Errors in Language Learning and Use: Exploring Error Analysis

321 Pages·2013·5.68 MB·English

by  Carl James

Errors in Language Learning and Use
APPLIED LINGUISTICS AND
LANGUAGE STUDY
GeneralEditor
PROFESSOR CHRISTOPHER N. CANDLIN,
MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY, SYDNEY
For a complete list ofbooks in this series see pages v-vi
Errors in Language
Learning and Use
Exploring Error Analysis
Carl James
~ ~~o~1~~n~~~up
LONDONAND NEWYORK
Firstpublished1998byPearsonEducationLimited
Published2013byRoutledge
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ISBN:978-0-582-25763-4 (Pbk)
BritishLibrary Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is
available from the British Library
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
James, Carl, 1939-
Errors in language learning and use: exploring error analysis /
CarlJames.
p. cm. - (Applied linguistics and language study)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Language and languages-Study and teaching-Error analysis.
I. Title. II. Series.
P53.3J36 1998
418'.007-dc21 97-34548
CIP
Setby35in 10/12ptBaskerville
APPLIED LINGUISTICS AND
LANGUAGE STUDY
GENERAL EDITOR
PROFESSOR CHRISTOPHER N. CANDLIN
Macquarie University, Sydney
Language and Development: Language, Literature and the
Teachers in a Changing World Learner: Creative Classroom
BRIAN KENNY and Practice
WILLIAM SAVAGE (Eds) RONALD CARTER and
JOHN MCRAE (Eds)
Autonomy and Independence in
Language Learning Theory and Practice ofWriting:
PHIL BENSON and An Applied Linguistic
PETER VOLLER (Eds) Perspective
WILLIAM GRABE and
Literacy in Society ROBERT B. KAPLAN
RUQAIYA HASAN andGEOFFREY
WILLIAMS (Eds) Measuring Second Language
Performance
Phonology in English Language TIM MCNAMARA
Teaching: An International
Approach Interaction in the Language
Curriculum: Awareness,
MARTHA C. PENNINGTON
Autonomy and Authenticity
From Testing to Assessment: LEO VAN LIER
English as an International
Second Language Learning:
Language
Theoretical Foundations
CLIFFORD HILL and
KATE PARRY (Eds) MICHAEL SHARWOOD SMITH
Analysing Genre - Language Use
Language as Discourse:
in Professional Settings
Perspectives for Language
Teaching V.K. BHATIA
MICHAEL MACCARTHY and Rediscovering Interlanguage
RONALD CARTER LARRY SELINKER
Language and Discrimination: Language Awareness in the
A Study ofCommunication in Classroom
Multi-Ethnic Workplaces CARL JAMES and
CELIA ROBERTS, EVELYN DAVIES PETER GARRETT (Eds)
andTOM JUPp
Process and Experience in the
Translation and Translating: Language Classroom
Theory and Practice MICHAEL LEGUTKE and
ROGER T. BELL HOWARD THOMAS
An Introduction to Second Listening to Spoken English
Language Acquisition Research Second Edition
DIANE LARSEN-FREEMAN and GILLIAN BROWN
MICHAEL H. LONG
Observation in the Language
Listening in Language Learning Classroom
MICHAEL ROST DICK ALLWRIGHT
The Classroom and the Vocabulary and Language
Language Learner: Teaching
Ethnography and Second RONALD CARTER andMICHAEL
language Classroom Research MCCARTHY (Eds)
LEO VAN LIER
Bilingualism in Education:
Second Language Grammar: Aspects ofTheory, Research and
Learning and Teaching Practice
WILLIAM E. RUTHERFORD MERRILL SWAIN andJIM CUMMINS
An Introduction to Discourse Reading in a Foreign Language
Analysis J. CHARLES ALDERSON and
Second Edition A. H. URQUHART (Eds)
MALCOLM COULTHARD
Language and Communication
Learning to Write: First JACK c. RICHARDS andRICHARD
Language/Second Language w. SCHMIDT (Eds)
AVIVA FREEDMAN, IAN PRINGLE
Error Analysis: Perspectives on
andJANICE YALDEN (Eds)
Second Language Acquisition
Stylistics and the Teaching of JACK RICHARDS
Literature
HENRY WIDDOWSON
Contrastive Analysis
CARL JAMES
Contents
Publisher's Acknowledgements ix
Author's Preface x
Abbreviations XUl
1 Definition and Delimitation 1
Human error 1
Successive paradigms 2
Interlanguage and the veto on comparison 6
Learners and native speakers 9
The heyday ofError Analysis 11
Mounting criticism ofError Analysis 15
Data collection for Error Analysis 19
2 The Scope of Error Analysis 25
Good English for the English 26
Good English for the FL/SL learner 39
The native speaker and the power dimension 46
The Incompleteness hypothesis 53
Other reference points for Error Analysis 56
3 Defining 'Error' 62
Ignorance 62
Measures ofdeviance 64
Other dimensions: errors and mistakes 76
Error:mistake and acquisition:learning - an equation? 85
Lapsology 86
4 The Description of Errors 90
Error detection 91
Locating errors 92
Describing errors 94
Error classification 97
vii
viii Errors in LanguageLearningand Use
Error taxonomies 102
Counting errors 114
Profiling and Error Analysis 117
Computerized corpora oferrors 124
5 Levels of Error 129
Substance errors 130
Text errors 141
Lexical errors 142
Classifying lexical errors 144
Grammar errors 154
Discourse errors 161
6 Diagnosing Errors 173
Description and diagnosis 173
Ignorance and avoidance 175
Mother-tongue influence: interlingual errors 179
Target language causes: intralingual errors 184
Communication strategy-based errors 187
Induced errors 189
Compound and ambiguous errors 200
7 Error Gravity and Error Evaluation 204
Evaluation 204
Criteria for error gravity (EG) 206
Viewpoint 226
8 Error Correction 235
What is 'correction'? 235
Whether to correct: pros and cons 240
How to do error correction: some options and principles 249
Noticing error 256
Rules and the role ofcorrective explanation 263
9 A Case Study 267
Elicitation and registration 267
Error identification 268
Categorizing the errors 273
Status: error or mistake? 273
Diagnosis 275
References 278
Intkx 300
Publisher's Acknowledgements
We are indebted to the very Revd. Dr. N T Wrightfor permission
to reproduce an extract from his letter to The Times 7 December
1996.
ix