Read the quote about error to get familiarized with the topic.
“Mistakes are often divided into errors and slips. Errors happen when learners try to say something that
is beyond their current level of language processing. Usually, learners cannot correct errors themselves
because they don’t understand what is wrong. Errors play a necessary and important part in language
learning. Slips are the result of tiredness, worry or other temporary emotions or circumstances. These kinds
of mistakes can be corrected by learners once they realize they have made them.”
(SPRATT; PULLVERNESS; WILLIAMS, 2005, p. 44)
Judge the items below as (T) True or (F) False.
1. There are two main reasons why learners make errors. The first reason is influence from the learner’s first
language (L1) on the second language. This is called interference or transfer. Learners may use sound patterns,
lexis or grammatical structures from their own language in English. The second reason is because they are
unconsciously working out or organizing language, but this process is not yet complete. This kind of error is
called a developmental error.
2. Errors in which learners wrongly apply a rule for one item of the language to another item are known as
overgeneralization, and as a second language learners’ language ability increases, these kinds of errors also
reduce.
3. Errors are part of learner’s interlanguage, which develops and progresses as they learn more. Experts think
that interlanguage is an essential and unavoidable stage in language learning. In other words, interlanguage
and errors are necessary to language learning.
4. Errors are a natural part of learning. They usually show that learners are learning and that their internal
mental processes are working on experimenting with language.
5. Sometimes errors do not disappear, but get fossilized. These fossilized errors may be the result of lack of
exposure to the second language and/or of a learner’s lack of motivation to improve their level of accuracy.
Choose the CORRECT sequence.