Approaches to teaching language systems for communication

Different types of errors:

Pronunciation

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  Suprasegmental – word or sentence level mistakes e.g. incorrect intonation or stress.
  
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  Segmental – sound-level mistakes e.g. mixing up consonant sounds /p/ and /b/
  
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  Combinatorial – mistakes relating to how sounds are linked e.g. producing consonant clusters incorrectly.
  

Lexical

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  Incorrect selection of a word/phrase
  
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  Inventing a word/phrase
  
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  Transferring words/phrases from L1 incorrectly
  
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  Distortions of words e.g. kitchen v chicken
  

Semantic

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  Words could be too specific or too general for a given purpose
  
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  Use of a superordinate instead of a more appropriate hyponym
  
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  Use of the wrong collocation
  
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  Production of an incorrect form
  
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  Wrong level of formality
  
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  Unintended connotation
  

Grammatical

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  Covert: a correct form but not the intended form
  
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  Morphological (but this can be a pronunciation error rather than a grammatical error e.g. not pronouncing the final ‘s’ rather than not using plural)
  
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  Syntax
  

Pragmatics

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  Confusion regarding function e.g. Is this ‘Can’ for ability or request – requires interpretation of language in context.
  
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  Literal meaning could be different from use e.g. “It’s cold in here” literally means the temperature in here is quite low, but it can be used as a request to close a window/put on a heater etc
  
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  Taboo subjects