The Role and Significance of Error Linguistics in a Second Language Environment Studies (AJLLS) Vol

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ANSU Journal of Language and Literary The Role and Significance of Error Linguistics in a Second Language Environment Studies (AJLLS) Vol. 1 No. 5 - Joseph-Kenneth (Joe-ken) Kelechi Nzerem PhD & Prisca Odinakachi Bob

1 The Role and Significance of Error Linguistics in a Second Language Environment

By Joseph- Kenneth (Joe-ken) kelechi Nzerem PhD Imo- State University, Owerri & Prisca Odinakachi Bob Evangel University, Akaeze, Ebonyi State

Abstract

Despite the fact that learners of the English language in non-native environments strive to attain native speakers’standard, their performance is replete with various forms of errors capable of causing infidelity in communication. This study investigates the significance of error linguistics in a Second Language environment. It states that errors are inevitable parts of language learning. They are indications that there exists a learning process. The study argues that although the making of errors is significant in the learning process, there is need to identify, locate, quantify and assess errors committed by learners. Therefore, error linguistics becomes a tool in the hands of linguists to unravel the mystery surrounding the making of errors. The study hinges on the behaviourist theory which is a psychological theory that emphasizes on observable behaviour. It was propounded by J. B. Watson, E. L. Thorndike and B. F. Skinner. The causes of errors as stated in this studyinclude: lack of motivation, First Language interference, translation of idiomatic expressions and overgeneralization. The study classifies errors into inter-lingual and intra-lingual as well as distinguishes between errors and mistakes. It therefore presents procedures used for error analysis in error linguistics which hopefully would reduce the number of errors committed by a Second Language learner of the English language.

Keywords: Role, Significance, Second Language and English Environment.

Introduction According to Klassen (1991) cited in The study of learners’ errors has been one Otagburuagu (2016), errors are forms or of the major areas of investigation by structures that native speakers deem linguists in the history of second language unacceptable because of their inappropriate acquisition research. The inevitability of use. The writer opines that errors give a clue errors and its frequent occurrence moved to what is happening in the mind of a learner linguists to device techniques to enable and this must occur as a matter of necessity them deal with and conceptualize learner. before the correct grammar is learnt. This To this end, linguists came up with certain accounts for the errors committed in the linguistic principles that could check errors language learning process, a situation where in the use of English of the L2 learner. a L2 Learner continuously attempts to attain a level of linguistic competence through The principle of Error linguistics, otherwise trials and errors. known as Error Analysis was postulated by It is important to state that errors are not S. Pit Corder to assess and determine a mistakes. The distinguishing feature of error language learners’ proficiency in the use of lies in its systematic nature. Mistakes are the second language. The technique is such not systematic but occur as a result of the that locates, quantifies, classifies and failure to utilize a known system correctly. categorizes errors in the texts of language Brown (1982) argues that mistakes are learners (Otagburuagu et al, 2012). In line performance errors frequently made by both with the principles of Error Linguistics is native speakers and second language the concept of interlanguage, a term coined learners. Mistakes include slips of the by Larry Selinker to account for a model of tongue and random ungrammatical the target language which the L2 learner formations which can be corrected with or approximates in the process of language without drawing the attention of the learning. speaker.

Errors are systematic deviations from the In relating errors and mistakes to native speakers’ linguistic norms which competence and performance, Chomsky arise from a learner’s lack of proper (1965) argues that the competence of a knowledge of the rules of the language. speaker is represented in the errors that They occur repeatedly and are not occur in his linguistic data. For Richard et al recognizable by the learner even if his (2002), the actual state of the speaker attention is drawn to it. According to influences his performance, either causing Headbloom (1979), errors are goofs or mistakes or not. Thus, good performance is deviant productions. They are deviations a function of a learner’s linguistic from the syntactic structure of native competence. While competence error is speakers. Errors are also integral parts of the systematic, performance error is a slip second language learning. No wonder which is of no importance to language Dulay and Burt (1990) argue that, “You learning process. cannot learn without goofing.” Through error making, the strategy of learning In their own view, Ellis and Tomlinson adopted by the learner which is either (2001) assert that when a learner makes a approved or disapproved is shown. mistake, he tends to break the rules of the language as a result of non-linguistic factors. Thus a pupil might use a particular

