2007

On Error Analysis of English Majors Writing from the Perspective of Interlanguage Theory
Author: He Dan Supervisor: Lecturer Lin Hong (Foreign Language Department of Huizhou University, Huizhou, Guangdong, 516007)

Abstract: Literature reviews of the previous studies on IL and EA have been illustrated in this dissertation.
And then a databased analysis of IL has been also made. All the data came from compositions written by English majors at the same class of Huizhou University when theyre in the first year and in the third year respectively. By the use of quantitative analysis, IL errors from the perspective of language knowledge, intralingual errors, interlingual errors and error sources have been scrutinized. The purpose is to find the distribution changes and frequency changes of IL errors from compositions by the same class at different academic years to gain some insights into English language learning. The findings of this research can be summarized as follows: a. First-year students, here, are in a transitional stage between systematic stage and emergent stage, while third-year students are undoubtedly in a systematic stage. b. Impact of Native language transfers learners target language learning should not be neglected. c. Intralingual errors are committed most often by English majors at Huizhou University. structure and thoroughly comprehend the shades of words. Implications for English language learning in Huizhou University have also been summarized in this dissertation. d. On the road to approach target language, the key to learning is to strengthen English grammar basic

Key Words :Second Language Acquisition; Interlanguage; Error Analysis; Interlingual Errors; Intralingual
Errors

I Introduction
In the field of second language acquisition, terminology and theories changed all the time. But one theory has retained its status in this field: the idea of the existence of an interlanguage (IL). Interlanguage refers to the separateness of a second language learners system, a system that has a structurally intermediate status between the native and target languages.
[1]P201

However, the nature of the blending, or how between is to be

interpreted, and the IL systematicities have always been vague in SLA literature. This study will investigate some grammatical problems in the acquisition of English language by English majors at Huizhou University. By comparing errors committed at different years study by the same group of students at different years study. We can find out what their dominant errors are and which stage their English levels stay at when quantitative analysis of the distribution, the occurrences of errors from different aspects will be scrutinized. One important reason to do so is that most of them dont know whether they have improved or not after 2 years study. Their knowledge of English will be reflected in their writing of TEM-8 examination.

II Literature Review
In the past 40 years, studies of second language learning have occupied a central place in the field of linguistics. Among the various aspects in such developmental studies, learner language has been the highlight
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in the field of second language acquisition.

2.1 A Review of Second Language Acquisition Research

The term second language acquisition refers to the subconscious or conscious process by which a language other than the mother tongue is learnt in a natural or a tutored setting. [2]P6 It includes the development of phonology, lexis, grammar and pragmatic knowledge. Second Language Acquisition (SLA) ---------the study people have showed great interests, although it doesnt have a long history.

2.2 Interlanguage Theory (IL)

2.2.1 The Definition of IL According to Selinker, interlanguage refers to the separateness of a second language learners system, a system that has a structurally intermediate status between the native and target languages. [1]P201 Nemser referred to the same general phenomenon in second language learning but stressed the successive approximation to the target language in his term approximative system. [3]P9 Corder used the term idiosyncratic dialect to connote the idea that the learners language is unique to a particular individual, that the rules of the learners language are peculiar to the language of that individual alone. [4]P151 While each of these designations emphasizes a particular idea, but they share the notion that second language learners form their own language system. 2.2.2 The Stages of IL Development There are many ways to describe the progression of linguistic development and learners are variable in their acquisition. According to H.D.Brown, there are four stages of IL development. The first is a stage of random errors, in which the learner doesnt know that there are some systematic orders to a particular class of items. The second stage is emergent. The learner becomes consistent in linguistic production. The third stage is a systematic stage in which the learner is now able to show more consistency. When their errors are pointed out, they will correct their errors instantly. Of course, theyre more close to the target language. The fourth stage is the stabilization stage, which is featured by the learners ability to self-correct. It should be pointed out that the fourth stage does not describe a learners total language system. One might be in second stage of the subjunctive mood, but he is in the fourth stage of past tense system. [5]P211

