On English Learners’ Errors 论英语学习者的错误

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1、论英语学习者的错误On English Learners Errors Abstract: Learning English as a foreign language is step-by-step process, during which Chinese students will inevitably make some errors. It is important for teachers to know when and how to correct students errors. Using a proper way to facilitate English learnin

2、g has been one of the challenges for the teacher. Though a number of linguistic researchers have addressed this issue, there is still a lot to be studied. This paper is a further discussion in this area. It first makes an analysis of errors and then proposes their specific treatment appropriate in C

3、hina.Key words: errors；mistakes; causes of errors; error correction; solutions 摘要： 英语作为一门外语学习是一个循序渐进的过程,我国的学生在这一过程中不可避免地要出现一些错误.对老师们来而言,熟知何时及如何改正学生的错误是很重要的.提高和帮助英语学习，使用恰当的方式是老师需要面临的挑战之一，虽然已有不少语言学方面的研究者致力于这一问题，仍有许多东西需要研究。这篇论文就是这一领域较深层次的探讨。论文首先对错误进行分析，然后根据国情提出针对性的建议。关键词： 错误，误解，错误的原因，错误改正，解决方案。Contents

4、I. Introduction.1II. Literature Review.2A. Definitions of errors and mistakes2B. Types of learner errors.2 1. Linguistic errors32. Pragmatic Failure.4 C. Strategies for error correctio.4III. Causes of Errors.5A. Interlingual interference.5B. Intralingual interference.5C. Cultural interference6 D. Co

5、mmunication strategy6E. Improper teaching6IV. When and How to Correct Students Error7A. Evolution of attitude towards errors7B. Attitude to be take.81. Strategies to be Adopted in Treating Linguistic Error82. Strategies to be Adopted in Treating Pragmatic8C. Self-correction with the teachers help9D.

6、 Peers correction.9V. Conclusion.10Works Cited11I. Introduction Since the late 1960s, with the detailed study of transformational generative grammar, English teaching has gradually abandoned the mechanic pattern drills, and focused on developing students communicative competence. Students were encou

7、raged to learn by communicating in the target language and not by merely repeating grammatical items. It is widely acknowledged that language acquisition does not happen unless the learners are relaxed and keen on learning. Fear of making errors prevents learners from being receptive and responsive,

8、 students were encouraged to express themselves in English about their own affairs. In the process of learning language, learners often make errors that are considered to be a natural and necessary part in the language development. We should rather say that errors are indispensable to students，and s

9、uch performance provides evidence of the system of the language that students are using at a particular point during the course. Since errors are often a sign of learning, they must be viewed positively. It is of great practical value for language teachers to study the errors from students carefully

10、, because these errors are the symbols of students progress and achievements in learning. We should learn form the errors and analyze what kind of errors that the students have made, especially in class, to ensure that we use the appropriate way to correct students errors so as to promote students E

11、nglish learning.“No one can learn a foreign language without committing any errors in his/her learning process”( Hu Z. L.329). Then dealing with the learners error in a proper way in order to facilitate English learning has been one of the challenges facing the teacher. Though a number of linguistic

12、 researchers have addressed this issue, there is still a lot of to be studied. This paper is further discussion in this area. It first makes an analysis of errors and then proposes some specific solutions appropriate in China.In the area of foreign language teaching, there have been some theories in

13、 which English learners errors are analyzed, and diverse methods of dealing with them are suggested. These theories, however, offer different or even contradictory views on errors and completely different strategies in dealing with them. As a result, many English teachers in China feel puzzled when

14、facing their students errors. Therefore, it is necessary to make still further research on the domain of error analysis and find proper error treating ways in China where the number of English learners, already great, is increasing.II. Literature ReviewA. Definition of errors and mistakesError analy

15、sis theory first needs to distinguish “errors” and “mistakes”. Several linguists define “error” and “mistake” from different angles. Brown (2000: 217) explains error and mistake as follows: mistake refers to make a slip of the tongue or make a mistake for choosing words at random, while error refers

