This document summarizes a presentation on error analysis in second language acquisition. It defines linguistic errors and distinguishes between mistakes and errors. It then describes different types of errors including phonological, lexical, grammatical, and order errors. It also discusses interlingual and intralingual errors. The importance of error analysis for learners and teachers is explained. Common errors found in the writing of Bangladeshi higher secondary students are then analyzed and possible causes are discussed based on teacher perspectives. Recommendations for teachers include improving training, classroom techniques, feedback, and lowering students' affective filters.

1. TEFL-2
Presentation
“Error Analysis”
Presented by
Saba Anosh (005)
Tayyaba Akbar (024)

2. What is Error?
• In linguistics, an error is the use of a word, speech act or
grammatical items in such a way that it seems imperfect and
incorrect learning.
• According to Norrish, it is a systematic deviation which
happens when a learner has not learnt something, or gets it
wrong.

3. What is Error
Analysis?
• Error Analysis can be defined as a
“technique for identifying, classifying and
correcting the unacceptable forms of
words produced by L2 learners, using any
of the principles and procedures provided
by linguistics.
• E.g. Yesterday is a good day, instead of
“was”.

4. Difference b/w
Mistake and Error:
• People make mistakes when they already
have the knowledge about that but they
lack concern and attention. Mistake can
quickly be noticed and corrected.
• On the other hand, an error is something
done wrong due to lack of knowledge.
E.g. the word, ‘there’ in place of the
word, ‘their’.

5. Types of Errors:
The errors can be divided under:
1. Area: This means an error related to some
specific area of language. It can be subdivided
into:
• Phonological error: These are the errors
related to pronunciation. E.g. In a word like
‘river’ the last ‘r’ should not be pronounced
fully. If this is done, it’s a phonological error.
• Lexical error: These are the errors related
to words. E.g. ‘air-conditioned room’. Here,
‘ed’ is not required, this is a lexical error. It’s
a use of wrong lexical items.

6. Types of Errors
(Conti):
• Grammatical error: These are errors due
to problem with syntax. It is related to the
sentence structure. E.g. “He didn’t knew”
instead of “know”, this is a grammatical
error.
• Spellings: Due to incorrect spellings, the
meaning is either not clear or is totally
changed. E.g. “He is my sun”, instead of
“son”.

7. Error of order.: These errors occur due to incorrect order of words. E.g. “When I shall meet you?” here, the underlined
parts have been placed in an incorrect order.
Types of Errors
(Conti):
2. Form: These errors can be subdivided into:
• Error of addition: When there is unnecessary
addition of characters or items, this type of error
arises. E.g. “He faced a one problem.” Here the
word ‘one’ is added unnecessarily.
• Error of omission: This occurs due to dropping
the necessary items. E.g. “Sana bag is in yellow
color”, here an apostrophe to the word ‘Sana’ is
omitted though required in order to clarify the
meaning.

8. Types of Errors
(Conti):
• Error of order: These errors occur due to
incorrect order of words. E.g. “this should
be not done like this”, instead of “ should
not be”.
• Interlingual error: These errors occur
due to influence of L1 in the target
language. E.g. Some learners of ESL
may ask: “Where going you are?’ instead
of “Where are you going?”
• Intralingual errors: These errors occur
within the target language due to
incomplete knowledge of rules, or
ignorance of exceptions. E.g. “Does she
still sings?”

9. Importance of EA:
Error Analysis is beneficial for both, learners
and teachers.
For learners, EA is needed to show the
troublesome linguistics areas or errors that
L2 learners encounters in learning.
For teachers, it is required to enable them to
devise new teaching strategies and make
proper planning for better learning process
and to teach English to students in better
and organized way.

10. ERROR ANAlysis in
the Writing Tasks of
Higher Secondary
Level Students of
Bangladesh
by:Hasna Khanom
• Mistakes a person makes in the process of
constructing a new system of language
needs to be analyzed carefully as they may
help understand second language
acquisition.
• Bangladeshi students of Higher Secondary
level display poor proficiency in writing.
They rote memorize grammar rules,
paragraphs, essays, and letters which helps
little in developing the skill of writing.
• Error analysis is important in the language
teaching pedagogy as it helps teachers
identify the sources of errors and take
pedagogical precautions

11. Cont…
• Error Analysis procedure involves
“collecting samples of learner language,
identifying the errors in the sample,
describing these errors, classifying them
according to their hypothesized causes,
and evaluating their seriousness”.
• Error analysis is a “technique for
identifying, classifying and systematically
interpreting the unacceptable forms
produced by someone learning a second/
foreign language, using any of the
principles and procedures provided by
Linguistics.

