Significance of Interlingual and Intralingual Error Analysis in the Process of Teaching German as a Second Language

Abstract

The paper presents and analyzes common mistakes made due to the influence of the Georgian and English language in learning German as a foreign language. The research aims to review Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University’s students' written texts, identify errors, classify, and conduct contrast analysis. The research target group consists of twenty-four students in the second year of English philology. As a result of the analysis of errors made in written texts, interlingual and intralingual interferences were determined. Interlingual interference can be understood as "the process and result of the influence of linguistic features and rules of the native language on the foreign language.” Intralingual interference represents the interaction of specific linguistic phenomena within the same language (Kleppin, 1998:30).The analysis of written texts of twenty-four students studying German as a foreign language at Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University revealed that the students transferred errors not only from their native but their first or second foreign languages into the German language as well. This means that they frequently subconsciously rely on their previous language experience (often native, but not only), which is precisely the cause of mistakes in learning German.