16、 to the grammatically incorrect forms. Besides, James (1998: 83) indicates error and mistake more clearly: while errors defined as unintentionally deviant from the target language and not self-corrigible by the learner suggest failure in competence, mistakes as either intentionally or unintentionall

17、y deviant forms and self-corrigible suggest failure in performance. A famous modern Chinese linguist Hu Zhuanglin (2005: 374) points out that “error” is the grammatically incorrect form; “mistake” occurs when the language is correct grammatically but improper in a communicational context. While erro

18、rs always go with language learners, mistakes may also occur to native speakers. There is another type of fault, namely “lapse”, which refers to slips of the tongue or the pen made by either foreign language learners or native speakers. Error analysis, as the term suggests, is the study and analysis

19、 of error which is confined to the language learner, however, here “error” refers grammatically to the learners misuse or misunderstanding of the target language, may it be grammatical or pragmatic. According to the views above, error” generally refers to the extent of language performance, and lear

20、ners can be aware of it and self-corrigible; “mistake” reflects the competence of the learners, which is an ingredient of learners language system. For example, “Dose John can sing?” is an error. Obviously, “can” in this sentence is affected by the forms “John can sing.” and “Dose John sing?” Errors

21、 can reflect the relevant information on how well learners have mastered the target language, therefore, “error analysis” is beneficial to find out the facts of learners second language learning and provide the relevant basis in teaching. This thesis analyzes the lexical errors which occurred in lea

22、rners compositions, but not “mistakes”.B. Types of learner errors “When a linguistic item is used as the result of faulty or incomplete learning, the learner is considered to have committed an error” (Hu Z.L.et al. 1988). Then what does “faulty or incomplete learning” mean exactly? To answer this, w

23、e must know what a language learner learns or acquires. Conventionally it is “linguistic competence”, mainly interpreted as acquiring “the rules of grammar”(Theo van Els et al. 1984). This concept was challenged by Hymes (1971): “. A child acquires knowledge of sentences, not only as grammatical, bu

24、t also as appropriate. He/She acquires competence as to when to speak, when not, and as to what to talk about with whom, when, where, in what manner.” In other words, what a language learner learns or acquires is the “knowledge of the sentences of a language” and the “knowledge of a set of ways in w

25、hich sentences are used”. This is also true for L2 learning. Therefore, a language learner is committing an error when using incorrect or ungrammatical sentences or using grammatically correct sentences in an inappropriate way. By errors, we mean both grammatical errors and pragmatic failures. Becau

26、se both come from faulty or incomplete learning and should be seriously considered by teachers. In the process of the learners different development of their language systems, there are two types of errors (Corder S. Pit. 161):1. Linguistic errors Linguistic errors refer to grammatical errors. “At a

27、ny given moment in the L2 learning process learners have a partially correct mental picture of the structure of the L2. This is made up of a collection of more or less correct hypotheses about the L2 grammatical system, and has been named, by Selinker (1972) Each learner has his/her individual inter

28、language, which is different either from the mother tongue or from the target language. It is something between them and no without its own system. Learners unavoidably make errors in different stages of their interlanguage. According to Corder, these errors fall into three categories: pre-systemati

29、c, systematic and post-systematic.Linguistic errors may also be identified as global and local errors. The former seriously interferes with communication, the latter less so. For example, in the sentence “The soldiers had been shooting when they are blindfolded”, there are two errors. The speaker us

30、es shooting instead of shot. This leads to the misunderstanding of the sentence meaning and is therefore a global one. The other error is the misuse of the verb tense, i.e. The present tense instead of the past tense is used. This is a local error for it does not seriously affect what the speaker wa

