Error Analysis and Foreign Language Teaching

Abstract：English is considered as a foreign language instead of a second language in China， but language learning has a lot in common. As a non-English major collegeteacher， this thesis is intended to have an analysis of the common errors made by non-English major college students and try to detect their possible sources which mirrors the strategies that learners use to acquire a language， and make an present some suggestions on how to avoid certain kinds of errors for the attempt to language learners.

Key words：Error AnalysisInterlingual Errorscorrection1Introduction

Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research， which took place around the endof 1960s， has come to occupy an important place in the development of our understanding of the human capacity for language. An appropriate starting point in SLA research is through the analysis of learner errors or Error Analysis (EA). Error Analysis has led to a whole new era of second language research and teaching.

2Theoretical background

Error Analysis has a long tradition.In the 1950s and 1960s the favored model for studying foreign or second language teaching and learning was Contrastive Analysis. The procedure involved first describing comparable features of mother tongue and target language， and then comparing the forms and meanings across the two languages in order to identify the mismatches that would predictably give rise to interference and error.

In the 1970s EA became an alternative to CA. EA involves first independently or objectively describing the learners Interlanguage and the target language itself， followed by a comparison of the two， so as to locate mismatches. The novelty of EA， distinguishing it from CA， was that the mother tongue was not supposed to enter the picture. The claim was made that errors could be fully described in terms of the TL， without the need to refer to the L 1 of the learners.

3Findings and analysis

3.1 The Definition of Errors

What is a language error? In order to get a much clearer picture of the definition of errors; different versions made by different researchers are presented as follows:

a.An error can be defined as a deviation from the nouns of the target language. (Rod Ellis， 1994:51)

b.Errors are deviations in pronunciation， structure， or vocabulary fromwhat is considered to be normal by adult native speakers (Friedenberg， 991:55)

c. Errors are the flawed side of learner speech or writing. They are those parts of conversation or composition norm of mature language performance that deviate from some selected ((Dulay et.al， 1982:138)

d. Errors refers generally to the learner''s misuse or misunderstanding of the target language， may it be grammatical or pragmatic(Hu et.al， 1989:329)

f. Error is defined as an unsuccessful bit of language.(Carl James 1998:1)

3.2 Analysis of the Errors by Chinese College Students

3.2.1Errors on lexicallevel

Look at the following examples:

(1) It makes too muchbad influence to society.

The examples above all contain interlingual errors which are concerned with lexis. In both English and Chinese， some words appear to refer to the same object of concept on the surface， but actually refer to quite different meanings or things.The error in sentence (1) lays in the word `make'' which has a great many meanings. ButChinese students usually translate it into‘制造，造成’，so they collocate this word with the word‘influence'' wrongly. Actually， when used in this way， the phrase have an influence on'' should be preferred.

Through the previous analysis， we can see the students could only know the surface meaning or its inappropriate Chinese meaning of some English words.

3.2.2Errors on Grammatical level

As known to us， in English sentences， much attention is paid to the form and logic， whereas in Chinese， people pay more attention to the meaning instead of theform. For example， the Chinese language‘下雨’ which contains no object is correct， while we need to add a subject in logic when translating this sentence into English.That is `It is going to rain''. In Chinese we often hear these utterances‘吃小灶’，‘打掃衛生，‘看醫生’，‘曬太陽’，‘雞毛蒜皮說了一大堆’which seem illogical in meaning but correct. That indicates Chinese people pay more attention to the meaning. The Chinese language is a most flexible language in structure. An example is put hereto illustrate this point.

3.3 Correction Methods

In general， the ways to correct errors are classified into two categories：（1）self correction；（2）teacher correction.

3.3.1 Self correction

Ideally， as only the learners are actually capable of making changes in their developing interlanguage systems， the best form of correction a teacher can do is to offer the learners the opportunity to try to self correct.

3.3.2 Teacher correction

After selfcorrection， I did find that there were still a lot of errors that are not discovered. This doesn''t mean that the teacher is always supposed to give the correct form straight away. We could underline the errors and improper expressions in the students'' composition. Students are required to read their composition again after teachers'' correction.

4conclusion

Error Analysis has made a substantial contribution to SLA. It helped to make errors respectable——to force recognition that errors were not something to be avoided but an inevitable feature of the learning process. As a teacher， they can do their work perfectly well without getting the \"feedback\" from his students. Errors functions to provide this \"feedback.\"

References：

[1]Carl James.語言學習和語言使用中的錯誤-錯誤分析探討.北京：外語教學與研究出版社，2001.

[2]劉潤清，文旭.新編語言學教程.北京外語教學與研究出版社，2006.

[3]胡壯麟.語言學教程.北京大學出版社，2007.