INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
ISSN: 2692-5206, Impact Factor: 12,23
American Academic publishers, volume 05, issue 06,2025
Journal:
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page 2136
CLASSIFICATIONS OF ERRORS IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
Nematova Zebo Tursunboevna
ESP teacher, Bukhara State Medical Institute
named after Abu Ali ibn Sino Bukhara, Uzbekistan
Abstract:
This article discusses briefly the types of errors made by second language learners,
the causes of these errors, and finally how teachers should correct them.
Key words:
errors, slips, interference, first language (mother tongue/L1), second language (L2),
overgeneralization, simplification, fossilization.
Language learning, like any kind of human learning, involves committing errors. In the
past, language teachers considered errors committed by their students as something undesirable,
which they diligently sought to prevent from occurring. During the past fifteen years, however,
researchers in the field of applied linguistics came to view errors as evidence for a creative
process in language learning in which learners employ hypothesis testing and various strategies
in learning a second language.
This paper is very much significant in its subject matter of the research. It aims to
provide the knowledge about the different errors committed by the learners and also highlights
the causes and reasons behind those errors. Error analysis is basically the linguistics analysis
and it throws light on the different underlying processes that are involved in the very complex
phenomenon of language learning. It is the major area of applied linguistics and tries to resolve
the problems and issues related to the second and foreign language learning as well as teaching
and it offers practical solutions for the language related problems. The paper is also an attempt
in providing different strategies to the language practitioners and teachers for making their
teaching effective. It also highlights the importance of using the meaningful material for
language teaching. It provides the learners an opportunity of self-correcting by making them
aware of their mistakes. The study also tries to find out the reasons behind the poor
performance of these students in language learning area. Thus, by keeping in mind all these
points it can be said that the present study can be of highly significant in its nature.
Making mistakes plays an important and useful part in language learning because it
allows learners to experiment with language and measure their success in communicating. This
unit focuses on the kinds of mistakes learners make when they speak or write a foreign
language, why they make these mistakes and the part that mistakes play in language learning.
Mistakes are often categorized into
errors
and
slips. Errors
occur when learners try to
say something that is beyond their current level of knowledge or language
processing
(working
on the language unconsciously to try to understand and learn it). Usually, because they are still
processing or do not know this part of the language, learners cannot correct errors themselves
because they do not understand what is wrong.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
ISSN: 2692-5206, Impact Factor: 12,23
American Academic publishers, volume 05, issue 06,2025
Journal:
https://www.academicpublishers.org/journals/index.php/ijai
page 2137
Slips
are the result of tiredness, worry or other temporary emotions or circumstances.
We make them because we are not concentrating on what we are saying or writing. They are
not a result of incomplete language processing or a lack of knowledge. They happen simply
because our attention is somewhere else at that moment. These kinds of mistakes can be
corrected by learners themselves, once they realise they have made them.
There are two main reasons why second language learners make errors. The first reason
is influence from the learner's
first language (mother tongue/L1)
on the second language (
L2
).
This is called
interference
or transfer. Learners may use sound patterns,
lexis
or
grammatical
structures
from their own language in English.
Types of Errors
Researchers in the field of applied linguistics usually distinguish between two types of
errors: performance errors and competence errors. Performance errors are those errors made by
learners when they are tired or hurried. Normally, this type of error is not serious and can be
overcome with little effort by the learner.
Competence errors, on the other hand, are more serious than performance errors since
competence errors reflect inadequate learning. In this connection, it is important to note that
researchers distinguish between mistakes which are lapses in performance and errors which
reflect inadequate competence. Other researchers distinguish between local and global errors.
Local errors do not hinder communication and understanding the meaning of an utterance.
Global errors, on the other hand, are more serious than local errors because global errors
interfere with communication and disrupt the meaning of utterances. Local errors involve noun
and verb inflections, and the use of articles, prepositions, and auxiliaries. Global errors, for
example, involve wrong word order in a sentence.
Causes of Errors
There are mainly two major sources of errors in second language learning. The first
source is interference from the native language while the second source can be attributed to
intralingual and developmental factors. The native language of learners plays a significant role
in learning a second language. Errors due to the influence of the native language are called
interlingual errors. Interlingual errors are also called transfer or interference errors. Intralingual
and developmental errors are due to the difficulty of the second/target language. Intralingual
and developmental factors include the following:
1. Simplification: Learners often choose simple forms and constructions instead of more
complex ones. An example of simplification might involve the use of simple present instead of
the present perfect continuous.