31、nts to express.2. Pragmatic failure Pragmatic failure refers to the failure of communication caused by utterances made in an unsuitable manner or time, by failing to keep with the native speakers expressing habit, and by lacking knowledge of the custom. Years ago, a Chinese visiting scholar in Ameri

32、ca reacted to the compliment about her dress by saying: “No, no, its just a very ordinary dress”(He Z. R. 1988). This response, though appropriate in the Chinese context, would imply to American that she doubted the speaker ability to appreciate the style of dress. There are millions of such example

33、s. Unlike linguistic errors which at worst reflect upon the speaker inadequate language use, pragmatic failure may reflect badly on the speaker as a person, leading to the judgment that the speaker is behaving badly-uncooperative, dishonest, impolite or even deceitful. So pragmatic failure is to som

34、e degree more serious than linguistic errors. Therefore, pragmatic failure cannot be neglected during the learning process.C. Strategies for error correction It is commonly acknowledged that different errors should be handled in different ways. According to Corder, the there types of errors should b

35、e handled differently as follows: As for the pre-systematic errors, which are usually the transfer of the mother tongue and appear before the knowledge of rules, teachers should merely point out the errors and give suggestions without further explanation. But if it is a systematic error, when learne

36、rs usually suffer from overgeneralization or incomplete application of rules, more attention and correction are needed. The teacher should try to help the learners understand not only the correct form but also why it is wrong. As for the post-systematic errors that are due to the limited experience

37、of the language, it is better for the learners to correct on their own. What a teacher should do is to provide more opportunities and contexts for them to experience the language and become familiar with it themselves.As we all know, students can gain some knowledge in the course of making and corre

38、cting errors. Some linguists strongly object to the frequent error correction adapted in the traditional method. They believe that students are allowed to express themselves with a certain distance to “standard” language. “Nowadays, the interaction and collaboration learning in task-based learning,

39、which has been proved to be scientific and effective, is advocated in English learning and teaching”(Ren&Hu 155). In classroom, students differ in personality, ability, cognitive and learning strategies, level of language proficiency, they can learn form and help each other. The same, students can c

40、orrect their errors for each other. As far as the matter is concerned, the self correction with teacher help and the peer correction are the most effective ways for errors correction.III. Causes of Errors Of the many causes of errors we were here focus on five main areas: interlingual interference,

41、intralingual interference, cultural interference, communication strategy and improper teaching.A. Interlingual interference Interlingual interference refers to the negative transfer of the learners mother tongue to his/her organization of the target language data.(Hymes, D. 1971) When communicating

42、in the target language, the learner sometimes resorts to his/her mother tongue experience in phonetics, word meaning, grammatical structure or cultural customs as a means of expressing himself/herself. Beginners are more frequently affected by this type of interference because they have less previou

43、s target language knowledge to draw on. When the mother tongue expressions referred to differ from the target language expressions, the transfer become an interlingual interference. The following is a case in point: “His work is often very busy.” Obviously the speaker wants to say that the person is

44、 very busy with his work, but he wrongly borrows the seemingly equivalent Chinese expression.B. Intralingual interference:Both interlingual interference and intralingual interference represent the same underlying learning strategy, as both result from the learner using his/her previous experience to

45、 make sense of new experience. The difference lies in the fact that, in the case of intralingual interference, it is his/her previous knowledge of the target language, not that of his/her previous knowledge of the target language, not that of his/her mother tongue that the learner draws on. Intralin

46、gual errors often occur, for the learners previous knowledge of the target language might be limited and incomplete. The teacher of English often reads or hears such sentences produced by his/her students: “Where does he lives?” “They avoided to meet him.” These errors indicate that the students ove

47、r generalize the grammatical rules they have learned before.C. Cultural interference Some linguistic errors or pragmatic failures are caused by cultural factors. Utterances as “Please sit down, Mrs. Green. Youre old” given by a Chinese (He 209) are typically the results of cultural interference, for

