CHAPTER 6 DIOGNISING ERRORS What causes learners to commit errors?

Systematicity of language You only know a system when you know it all, and only 'know each part' when you know the whole system. Learners wait until they feel they know quite a bit of the system before they try it out actively. This is called silent period. Ignorance and Avoidance Ignorance is the ultimate cause of error. Diagnosis refer to a number of secondary reasons why errors take on the forms they do with a particular learner or category of learner. Main diagnosis-based categories of error 1. Interlingual 2. Intralingual 3. Communication-strategy 4. Induced Mother-tongue influence : Interlingual errors Elements that are similar in the L1 and the FL will be easier to learn than those that are different. This is called positive L1 transfer. Target language causes : Intralingual errors Learning strategy-based errors 1. False anology : Boy boys , Child - childs 2. Misanalysis It occurs when the learners put the item into practice in TL. Eg. They are carnivorous plants and *its (their) name comes from. The false concept in operation here is that its is the s-pluralized form of it. Incomplete rule application

Converse of overgeneralization

Nobody knew where *was Barbie ( Barbie was ) The strategy is simplification Overlooking cooccurance restrictions I would enjoy *to learn (learning) - ignorance People in America live more *quick than we do. Quick- fast wrong synonymous Induced errors Learner errors that result from the classroom situation than other sources such as interlingual or intralingual errors. They are the result of being misled by the ways in which the teachers give definitions, examples, explanations and arrange practice opportunities The verb worship is introduced as a general word for pray, which the students already knew. They also knew that pray selects the preposition to, which they assumed also applied to worship The result is : worshipping *to God. Sources of Induced Errors 1. Materials-induced errors 2. Teacher-talk induced errors 3. Exercise-based induced errors 4. Errors induced by pedagogical priorities

ERROR ANALYSIS CHAPTER 7 ERROR GRAVITY (seriousness) and ERROR EVALUATION Humans commit language errors themselves but they can err in their judgments of errors too. Why do we have to evaluate errors? To get our priorities To prevent obsession with trivial errors Give priority to the ones that really matter Assign relative values to errors Evaluation is collecting, clarifying and verifying relevant values and standards

Criteria for error gravity Linguistic Criteria Rule infringement (violation), breaking of two sorts of rules Sub categorization rules, which exist to specify what kind of complement each verb in the language takes, whether it is transitive or intransitive, mono- or ditransitive etc. Eg. John found * sad. find requires a noun or that -clause John persuaded * great authority to Bill. persuade is a mono transitive. Selectional rule, which specifies nouns as concrete, animate, human, count and etc. Eg. Golf plays John. Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. Rule generality Rule types of selection and sub categorization have the effect of focusing attention on individual lexical items, making grammar decisions on the basis of word properties. Grammar rules are more general than lexical ones. The seriousness of error-making is a function of the generality of the rule. Eg. Passive rule can be applied to all transitive verbs. Frequency Frequency is a valid index of the gravity of an error. It means the correlation between number and seriousness production frequency, the number of times that a particular learner commits the error, consistency, measure of same error repeated over frequency of use by native speakers error density, measure of different errors occur per unit of text

Comprehensibility, In terms of intelligibility and communicativity Intelligibility refers to the accessibility of the basic, literal meaning, the propositional content encoded in an utterance.

Chapter 8 Error correction is metalinguistic act, more abstract than a warning. The term correction is used in three senses 1. Feedback: informing the learners about the error, leaving them to discover and repair it 2. Correction: providing treatment or information that leads to the revision and correction of the specific instance of error (the error token) without aiming to prevent the same error from recurring later. The corrector specifies how and where, suggest and alternative, give a hint 3. Remediation: Providing learners with information that allows them to revise or reject the wrong rule they were operating with when they produced the error token. The result will be to induce learners to revise their mental representation of the rule, so that this error type doesnt occur. Surface correction: mere editing (putting right) but does not address the source of the problem Deep correction: involves explaining and prompts learners to reorganize their cognitive structures Learners improve through receiving from knower information about TL and about their own attempts at reproducing it. The evidence comes in four forms: Positive, negative, direct and indirect Positive evidence tells you which forms are used in the TL, Negative evidence tells you which forms are not used in TL.

A knower (or informant) makes a point of telling you that such and such a form is or is not grammatical, correct or comprehensible in the TL, we speak of the direct provision of evidence. When new language is presented to them in class, they are getting direct positive evidence 'Look, this is how it is said in German'. When the teacher says 'Look, this can not be said in French', they are getting direct negative evidence. When the teacher says 'Look, what you just said can not be said in French.' No reasons are given, so this is correction. 'Look,you can't say it that way in French because...' this is remediation, because it has explanation.

Prevention or cure Error will be avoided in some instances by full contextualization of the TL form being taught. Right or wrong forms can coexist side by side in IL, giving its characteristic variability. It is not the case that the learners use either the right or the wrong form, each exclusive of the other. It is more a case of helping the learners to retain the right while rejecting the co-occuring wrong form. When prevention has not worked, or not been attempted, and errors are being comitted, then there must be cure, in the form of correction before the erroneous forms enter learners' long term memory store.

CORRECTION IS PART OF TEACHING Arguments that favour correction Correction works, especially for grammar errors. It gives an improvement on content expression Learners want to be corrected Correction can raise learners' level of anxiety, and that empedes learning Correction is essential in those cases where the language processing task is difficult, since in such cases the learners will be unable to self-correct. If the error is grave, then its claim for correction effort is stronger FL learners need more correction than SL learners. FL learners have little exposure to indirect evidence, positive or negative, so need direct negative evidence in abundance to compensate. How to do Error Correction Correct effectively - Use correction techniques that bring about improvements in accuracy - Use techniques that are efficient, in the sense of requiring the least effort to carry out by the teacher and to register by the learners - Correction must be subject-sensitive Correction should be sensitive Non-threatening correction Wait-time for a self- correction Pinpointing errors lengthening a segment of the utterance or a questioning tone Correction to be aimed at the whole class rather than singling out individual students Minimize threat to face peer correction rather than teacher correction Conferencing can be used to personalize feedback on writing Match correction to student preferences Most learners wanted their teachers to show where the error was and to give a clue about how to correct it Explicit or implicit correction

 I go to the bank yesterday. The teacher: Do not say go, say I went to the bank. Really, did you make a deposit.

Two-stage correction Form-focused correction (practice phase) Function-focused correction (production phase) Composition: what learners say Reconstruction: what they were attempting to say Reformulation: what the NSs would say Noticing and language awareness Be aware of the forms they use in the NL Refine insights into NL and at the same time allow them to monitor its transfers into the FL Good explanation of errors improve the learners chances of pattern recognition (noticing) Once the learners notice, learning will follow automatically