Title : ERROR ANALYSIS: Perspectives on Second Language

Acquisition

Editor : Jack C. Richards

Publisher : Longman Group Limited

(Fifth Impression 1980)

Part One

Introductory

- Study of the child-learner’s errors does indeed throw light on the types of the cognitive and linguistic processes that appear to be part of language learning process (Menyuk, 1971)

- In second language learning, the learner’s errors are indicative both of the state of the learner’s knowledge, and of the ways in which a second language is learned.

1. The Study of Learner English

(Jack C. Richards and Gloria P Sampson)

There are seven factors that may influence and characterize the second language learner systems:

a) Language transfer. Sentences in the target language my exhibit interferences from the mother tongue.

b) Intralingual Interferences. It refers to items produced by the learner which reflect not the structure of the mother tongue, but generalizations based on partial exposure to the target language.

c) Sociolinguistics Situation.

d) Modality. Interferences between the bilingual’s languages is generally in the productive rather than in receptive side. Some of the modalities are: auditory cues, spelling pronunciations, and confusions of written and spoken styles.

e) Age. Some aspects of the child’s learning capacities change as he grows older and these may affect language learning.

f) Successions of Approximative Systems.

g) Universal Hierarchy of Difficulty.

2. The Significance of Learners’ Errors

(SP Corder)

The difference between first language acquisition and second language learning:

First language acquisition	Second language learning
- The learning of the mother tongue is the part of the whole maturational process of the child	- Learning a second language normally begins only after the maturational process

The learner’s errors provide evidence of the system of the language that is using at the particular point at the course. For the teacher, it can give information about how far the goal has been reached, and what remains for him/her to be learned.

Part Two

Towards Theories and Models

In this part, it will be discussed some suggestions about the ways in which learner speech is characterized.

1. Interlanguage

(Larry Selinker)

Interlanguage is relevant behavioral events which are identified using the aid of theoretical constructs which assume the major features of the psychological structure.

2. Approximative systems of foreign language learners

(William Nemser)

An Approximative system is the deviant linguistic system actually employed by the learner attempting to utilize the target language.

3. Social Factors, Interlanguage, and Language Learning

(Jack C. Richards)

The concept of Interlanguage is proposed for the processes affecting language learning in the following context:

a. Immigrant language learning

b. Indigenous minority variety of English

c. Pidgin and creoles setting

d. Local varieties of English

e. English as foreign language

Part Three

Development Studies of Second Language Acquisition in Children

1. You Can’t Learn Without Goofing: An Analysis of Children’s Second Language ‘Errors’

(Heidi C Dulay and Marina K Burt)

Second language acquisition means the acquisition of another language after having acquired the basics of the first. Bilingual acquisition is the acquisition of two language simultaneously. The term goof signifies deviation from syntactic structures which native adult speakers consider grammatically correct.

2. Language Acquisition in a Second Language Environment

(Roar Ravem)

Roar Raver finds that the second language learners find some difficulties in studying second language. It is because the differences that occur in the structure of the mother language and the second language.

3. The Development of Wh-Questions in First and Second Language Learner

(Roar Ravem)

The development of Wh-questions in children reflects the transformational derivations in transformational generative grammar.

Part Four

Error Analyses of Adult Language Learning

1. Idiosyncratic Dialects and Error Analysis

(S P Corder)

The learners cannot be divided from its group (social). The study of second language learner must also include this factor.

2. A Non-Contrastive Approach to Error Analysis

(Jack C Richards)

There are several types of errors, observed in the acquisition of English as second language, which do not derive from transfers from another language. The errors derive from the strategies employed by the learner in language acquisition, and from the mutual interference of items within the target language.