Errors In Second Language

For the most part, people begin to learn a native language in the years to follow birth. During childhood years, one increases understanding of the first language, differences in vowel sounds, tones and pitches. The start of babbling and word formations develop, and sentence structures increase. As stated by Wolfgang Klein, (1986), “the contrastive hypothesis, conversely, claims that the acquisition of a second language is largely determined by the structure of an earlier acquired language.” If the learners’ second language is similar to the native language, applying syntactical patterns and morphological aspects to the second language becomes simpler.

English developed toward an international language around the globe, taught as either a second

Local errors possess no influence on communication, and understanding the meaning of spoken language; these errors include variations of articles, prepositions, auxiliaries, nouns and verbs usage. Universal errors restrict communication and interrupt the meaning of spoken language; these errors include incorrect sentence structures and word order.

All language learning errors comprise of language components:

(1) the phonological component – the distinction between foreign accents such as stress, intonation, rhythm and speech sounds influencing the language – such as /b/ and /p/;

(2) the morphological component – the production of errors such as “womans”;

(3) the lexical component – direct translation involves inappropriate use of language word order, determinants and tenses - such as “the drink I coffee now”; and lastly,

(4) the syntactic component – the use of resumptive pronouns, borrowing of words from one language, to convert and alter to another language - such as “that is the boy that him likes reading”.

Causes of errors, indicated by Selinker (1969), are significant in three aspects:

(1) errors help the language teacher identify the learners progress in language

Knowing in advance the differences between the native language and teaching language, helps the teacher predict difficulties in the language learning process. Comparisons of the languages help focus on forms and functions, and the way learners absorb the second language in the learning process. Traditional teaching methods guide learners to memorize correct use of tenses, rather than elucidate perception of tense and precise usage. Acquiring a language relics as unconsciously absorbing the techniques of language learning, through observation and repetition.

Understanding a learner’s mistakes and learning strategies, benefits the teacher to expand on adapting knowledge towards learners needs. Teachers with sufficient knowledge are most likely able to distinguish and recognize enough of the subject, to teach effective basic grammar structures and rules, in the simplest method, helping the learner understand and remember the language