In recent years, there has been a growing research interest in the analysis of errors adults make while learning a second language. The underlying objective of most of these analyses has been to reveal the systematicity of adult errors in an effort to understand the process of adult second language learning. This paper deals with errors from a…

First language and second language learners have to learn through making mistakes. Foreign language learners do not have to learn, to anything like the same extent, in this way. Foreign language teachers should study students' mistakes in order better to understand how they are learning and mislearning. Teachers should try to avoid language…

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of error analysis in specifying and planning remedial treatment in second language learning. Part 1 discusses situations that demand remedial action. This is a quantitative assessment that requires measurement of the varying degrees of disparity between the learner's knowledge and the demands of the…

This paper discusses the concept of error in the learning of the phonology of a second language and argues that the concept of error must be viewed as a positive element, an initiation of the process of successive approximations toward the correct phonetic realization. Based on the idea that interference between two languages generates a…

The nature of common language errors for learners of second languages is explored, and it is found that the errors cannot adequately be explained in terms of the theory of language interference. A new rationale for these errors can come from an investigation of the perceptual strategies common to error analysis, and thus it is postulated that…

This paper discusses error analysis as one source of evidence for an overall theory of second language acquisition. Four related areas which form the context for error analysis are discussed in relation to second language learning and the goals and methodology of error analysis; (1) theories of the nature of language which determine theories of…

Papers presented at the symposium of error analysis in Lund, Sweden, in September 1972, approach error analysis specifically in its relation to foreign language teaching and second language learning. Error analysis is defined as having three major aspects: (1) the description of the errors, (2) the explanation of errors by means of contrastive…

One of the several causal mechanisms for errors made by adult second language learners is interference from the native language. This paper attempts to account for the cognitive nature of interference by proposing two psycholinguistically based principles that will explain various types of production and perception errors made of second language…

Error analysis concerns the investigation of negative influences on the foreign language learning process. Errors are usually thought of as caused by interference from the native language to the target language. In this article it is shown that interference occurs in the other direction as well, i.e. from language 2 to language 1. Jakobovits has…

A major problem in learning a second language is the interference of a structurally different native language. Contrastive analysis (CA) combined with learner error analysis (EA) provide an excellent basis for preparation of language instructional materials. The Yugoslav Serbo-Croatian-English Contrastive Project proved that full application of CA…

This paper attempts to provide guidelines for writers who are preparing new materials as well as to offer suggestions to language teachers who must use prescribed texts. The basic assumption is that scientific grammars only describe the production of language by native speakers, while pedagogical grammars are sets of rules ordered in such a way as…

The emphasis of the Schools Council Research and Development Project at the University of Wales on teaching English to Welsh pupils aged 8-13 was on curriculum development. This paper covers the problem of acquiring the necessary basic knowledge about the needs of Welsh first language pupils in the learning of English when long-term, rigorous…

The interlanguage hypothesis stresses that errors are a normal part of the language learning process. At the same time, in the view of many, the teacher has a responsibility to provide short cuts for the learner through appropriate corrective feedback. Conventionally, this has been taken to imply correction of expression by requiring repetition of…