On Error Analysis of English Majors’ Writing from the Perspective of Interlanguage Theory

1、on error analysis of english majors writing from the perspective of interlanguage theoryon error analysis of english majors writingfrom the perspective of interlanguage theory從中介語理論談英語專業(yè)生寫作偏誤摘要：本文首先回顧了二十世紀(jì)四十年代以來有關(guān)中介語理論和錯誤分析等方面的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)。在此基礎(chǔ)上采用定量分析的方法對惠州學(xué)院英語專業(yè)同一批學(xué)生在一年級和三年級時的英語寫作錯誤進(jìn)行了抽樣，并從語言知識，語內(nèi)錯誤，語際錯誤和錯

2、誤原因四方面進(jìn)行分析和歸納，得出他們在不同年級時中介語錯誤的分布和出現(xiàn)頻率。這一分析對于我們了解學(xué)生在不同階段的中介語特點(diǎn)和英語水平有重要的意義。研究與發(fā)現(xiàn)如下：1.大一學(xué)生的中介語發(fā)展處于“突發(fā)階段”和“系統(tǒng)階段”間的過渡階段，而大三學(xué)生完全處于“系統(tǒng)階段”。2.母語遷移是影響學(xué)習(xí)者靠近目標(biāo)語的一個不可忽視的因素3.語內(nèi)錯誤是本校學(xué)生所犯最多的錯誤4.加強(qiáng)英語語法基礎(chǔ)以及重視深入理解和運(yùn)用詞匯是英語學(xué)習(xí)的重點(diǎn)。最后本文總結(jié)了錯誤分析對英語學(xué)習(xí)者的影響和指導(dǎo)意義。關(guān)鍵詞：第二語言習(xí)得; 中介語; 錯誤分析; 語際錯誤; 語內(nèi)錯誤abstract: literature reviews of t

3、he previous studies on il and ea have been illustrated in this dissertation. and then a databased analysis of il has been also made. all the data came from compositions written by english majors at the same class of huizhou university when theyre in the first year and in the third year respectively.

4、 by the use of quantitative analysis, il errors from the perspective of language knowledge, intralingual errors, interlingual errors and error sources have been scrutinized. the purpose is to find the distribution changes and frequency changes of il errors from compositions by the same class at diff

5、erent academic years to gain some insights into english language learning.the findings of this research can be summarized as follows: a. first-year students, here, are in a transitional stage between “systematic stage” and “emergent stage”, while third-year students are undoubtedly in a systematic s

6、tage.b. impact of native language transfers learners target language learning should not be neglected.c. intralingual errors are committed most often by english majors at huizhou university.d. on the road to approach target language, the key to learning is to strengthen english grammar basic structu

7、re and thoroughly comprehend the shades of words. implications for english language learning in huizhou university have also been summarized in this dissertation.key words :second language acquisition; interlanguage; error analysis; interlingual errors; intralingual errorsi introductionin the field

8、of second language acquisition, terminology and theories changed all the time. but one theory has retained its status in this field: the idea of the existence of an interlanguage (il). interlanguage refers to the separateness of a second language learners system, a system that has a structurally int

9、ermediate status between the native and target languages. 1p201 however, the nature of the blending, or how “between” is to be interpreted, and the il systematicities have always been vague in sla literature.this study will investigate some grammatical problems in the acquisition of english language

10、 by english majors at huizhou university. by comparing errors committed at different years study by the same group of students at different years study. we can find out what their dominant errors are and which stage their english levels stay at when quantitative analysis of the distribution, the occ

11、urrences of errors from different aspects will be scrutinized. one important reason to do so is that most of them dont know whether they have improved or not after 2 years study. their knowledge of english will be reflected in their writing of tem-8 examination. ii literature reviewin the past 40 ye

12、ars, studies of second language learning have occupied a central place in the field of linguistics. among the various aspects in such developmental studies, learner language has been the highlight in the field of second language acquisition.2.1 a review of second language acquisition researchthe ter

13、m “second language acquisition” refers to the subconscious or conscious process by which a language other than the mother tongue is learnt in a natural or a tutored setting.2p6 it includes the development of phonology, lexis, grammar and pragmatic knowledge. second language acquisition (sla) -the st

14、udy people have showed great interests, although it doesnt have a long history. 2.2 interlanguage theory (il)2.2.1 the definition of ilaccording to selinker, “interlanguage refers to the separateness of a second language learners system, a system that has a structurally intermediate status between t

15、he native and target languages.”1p201 nemser referred to the same general phenomenon in second language learning but stressed the successive approximation to the target language in his term approximative system.3p9 corder used the term idiosyncratic dialect to connote the idea that the learners lang

16、uage is unique to a particular individual, that the rules of the learners language are peculiar to the language of that individual alone.4p151 while each of these designations emphasizes a particular idea, but they share the notion that second language learners form their own language system. 2.2.2