48、 in China such utterances embody good manners on the part of the speaker, but are offensive to British or American women. D. Communication strategy Occasionally, learners have to attempt to express something for which they have no language. In order to get the required meaning across, the learner ma

49、y then resort temporarily to some lingual or non-lingual means such as “paraphrase”, “substitution” or “avoidance”. A beginner of English may, for example, just use the word “yesterday” to represent the past tense and the word “tomorrow” to represent the future tense or say “I lost my road” instead

50、of “I lost my way” because he can not recall or does not know the word way.E. Improper teaching “If a learner is taking part in formal instruction, some errors will be a direct result of misunderstanding caused by faulty teaching or materials” (William 32). Such errors occur when the rule is probabi

51、listic, but is stated as categorical; or when one form or pattern is overemphasized or overpractised. For instance, if the teacher emphasizes the material repeatedly that an adjective plus-ly equals an adverb, the student may overuse the rule and say “He treated me friendly” . Also, a learner may wr

52、ongly use the pronoun “he” instead of “she” because the former appears more frequently in the drill-type of exercises. Moreover, in the question/answer drills, teachers ask the students to supply complete answers to questions. As a result, answer like “Yes, I have bought my coat.” “Yes, I have done

53、it.” are often heard. Such answers, while perfect in the Chinese situation, would suggest impatience to English native speakers. On the other hand, the teachers “failure to teach”-neglecting students incorrect language use-may also contribute. For example, today many college students are heard to gr

54、eet the teacher with “Good morning, teacher.” They may take it for granted that teacher is a form of address, just like in Chinese, for no ones ever said otherwise.IV. When and How to Correct Students Errors What kind of errors students will make in the class is unexpected. Whether to correct or not

55、, when to correct and how to correct require language teachers to response quickly and appropriately. Correcting every small error does not mean that students can learn more from it, while not correcting also does not indicate that it creates a relaxing and free atmosphere and stimulates active lear

56、ning. Correction should be done appropriately to offer support to students and not to interrupt language-learning opportunities. In my opinion, the self-correction with teacher helps and the peer correction should be encouraged in classroom teaching.A. Evolution of attitude towards errors “For a lon

57、g time, it was a tenet of language teaching that, if a learners production in the second language was allowed to contain errors or mistakes, then there would be some negative effect on the learners progress”(Elaine T. And George Y. 1989: 146) . Consequently, teaching techniques were structured so th

58、e teacher could control the students production and minimize the potential for errors. More recently, however, there has been a fundamental change of attitude toward the errors in the language learning process. According to the post-structuralizes, errors are positive indications of the acquisition

59、process at work and are eventually replaced by correct forms as the learning progresses. However, counter-arguments based on the evidence of “fossilization” of non-correct forms posit that, without correction, some learners will not progress beyond a certain error-prone stage. Language teachers, pre

60、sented with those opposing views, are left with no clear-cut guidance on how to treat learner errors. Some may feel that they have to correct all the errors whenever they appear, with the sole emphasis on linguistic forms; others just focus on the fluency of the language expressing without any error

61、 correction. Consequently, students are greatly discouraged to communicate in target language, or their level of the target language does not improve. Both attitudes on the part of teacher inhibit learner development.B. Attitude to be takenWhat is meant here is that we had better combine these two i

62、n our treatment of the students errors by taking in their reasonable components. The problem is to what degree errors should be corrected. Evidently this involves a lot of factors. As this paper focuses on classroom teaching, we are moving on to the main factors concerning classroom teaching: strate

63、gies adopted in treating linguistic errors and pragmatic failures.1. Strategies to be Adopted in Treating Linguistic Errors As stated, there are local and global errors occurring in different learning stages: pre-systematic, systematic and post-systematic. These two types of errors in the language classroom are to be treated distinguishingly. It goes without saying that students should be encouraged to use the target language as much as possible. The teacher should then try to avoid frequently pointing out or correcting local errors which will not block communication or cause misunderstandin