THE NATURE

OF
LEARNER
LANGUAGE
TOPIC PRESENTER:
JENNY M. BALATERO
ERRORS AND ERROR ANALYSIS

Reasons for Focusing on Errors:

● They are conspicuous;

● It is useful for teachers to know

what errors learners make;

● Paradoxically, making errors help

the learners to learn

 IDENTIFYING
ERRORS
One day an Indian gentleman a snake charmer, arrived in
England by plane. He was coming from Bombay with two
pieces of luggage. The big of them contained a snake. A
man & a little boy was watching him in the customs area.
The man said to the little boy, 'Go and speak with this
gentleman.' When the little boy was speaking with the
traveller, the thief took the big suitcase and went out
quickly. When the victim saw that he cried 'Help me! Help
me! A thief! A thief!' The policeman was in this corner
whistle but it was too late. The two thieves escape with the
big suitcase, took their car & went in the traffic. They
passed near a zoo and stop in a forest. There they had a
big surprise. The basket contain a big snake.
To identify errors we have to
compare the sentences learners
produce with what seem to be the
normal or 'correct' in the target
language w/c correspond
w/ them.

For example:
A man and a little boy was watching him.
 Correct:
A man and a little boy were watching him.

Sometimes, learners produce sentences

that are possible target-language
sentences but not the preferred ones.

For example:

… went in the traffic.

 Most preferable:
… went into the traffic.

At other times, it is difficult to

reconstruct the correct sentence
because we are not sure what the
learner meant to say. For example:

The big of them contained a snake.

 Correct:
The bigger of them contained a snake.

or:
The big one contained a snake.

Distinguish Errors and Mistakes

Errors reflect gaps in a learner's knowledge

Mistakes reflect occassional lapses

in performance
systematic
Stage Description Example

1 Learners fail to make the verb for past tense. 'eat'

2 Learners begin to produce irregular past tense forms. 'ate'

3 Learners overgenralize the regular past tense form 'eated'

4 Sometimes learners produce hybrid forms. 'ated'

5 Learners produce correct irregular past tense forms 'ate'

The next step is U-shaped
course development
The systematic development of
learner language that reflects a
mental system of L2 knowledge.
Language Acquisition Device
 What is 'Interlanguage'?

Interlanguage was coined by the American

linguist, LARRY SELINKER, in recognition of the fact
that L2 learners construct a linguistic system that draws,
on the learner's L1 but is also different from it and the target
language.
 What is 'Interlanguage'?

2. The learner's grammar is permeable.

3. The learner's grammar is transitional. Learners
change their grammar from one time to another
by adding/deleting rules, and restructuring the
whole system. This results in an interlanguage
continuum.

Interlanguage continuum- learners

construct a series of mental grammars of
interlanguages as they increase their complexity
of L2
 What is 'Interlanguage'?

4. Some researchers have claimed that

that the system learners construct contain
variable rules. However, other researchers
argue that interlanguage systems are
homogeneous and that variability reflects
the mistakes learners make when they try to
use their knowledge to communicate.
 What is 'Interlanguage'?

5. Learners employ various learning strategies

to develop their interlanguages. The different
kinds of errors learners produce reflect different
learning strategies.
6. Learners grammar is likely to fossilize.
Selinker suggested that only 5% of learners go
on to develop the same mental grammar as
native speakers.
Backsliding – (production of errors repre-
senting at an early stage of development) is
typical of fossilized learners.
A Computation Model of L2 Acquisition

Figure 3.1 A Computational Model of L2 Acquisition

Input intake L2 knowledge output

THANK YOU !