A study investigated the process of learning French by Chinese students, as revealed by student errors in 48 compositions and 33 oral reports. Grammatical, or competency, errors were categorized by type and frequency. Analysis of the results shows the most frequent errors to be, in declining order of occurrence: in the use of articles; choice of words; in verbs; and in syntax. Contrastive analysis of Chinese and French revealed the origins of the errors. The number of errors was higher when the differences between the native language and the second language were greater, and most errors were the result of interference of the native language, confirming the theory that differences constitute learning barriers. It is proposed that the error patterns observed can be used in altering instruction. Further research in error pattern changes over a longer period of instruction, exhaustive analysis of each error category, and comparison of oral and written error patterns are recommended. A four-page bibliography is included, and a list of errors is appended. (MSE)