This document discusses analyzing errors in learner language, known as interlanguage. It explains that learner language develops its own systematic rules as learners learn a new language, rather than just being a collection of mistakes. The document outlines the procedure for analyzing learner errors, which involves identifying errors in recordings or writing, reconstructing what a native speaker would have said, and explaining the causes of errors, such as transfer from the native language or developing rules of the new language. The goal of this error analysis is to better understand a learner's rule system as their interlanguage develops.

1. M2 MEEF November 2014
Analysing
interlanguage errors
Tarone, E., & Swierzbin, B. (2009). Exploring learner language. Oxford
University Press.

2. interlanguage
❖ native speakers see their own
language (NL) as rule-governed,
even if they cannot
articulate all the rules
❖ they perceive a second
language learner’s language as
characterised by mistakes and
errors
❖ yet learner language is also
rule-governed; the linguistic
system of learner language has
been called interlanguage
autonomy
of learner
language

3. systematic linguistic analysis of learner language
❖ pronunciation => phonology
❖ grammar =>
❖ morphology
❖ syntax
❖ vocabulary => lexicon

4. learner errors
❖ as teachers and fluent speakers
of the target language, some
features of learner language
“jump out” at us
❖ foreign accent or grammatical
errors are often most noticeable
❖ our first impressions are often
based on exchanges of only a
few words

5. intended meaning
❖ “learner language is linguistic
system that is in the process of
formation and learners are
typically very uncertain of
many of the rules they use”
(Tarone & Swierzbin, 2009, p.
24)
error
analysis

6. procedure for error analysis
1. identify the errors
Prepare a reconstruction of the
sample as you think it would
have been produced by the
learner’s NS counterpart
under similar circumstances
There may be more or one
possible reconstruction.
identifying
errors

7. procedure for error analysis
1. identify the errors
2. explain the errors
- mistake or error?
- error due to
transfer?
intralingual error?
communication strategy?
something else?
There may be more than one
possible explanation.
explaining
errors

8. classifying errors
Name of learner/
time stamp
phrase with error
(phonology/
morphology/
syntax/lexis)
target language
reconstruction
cause of error

9. Reading
❖ Lightbown, P. M., Spada, N.,
Ranta, L., & Rand, J. (2006).
How languages are learned (Vol.
2). Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
❖ Tarone, E., & Swierzbin, B.
(2009). Exploring learner
language. Oxford University
Press.
Learning and Teaching
Foreign Languages
http://unt.unice.fr/uoh/learn_teach_FL/
http://www.scoop.it/t/telt/