Interlang Ea 13022017 4f5f4p

Error analysis Douglas Mckeating

Part 4: The process of error analysis (cont.) Part 5: Explanation of causes

Part 4: Process

Verbal groups Incorrect 19 down her friends all 3. When she fell Correct laugh but12 Ana was crying because her Total 31broke. arm was Complex 5. Last Saturday I was helped my Incorrect 2 in ourSamu garden. 1.father Yesterday and Epeli miss the Correct bus so they1walk to school and the Total 3 bit them because they were heaster Simplelate. Regular 6. Weverbs: digged some holes and plant the Incorrect 12 cassava. Correct 2 of bed, put on his clothes 9. He got out Total 14 his face. Then he drinked and wash Irregular some verbs: tea and go to school. Incorrect 5 rubbish round the school 10. He picked up Correct and talk to9his friends, then the teacher Total 14 bit the drum.

1. Yesterday Samu and Epeli miss the bus so they walk to school and the heaster bit them because they were late. 2. She climb the tree and pick that ripe fruit. 3. When she fell down her friends all laugh but Ana was crying because her arm was broke. 4. Then he cleaned his teeth and wash his face, then went to bed. 5. Last Saturday I was helped my father in our garden. 6. We digged some holes and plant the cassava. 7. When we went to the beach we play football, then we made a fire and cook the food for our picnic.

• Students know the concept of past tense. • But all past tense verbs should be taught and focus because they are different in some way.

Ex. *She was angry on me. • Multiple classification of errors • List errors under individual lexical items, linguistic systems, semantic areas, etc. • On • With • Angry • Preposition (substitution)

• Other processes of analysis • Recognise • Interpret • Reconstruct • Classified • Count + go into more details • Assess error gravity determine

Part 5: Explanation of causes

Possible causes of error • Interlingual causes of error • Intralingual causes of error • Cross-association • Wrong analogy and overgeneralization

• Other possible causes • Carelessness • Errors encouraged by teaching

Interlingual causes of error

• Mother tongue interference or language transfer • Give rise to CA • Compare and contrast structural descriptions of languages • Different structures --->

• CA: Its predictive powers are • limited. Similarity between languages ---> no difficulty • Partial similarities often causes great difficulties.

• Errors often do not occur where there are big differences • These differences are easier to .

Intralingual causes of error

• Faulty generalization about rules of TL • Different types of intralingual causes are by no means clear-cut.

1) Cross-association 2) Wrong analogy and over-generalisation

1) Cross-association • Encouraged by methods of presentation and practice •

This tea is very hot. I can’t drink it. • This tea is too hot to drink. • This apple is very sour. I can’t eat it. • *This apple is very sour to eat. • *This apple is too sour to eat it.

1) Cross-association • The apple is too sour to eat. • The apple is so sour that I can’t eat it. • The bag is too heavy to carry. • *The bag is very heavy that I can’t carry it. • *The bag is so heavy for me to carry it. • *The bag is too heavy that I can’t carry it.

2) Wrong analogy and over-generalisation

• Learners search for patterns and formulate rules to reduce the learning load. • They may over-generalize their rules and fail to take exceptionsshowed, into . told, • Ex. *She explained me how to mend it. taught  of • Or they may ignore counter-examples their rules. • They try to simplify or regularize the language.

Other possible causes 1) Carelessness 2) Errors encouraged by teaching

• Hyper-correction • Faulty rules given by the teacher

1) Carelessness

• Errors VS lapses • Errors result from the leaner following rules which he believes are correct but which are actually wrong. • Lapses (careless mistakes) result from failure to follow a

2) Errors encouraged by teaching

• Hyper-correction • results from over-emphasis on items that CA (and EA) indicates may (or do) present difficulty. • Ex. Over-emphasis on 3rd person –s • I lives in a small village.

2) Errors encouraged by teaching

• Hyper-correction • Ex. Final voiceless consonants (Fijian students) • price ---> prize • She won the first price. • ice ---> eyes • She has beautiful brown ice.

2) Errors encouraged by teaching

• Hyper-correction • Ex. Final voiceless consonants (Fijian students) • price ---> prize • She won the first price. • ice ---> eyes • She has beautiful brown ice.

2) Errors encouraged by teaching

• Faulty rules given by the teacher • Teachers sometimes give students rules which are far from adequate. Ex. ‘If the action is in the past, the verb must be in the past tense’