Rod Ellis

The Study of Second Language Acquisition

(1994)
 L2 learning is a process that is clearly not unlike L1
learning in its trial-and-error nature. Inevitably,
learners will make mistakes in the process of
acquisition, and that process will be disturbed if they
do not commit errors and then benefit from various
forms of feedback on those errors.

Corder (1967) noted: a learners errors are significant

in that they provide to the researcher evidence of how
language is learned or acquired, what strategies or
procedures the learner is employing in the discovery
of the language.
 Learners make errors in both comprehension
and production

Errors produced by * L2 learner: unwanted forms

* Children: transitional forms

* Adult native speaker: slips of the

tongue
 Mistake refers to a performance error that is
either a random guess or a slip, in that is a failure
to utilize a known system correctly. Native
speakers make mistakes. When attention is called
to them, they can be self-corrected.

Error a noticeable deviation from the adult

grammar of a native speaker, reflects the
competence of the learner.
 Reason for focusing on errors :
1. They are a conspicuous feature of
learner language.
2. It is useful for teachers to know what
errors the learners make.
3. It is possible that making errors may
actually help learners to learn when they
self-correct the errors they make.
 The study of learner errors has long been part of
language pedagogy. Traditional analyses lacked of
rigorous methodology and theoretical framework.
* Identify linguistics differences
Contrastive analysis (CA) L1 and target language
(1960s)
* Interference habits

* Provided a methodology
Error analysis (EA)
(1970s) * Starting point for the study
of learner language and L2
acquisition
Corder (1967) states that the study of errors:

(1) provided the teacher with information about how much

the learner had learnt
reflects traditional role of EA

(2) provided the researcher with evidence of how

language was learnt
provides new role on L2 research

(3) served as devices by which the learner discovered

the rules of the target language
process of L2 acquisition
Corder (1974), steps in EA research:

1. Collection of a sample of learner language

2. Identification of errors
3. Description of errors
4. Explanation of errors
5. Evaluation of errors
1 Collection of a sample of learner language
*Specific sample *Incidental sample

Factors Description
A Language
Medium Learner production ca be oral or written

Genre Learner production may take the form of a

conversation, a lecture, an essay, a letter, etc.

Content The topic the learner is communicating about

B Learner
Level Elementary, intermediate, or advanced

Mother tongue The learners L1

Language learning experience This may be classroom or naturalistic or a mixture

of the two
 Collection of samples:
1. Natural samples
2. Elicitation: *Clinical elicitation
*Experimental methods

Ways to collect data:

*Bilingual Syntax Measure
*Free composition
*Translation Samples can be collected:
*cross-sectionally
*longitudinally
2. Identification of errors
Error: a deviation from the norms of the target
language. This definition raises a number of
questions:
1.- Which variety of target language should serve as a norm
2.- Distinction between errors and mistakes
*error: takes place when the deviation arises as a result of
lack of knowledge (lack of competence)
*mistake: occurs when learners fail to perform their
competence
Feature of native speaker speech:
Competing plans
Memory limitations
Lack of automaticity
Corder (1974): EA should be restricted to the study of errors
(mistakes should be eliminated from the analysis).
Competence is homogeneous rather than variable.

3.- Concerns whether errors is overt or covert

*Overt error: a clear deviation in form
Ex: I runned all the day.

*Covert error: occurs in utterances that are superficially

well-formed but which do not mean what the learner
intended them to mean.
Ex: She has been waiting for a big present. (Ahmed)
4.- The analysis should examine only deviations in
correctness or also deviations in appropriateness:

Deviation in correctness is a deviation of the rules of the

language usage. (I did ate with her)
Deviation in appropriateness is a deviation of the language
use. (I want you to come to the cinema with me)

Corder (1974)Procedure for identifying errors: interpretation

Normal
Authoritative
Plausible
One day an Indian gentleman, a snake charmer, arrived
in England by plane. He was coming from Bombay with
two pieces of luggage. The big of them contained a
snake. A man said to the little boy was watching him in
customs area. The man said to the little boy Go and
speak with this gentleman. When the little boy was
speaking with the traveler, the thief took the big
suitcase and went out quickly. When the victim saw that
he cried Help me! Help me! A thief A thief! The
policeman was in this corner whistle but it was too late.
The two thieves escape with the big suitcase, took their
car and went in the traffic. They passed near a zoo and
stop in a forest. There they had a big surprise. The
basket contain a big snake.
3 Description of errors

One way is to classify errors into grammatical

categories.

