Unit 11 · The role of error

Making mistakes plays an important and useful part in language learning, because it lets learners experiment with language and measure their success in communicating. This unit looks at the kinds of mistakes learners make when they speak or write a foreign language, why they make them, and what part mistakes play in learning.

◆What is the role of error?

Making mistakes plays an important and useful part in language learning because it allows learners to experiment with language and measure their success in communicating. This unit focuses on the kinds of mistakes learners make when they speak or write a foreign language, why they make these mistakes and the part that mistakes play in language learning.

◆Key concepts — errors and slips

What are the main reasons why your learners make mistakes?

Mistakes are often categorised into errors and slips. Errors occur when learners try to say something that is beyond their current level of knowledge or language processing (working on the language unconsciously to try to understand and learn it). Usually, because they are still processing or don’t know this part of the language, learners cannot correct errors themselves because they don’t understand what is wrong.

Slips are the result of tiredness, worry or other temporary emotions or circumstances. We make them because we are not concentrating on what we are saying or writing. They are not a result of incomplete language processing or a lack of knowledge. They happen simply because our attention is somewhere else at that moment. These kinds of mistakes can be corrected by learners themselves, once they realise they have made them.

There are two main reasons why second language learners make errors. The first reason is influence from the learner’s first language (mother tongue/L1) on the second language (L2). This is called interferenceInterference happens when the learner’s mother tongue affects performance in the target language, especially in pronunciation, lexis or grammar. For example, a learner may make a grammatical mistake because they apply the same grammatical pattern as they use i… click to keep open · see glossary or transferUsing knowledge or skills from one language or situation in another, e.g. reading skills from L1 in English. click to keep open · see glossary. Learners may use sound patterns, lexis or grammatical structures from their own language in English.

The second reason why learners make errors is because they are unconsciously (without knowing or being aware) working out, organising and experimenting with language they have learnt, but this process is not yet complete. This kind of error is called a developmental errorSee error. click to keep open · see glossary. These errors are common to all learners, whatever their L1, and are often similar to those made by a young first language speaker as part of their normal language development. Common developmental errors in English are using the past tense for the present perfect tense, or making mistakes with past verb forms. For example, very young first language speakers of English as well as English language learners often say things like ‘I goed’ instead of ‘I went’. Errors such as this one, in which learners wrongly apply a rule for one item of the language to another item, are the result of overgeneralisationA learner error caused by applying a rule too widely, e.g. goed instead of went . click to keep open · see glossary, i.e. applying a rule too widely. Once children develop their L1 language abilities, these errors disappear, and as a second language learner’s language ability increases, these errors often disappear, too.

◆Key concepts — interlanguage and fossilised errors

Errors play a necessary and important part in language learning. They are part of learners’ interlanguageWhile they are learning a new language, learners create their own version of grammatical systems for the new language which they use as they are learning. Interlanguage is the most recent version of the language that learners create and is made from rules from… click to keep open · see glossary, i.e. the learners’ own version of the second language which they speak as they learn. Learners unconsciously processThe process of adding affixes is called affixation. click to keep open · see glossary, i.e. analyse and reorganise their interlanguage. Interlanguage is not fixed. It develops and progresses as learners learn more. Experts think that interlanguage is an essential and unavoidable stage in language learning. In other words, interlanguage and errors are necessary to language learning. L1 learners go through a stage similar to the interlanguage stage: when children learn their mother tongue they seem to speak their own version of it for a while, to make progress on some language items, then to go backwards, and to make mistakes for a time before these mistakes finally disappear, usually without obvious correction.

Errors are a natural part of learning. They usually show that learners are learning and that their internal mental processes are working on and experimenting with language. By making mistakes you realise that you don’t know something and you try to put it right. For example, if you fall off a bicycle through your own fault you realise that you did something wrong, and you make sure you don’t make the same mistake again. Similarly, as we communicate with others and see that our communication isn’t working, we try again, using other words or aiming for greater accuracy. We go through stages of learning new language, and each new piece of language we learn helps us learn more fully other pieces of language that we already know — like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle which only make full sense when they are all in place.

