Common Errors In Speaking Made By English Learners Who Speak Spanish.

Common errors in speaking made by English learners who speak Spanish.

Abstract

Spanish-speaking students who are learning English make common errors as they improve their English knowledge. This paper examines the difference between error and mistake, types of error analysis and common errors made by students who were video taped giving an oral presentation. Detailed explanations ofmistakes with grammar support are given. We present some rules to avoid making mistakes when speaking and error-free speaking activities in the English class.

Introduction

English as a foreign language learners make a lot of mistakes in class. Speaking, writing, grammar and spelling errors are practically way of life with teachers and learners alike. It's a "healthy" problem though because witherrors come corrections, and with correction comes learning (Brown, 1988 in Lynch, 2009). It is a round circle because, the more errors learners make the more correction is done. The more correction is done, the more leaning that takes place. We most often learn much more from our mistakes than our successes.

Error vs. mistake

Every English teacher has to deal with the errors that studentsmake when speaking and writing. Some of these errors are not deadly or fatal because speakers usually understand what they mean. Nevertheless, only after students correct the basic speaking errors, they will be able to jump from the current level to the next.

James (1988) considers that an error is an instance of language that is unintentionally deviant and not self corrigible by its author. Amistake is either intentionally or unintentionally deviant and self corrigible. Slips, or lapses of the tongue, pen, or keyboard are easily detected and can be self corrected by their author unaided.

In this respect, a different definition states that an ‘error' is a deviation from accuracy or correctness. A ‘mistake' is an error caused by a fault: the fault being misjudgment, carelessness, orforgetfulness. Slips and lapses are errors in the performance of skill-based behaviors, typically when our attention is diverted. Some may consider ‘error’ to be much more severe than ‘mistake’. The term ‘error’ is more suitable for more formal contexts, while ‘mistake’ is used more extensively in casual conversations. Etymology suggests that ‘error’ was from a Latin word which means ‘to wander orstray’, while ‘mistake’ is from an old Norse word, which means ‘wrongly taken’.

Error Analysis
Error analysis in SLA was established in the 1960s by Stephen Pit Corder and colleagues. Error analysis was an alternative to contrastive analysis, an approach influenced by behaviorism through which applied linguists sought to use the formal distinctions between the learners' first and secondlanguages to predict errors. Error analysis showed that contrastive analysis was unable to predict a great majority of errors, although its more valuable aspects have been incorporated into the study of language transfer. A key finding of error analysis has been that many learner errors are produced by learners making faulty inferences about the rules of the new language.
In second languageacquisition, error analysis studies the types and causes of language errors (Corder, 1969). Errors are classified according to:
• modality ( e.g., level of proficiency in speaking, writing, reading, listening)
• linguistic levels (i.e., pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, style)
• form (e.g., omission, insertion, substitution)
• type (systematic errors/errors in competence vs. occasional errors/errorsin performance)
• cause (e.g. interference, interlanguage)
• norm vs. system


Oral presentation video taped to register the common errors

In order to trace some of the most common errors found among Spanish speakers who are learning English. We video taped more than 50 students giving a 2 minute oral presentation. They were asked to talk about a painting that they loved. This activity...