item wrongly because he is careless, tired, also discussing the procedures for Error sick, bored, writing very quickly, or Analysis. thinking ahead. Mistakes as seen by the authors are inevitable and are frequently Theoretical Framework made by the native speakers. They tell us This work relies heavily on the behaviorist very little about language learning problems theory of language learning. Psychologists and (unless excessive) they should be such as J. B. Watson (Respondent corrected by the learner himself. The writers conditioning), B. F. Skinner (Operant further point out the difference between a conditioning), Ivan Pavlov (Classical mistake and an error using error analysis by conditioning) are the proponents of stating that error analysis is the analysis of behaviorism which considers language the learner’s errors not their mistakes. learning as a process of habit formation built on reinforcement and reward. The The authors explain further that error behaviorist theory believes that a child analysis is the systematic description and acquires language through resources that explanation of errors made by speaking of a are continually reinforced: therefore is foreign or second language. They also see imitation language learners tend to imitate error analysis as a branch of Applied and reproduce the linguistic pattern of the Linguistics that diagnosis difficulties in second language. The second language second language learning by systematically teacher should take into cognizance the collecting, analyzing and categorizing dependence of the second language learner errors. They view error analysis as the study on the teaching methodology and avoid of errors in the performance of the second faulty teaching. language learners. The behaviorists believe that language To Ellis and Tomlinson, errors analysis learning is fundamentally a process which contributes greatly to linguistic theory involves the making of errors. They believe formation leading to the discovery of new that all behaviors are acquired through aspects of language use. They maintain that conditioning and that behavior can be error analysis could be used as a method of measured, trained and changed. They also testing the hypothesis developed within the believe that a learner’s state as a clean slate ambit of a linguistic theory. The writers are and his behavior are shaped through of the view that mistakes are language goofs positive or negative reinforcement or which a language user recognizes and influence. corrects when his attention is drawn to them. Dullay and Burt (1974) further submits that Abstracting from these, it is worthy to note the notion of errors itself is controversial: its that errors are not bad in the process of native description and explanation depend second language learning. Once errors are mainly on the outlook of the process of identified and corrected, the performance of human learning in general and language the language learner will improve. Problems learning in particular. only exist when these errors are not It is on the basis of the behaviorist theory identified and corrected. This no doubt is that this work studied errors, its the preoccupation of the study done by Ellis identification, causes and sources as well as and Tomlinson while our present study is process of Error Analysis. interested in contributing to scholarship by

Procedure for Error Analysis opinion that errors as normal and inevitable Error analysis was established as an features, indicating the strategy that learners alternative to contrastive analysis which use. failed to predict a great majority of errors. This technique was employed in solving Procedures are adopted for error analysis. A language learners’ problem in learning a highlight as explained by S. Pit Corder is second language. The aim of Error discussed below. The first stage of error linguistics according to Richard (2002) is in analysis is to collect language samples of the first instance, to identify strategies language learner. To collect this data, one which learners use in language learning, should administer a test or an examination paying attention to the approaches and on language. There are two broad ways of strategies displayed in the teaching and this examination. They are essay type which learning process. Another thing is to is free writing. This approach helps the identify the causes of learners errors, and learner to avoid making mistakes and finally to obtain information areas of objective tests which pins the learner down difficulties in language learning which will to that which he would have avoided in help in adequate preparation of the teaching essay type test. The collected data is for the materials. most part compared with the already existing information. Error analysis is sometimes called weak hypothesis. It is also called linguistic The second stage is for the linguist or aposteriori. A term borrowed from French, language teacher to mark the scripts of the meaning post mortem linguistics. test he administered. The third stage is to Error analysis is identified with two schools identify the errors committed. Here the of thought. While one school examines linguist or language teacher identifies what errors as a result of poor teaching method, constitutes an error and tries to distinguish a the other identifies errors as a norm. This is learner’s lack of linguistic competence from in line with Corder (1967) when he a lapse in memory. This shows the highlights that the first school of thought difference between error and mistake which argues that errors are committed as a result manifests after the language teacher has of faulty teaching method. Lending his located the second language user’s error. support, Corder (1991) states that: “If we were to achieve a perfect teaching method, The fourth stage is for the language teacher the errors would never be committed in the or linguist to classify the errors committed. first place and therefore is merely a sign of At this stage he puts each error according to the present inadequacy of teaching its kinds for example verb errors, techniques …” prepositional errors, noun errors etc. The linguist also states whether the error is at the The argument is hinged on the fact that an language level or at general linguistics. The individual’s teaching method, if not fifth stage has to do with describing the properly designed and redesigned, could errors committed by the second language constitute a source of error to the learner. user. The second school of thought which At the sixth stage, the linguist or language identifies error making as an inevitable teacher explains the errors. Here he tells us occurrence and a product of a real and the cause of the errors. That is if the error imperfect world aligns with Strevens (1969) was committed as a result of inter-lingual or