Ex: errors in the past tense

Comparison of:
Learners Reconstruction of
idiosyncratic those utterances in the
utterances target language
*Surface strategy taxonomy
Dulay, Burt, and Krashen (1982)

Category Description Example

Omissions The absence of an item She sleeping
that must appear in a
well-formed utterance
Additions The presence of an item We didnt went there
that must not appear in
well-formed utterances
Misinformations The use of a wrong form The dog ated the
of the morpheme or chicken
structure
Misordering The incorrect placement What daddy is doing?
of a morpheme or group
of morphemes in an
utterance
 Types of errors, Corder (1974):
1 Presystematic errors occur when the learner is unaware of
the existence of a particular rule in the target language.
These are random.
the learner cannot give any account of
why a particular form is chosen.

2 Systematic errors occur when the learner has discovered a rule

but it is the wrong one.
the learner is unable to correct the errors but
can explain the mistaken rule used and type.

3 Postsystematic errors occurs when the learner knows the correct

target language rule but uses it inconsistently (makes a mistake)
the learner can explain the target-language
rule that is normally used.
 Learners must be interviewed to complete the
reconstruction of the data and correction of the
error.

Even if the learner is available for consultation, it

may not be possible to choose between these
reconstructions.

Ex. My name Alberto

My name is Alberto

I am worried in my mind
 4. Explanation of errors
Establishing the source
of error

Psycholinguistic (nature of L2 knowledge

system, and difficulties to use it in the
production)

Sociolinguistic (ability to adjust the

Error source language in accordance to social context)
Taylor (1986)
Epistemic (lack of world knowledge)

Discourse structure (problems in the

organization of information into a coherent
text)
 Psycholinguistics sources of errors:
- transfer
*competence
- intralingual (e.g. overgeneralization,
(errors) transitional competence)
- unique (e.g. induced)

errors

processing problems
*performance
(mistakes)
communication strategies
Richards (1971b): Causes of
competence errors
1). Interference errors: occur as a result of the use of
elements from one language while speaking another.

2). 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.

3). Developmental errors: occur when the learner attempts

to build up hypotheses about the target language on the
basis of limited experience.
 Lott (1983) Transfer errors:

1). Overextension of analysis: learner missuses an item

because it shares features with an item in the L1 (ex.
Italian learners use process to mean trial)

2). Transfer of structure: learner utilizes some L1 feature

(phonological, lexical, grammatical, or pragmatic) rather
than that of the target language.

3). Interlingual/intralingual errors: a particular distinction

does not exist in the L1 (ex. the use of make instead of
do by Italian learners because make/do distinction is
non-existent in Italian)
 Richards (1971) Intralingual
errors:
1). Overgeneralization errors: learner creates a deviant structure on
the basis of other structure in the target language. (ex. He can sings)

2). Ignorance of rule restrictions involves the application of rules to

contexts where they do not apply (ex. He made me to rest. He
asked/wanted/invited me to go)

3). Incomplete application of rules: involves failure to fully develop a

structure (ex. You like to sing?)

4). False concepts hypothesized: the learner fails to comprehend

fully a distinction in the target language (One day it was happened)
 1). Developmental (i.e. those errors similar to L1
acquistion)
Burt (1974)
classified 2). Interference (i.e. those errors that reflect the
errors by: structure of L1)

3). Unique (i.e. those errors that are neither

developmental nor interference)
 Psycholinguistics sources of errors:

Behaviourist account errors were viewed as the result of the

negative transfer of L1 habits

Approaches
errors were predicted to be similar to
those found in L1 acquisition because
Mentalist account learners actively construct the
grammar of an L2 as they progress.
 5. Evaluation of errors
addressees comprehension of
the learners meaning
Considers the effect errors have
on the person(s) addressed
addressees affective response
to errors

Addressees = Judges

Native speakers (NS) Non-native speakers (NNS)

 - Comprehensibility of the sentence
containing errors

Judges may be asked to evaluate:

- Seriousness or naturalness of
errors
- Degree of irritation

Questions of errors evaluation:

1). Are some errors judged to be more problematic
than others?
2). Are there differences in the evaluation made by
NS and NNS?
3). What criteria do judges use in evaluating
learners errors?
 Global: affects overall sentence organization (ex. wrong
word order, missing or wrongly placed sentence
connectors, syntactic overgeneralizations.)
Type of errors
Local: affect single elements in a sentence (ex. errors in
morphology or grammatical functors.)
 Conclusions: a reassessment of EA

EA replaced CA
First serious attempt to investigate learner language in L2.
It is continuous to be practiced as a mean for investigating a specific
research question.
 Conclusions: a reassessment of EA
It has made substantial contributions to SLA research: EA is one of
the first methods used to investigate learners language.
It has served as a tool for providing empirical evidence for the
behaviorist/mentalist debate of the 1970s.
It supports the claim of the creativeness of much learner language.
It recognizes that errors were not something to be avoided but were
an inevitable feature of the learning process.
Everything the learner utters is by definition a grammatical utterance
in his dialect (Corder 1971)
It helped make errors respectable.