17、the stages of il developmentthere are many ways to describe the progression of linguistic development and learners are variable in their acquisition. according to h.d.brown, there are four stages of il development.“the first is a stage of “random errors”, in which the learner doesnt know that there

18、are some systematic orders to a particular class of items.the second stage is “emergent”. the learner becomes consistent in linguistic production. the third stage is a “systematic stage” in which the learner is now able to show more consistency. when their errors are pointed out, they will correct t

19、heir errors instantly. of course, theyre more close to the target language.the fourth stage is “the stabilization stage”, which is featured by the learners ability to self-correct. it should be pointed out that the fourth stage does not describe a learners total language system. one might be in seco

20、nd stage of the subjunctive mood, but he is in the fourth stage of past tense system.” 5p2112.3 approaches to il study2.3.1 contrastive analysis (ca)closely related to the study of interlanguage are two traditional approaches: contrastive analysis and error analysis (ea). researchers from the 1940s

21、to the 1960s conducted ca systematically comparing two languages. charles fries, one of the leading applied linguists, stated it in this way. “the most efficient materials are those that are based on a scientific description of the language to be learned, carefully compared with a parallel descripti

22、on of the native language of the learner.”6p9 by the 1970s, however, their positions about the predicative power of ca and about the relationship between l1 and l2 learning faced serious challenges. empirical research seemed to show that significant learning difficulties are not necessary due to the

23、 differences between l1 and l2.7p17 2.3.2 error analysis (ea)2.3.2.1 significance of error analysisin s.pit corders seminal 1967 paper “the significance of learners errors”, he made five crucial points: “(i)we should look for parallels between l1 and l2 learning, since these are governed by the same

24、 underlying mechanisms, procedures and strategies.(ii)errors are evidence of the learners in-built syllabus, or of what they have taken in, rather than what teachers think they have put in: intake should not be equated with input.(iii)errors show that l1 and l2 learners both develop an independent s

25、ystem of language, although it is neither the adult system nor that of the second language (corder, 1967:166) but is evidence of a transitional competence.(iv)errors should be distinguished from mistakes(v)errors are significant in three aspects: they tell the teacher what needs to be taught; they t

26、ell the researcher how learning proceeds; and they are a means whereby learners test their hypotheses about the l2.” 8 p1612.3.2.2 procedures of error analysisthe procedures for ea are figured out by corder as follows: “a. collection of a sample of learner language b. identification of errors c. des

27、cription of errors d. explanation of errors e. evaluation of errors2.3.2.3 error typesthe first distinction we should make is mistakes and errors. a mistake refers to performance error that is either a random guess or a “slip”, which are caused by the lack of attention, fatigue, carelessness, etc. t

28、he latter refers to systematic errors of the target language. 2p51 corder also makes distinction between overt and covert errors. “an overt errors is easy toidentify, because there is a clear deviation in form. a covert error occurs in utterancesthat are superficially well formed but which do not me

29、an what the learner intended them tomean.” 4p59another division that is widely agreed on is that interlingual errors and intralingual errors believed by linguists. an error that results from language transfer, which is caused by the learners native language, is called interlingual errors.9 p204 intr

30、alingual errors refer to those produced in using the target language in own terms. they result from faulty or partial learning of the target language, rather than from language transfer.9p204 iii. methodology3.1 the purpose fluency and correctness of our language expression can be fully detected in

31、a composition, which represents ones english ability. therefore, in order to detect and describe partial knowledge of english that english majors in china have, this dissertation seeks to investigate their language output by analyzing the type and source of the errors made by english majors. 3.2 sub

32、jectsthe subjects chosen for this study are 37 students (22 females and 15 males) in the same class who are english majors at huizhou university. compositions are taken from their basic english test when they are freshmen and from their advanced english test when theyre third-year students. in this

33、way, not only can we analyze and describe their errors, but also detect errors frequency changes after they have two years training and study.3.3 instrument research samples are the writings on the set topics finished by students within limited time. the requirements of two topics respectively are:i

34、 write an around-150-word composition on the following topic within 45 minutes. students should base your composition on the outline given. marks will be awarded for content, organization, grammar and appropriacy.work1 work is a necessary pant of our life.2 work provides us with a sense of achieveme

35、nt 3 we should try our best to do well in our work. -first-year studentsii looks are not everything as the saying goes. or are they? write a composition on: do looks really count? your composition should be about 300 words in length. you should state your argument clearly and then support it with de

36、tails within 30 minutes. -third-year studentaccording to carl james, “we recognize just three levels of language: the levels of substance, text and discourse.”8p129 because some errors require semantic and discourse competence for recognition, i concentrate on errors that can be recognized syntactic

37、ally from grammar aspects, which belongs to the text level, while other two kinds of error levels are ignored here. researchers have found that the early stages of language learning are characterized by a predominance of interference, but once learners have begun to acquire parts of the new system,