2.3 Approaches to IL Study

2.3.1 Contrastive Analysis (CA) Closely related to the study of Interlanguage are two traditional approaches: Contrastive Analysis and Error Analysis (EA). Researchers from the 1940s to the 1960s conducted CA systematically comparing two languages. Charles Fries, one of the leading applied linguists, stated it in this way. The most efficient materials are those that are based on a scientific description of the language to be learned, carefully compared with a parallel description of the native language of the learner. [6]P9 By the 1970s, however, their positions about the predicative power of CA and about the relationship between L1 and L2 learning faced serious challenges. Empirical research seemed to show that significant learning difficulties are not necessary due to the differences between L1 and L2.[7]P17 2.3.2 Error Analysis (EA) 2.3.2.1 Significance of Error Analysis In S.Pit Corders seminal 1967 paper The significance of learners errors, he made five crucial points: (i)We should look for parallels between L1 and L2 learning, since these are governed by the same underlying mechanisms, procedures and strategies. (ii)Errors are evidence of the learners in-built syllabus, or of what they have taken in, rather than what
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teachers think they have put in: intake should not be equated with input. (iii)Errors show that L1 and L2 learners both develop an independent system of language, although it is neither the adult system nor that of the second language (Corder, 1967:166) but is evidence of a transitional competence. (iv)Errors should be distinguished from mistakes (v)Errors are significant in three aspects: they tell the teacher what needs to be taught; they tell the researcher how learning proceeds; and they are a means whereby learners test their hypotheses about the L2. [8] P161 2.3.2.2 Procedures of Error Analysis The procedures for EA are figured out by Corder as follows: A. collection of a sample of learner language B. identification of errors C. description of errors D. explanation of errors E. evaluation of errors 2.3.2.3 Error Types The first distinction we should make is mistakes and errors. A mistake refers to performance error that is either a random guess or a slip, which are caused by the lack of attention, fatigue, carelessness, etc. The latter refers to systematic errors of the target language. [2]P51 Corder also makes distinction between overt and covert errors. An overt errors is easy to identify, because there is a clear deviation in form. A covert error occurs in utterances that are superficially well formed but which do not mean what the learner intended them to mean. [4]P59 Another division that is widely agreed on is that interlingual errors and intralingual errors believed by linguists. An error that results from language transfer, which is caused by the learners native language, is called interlingual errors.[9] P204 Intralingual errors refer to those produced in using the target language in own terms. They result from faulty or partial learning of the target language, rather than from language transfer.
[9]P204

III. Methodology
3.1 The Purpose
Fluency and correctness of our language expression can be fully detected in a composition, which represents ones English ability. Therefore, in order to detect and describe partial knowledge of English that English majors in China have, this dissertation seeks to investigate their language output by analyzing the type and source of the errors made by English majors.

3.2 Subjects
The subjects chosen for this study are 37 students (22 females and 15 males) in the same class who are English majors at Huizhou University. Compositions are taken from their Basic English Test when they are freshmen and from their Advanced English Test when theyre third-year students. In this way, not only can we analyze and describe their errors, but also detect errors frequency changes after they have two years training and study.

3.3 Instrument
Research samples are the writings on the set topics finished by students within limited time. The requirements of two topics respectively are: I write an around-150-word composition on the following topic within 45 minutes. Students should base your composition on the outline given. Marks will be awarded for content, organization, grammar and appropriacy.
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Work 1 Work is a necessary pant of our life. 2 Work provides us with a sense of achievement 3 We should try our best to do well in our work. -----------First-year students II Looks are not everything as the saying goes. Or are they? Write a composition on: Do Looks Really Count? Your composition should be about 300 words in length. You should state your argument clearly and then support it with details within 30 minutes. -----------Third-year student According to Carl James, we recognize just three levels of language: the levels of substance, text and discourse.[8]P129 Because some errors require semantic and discourse competence for recognition, I concentrate on errors that can be recognized syntactically from grammar aspects, which belongs to the text level, while other two kinds of error levels are ignored here. Researchers have found that the early stages of language learning are characterized by a predominance of interference, but once learners have begun to acquire parts of the new system, more and more intralingual transfer-generalization within the target language is manifested.
[5]P214

Since these two categories are so important, I also categorize errors into these two categories accordingly

and spend more space on discussing sources of these two.

