Comprehensive Study Notes – Error Analysis (EIC556)

Errors vs Mistakes

Key distinction introduced across applied-linguistics literature; indispensable before any rigorous Error Analysis (EA) can begin.

• Everyday English treats the two words as near-synonyms, yet specialists separate them according to speaker competence vs performance.

• Error – a systematic, non-self-correctable deviation that reflects an incomplete or faulty underlying grammar of the learner.
• Corder (in Larsen, $1992$): “a noticeable deviation, reflecting the competence of the learner; a product of the current stage of L$2$ development.”
• James ($1998$): impossible for the learner to repair unaided; therefore diagnostic of the learner’s rule-system.
• Machine metaphor: “Machines never make mistakes, they make errors; people can make both.”

• Mistake – an accidental, self-detectable performance slip (fatigue, excitement, distraction, randomness).
• Norrish ($1983$): “inconsistent deviation.”
• Corder (in Larsen, $1992$): random slip readily noticed and corrected by the same speaker.
• Researchers call them performance errors; they do not expose defective knowledge.

• Practical test (James $1998$): if the speaker can correct the deviation once it is pointed out → mistake; if not → error.

• Illustrative sentences (class activity):
$1$ There are many spelling errors in your essays.
$2$ The waiter made a mistake over the bill.
$3$ The letter was sent in error.
$4$ You can arrest me; there must be some mistake.
$5$ It was a big mistake to leave your umbrella at home.

Error Analysis (EA)

• Founded in the late $1960$s by Stephen Pit Corder and colleagues.
• Richards et al. ($1985$:$96$): “the study of errors made by second- and foreign-language learners.”

Aims of EA

$\bullet$ Gauge how well a learner knows the language.
$\bullet$ Expose how the language is being learned (learning strategies, rule-formation).
$\bullet$ Provide data for materials design & teaching priorities (diagnostic & prognostic value).

Foundational oppositions (Corder $1967$)

$1$ Language Teaching vs Language Learning.
$2$ Behaviourism (habit-formation) vs Nativism (rule-formation).
$3$ First Language Acquisition vs Second-Language Acquisition (SLA).
EA sides with the rule-formation/nativist view: learners actively form hypotheses; errors are evidence of that process.

Error Analysis vs Contrastive Analysis (CA)

EA therefore treats errors productively rather than as "hurdles" to eradicate.

Central Concepts: Transitional Competence & Interlanguage

• Every learner operates an independent, evolving language system at each moment of development – Corder called it transitional competence; Selinker ($1972$) renamed it Interlanguage (IL).

• IL forms a continuum from No TL → Full TL; progress may stop in places (fossilization – persistent errors resistant to instruction).

Developmental Stages (common model)

$1$ Pre-systematic – random, heavy $L$$_1$reliance. <br>$2$Emergent – learner notices patterns; many errors. <br>$3$Systematic – internally consistent rules, yet not target-like (fossilized items appear). <br>$4$Stabilization – errors rarer; self-correction possible. <br>$5$Target-Language stage – near-native; only minor lapses.</p><p>• Brown ($2007$:$257$) analogy: <em>learning to swim, play tennis, type, or read</em> – success is reached “by profiting from mistakes, using feedback, and making successive approximations.”</p><p>• Pedagogical pay-offs of recognising IL: <br>$\ast$Teachers track progress realistically. <br>$\ast$Classroom focus shifts from error avoidance to <strong>communication + guided refinement.</strong></p><h3 collapsed="false" seolevelmigrated="true">Importance of Error Analysis</h3><p>• <strong>Diagnostic</strong> – reveals present state of mastery (Corder$1967).
• Prognostic – guides teachers in material & strategy adaptation.
• Learner-centred – errors are learning devices (Weireesh 1991$). <br>• <strong>Research value</strong> – “monitoring and analysis of learner language” (Candling$2001$). <br>• <strong>Unavoidability</strong> – errors are an inevitable stage of the learning curve (Olasehinde$2002$).</p><h3 collapsed="false" seolevelmigrated="true">Criticisms of EA</h3><p>$1$Over-attention to error may eclipse positive reinforcement; correct TL usage can go unnoticed. <br>$2 Bias toward production data – comprehension, reading & listening also matter.
3 Strategy of avoidance is invisible to EA; absence of error ≠ competence (e.g., Japanese vs Persian learners & relative clauses).
4$Production errors are just one slice of total performance; broader <strong>Performance / Interlanguage analysis</strong> is recommended.</p><h3 collapsed="false" seolevelmigrated="true">Sources of Errors (Brown$1980$+ James$1980$)</h3><h4 collapsed="false" seolevelmigrated="true">$1$Interlingual Transfer</h4><p>Learner draws on$L$_1; especially strong at initial TL exposure. Example: Where you live? (word-order transferred from many East-Asian languages).