intra-lingual transfer. The seventh and last argues that inter-lingual errors arise as a stage of error analysis is to eliminate error result of a cross-linguistic transfer caused of the second language user by teaching him by L1 interference. This error is the result of the correct version of the error he a negative transfer, a situation where the committed. structure of the mother tongue is transferred to the learning of a target language. Intra- Identification of Errors lingual error is identified as a To identify errors, linguists should know developmental error which occurs in the what constitutes an error. From the process of learning the target language. It definitions given earlier in the work by indicates that there is a knowledge gap in different authorities and personal the target language which is the result of conviction, the identification of errors is not faulty or partial learning. Intra-lingual a difficult one. Any deviation from errors are further classified as: linguistic norm or standard usage identifies i) Errors of Overgeneralization: This is an error. Example: He have a book. This is caused by the extension of the rules an error caused by a deviation from the of the target language to grammatical concord rule. inappropriate contexts. The wrong application of grammatical rules In addition, errors should be distinguished results in the errors of from mistakes. Errors occur as a result of overgeneralization. For instance, the lack of linguistic competence, while use of the inflectional “s” for mistakes are the result of slips. Brown pluralization of regular nouns might (1982) argues that a mistake is a be applied in contexts that do not performance error that results from the admit “s” as a plural form. E.g. Child inability to apply an already known system. – Childs. There are also situations Furthermore, distinctions should be made where the “ed” past tense maker is between overt and covert errors. Overt wrongly applied in contexts that do errors describe recognizable errors and not admit “ed” as a past tense maker. show how easy it is to identify errors. There E.g. do – doed, etc. is apparent deviation in “I happy”. They are ii) Induced Errors: This occurs when obvious even when out of context. Covert teachers do not exhaustively explain errors are vague and fuzzy despite their a concept or when they use rules supposed grammaticality. They are evident without highlighting the exceptions. only in context. An example is the use of the If for instance the word “lie” is used clause, “it ceased” when used to refer to the in the context of a position of not stopping of the rain. The identification of standing or sitting, efforts should be error is not an exercise in futility. It is a sure made to identify the prepositions that way to error analysis. When errors are most likely fit into their various uses. identified, the second language learners’ E.g. ‘I am lying in bed’ and “The dog linguistic profile is ascertained. is lying in the table”. Note that the preposition used in the first sentence Classification of Errors is appropriate while the preposition Classifying errors also accounts for error used in the second sentence is analysis. To this end, linguists have been inappropriate in the context. The use making attempts to categorize errors. of “lying in” in the second sentence Richard et al (2002) classified errors into is an induced error, arising from two; inter-lingual and intra-lingual. He

failure to identify exceptions to errors are committed in the process of grammatical rules. reading and listening. iii) Simplification: This is the result of learners’ attempt to be creative by Chomsky identifies “performance error” producing their own utterances in and “competence error”. According to him, unusually simpler linguistic forms performance error uses language in a than those in the target language. concrete situation while competence error Mahmoud (2014) opines that occurs as a result of the level of linguistic learners do not possess a complex competence of the speaker or hearer system which can be simplified. Further classification of errors includes Omissions and additions of some local and global errors. In local errors, there linguistic items at the level of is a violation of a minor part of a sentence spelling or grammar is an ideal which does not prevent the message from feature of this error type. The being understood. Global error hinders examples below are presented by communication because the hearer is Mahmoud (2014) on the written prevented from grasping some parts of the English of Arabic-Speaking second message. This classification is based on the year University students. degree to which errors interfere with communication. E.g. “I happy” is an Spelling: example of a local error because the Omission of silent letters: no (know), meaning is apparent. dout (doubt), weit (weight) Grammar: At the linguistic level, errors are classified Omission: We wait the bus all the into phonological error, morphological time. He was clever and has error, semantic error, syntactic error, understanding father. graphological error, etc. Addition: Student are do researches Phonological Errors: These are errors that every semester. occur at the level of phonology. This type of Both the boys and the girls they can error may follow phonotactic constraints study together defined by the target grammar. However, From the fore-going, it is clear that any this should be learnt during the language attempt at simplifying the linguistic forms learning process. Warker & Dell (2006) of a target language results in an error. No affirm this when they stated that these wonder omissions and additions are made at constraints are learned through exposure certain levels of grammar. and practice. For instance, while the English Errors can also be classified based on the language admits consonant clusters both at nature of the language skill in which the word initial, word middle and word final error occurred. Essentially, classification of positions, the Igbo language is not language into productive skills and structured alike. receptive skills accounts for the classification of errors into productive Again, while the English language is stress errors and receptive errors. Productive timed and quite distinguishable from other errors are associated with the speaking and languages, most indigenous Nigerian writing skills, they are errors made in an languages are syllable timed. This accounts effort to pass on information. Receptive for discrepancies in pronunciation by a second language learner in the Nigerian