Developmental and interference errors can disappear by themselves, without correction, as the learner learns more language. In fact, experts say that correction may only help learners if they are ready for it, i.e. they are at the right stage in their individual learning process, or interlanguage. There are three main ways of helping learners develop their language. Firstly, learners need exposure to lots of interesting language at the right level; secondly, they need to use language to interact; and thirdly, they need to focus their attention on language forms.

Sometimes errors do not disappear, but get fossilised. Fossilised errorsSee error. click to keep open · see glossary 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. FossilisationThe process in which incorrect language becomes a habit and cannot easily be corrected. For example, a B2 learner might habitually not add an ‘s’ when saying third person singular present simple verbs. Learners at this level do not usually make this mistake, b… click to keep open · see glossary of errors often happens when learners, particularly adults, are able to communicate as much as they need to in the foreign language and so have no communicative reason to improve their language. These fossilised errors may be the result of lack of exposure to the L2, the result of a learner’s consciousAware; noticing or focusing on something deliberately, e.g. consciously paying attention to the form of a new language item. click to keep open · see glossary (knowing/aware) or unconscious lack of motivation to improve their level of accuracy, or the fact that they cause no problem in communication.

◆Key concepts and the language teaching classroom

Read these tips and tick the ones which are most important for you.

• It is important for teachers to think hard about whether, when and how to correct learners.
• We can’t expect instant or immediate learning. Learning is gradual, and errors will occur.
• It’s useful to think about what kind of mistake the learner is making — a slip or an error. If the mistake is a slip, the learner can correct him/herself, maybe with a little prompting from the teacher or another learner. Or, there may be no point in correcting a slip.
• Sometimes, particularly in fluency activities, it is better not to pay attention to learners’ mistakes, (i.e. ignore them), so that the learners have an opportunity to develop their confidence and their fluency, and to experiment and make mistakes with language.
• Some errors may be more important to correct than others. Errors which prevent communication are more important than those which do not, e.g. missing the final s off the third person singular of a present simple tense verb doesn’t prevent communication. But using the present simple tense instead of the past simple tense sometimes does.
• Some learners within the same class may need to be corrected, while others may not, depending on their stage of learning, learning style and level of confidence. They may also need to be corrected in different ways.
• Learners, particularly older ones, may find it useful to know that they make interference errors, and to be told which they are. Knowing about interference errors can help learners avoid them, especially in writing.
• Learners can react well to being told what their fossilised errors are, their danger areas! In this way, they become conscious of them and can try to avoid them, particularly in writing.
• Ways of helping learners get beyond their errors are:
  • exposing them to lots of language that is just beyond their level of linguistic ability through reading or listening. This provides an unconscious challenge to learners’ language learning processes and helps fit the pieces of the jigsaw into place.
  • giving them opportunities to focus on the form of language, e.g. through exercises, reformulationTo reword a sentence or phrase to improve it, e.g. when a teacher corrects what a learner has said by repeating the sentence correctly, but without drawing the learner’s attention to the mistake. This is usually the way parents ‘correct’ their young children’s… click to keep open · see glossary (when the teacher corrects what the student has said by repeating their words correctly, but without drawing the learner’s attention to their mistake) or correction.
  • providing them with time in class to use language to communicate and interact and see if they can do so successfully.
• Errors are useful not only to the learner but also to the teacher. They can help the teacher see how well learners have learnt something and what kind of help they may need in future. Errors can show that a learner is making progress and learning.

✎Follow-up activity

💡Reflect

🔍Discovery activities

✎TKT practice tasks

These multiple-choice tasks are exactly as in the book, but interactive: pick your answers, check your score, and retry anytime. The scoring uses the official answer key from the back of the book.

📖Glossary terms in this unit

Key terms highlighted in this unit — study them on the flashcards page.