12. Cont…
• Corder has revealed a criterion that helps us to
distinguish between mistakes and errors. A
mistake can be self corrected, while an error
cannot be. Errors are systematic, i.e., likely to
occur recurrently and not recognized by
learners. Mistakes, on the other hand, are
deviations due to performance factors
(memory limitation, lack of attention,
carelessness, etc.) that are typically random.
• Errors fall into four categories: omission of
some required element; addition of some
unnecessary or incorrect element; selection of
an incorrect element; and misordering of the
elements.

13. Cont…
• Rida [21] has explored the causes behind
the problem of writing in Bangladesh
context is explored. Some of the problems
she brings into focus are: a) practice of
writing skill in classroom is not adequate,
b) teachers are not trained well enough to
deal with the CLT syllabus, c) teachers
are not good at explaining grammar rules
to the learners, d) the learners do not get
adequate exposure to English language
since the medium of classroom instruction
is Bangla, and so on.

14. PROCEDURE AND
APPROACH FOR
DATA
PRESENTATION
AND ANALYSIS:
• A corpus of language is selected. This
involves deciding on the size of the
sample, the medium to be sampled, and
the homogeneity of the sample (with
regard to the learners’ ages, L1
background, stage of development, etc).
• The errors in the corpus are identified.
This involves identifying errors from
mistakes.
• The errors are classified. This involves
assigning a grammatical description to
each error..

15. PROCEDURE AND
APPROACH FOR
DATA
PRESENTATION
AND ANALYSIS:
• The errors are explained. In this stage of
the procedure an attempt is made to
identify the psycholinguistic cause of the
errors.
• 5. The errors are evaluated. This stage
involves assessing the seriousness of
each error in order to take principled
teaching decisions

16. GENERAL
CAUSES FROM
TEACHERS
• Thus the students hardly get any visual
aid to help them internalize whatever is
taught in the class these students lack in
integrative motivation and have very
limited writing practice.
• Unsatisfactory reading skill and limited
exposure to reading texts in English
explain poor language output in their
writing.
• Both the students and the teachers are
exam oriented which encourages rote
memorization.

17. GENERAL
CAUSES FROM
TEACHERS
• The affective filter of almost all the
students is high from their very childhood.
They have a fear of the English language
and this explains their lack of motivation.
• The Higher Secondary level students
have to sit for a lot of exams/quizzes
within a year due to which they hardly get
time to practice writing outside class.

18. GENERAL
CAUSES FROM
TEACHERS
• The teachers have only the white board
and chalk as teaching aid to use in the
classroom which they do not want to use
much because of dust problem.
• The time constraint of 45 minute long
classes is another reason for insufficient
writing practice in class. The teachers do
not give students writing assignments at
home either, because there is no time for
script checking or giving feedback.
• Poor foundation of the English language
from the first 10 years of school life slows
down the process of further improvement.

19. GENERAL
CAUSES FROM
TEACHERS
• A large number of students of this Higher
Secondary level are too busy with modern
pocket-technology or with other
entertainments to be able to study a
couple of hours at a stretch. They are
always busy chatting by exchanging text-
messages through cell phones. This
explains the presence of sms language in
some of the scripts.

20. RECOMMENDATI
ONS FOR
TEACERS
• Self-study on the part of the learners is
important. The learners have to have
integrative motivation and be responsible
for their own learning
• Feedback on their erroneous production
should be given constantly.
• English classes should be two-hour
classes.
• The classroom has to be well equipped; at
least with white board and OHP so visual
aid can be given to help internalization

21. RECOMMENDATI
ONS FOR
TEACHERS
• The teachers need good training on the
learner centered method of CLT.
• Well trained specialized teachers should
teach English from the school level.
• Rote memorization should be discouraged
and to do this the testing system needs to
be changed. Questions that promote
critical thinking should be included

22. RECOMMENDTIO
NS FOR
TEACHERS
• Students do not need so many quizzes or
tutorials to divert their attention. The more
exams they get, the more they memorize
to get the pass mark.
• Role play can be done to make students
participate and dictation practice needs to
be done to improve spelling.
• The teachers have to apply some effective
classroom management techniques to
retain students’ attention in the class.
• Teachers have to be friendly and
encouraging to lower their affective filter.

23. THANKYOU!