in the analysis of learner errors as

supplementary procedure for applying the result of an EA

involves determining the gravity of different errors with a view to deciding which ones should receive instruction

EE studies were popular in the 1970s and 1980s, but have deride up entirely

Inclusive results that made it impossible to develop a definite scale for predicting error gravity

Teachers do need to take decision which errors to address

A practical need to undertake some kind of error evaluation

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•Error Analysis In Technology-Mediated Communication: Focus On EFL Writing In Synchronous And Asynchronous Modes Of Communication

Ali Rahimi &Dara Tafazoli

ScienceDirect

2013

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• This study was conducted on 63 EFL undergraduate university students’ writingsto provide a linguistic taxonomy of frequent syntactic-morphological errors in synchronous and asynchronous modes of communication.

• It provided the most frequent and the least frequent errors among EFL students’ writings in these two modes

the most frequent syntactico-morphological error in

synchronous mode of communication

the most frequent syntactic morphological error;

error in use ofarticles

error in distribution and use of verb groups

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most frequent syntactic morphological error In

asynchronous mode of communication

• was the least frequent error

The results showed that more errors were found in the synchronous mode of communication than in the asynchronous one.

The authors believed that “By learning error sources and their frequencies, teacher can meet their students’ needs”

“Providing remedial materials based on identifying learners’ linguistic difficulties is one of the fruitful aspect of these kinds of researches.”

“teachers should tolerate the learners’ errors; not to try to find solution for solving them.”

error in use of preposition

Wrong use of negative construction

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