Basics of teaching speakingto a2 level learners plan: introduction main part

3.Classification of error correction in teaching process
Different from contrastive analysis, error analysis provides information about 
learner‘s target language: psycholinguistic type of error. A study of errors reveals 
conclusively that there is no single or prime cause of errors and provides clues 
about the kinds of strategies learners employ. Wang summarizes five sources of 
errors. Interlingual errors reflect the learner‘s first language structure, which is 
commonly referred to as language transfer. Interlingual errors reveal the attempt 
that learners made to simplify the task of learning a second language. Other 
sources include errors of transfer of training, errors of communication and errors of 
inference.
Errors analysis indicated a shift in the pedagogical focus from preventing errors 
to learning from errors. It‘s most significant contribution lies in its re-evaluation of 
the status errors: from undesirable to significant. Errors were no longer seen as 
―unwanted form‖ but as evidence of the learner‘s active contribution to second 
language acquisition, as is noted by Corder that errors are significant to the 
teacher, to the researcher and to the learner.
A student makes his daily report in class as follows: ―I had a terrible dream 
last night. I was deserted [dezetid] in the desert [dezet] and felt very hungry. 
Suddenly I found some dessert [dizet] in my pocket. I was about to put it into my 
mouth when a deserted [dezetid] dog ran up ant took it away.‖ Actually, wall know 
the story of the boy in the dream, the boy was deserted in the desert feeling hungry. 
A deserted dog took the dessert he found in his pocket before he put it into his 
mouth. Without doubt the boy failed to express himself. The example shows that 
pronunciation errors often make it hard for the speakers to make themselves 

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understood or even make them misunderstood and listeners puzzled. So 
communicating in English seems to be more difficult.
Grammatical Errors
We often hear some sentences like this ―The problem will discuss tomorrow. 
I am get up at six in the morning. I am like watching TV.‖ The first sentence is 
spoken by students who are influenced by the mother tongue-Chinese. The rest 
may be spoken by students whose teacher often reminds them that ―I‖ should be 
followed by ―am‖. If these errors don‘t get corrected in time, the students will keep 
them in mind and think they are right. The result will be very terrible. The three 
short sentences are enough to show us that it is necessary for the students to obey 
grammar rules when speaking English.
Communication Strategy-Based Errors
A foreign teacher had her first class in a Chinese middle school. She asked 
the students to have a free talk –introduce themselves or ask her some questions. A 
boy was so excited that he stood up and blurted out ―How old are you? Are you 
married? How much do you earn a year?‖ These questions made the teacher a bit 
embarrassed, but she just smiled and replied, ―It is a secret.‖ Then she told the 
class it is impolite to ask others such private questions. She is a patient teacher who 
can tolerate it. We are not sure whether everyone will accept it. If so, such students 
will not be welcome or be considered impolite. They may lose many friends and 
opportunities.
The description of errors, the product aspect of learning, is the advantage of error 
analysis in comparison to contrastive analysis. While contrastive analysis is 
prescriptive in nature, the descriptive aspect of error analysis makes it more 
plausible as well as acceptable. Error analysis classifies errors according to directly 
observable characteristics that each error has. Errors are classified on the basis of 
the proper linguistic elements they lack; there are errors of addition, omission, mis-
formation and mis-ordering.

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Mistakes are the result of the writer/speaker‟s tiredness and stress. Although 
the correct use/form of a target item belongs to the learners‟ competence, 
mistakes are observable and acknowledged and the learners may make use of the 
self-correction technique. Mc Arthur states that ―mistakes are a misapprehension 
of meaning or a fault in execution‖. Accordingly, he provides the following 
classification of mistakes:
Competence mistakes (sometimes technically called errors), that arise from 
ignorance of or ineptness in using a language, and performance mistakes 
(technically, mistakes), where one knows what to say or write but through 
tiredness, emotion, nervousness, or some other pressure makes a slip of the 
tongue, leaves out a word, or mistype a letter.
Common mistakes
his/he‟s CONFUSABLE MISTAKES: two or more words that are easily
once/one‟s confused with one another
lives/leaves
prize/price
their/there HOMOPHONY: words with the same sounds but with 
different
its/ it‟s spelling and meanings

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Catachresis: mistaken use of a word for another, for example:acknowledge/ 
recognise consonantal blend: as Spanish does not have consonantal clusters 
beginning with s , learners tend to use an „intrusive‟ e to make words sound more 
familiar, for instance estudent for student.
Developmental errors: where L1 and English come into contact with each other, 
there are often misunderstandings which provoke errors in a learner´s use of 
English either at the level of sounds, at the level of grammar, or at the level of 
word usage. They occur when learners attempt to build up hypothesis about the 
target language on the basis of limited experiences.These errors are part of the 
natural learning attainment process, i.e.: as
They occur naturally as the students‟ language develops and are the result 
of the students making apparently sensible (but mistaken) assumptions about the 
way the language works. (…) By working out when and why things have gone 
wrong, students learn more about the language they are learning.
Induced or hypercorrected errors: errors happen as the result of low-level 
teaching classroom resources/ materials or the teachers themselves - it sometimes 
happens that teachers are not as qualified as they should be. Overgeneralization 
errors: unfitting use of grammatical principles for certain parts of the language to 
formulate a new target language. Generally these errors are likely to disappear as 
learners‟ language skills evolve.
According to Spratt, Pulverness and Williams
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―Fossilized errors are errors 
which a learner does not stop making and which last for a long time, even for 
ever, in his/her foreign language use‖. In other words, learners continue making 
them and are unable to correct them, no matter how hard they attempt to avoid 
them.
Referring to Hendrickson‟s distinction between „global‟ and „local‟ 
errors, Krashen states that teachers should correct those faulty attempts using the 
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Schwartz, B. D.. On explicit and negative data effecting and affecting competence and 
linguistic behavior.