2. Overgeneralization: This is the use of one form or construction in one context and
extending its application to other contexts where it should not apply. Examples of
overgeneralization include the use of comed and goed as the past tense forms of come and go
and the omission of the third person singular s under the heavy pressure of all other endless
forms as in he go.
It should be noted that simplification and overgeneralization are used by learners in order to
reduce their linguistic burden.
3. Hypercorrection: Sometimes the zealous efforts of teachers in correcting their
students' errors induce the students to make errors in otherwise correct forms. Stenson (1978)
calls this type of error "induced errors."
4. Faulty teaching: Sometimes it happens that learners' errors are teacher-induced ones,
i.e., caused by the teacher, teaching materials, or the order of presentation. This factor is closely
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
ISSN: 2692-5206, Impact Factor: 12,23
American Academic publishers, volume 05, issue 06,2025
Journal:
https://www.academicpublishers.org/journals/index.php/ijai
page 2138
related to hypercorrection above. Also, it is interesting to note that some teachers are even
influenced by their pupils' errors in the course of long teaching.
5. Fossilization: Some errors, specially errors in pronunciation, persist for long periods
and become quite difficult to get rid of. Examples of fossilized errors in Arab ESL learners are
the lack of distinction between IpI and Ibl in English and the insertion of the resumptive
pronoun in English relative clauses produced by these learners.
6. Avoidance: Some syntactic structures are difficult to produce by some learners.
Consequently, these learners avoid these structures and use instead simpler structures. Arab
ESL learners avoid the passive voice while Japanese learners avoid relativization in English.
7. Inadequate learning: This is mainly caused by ignorance of rule restrictions or under
differentiation and incomplete learning. An example is omission of the third person singular s
as in: He want.
8. False concepts hypothesized: Many learners' errors can be attributed to wrong
hypotheses formed by these learners about the target language. For example, some learners
think that is is the marker of the present tense. So, they produce: He is talk to the teacher.
Similarly, they think that was is the past tense marker. Hence they say: It was happened last
night.
Error Treatment
Teachers cannot and should not correct all errors committed by their students. Besides,
the frequent correction of oral errors disrupts the process of language learning and discourages
shy students from communicating in the target language. The following are general guidelines
in correcting second language learning errors:
I. Teachers should correct errors affecting intelligibility, i.e., errors that interfere with
the general meaning and understandability of utterances. In this connection, teachers should
concentrate on correcting global errors more than local errors.
2. High frequency and generality errors should be corrected more often than less
frequent errors. For example, the omission of the third person Singular s is an error of high
frequency and generality.
3. Teachers should put more emphasis on correcting errors affecting a large percentage
of their students. This factor is clearly related to the second factor above.
4. Stigmatizing or irritating errors should be paid more attention to. This factor is related
to the socioliguistic aspect of language learning. Pupils who come from lower socioeconomic
classes are conscious of and very sensitive to ridicule about their informal variety of language
from students from higher socioeconomic classes who speak a more formal and prestigious
variety of the language.
5. Finally, errors relevant to a pedagogical focus should receive more attention from the
teacher than other errors. For example, if the focus of the lesson is the use of the present perfect
tense, the correction of errors involving prepositions, articles, and demonstratives in this lesson
should not be emphasized by the teacher because if he/she did, the attention of the students
would be distracted from the focus of the lesson which, in this instance, is the use of the present
perfect tense.
Conclusion
This paper explores the relationship between error analysis and second and foreign
language learning. It describes the various strategies that learners use in the process of language
learning. It also explores how error analysis has its impact in understanding the language
learning process and describes the difficulties that learners face in the process of language
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
ISSN: 2692-5206, Impact Factor: 12,23
American Academic publishers, volume 05, issue 06,2025
Journal:
https://www.academicpublishers.org/journals/index.php/ijai
page 2139
learning and helps the teachers in designing different remedies for supporting the learners’
learning. The division of categories of error analysis gives teachers ideas and knowledge about
the weak areas of learner’s language and helps them in focusing on those points, particularly. It
provides the deeper insight in different areas of language.
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