Error analysis examines the errors that language learners make to understand the process of second language acquisition. It focuses on learners' "interlanguage", which is their internal language system that develops over time through a creative process of hypothesis testing. The study of errors can provide insights into how a learner's language system is developing and the sources of errors, such as influence from the first language or overgeneralizing patterns in the target language. Through identifying, classifying, and tracking errors over time, researchers can better understand the stages of second language development from presystematic to systematic to postsystematic. While error analysis is useful, it is also important not to overemphasize errors and to recognize communicative fluency as the overall

1. Error Analysis
The study of
learners’interlanguage
Brown (2000)

2. outline
Introduction
How to detect learner’s interlanguage
What is the difference btw an error and a
mistake
Procedures of error analysis
Stages of errors
Sources of errors
Communication strategies
conclusion

3. Introduction
The contrastive analysis hypothesis
emphasized the interfering effects of the 1st
language acquisition with the 2nd
language
learning. However, the CAH has ignored,
according to brown, the “Intralingual”
effects of learning. He highlighted that 2nd
LL is a “creative process” which build a
legitimate system in which the learner
consciously tests hypotheses about the
target language from a range of different
sources of knowledge:

4. Knowledge of the target language
Knowledge about the communicative
function of language
Knowledge about language in general
Knowledge about life, human beings
and universe

5. In the 60s, researches of second
language learning concluded that
students, through repeated process
of trial and error and hypotheses,
succeed in establishing a closer
approximation to the rules|sytems
used by native speakers of a
language.
The process of interfering 2nd
LL WITH
1ST
LA has been described by Selinker
(1972) as “interlanguage”

6. Corder (1971), on the other hand, clarified
that learning a language is particular to a
specific individual in the sense that the
learner forms his/her own “self contained
linguistic system”; mainly referred to as
“idiosyncratic dialect”.
In the 70s, researchers and teachers of 2nd
LL focused on the “interlanguage
hypotheses” which is derived from the
shackles of the CAH.

7. How to detect learners’
interlanguage
Learner’s speech → production data
The learner’s speech, as an
observable data, reflects and
underlines the learner’s competence-
production competence.
Learner’s speech helps teachers to
detect errors and gives them
information about the system of the
target language which the learner has
already acquired.

8. Error analysis
Errors are fundamentally considered
as a means to learn skills and acquire
information. 2nd
LL is not different from
1ST
LA in the sense of its trial-and error
nature.
Through errors and mistakes,
teachers are capable to define
possible keys to understand how 2nd
LL functions:

9. “ A learner’s errors….are significant in
that they provide to the researcher
evidence of how language is learned
or acquired, what strategies or
procedures the learner is employing
in the discovery of the language”
(Corder, 1967: 167)

10. What is the difference between
an error and a mistake?
Errors and mistakes are technically 2
different phenomenon:
A mistake refers to “ a performance error
that is either a random guess or a “slip”,
in that it is a failure to utilize a known
system correctly” (Brown: 165)
An error is a “noticeable deviation from
the adult grammar of a native speaker,
reflecting the interlanguage competence
of the learner” (Ibid).

11. Examples:
Does John can sing?
John cans sing
John wills go
John mays come

12. Error analysis is distinguished from
contrastive analysis due to its examination
of errors attributable to all possible
sources. It doesn’t deal only with errors
that result from negative transfer of the
native language but also from other
possible sources such as :interlingual
errors within the target language, the
sociolinguistic context of communication,
psycholinguistic or cognitive strategies and
other affective variables.

13. Procedures of error analysis
One of the main difficulties in
understanding the linguistic system of
1st
LA and 2nd
LL is the instability and
unpredictability of learner’s system.
Through frequent observations of
learners, teachers and researches
notice a certain paradoxical use of
linguistic systems by learners.

14. 1. Identifying errors:
Corder (1971) provided a model of
identifying errors in a 2nd
LL
 Overt errors: errors that are
unquestionably ungrammatical
 Covert errors: errors that are
grammatically well formed but not
interpretable within the normal
content of communication

16. 2. Describing
errors:
Omission:
I went to movie
Ordering:
I to the store went
Substitution:
I lost my road
Addition:
Does can he sing
Errors

17. Discourse
Grammar
Lexicon
Orthography or
phonology
errors

18. Stages of errors
Presystematic stage: the stage in which the
learner is only vaguely aware that there is some
systematic order to a particular class of order.
There is a partial consistency because the learner
is not able yet to correct his error nor to explain it
Systematic stage: at this stage, the learner has
begun to discern a system, to be consistent and to
exhibit consistent errors that indicate his
internalization of rules even incorrect. The learner
cannot explain his error but provide different
wording or structures to clarify what he means:

19. Example:
-Learner: I lost my road
-Native speaker: what?
-L: I lost my road
-NS: you lost your road?
-L: ahhh…uhh… I lost myself….i got lost
-Ns: oh you lost your way
-L: oh yes I lost my way

20. Postsystematic stage: the learner at
this stage is quit consistent in his
speech. When he makes an error, he
can both correct it and explain it

21. Sources of errors
Interlingual transfer
Negative transfer from the native
language of a learner to a 2nd
LL
Example:
Je sais James
Je connais James

22. Intralingual Transfer:
Also “intralingual interference” is the
incorrect generalization of rules within the
target language- interference within the
target language → overgeneralization
EXAMPLE:
- does john can sing”
- he goed, he writed , he eated
- in TV
- go in Poland

23. Communication Strategies
A communicative strategy is the
conscious employment of verbal or
non-verbal mechanisms for
communicating an idea when precise
linguistic forms are for some reason
not readily available to the learner at
a point in communication.
There are mainly five communicative
strategies that learners use in 2nd
LL.

24. I.I. Avoidance:Avoidance:
A syntactic or lexical avoidance
within a semantic category
Example: I lost my road
Phonological avoidance
Topic avoidance

25. II Prefabricated patterns:
Memorization of certain stock
phrases or sentences without
internalized knowledge of the
components of the phrase.
Hakuta (1976:333) described
prefabricated patterns as storing
phrases in a large lexical items.

26. III Cognitive and personality style
Personality style or style of thinking can be a
source of error.
A person with high self-esteem may provide lot of
errors since he does not feel threatened by
committing errors as a person of low self-esteem.
Such errors appear at the level of discourse
example:
- I drove my bicycle
- I pedaled my bicycle.

27. IV Appeal to authority
A learner may appeal the authority of
a native speaker or a teacher to
speak properly for the form of (how
do you say-----?).
To look up a word in bilingual
dictionary

28. V Language Switch
When the learner fails to come up
with a sentence, he resorts to
language switch. He simply uses his
native language slipping from time to
time in the hope that the hearer gets
the gist of what he tries to
communicate

29. Conclusion
Limitations of error analysis
Despite the importance of error analysis,
placing too much attention on errors is not
all the time required. Brown highlighted that
teachers should also give value to the
positive reinforcement of clear and free
communication.
He added that the main purpose of 2nd
LL is
to attain a communicative fluency in a
language.

30. Error analysis stresses data
production. Yet, speaking and
listening, writing and reading are all
required in 2nd
LL
The comprehension of language is
also important as speaking a
language