The significance of learners errors

S. P. Corder

2007 2 :

Errors in SLA
Standard works on the teaching of modern languages
dismissed learners errors as a matter of no particular importance, as possible annoying, distracting, but inevitable byproducts of the process of learning a language about which the teacher should make as little fuss as possible

Errors in SLA / 2
The application of linguistic and psychological theory to the study of language learning
added a new dimension to the discussion of errors: principled means for accounting for the errors interference (from the habits of the L1)

Errors in SLA /3
The major contribution of the linguist to language teaching?
intensive CA an inventory of the areas of difficulty which the learner would encounter: to direct the teachers attention to these areas

Teachers
have not always been impressed by this contribution from the linguist their practical experience has usually already shown them where these difficulties lie

Errors in SLA / 4
noted e.g. that many of the errors with which they were familiar were not predicted by the linguist anyway have been more concerned with how to deal with these areas of difficulty

Two Schools
School 1
errors: merely a sign of the present inadequacy of our teaching techniques if we were to achieve a perfect teaching method the errors would never be committed

School 2
errors will always occur in spite of our best efforts we should concentrate on techniques for dealing with errors after they have occurred

Two Schools / 2
Both schools are compatible wit the same theoretical standpoint about language and language learning
psychologically behaviorist & linguistically taxonomic audiolingual or fundamental skills method of language teaching

A new line of thinking

To shift the emphasis away from a preoccupation with teaching towards a study of learning
the question of whether there are any parallels between the processes of acquiring the mother tongue and the learning of SL the latter may benefit from a study of the former

L1A vs. L2A

L1A
inevitable a part of the whole maturational process of the child starts with no overt language behavior motivation?

L1A vs. L2A /2

L2A
no inevitability normally begins on after the maturational process is largely complete starts with overt language behavior motivation

L1A vs. L2A / 3

The obvious differences (between L1A and L2A) imply nothing about the processes the take place in learning of L1 and L2
the most widespread hypothesis about how languages are learned (=behaviorist) is assumed to apply in both circumstances new hypotheses are being set up to account for the process of L1A how far might they apply to SLA?

L1A vs. L2A / 4

The new research context
A human infant is born with an innate predisposition to acquire language construct a grammar of a particular language from the limited data: How? largely unknown the field of intensive study at the present time by linguists and psychologists the first steps: a longitudinal description of a childs language throughout the course of its developments a picture of the L1A procedure

L1A vs. L2A / 5

The application of the new hypothesis to L2A
not new: the adult was seen as capable as the child of acquiring a foreign language recent work: suggests critical period for LA

It still remains to be shown

that the process of learning a L2 is of a fundamentally different nature from the process of L1A

L1A vs. L2A / 5

A working hypothesis
L1A strategies = L2A strategies (given motivation, it is inevitable that a human being will learn a L2) the above hypothesis does not imply that the course or sequence of learning is the same in both cases

Errors reconsidered
Childrens incorrect utterances
important evidence concerning L1A processes

L2 learners errors
evidence of the built-in syllabus (a definite system of language at every point in the course development) of the L2 learners input offered by teachers (classroom syllabus) vs. intake by L2 learners

Errors reconsidered /2
Systematic vs. non-systematic errors
systematic errors = errors contribute to reconstruct the learners transitional competence non-systematic errors = mistakes: memory lapses, physical states (tiredness), psychological conditions (strong emotion) : performance limitations

How to distinguish between the two error types? not so easy

A demonstration
A: Did Billy have his egg cut up for him at breakfast? B: Yes, I showeds him. A: You what? B: I showed him. A: You showed him? B: I seed him A: Ah, you saw him. B: Yes, I saw him

Conclusi on
In the light of the new hypotheses errors are best not regarded as the persistence of old habits, but rather as signs that the learner is investigating the systems of the new language.

Errors reconsidered /3
Errors are significant in 3 different ways
To the teacher: show how far towards the goal the learner has progressed and what remains for him to learn To the researcher: provide evidence of how language is learned, what strategies or procedures the learner is employing To the learner himself: a way the learner has of testing his hypotheses about the nature of the language he is learning