IV Results and Discussion

4.1 Results
4.1.1 Data Analysis in Terms of Error Frequency Data These errors have been grouped according to the error classification which they belong to and the language area where the errors were made. The total number of these errors is 627 in this study. The numbers are used to show the relative frequency of various errors to judge their overall significance (but note that even if an error occurred multiple times in a sentence, it was counted only once). Table I Group I Be-verb Subject-verb agreement Coordinator Misspelling Verbtense, aspect voice, mood Adj / Adv 3 10 Incomplete sentence or no comma for a sentence Number or nouns 25 29 Collocation or word choice Group I: first-year students Group II: third-year students 58 23 27 22 10 57 40 6 31 41 Pronoun Preposition Part of speech 10 33 20 14 12 12 9 20 Group II 7 14 Article Subordinator Group I 14 8 Group II 22 23

The first and fourth columns refer to grammar variables categorized according to students error types. The second and fifth column show error frequency of first-year students compositions while the third and the sixth column show error frequency of third-year students compositions. Comparing two groups performance,
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we can get an overview in these ways: 1. Compared with group I, group makes half spelling mistakes. After 2 years study, vocabulary commanded by students obviously enlarges. 2. When group intends to choose a word or collocations to describe what they want to say, they become more serious and skillful than first year students who mainly focus on grammar mistakes when theyre writing. This phenomenon can be detected from the ratio of 58: 23. 3. It can be noticed that subordinator errors committed by group are nearly 3 times more than Group I. It is out of our expectations. Finally, I found that the frequencies of using subordinators are completely different. Group I seldom use complex sentences such as relative clauses. Group often use relative clauses or other complex sentences to express their ideas. 4. It is worth pointing out that the errors in usage of verb are almost the same committed by Group I and Group . It means that a command of English verbs is not as good as we expect. 4.1.2 Data Analysis in Terms of Interlingual and Intraligual Errors In this study, article, number on nouns, no stop for a sentence and collocation and word choice are categorized into intralingual errors. Intralingual errors reflect the general characteristics of rule learning such as faulty generalization incomplete application of rules and failure to learn conditions under which rules apply.
[9]P204

According to Richards method, other types of errors are put into intralingual errors although

therere overlaps between two categories. Table II Group I Interlingual errors Intralingual errors Total 124 210 334 37% 63% 100% 96 187 293 Group II 34% 67% 100%

Group I: first-year students

Group II: third-year students

The figures in the second column are the number of intralingual and interlingual errors committed by first-year students and the percentages of these two types, which constitute the total number of errors respectively. The third column, made up of third-year students results is the same format with the second one. 1.It seems that English knowledge of our students reach a certain level before they entered into Huizhou University because interlingual errors committed by Group I are only 37%.Theyve got a good training in English language system and almost mastered the difference between English language system and Chinese language system. 2. From the table above, it is forward that intralingual errors predominate in our students compositions, while interlingual errors are about half less than intralingual errors at different stages. 3. Mother tongue interference in Group II is only 3% less than Group I. We can infer that the interference of mother tongue still play a significant role in junior students language system. 4. It is evident that Chinese learners at the present study always violate target language conventions in the written production, which also reflect their incompetence in language use.

