The use of error pattern analysis can reduce the time and money spent on editing and correcting manuscripts. What is required is noting, classifying, and keeping a frequency count of errors. First an editor should take a typical page of writing and circle each error. After the editor has done a sufficiently large number of pages to identify an…

A study investigated the effects of the prompting procedure and the fading procedure upon the acquisition of word recognition skills in beginning readers. The prompting procedure is designed to overdetermine correct reading responses during word acquisition, while the gradual fading of the prompts results in transfer of control from the prompt to…

Many teachers of basic writing are preoccupied with error. Before marking any errors in a student's composition, the teacher should read it carefully, try to understand the student's intention in writing it, and respond in those terms. Priorities for analysis should be consistent with the teacher's priorities for teaching and be set in terms of…

The errors on cloze tests completed by 22 German adults who spoke English and 40 American college students were analyzed to determine whether predictable error patterns occurred. The results indicated predictable error patterns at the independent, instructional, and frustration reading levels for all the adults. The error profiles of the two…

Two groups of teachers testing with two different informal reading inventories were asked to give explanations for the miscomprehensions of two of their students (selected because of difficulty with comprehension unrelated to word recognition). Teacher explanations reflected diversity in description with the reader's lack of knowledge of key…

Swedes in four different age groups (9, 12, 15 and 18 years) judged written words which varied in three dimensions: syntactic category, objective frequency, and polysemy (multiple meaning). The subjects judged ease of comprehension of 24 words in a factorial arrangement. The method used was Thurstone's paired comparisons. A predicted complex…

Thirty third graders, divided into three equal groups, were used to determine the extent to which good, average, and poor readers depend upon two types of reading cues--graphic features of word and of context. To hold error quantity differences constant, materials were chosen at different levels of vocabulary and syntactic difficulty. Each subject…

This study examined the sensitivity of adult second language learners to deviance in English sentences. The subjects were 18 Egyptian, Arabic-speaking students attending classes at the English Language Institute of the American University in Cairo. (Author/CFM)

This article reviews and criticizes Fay's particular transformational descriptions as implausible. (Author/NCR)

Five children (preschoolers and kindergarteners) who produced /O/ for /s/ substitutions as a misarticulation were trained to produce /s/ correctly in three syllables. (Author)

A study conducted in El Salvador was designed to: determine which kinds of errors may be most frequently committed by learners who have reached a basic level of proficiency: discover which high-frequency errors most impede comprehension; and develop a procedure for eliciting evaluational reactions to errors from native listeners. (SW)

A thorough revision of present syllabus-design practices is necessary to achieve the goal of enabling the learner to use the target language with relative fluency in simulated speech transactions. Four new orientations are suggested that lead more directly to language use than do monolithic and paradigm-oriented linguistic features. (Author/RM)

Examines the hypothesis that certain errors occurring in oral foreign language tests are due to the recurrence of phonological features both in the questions and in the answer. (AM)

At Grade 11 and above, it is necessary to determine what deficiencies exist in auditory and reading comprehension and in speaking and writing skills, and to take compensatory steps. Suggestions are given for French teaching. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)

Within the framework of error analysis, examines Nemser's theory, which states that a learner's approximative system at a given level has characteristics which are similar to the approximative system of another learner's at the same level. (Text is in French.) (AM)