Error (linguistics)

In applied linguistics, an error is an unintended deviation from the immanent rules of a language variety made by a second language learner. Such errors result from the learner's lack of knowledge of the correct rules of the target language variety. A significant distinction is generally made between errors and mistakes which are not treated the same from a linguistic viewpoint. The study of learners' errors has been the main area of investigation by linguists in the history of second-language acquisition research.

Definition

H. Douglas Brown defines linguistic errors as "a noticeable deviation from the adult grammar of a native speaker, reflecting the interlanguage competence of the learner." He cites an example, Does John can sing?, where a preceding do auxiliary verb has been used as an error. ==Difference between error and mistake==

Difference between error and mistake

In linguistics, it is considered important to distinguish errors from mistakes. A distinction is always made between errors and mistakes where the former is defined as resulting from a learner's lack of proper grammatical knowledge, whilst the latter as a failure to use a known system correctly. That is, mistakes (performance errors) can be self-corrected with or without being pointed out to the speaker but systematic errors cannot be self-corrected. == Importance of error ==

Importance of error

S. Pit Corder was probably the first to point out and discuss the importance of errors learners make in course of their learning a second language. Soon after, the study and analysis of learners’ errors took a prominent place in applied linguistics. Brown suggests that the process of second language learning is not very different from learning a first language, and the feedback an L2 learner gets upon making errors benefits them in developing the L2 knowledge. == See also ==

Source: Wikipedia ↗

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