When the ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher discovers the reasons underlying student errors, error correction will become a positive learning experience for both student and teacher. (CFM)

This paper discusses the problem of how to deal effectively with students' errors from the perspective of Error Analysis. Basic aspects of the theory such as "interlanguage,""learning strategies" and "the interpretation of errors" are introduced; and empirical data from child language learning studies are presented to support the underlying…

The amount of time that should be spent on explicit teaching of language patterns and structure is an issue among second language teachers. Those who believe that language learning is a developmental process feel that there is no sense in teaching grammar and syntax explicitly since the learner can be expected to acquire these skills as he…

Discusses the value of classifying the errors adult language learners make and of comparing them to errors made by children. It is suggested that teachers correct student errors in the same way parents correct children's errors in order to encourage successful learning. (CFM)

This paper reports on a study undertaken to investigate the relationship between elicited imitation data and comprehension data, as measured by a picture-identification task and a second language (L2) to first language (L1) translation task, and between elicited imitation data and production data, as measured by a spontaneous production task and…

This selected bibliography on language learners' systems and error analysis is divided into five section. Section 1 deals with the notion of approximative or intermediate systems and interlanguage, and with more classical studies on contrastive analysis. Section 2 focuses on the concept and definition of learner errors and includes items dealing…

This paper investigates the development of negative Wh-questions in a four year old subject acquiring English as her L1. Spontaneous and elicited speech samples were collected over a period of 6 months. During the course of the study, the subject began to invert subject and auxiliary, and by the end of the study she was inverting correctly in 38%…

The language learner is activated by exposure to primary linguistic data in the target language, categorizes that data and deduces from it a system of rules or hypotheses. When the language acquisition process is successful, as is virtually always the case in first language acquisition, the learner's rule system corresponds to that of the speech…

The interlanguage hypothesis stresses that errors are a normal part of the language learning process. At the same time, in the view of many, the teacher has a responsibility to provide short cuts for the learner through appropriate corrective feedback. Conventionally, this has been taken to imply correction of expression by requiring repetition of…

These reports deal with language as a whole: its nature, its history, its relationship to culture, its acquisition, the immediate uses to which it can be put, and the development in students of an appreciation for the ability to use a foreign language. The book is divided into three main sections: Acquisition, Application, and Appreciation. For…

This book is a comprehensive treatment of the literature on second language acquisition in childhood, viewed in terms of contemporary process models. After a general introduction on bilingualism in society, six major topics are considered: first-language acquistion, language acquisition and learning in childhood and adulthood, simultaneous…

This issue of the workpapers includes the following reports and papers: "The ESL Service Courses at UCLA: A Progress Report," by Kathleen M. Bailey; "A Comparison of Item Analysis Programs," by Earl Rand; "Stereotypes in Media - or - How to Avoid Functional Fixedness," by James Heaton; "The Search for a Second Language Acquisition Index of…

This is the seventeenth in a series of catalogues of documents in the ERIC system that are of interest to teachers and researchers in foreign languages and linguistics. The documents cited in the present list appeared in the monthly ERIC abstract journal "Resources in Education" from January through June, 1976. The list is compiled from all of the…

This is the sixteenth in a series of catalogues of documents of interest to teachers and researchers in foreign languages and linguistics that have been processed into the ERIC system. The documents cited in the present list appeared in the monthly ERIC abstract journal "Resources in Education" (RIE) from July through December 1975. The list is…