An Analysis to English Learners Errors at Vocational Colleges And How to Correct Them

摘 要：College students make errors in their English learning even though they have learned this language for more than six years. How do students make errors and what kind of errors do they make? It is very important to know about them in order that teachers can take appropriate methods according to different kind of errors. Thus can we stimulate students to learn the English language better and apply it correctly in daily life.

關鍵詞：English learners；errors；analysis；correct

中圖分類號：G712 文獻標識碼：A 文章編號：1002-7661（2012）14-268-02

Although college students have learned English for at least six years， we often find that they make errors when writing or communicating with others. As an English language teacher， how do we response when meeting the students’ errors? Do we correct them at once ? Or do we just ignore them and let them be? For some teachers， they think it right to correct the errors soon after students make them because students will be used to the errors and form a habit of saying that， which will affect their language learning and using later. For others， they think this is a process that language learners will experience. They can be aware of their errors little by little and correct them by themselves after they have learned more and spoken more. In my opinion， teachers should deal with errors differently.

How do students make errors? There is a proverb“To err is human， to forgive is divine.”It is common for language learners to make errors， even mistakes， when learning a foreign language. It is all too natural. Errors consists of the process of the language learning. In 1950s， linguists developed Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis. According to this， learners errors are the results of differences between the learner’s first language(L1) and the target language or second language(L2). The main source of errors in L2 is due to transfer of L1 habits， thus errors can be predicted by a contrastive analysis of the L1 and L2.

According to this theory， there are four kinds of errors. First， transfer error. It is because of the negative transfer from their native language. Errors are the result of using something they have learned in the past. Students simply takes what they have learned from the past. Thus the learners will have grammatical or structural errors. This kind of error is especially obvious at the biginning stage of language learning. Second， analogical error. This is formed just because learners make faulty inferences about the rules of the new language. The third is teaching induced error. For this kind of error， it is formed because there are many similar phrases or words and they should be chosen according to the context and their usage.

Since we have in mind how students make errors and what kind of errrors they will make in learning， then how to correct the errors during the teaching? In my opinion， the teachers should tell what kind of errors students are making. Also， teachers should be aware of their teaching objectives in their teaching period. According to different situations and different kinds of errors， different methods can be used during the teaching.

First， if teachers are illustrating new grammars and structures to students， and students are asked to do exercises after the examples， errors should be corrected at once and accurracy should be paid much attention to. This can avoid students to make mistakes in using the structures and then form a bad habit. For instance， when we introduce the subjunctive mood to students， teachers can give them some examples to imitate.

Second， when it is a class for students to practise their oral competence， it is better not to

interrupt students and correct their errors at once. When giving a speech or express their idea about a topic， a speaker need to concentrate on their thinking and continuity of the speech. If others interrupt them and give them suggestions， they will pay much attention to correctness and will not be fluent in speaking. Or some students will lose confidence in themselves and would not like to express themselves from then on. This just disobeys the purpose of language learning. So teachers can take other ways of correcting errors and encourage students to speak more and give them much more confidence.

Third， in writing essays， students often make some mistakes. Some students just write a Chinglish essay， some will make mistakes in spelling ， grammar， sentence structure， and so on. For errors which are not concerned with the sentence structure， such as the spelling or grammatical errors， teachers need to underline them in a red color and let students deal with them by themselves. But if it is a mistake which influences the meaning of the essay， the teacher can give them suggestions of how to correct it. As for the Chinglish sentences， teachers should ask students to try to read and recite more sample essays in order that students can have a good sence of the language. By doing like this， students can have great improvement in their writing and not make so many errors.

Errors are not avoidable for foreign language learners. Errors reflects what students have mastered and what they haven’t. In English teaching， only through analyzing errors do teachers know what kind of errors students are making. Then they can take different methods according to different different situation. Teachers should not be nervous about students’ errors and correct them at once when hearing or seeing them. On the other hand， teachers shouldn’t always consider it common for students to make errors in the process of learning a foreign language and ignore errors all the time. They must find a suitable way and try to promote students’ interest in English. Thus can stimulate students to learn more about this language and improve their communicating skills and language competence. In this way， the goal of foreign language learning can be achieved.