linguistic ecology. Words such as, Causes of Errors Wednesday, February, fit into this Errors are inevitable parts in the learning of description. a language. Through committing errors, both second language learners and teachers Semantic errors: These are errors that sharpen their skills. They learn from the occur when the learner’s concept of error and effect necessary changes. meaning in a vernacular does not agree with However, errors do not just happen, certain the meaning of the words in the target factors are responsible for making errors. language. This error type creates confusion Norrish (1983) identifies three causes of in the semantic map of the L2 learner. This errors as: accounts for the arbitrary feature of Lack of Motivation: Errors occur in language. language learning when there is no motivation. Motivation may be Graphological errors: This is the result of intrinsic or extrinsic. The absence of the differences that exist in the writing motivation means that the learner systems of a L2 target language and the purportedly has no reason to learn learner’s L1.The contrasting features in the because there are no set goals (21- graphology of the languages compel him to 26). impose the feature of his native language even when they do not exist in the target First Language Interference: This is language. known as language transfer and involves the transfer of the structure of a learner’s Syntactic error: This is accounted for in mother tongue into the structure of the target the structure of the language of the L2 language. learner who implants the structure of his native language on the target language. In Translation of Idiomatic Expression: describing this error, the following Idioms are expressions or groups of word illustrations will suffice: whose meanings are different from the O nwere ego? (Interrogative) meanings of the individual words that make Has he money? (Interrogative) up the expression. Word to word translation of an idiomatic expression results in error This is the structure of the English language because it is a case of transliteration which functioning as a interrogative sentence imposes linguistic items in the first which is the result of an imposition of the language on the second language. structure of the native Igbo language on the target language by the L2 learner. The In the same vein, Richards (1971) identifies structure “Is he rich?” would have been other causes of errors as: more appropriate in this context. The second language learner is often Overgeneralization: This involves creating confronted with the problem of interference a deviant structure as a result of a similar which is apparently one of the major causes structure already existing in the first of error making in language learning. language. Example is the use of “highly” Through error analysis, these errors are that has a similar semantic import with identified, located, classified and “loudly” in the native language. Hence “the quantified, and possible measures employed baby screamed loudly”, becomes “the baby for their reduction. screamed highly”.

Incomplete Application of Rules: This Consequently, learners will tend to keep arises when there is poor development of certain linguistic items in their inter- structure. Expectedly, the tendency to use language which over time become one structure in place of another is evident. fossilized and difficult to correct. This Example: “Your name is Obi Okonkwo?” occurs at the various levels of linguistic replaces “Is your name Obi Okonkwo?” analysis.

Hypothesizing False Concepts: Errors occur Conclusion when there exists in the mind of the Error Linguistics, is quite significant in its language learners, a poor understanding of pedagogic and theoretical import. In its a concept in the second language. Good pedagogical approach, it provides means of examples are in the distinctive use of “his”, eradicating errors from the learner’s a possessive pronoun in place of “he is”, and linguistic repertoire. Theoretically, it also the wrong use of “is” a primary accounts for an understanding of the auxiliary verb in place of “it is”. For learning process by studying errors. Error instance: “His a boy” is used rather than “He Linguistics functions as a device the learner is a boy”. “Is my own” is also used rather has for testing his hypothesis about the than “it is my own”. nature of the language he is learning. Through trial, error, and hypothesis, Sources of Errors learners establish approximation to the There are two main sources of errors. They system used by the native speakers of the are interference and intra-lingual factors. language. Based on the importance of error The interference phenomenon is the transfer linguistics, this work discussed errors, its of the structures of the L1 into the target identification, classification, causes and language. The knowledge of the first sources. As a linguistic construct, error language influences language processing in analysis was identified as a tool that bears the second language. This error can on errors. Having established the aim, its manifest at the phonological level. The role in a second language environment transposition of (l) with (r) among some cannot be over-emphasized. Igbo speakers such that words like love, look, lobby are pronounced as rove, rook Finally, this study supports the view of and robby accounts for phonological Brown (1994) that the feedback a second interference. At the syntactic level, it language learner gets upon making errors involves cases such as modification of the benefits him in developing the second English structure where the modifier before language knowledge. the headword takes a reverse order as accounted for in some Nigeria words, such References as frame door, head bridge, (Otagburuagu, Brown, F. (1982). “Essays Africans.” In The 2016). English language teacher. Vol. XXXII, No 2, pp. 21-51. Intra-Lingual Factors: Also called developmental factors, this source of error … (1994). “Essays Africans. In The English is derived from the experiences of a language teacher. Vol. XXIV, No 3, language learner which include among pp. 18-40. others some difficulties encountered in the process of learning the second language.

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