Professional Documents
Culture Documents
COMMON ERRORS
in
LANGUAGE LEARNING
Insight from English
-H.V. George-
What Is an Error ?
Error is an unwanted forms (a form which a
particular course designeror teacher does not
want)
Even in those parts of the world where a regional
standard is the mother tongue, some teacher
themselves frequently use forms would be
classed as an unwanted forms
OUT
BLACKBOX
Black box :
Storage / information / memory (features are selected for storage)
The
English
Language
Selection
organization
the
course
LEARNER
Selection
organization
storage
the
learners
English
Black box 3
Black box
1
the
course
Black box
2
the
learners
English
Communication
Warren Weavers classical diagram of
communication process :
Encoding
Information
source
Message
Decoding
Transmitter
Noise
source
Receiver
Information
destination
Message
The aim of
Straightforward Communication
Prediction
Only a certain amount of school time can be
given to English. It is reasonable to not expect
more learning with the quantity and complexity
of the material and the time given to learn it.
Estimating Regularity
There are three ways to be able making an
estimate of the degree of economy and regularity
shown by the English language itself.
Taking any system or area of the language work
and make a list (inventories)
Using inventory and statistical survey
Making direct checks
Inventories
There are two patterns in this method
a) Sentence Pattern
We get a large number of patterns with a
relatively small number of sentence constituent
items.
b) Verb centered pattern
The verb is the central feature of the sentence in
English, and, to a large extent, the grammatical
form of the sentence has to be fitted to its verb.
Five forms :
Singular noun alone
a + singular noun
the + singular noun
Indefinite plural noun
the + plural noun
A Reasonable Expectation: A
Reasonable Attitude
It hard to derive patterns of regularity or rules.
When a teacher realizes that his learners
productive use of the language depends on
prediction from given infomation, and the basis for
prediction is the perception of regularity and
order. His expectation from the learner may be
more realistic, and his attitude to errors more
understanding
Hope
do it
Expect
go there
We
Intend
want
to
meet them
tomorrow
Write to him
It is possible
(a) to omit words at regular intervals, which means
random omission as far as the prediction of
code or FSP is concerned,
(b) to omit selected words, e.g., one in each line of
text, so that the tester or teacher can control
whether the omission requires inference about
the code or inference from semantic context.
Summary