4.2 Discussion
Target language learners commit errors largely because their language proficiency is not good enough for them to use this language at will. In order to fill the gap between inadequate proficiency and tough requirements of a task, language learners draw on different strategies, such as ignorance and avoidance, mother
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tongue transference, incomplete rule application, overgeneralization 4.2.1 Interlingual Errors

[10] P175-187

in their IL forms, which cause

different types of errors. Next we describe and explain the analysis of interlingual and intralingual errors. When we count the percentage of thinking-in-Chinese-then-translating-into-English when students write in English, the answer is from 50 percent to 80 percent, even as high as 100 percent for some individuals. [11]
P71

From this statement, we can infer that interlingual errors are quite common in target language learners

writing. A. Inappropriate Word Choice (1) As an English major student, I think the best way to learn English is to study on my own. student is overused here. We dont need to add student in an English phrase. When we say: , where there is a student in Chinese. It is obviously that chinglish is taking effect here. (2) Looks are usually decorated by three words: beautiful, plain and ugly. According to Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, decorate is used to express the idea of making the inside of a building look more attractive by painting it. The best verb for here is described which is used to give details about them. When target language learners who choose the word decorated here is intervened by mother language whose equivalent in English is the verb decorate. B. Misuse of Article (1) We dont know what the society could bring to us. (2) First, people often judge the others by appearance Regardless of other types of errors the above, (1) and (2) misuse specific reference the in two sentences. There is only one society, thus, we dont need to add the before society. C. Run-on Sentence (no comma for one sentence) Frequently two or more complete sentences are split by a comma instead of being separated by a period.
[13] P41

When the students are writing, they pay little attention to sentences structures, especially freshmen.

(1) Work is very important in our life, it is a part of our life and provides us, a sense of achievement. (2) You dont need to invent a machine, you dont need to write a poem, what you are to is finish some work. (1), (2) are run-on sentences. Students who wrote the sentence perhaps wanted to describe two things happening at the same time, but ignored the sentence structure. D. Number on Nouns (1) Eye witnesses sometimes provide direct evidences to the judge (2) Firstly, lets come to the most common part of our life. (1) evidence is an uncountable noun. We cant add s to the end of evidence. (2) life is a countable noun, when we refer to plural forms, we need to charge its form into lives, because it is an irregular plural noun. 4.2.2 Intralingual Errors Most linguists of second language acquisition, however, have tended to accept many of the errors caused by incomprehensive understanding and incorrect application of the target language during the period of internalization. These errors are called intralingual and development errors, which will be discussed in terms of overgeneralization, ignorance of rule restriction, incomplete application of rules and hypothesized false concepts. A. Misspelling According to the record, misspelling plays an important role in errors no matter for freshmen or junior student. Some misspelling errors are surely due to bad memorization, or generalization. e.g. sociality society park part
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dujing during pround proud B. Incorrect Use of Verb

complant complaint experement experiment

In English, a verb has different tenses, aspect, voice and mood. We need to be fully informed of this phenomenon because just one verb has 16 tenses. Target language learners often take these for granted and overgeneralize these rules. (1) It is widely believed that everybody working not only for the living but also for pleasure. The tense of working should be simple present tense, because it expresses a common phenomenon (2) But sometimes its unfair that much you have gave but less you have been given. It is obvious that the student already known that this sentence should use Perfective Aspect. But he/she made an error in the usage of Perfective Aspect. He overgeneralized the rule. give gave given C. Misuse of Subordinator and Sentence Structures. (1) This shows that how beautiful she is. that the subordinator is overused here. Due to bad comprehension of clauses, the students hypothesized a false concept. Subordinator plays a significant rule in compound sentences. If misusing a subordinator, a sentence structure may naturally go wrong. (2) Last night we discussed about the problem of looks. about should be omitted here. In English, discuss something is an idiomatical saying.