$2$ Intralingual (Within L$2$) Errors – "learning-strategy-based"

James lists $7$ sub-types:

$\bullet$ False analogy – $dogs/dog\Rightarrow sheeps/sheep$; more easier.
$\bullet$ Misanalysis – mis-hypothesising a rule: $avoid \to$ avoid to eat.
$\bullet$ Incomplete rule application – partial use, esp. in questions: How long it takes?
$\bullet$ Exploiting redundancy – dropping “redundant” morphology.
$\bullet$ Over-laboration – ignoring selection restrictions: I enjoy to run.
$\bullet$ Hyper-correction – over-monitoring: Fifty minutes are the maximum length time.
$\bullet$ Over-generalisation / system-simplification – Does she can dance?; I wonder where are you going.

$3$ Context of Learning

Misleading teacher explanations, defective textbooks, rote drills out of context.

$4$ Communication Strategies (Brown $1980$)

$\circ$ Avoidance (lexical, syntactic, phonological, topic).
• “I lost my road” for I lost my way (lexical).
$\circ$ Prefabricated patterns – juxtaposing memorised chunks: I don’t understand how can you do that.
$\circ$ Cognitive & personality styles – high self-esteem may risk more errors; low self-esteem may produce fewer but through avoidance.
$\circ$ Appeal to authority – dictionary look-up / native-speaker query can inject wrong equivalents: Can you borrow me ten dollars? (Malay pinjam ambiguity).
$\circ$ Language switch / circumlocution – L$1$ insertion or descriptive phrases: the thing to hang clothes on for clothes-line.

Procedures for Conducting Error Analysis (Corder $1974$)

$1$ Collection of learner language sample
• Either narrowly controlled (e.g., advanced Iranian EFL oral narratives) or broad & varied.

$2$ Identification of errors
• Reconstruct native-speaker version → compare → mark any divergence.
• Initial assumption: every learner sentence is erroneous until proven well-formed.

$3$ Description
• Compare similarities/differences; categorise by type (e.g., morphology, syntax).
• Count frequency to locate dominant patterns.

$4$ Explanation – determine source (interlingual, intralingual, etc.).
• Central research stage; links performance to underlying processes (automatization, control processing).

$5$ Evaluation
• Judge comprehensibility, seriousness, naturalness.
• Distinguish global errors (affect overall sentence organisation – My house beautiful red) vs local errors (single elements – I want an hot dog).
• Severity is context-dependent.

• Supplementary notions:
Error Analysis (EA) – identify/describe/explain learner errors.
Error Evaluation (EE) – assess seriousness.
Contrastive Analysis (CA) – predict L$1$ transfer hotspots.

Types / Levels of Errors

$1$ Phonological & Orthographic

Mispronunciations; misspellings; punctuation & typographic errors (illegible handwriting, twisted letters).

$2$ Lexical

• Misformations (non-existent words) – technologys, goverment, happend, knowladge, aducation, cerreer, lifes, morden, importang, obsesion, contries, buisness, by → buy.
• Omissions – Africa is the country that ( ) not have …

$3$ Semantic

Vocabulary mis-use altering meaning – finding new informations; most of them who using the Internet.

$4$ Morphological / Syntactic

Agreement, tense, word order –
$1$ I am wondering how the student in that country were busy to open book.
$2$ The country have to be exposes children to the Internet.
$3$ That most people that has using.

$5$ Discourse

• Pragmatic mis-encoding – literal reading of idioms: Give (me) a hand.
• Receptive – misunderstanding others’ utterances (comic strip: “When in Rome …” confusion).

Practical, Ethical, Philosophical Implications

• Treating errors as learning evidence cultivates a growth mindset; punishment or ridicule of errors stifles experimentation and communicative risk-taking.

• Teachers should maintain balance – highlight successes (positive reinforcement) while analysing errors diagnostically.

• EA informs materials writers to prioritise high-frequency, high-gravity error zones (e.g., question formation, article use).

• Recognition of fossilization warns educators that time & exposure alone may not eradicate entrenched forms; targeted intervention is necessary.

• By acknowledging individual cognitive-style differences and affective factors (self-esteem, anxiety), pedagogy becomes more humane and learner-centred.

Connections to Broader SLA Principles

• EA echoes Chomskyan competence/performance dichotomy.
• Supports nativist / cognitive approaches over pure behaviourism by validating rule-hypothesis testing.
• Interlanguage aligns with Piagetian notions of developmental stages and Vygotskian emphasis on scaffolding & Zone of Proximal Development, where feedback on errors constitutes social mediation.

Summary Checklist for Exam Revision

$\square$ Differentiate ERROR vs MISTAKE (competence vs performance; self-correction test).
$\square$ Recall $5$-step EA procedure (collect → identify → describe → explain → evaluate).
$\square$ List $4$ major sources (interlingual, intralingual, context, communication strategies) and be able to exemplify each subtype.
$\square$ Chart interlanguage stages; define fossilization.
$\square$ State diagnostic & prognostic functions of EA.
$\square$ Recognise criticisms (over-focus on errors; avoidance; production bias).
$\square$ Give examples of lexical, syntactic, semantic, phonological, discourse errors.