38、more and more intralingual transfer-generalization within the target language is manifested. 5p214 since these two categories are so important, i also categorize errors into these two categories accordingly and spend more space on discussing sources of these two. iv results and discussion4.1 results

39、4.1.1 data analysis in terms of error frequency datathese errors have been grouped according to the error classification which they belong to and the language area where the errors were made. the total number of these errors is 627 in this study. the numbers are used to show the relative frequency o

40、f various errors to judge their overall significance (but note that even if an error occurred multiple times in a sentence, it was counted only once).table igroup igroup iigroup igroup iibe-verb97article1422subject-verb agreement2014subordinator823coordinator106pronoun1014misspelling5731preposition3

41、312verb：tense, aspect voice, mood4041part of speech2012adj / adv310incomplete sentence or no comma for a sentence2722number or nouns2529collocation or word choice5823group i: first-year students group ii: third-year studentsthe first and fourth columns refer to grammar variables categorized accordin

42、g to students error types. the second and fifth column show error frequency of first-year students compositions while the third and the sixth column show error frequency of third-year students compositions. comparing two groups performance, we can get an overview in these ways:1. compared with group

43、 i, group makes half spelling mistakes. after 2 years study, vocabularycommanded by students obviously enlarges. 2. when group intends to choose a word or collocations to describe what they want to say, they become more serious and skillful than first year students who mainly focus on grammar mistak

44、es when theyre writing. this phenomenon can be detected from the ratio of 58: 23.3. it can be noticed that subordinator errors committed by group are nearly 3 times more than group i. it is out of our expectations. finally, i found that the frequencies of using subordinators are completely different

45、. group i seldom use complex sentences such as relative clauses. group often use relative clauses or other complex sentences to express their ideas.4. it is worth pointing out that the errors in usage of verb are almost the same committed by group i and group . it means that a command of english ver

46、bs is not as good as we expect. 4.1.2 data analysis in terms of interlingual and intraligual errorsin this study, “article”, “number on nouns”, “no stop for a sentence” and “collocation and word choice” are categorized into intralingual errors. “intralingual errors reflect the general characteristic

47、s of rule learning such as faulty generalization incomplete application of rules and failure to learn conditions under which rules apply.” 9p204 according to richards method, other types of errors are put into intralingual errors although therere overlaps between two categories.table iigroup igroup

48、iiinterlingual errors12437%9634%intralingual errors21063%18767%total 334100%293100%group i: first-year students group ii: third-year studentsthe figures in the second column are the number of intralingual and interlingual errors committed by first-year students and the percentages of these two types

49、, which constitute the total number of errors respectively. the third column, made up of third-year students results is the same format with the second one.1.it seems that english knowledge of our students reach a certain level before they entered into huizhou university because interlingual errors

50、committed by group i are only 37%.theyve got a good training in english language system and almost mastered the difference between english language system and chinese language system.2. from the table above, it is forward that intralingual errors predominate in our students compositions, while inter

51、lingual errors are about half less than intralingual errors at different stages.3. mother tongue interference in group ii is only 3% less than group i. we can infer that the interference of mother tongue still play a significant role in junior students language system. 4. it is evident that chinese

52、learners at the present study always violate target language conventions in the written production, which also reflect their incompetence in language use. 4.2 discussion target language learners commit errors largely because their language proficiency is not good enough for them to use this language

53、 at will. in order to fill the gap between inadequate proficiency and tough requirements of a task, language learners draw on different strategies, such as ignorance and avoidance, mother tongue transference, incomplete rule application, overgeneralization 10 p175-187 in their il forms, which cause

54、different types of errors. next we describe and explain the analysis of interlingual and intralingual errors. 4.2.1 interlingual errors“when we count the percentage of thinking-in-chinese-then-translating-into-english when students write in english, the answer is from 50 percent to 80 percent, even

55、as high as 100 percent for some individuals.” 11 p71 from this statement, we can infer that interlingual errors are quite common in target language learners writing. a. inappropriate word choice (1) as an english major student, i think the best way to learn english is to study on my own. “student” i

56、s overused here. we dont need to add “student” in an english phrase. when we say:作為一名外語專業(yè)學(xué)生, where there is a “student” in chinese. it is obviously that chinglish is taking effect here.(2) looks are usually decorated by three words: beautiful, plain and ugly.according to longman dictionary of contem

57、porary english, “decorate” is used to express the idea of making the inside of a building look more attractive by painting it. the best verb for here is “described” which is used to give details about them. when target language learners who choose the word “ decorated” here is intervened by mother language “修飾” whose equivalent in english is the verb “decorate”.b. misuse of article(1) we dont know what the society could bring to us.(2) first, people often judge the others by appearanceregardless of other types of errors the above, (1) and (2) misuse specific reference “the” in two sentences.