4.3 IL Stages of Different Sample Groups

There is doubt that at which stage two different groups stay respectively. From their compositions, we see that freshmen have known certain English linguistic rules, especially structural knowledge and grammatical regulations. Also they have intention to apply these rules in language use, and to express their ideas. As for junior students, theyve paid attention to words choice and tried to write compound sentences to show their English ability. However, two groups usually get things wrong and violate conventions in a broad way. According to the analysis in this dissertation, first-year students should be categorized into a transitional stage between systematic stage and emergent stage. Sometimes they can self-correct errors but sometimes not. Even they violate them again and again. Third-year students are surely at the third stage---systematic stage. They try to use accurate words and make relative sentence frequently, though it is possible for them to make errors. Due to their over-confidence which will result in their errors, the chance for them to commit subordinator errors is much higher. However, once pointed out, they would self-correct these errors or find another expression.

V Implications
As justified in the previous chapter, most students tend to lay stress on the acquisition of the signified meaning of words. They are also found to refer only to the Chinese equivalents in textbooks or dictionaries. All these have led to literal translations of some words and phrases from Chinese to English on the part of the learner. Thats mother tongue interference. Therefore, it is high time for students to change their ways of acquiring English vocabulary. As discussed in 4.2.1, the negative transfer as demonstrated in writings is a reflection of the difficulty that the students encounter in SLA. The transfer errors appeared in the writings suggest that the learners are confused about the essential differences between those forms or structures that they think to be similar between two languages. Moreover, results from transfer errors indicate that the subjects of two groups have reported to have difficulty, to some degree, in telling cross-linguistic differences. Therefore, some information about contrastive studies of the two languages is needed so as to help students to see more clearly some of the
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problems they encounter. Intralingual errors still play a significant role in students writing. Overgeneralization, ignorance of rule restriction, etc are due to students poor command of grammar structures. In the basic stage, students should focus their energy on the grammar courses, which lay a foundation for them to write or speak a correct sentence.

VI Conclusion
By the quantitative analysis of IL errors from the dimension of grammatical rules and error source, I have mainly scrutinized the frequency and distribution of IL errors, and found what kind of IL errors influence IL development greatly at different stages, and accordingly give some suggestions on the knowledge of second language acquisition. The major findings of this study can be summarized as follows: a. In Huizhou University, English knowledge of students had reached a certain level before they entered into Huizhou University. b. Apart from native language interference, target language interference affects students IL development seriously. c. First-year students, here, are in a transitional stage between systematic stage and emergent stage, while third-year students are undoubted in a systematic stage. d. Improvement for the same class is not obvious after 2 years study. And for junior students, who need to take TEM-8 examination next year, should be exposed more to English because there is a long way for them to reach the final stage---the stabilization stage. e. Implications for English language acquisition have also been given in this dissertation. However, the study is limited in the following aspects. Firstly, due to the time and difficulty in analyzing IL errors, the number of samples collected is somewhat limited. Secondly, in the process of categorizing interlangual and intralingual errors, some sources identified maybe overlapping with each other, i.e. some errors maybe attributed to two or more source.

References:
[1] Larry Selinker. Interlanguage [M]. International Review of Applied Linguistics, 1972 [2] Rod Ellis. Understanding Second Language Acquisition [M]., 1999 [3] Nemser W. Approximitative systems of foreign language learners [M]. International Review of Applied Linguistics, 1971 [4] Corder S.Pit. Idiosyncratic dialects and error analysis [M]. International Review of Applied Linguistics, 1971 [5] Fries C. Teaching and learning English as a foreign language [M]. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 1945 [6] Odlin .T. Language Transfer: Cross-linguistic influence in language learning [M]. Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2001 [7] Corder S.Pit. The significance of learners errors [M]. International Review of Applied Linguistics, 1967 [8] Carl James. Errors in Language learning and Use: Exploring Error Analysis [M]. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2001 [9] H.D.Brown. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching [M]. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2002 [10] Richards,O. A non-contrastive approach to error analysis [J]. English Language Teaching Journal, 1971b [11] ZhangWentao. Analysis of interlingual and intralingual errors made by college students [J]. , 2003, (11)
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[12] .[M].,2000 [13] Weiner.E.S. Writing Dianogstic Approach [M]. Oxford Pergamon, 1984

516007 1. 2. 3. 4. ; ; ; ;