Learner Errors Research Articles

Spelling correction and morphological analysis to aid electronic dictionary look-up

We discuss here the potential use of a morphologically aware spelling corrector to aid second language learners in finding words in an electronic dictionary, using Korean as the language of instantiation but with a method extensible to many languages. The tool discussed is a composition of two parts: a spelling corrector and morphological analyzer. When these two parts are composed, it allows for the spelling correction of morphologically complex words. The results include correct spellings as well as one or more possible morphological parses, which can aid the student both in their spelling and in their understanding of the components of the words. It can be particularly useful when students hear a word (rather than constructing it themselves) and may, therefore, not know the correct spelling or all the morphemes in it. The performance of this method is tested with data obtained from a Korean student learner error corpus and then compared with that of another publicly available morphologically aware spellchecker—the online Pusan National University spelling and grammar checker. Testing and findings reveal that traditional spellcheckers will not find many student errors, because they are not designed to; the word they typed is a correct word, but the incorrect one for the context. Providing students with multiple search results at all times allows them to choose the correct one for their context, and doing so allowed our tool to offer spelling correction, where a more traditional spellchecker did not.

THE ANALYSIS ON THE GRAMMATICAL ERRORS OF THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS ESSAYS

A language learner often faces many linguistic differences, especially if the native language and the target language are from different language families. The current study investigates the grammatical errors made by the first year students of the English Department, Faculty of Letters, Universitas Jember, Indonesia. The data were collected from 30 participants essays of Writing 01 class (documentary data) conducted from August to December 2014. Having been identified, the errors were classified into various categorizations, and analyzed based on descriptive-interpretative method to find the possible sources of the errors. The research revealed that the learners committed ten types of grammatical errors, and the six mostly prominent errors were plural form, subject-verb agreement, verb tense, word form, subject/verb omission, and passive voice respectively. This research also showed that the errors mostly resulted from the different linguistic principles of Indonesian and English (interlingual transfer), and partly from the faulty of overgeneralization of English rules (intralingual transfer). The overt influences of Indonesian to English as well as the overgeneralization of English rules can provide the writing teachers and course designers with insightful guidelines for better understanding of the sources of errors, which in turn, can help them to apply the more appropriate approaches to manage the foreign language learners errors of the year students

TheKansas Developmental Learner corpus(KANDEL)

This article presents theKansas Developmental Learner corpus(KANDEL), a corpus of L2 German writing samples produced by several cohorts of North American university students over four semesters of instructed language study. This corpus expands the number of freely and publicly available learner corpora while adding to the depth of these corpora with a unique set of features. It does so by focusing on an L2 other than English, German, targeting beginning to intermediate L2 proficiency levels, and including dense developmental data and annotations for multiple linguistic variables, learner errors, and over twenty learner and task variables. Furthermore, this article reports the procedure and results of an inter-annotator agreement study as well as an in-depth analysis of annotator disagreement. In this way, it contributes to best practices of annotating learner corpora by making the annotation process transparent and demonstrating its reliability.

Research Analysis of Errors of Beginner Level Korean Language Learners of India

Research Analysis of Errors of Beginner Level Korean Language Learners of India

LEXICAL ERRORS IN THE ACQUISITION OF THE LATVIAN LANGUAGE AS THE SECOND LANGUAGE AT PRESCHOOL AGE

The lexical component plays a significant role in the first stages of language acquisition. However, there has been relatively little research into the lexical errors of young second language learners at preschool age. Moreover, the Russophone children’s Latvian language as a second language has not been analyzed in lexical aspect so far. The aim of this study is to investigate types of lexical errors and the reasons for their occurrence. The data on 12 six-seven year old children, who study L2 (Latvian) in a formal language learning context were collected. Children’s speech (using the author’s compiled vocabulary test for identification of productive skills of single-word vocabulary) was recorded on a dictaphone. Errors were identified, classified and tabulated. The findings illustrate three categories of lexical errors: interlingual (L1-transfer), intralingual (L2-influence) and mutual (both L1- and L2-influence) in the oral presentations of the participants. Semantic, morphological, and phonological types of errors featuring in them were identified. The results imply that children (like adults) learning L2 vocabulary use the strategy of LI (Russian) lexical transfer (e. g., borrowing, coinage) to cope with the lexical difficulties imposed by the new vocabulary. Determination of the particular lexical errors, and establishment of the causes that generate them will help the teacher delimitate their approach to Latvian vocabulary teaching. To prevent children’s errors some recommendations are proposed. It is advisable to devise and incorporate special exercises and activities directed to the practice of problematic lexical areas.

The role of extensive recasts in error detection and correction by adult ESL students

Most of the laboratory studies on recasts have examined the role of intensive recasts provided repeatedly on the same target structure. This is different from the original definition of recasts as the reformulation of learner errors as they occur naturally and spontaneously in the course of communicative interaction. Using a within-group research design and a new testing methodology (video-based stimulated correction posttest), this laboratory study examined whether extensive and spontaneous recasts provided during small-group work were beneficial to adult L2 learners. Participants were 26 ESL learners, who were divided into seven small groups (3-5 students per group), and each group participated in an oral activity with a teacher. During the activity, the students received incidental and extensive recasts to half of their errors; the other half of their errors received no feedback. Students’ ability to detect and correct their errors in the three types of episodes was assessed using two types of tests: a stimulated correction test (a video-based computer test) and a written test. Students’ reaction time on the error detection portion of the stimulated correction task was also measured. The results showed that students were able to detect more errors in error+recast (error followed by the provision of a recast) episodes than in error-recast (error and no recast provided) episodes (though this difference did not reach statistical significance). They were also able to successfully and partially successfully correct more errors in error+recast episodes than in error-recast episodes, and this difference was statistically significant on the written test. The reaction time results also point towards a benefit from recasts, as students were able to complete the task (slightly) more quickly for error+recast episodes than for error-recast episodes.

Learner Corpus and Academic Writing: Identifying the Error Patterns of Taiwanese EFL Students

<p>The purpose of this study is to find practical implications for improving academic writing curriculum design by exploring lexical and grammatical errors produced by EFL learners in a vocational institution in Taiwan. To satisfy this purpose, a small learner corpus was compiled in this study. The data were obtained from 58 undergraduate students of a public vocational university from September 2012 to June 2013 in Taiwan. There are 112 essays in the corpus that include 34,426 tokens. Learner errors were annotated based on the error categories found in (Dagneaux et al, 1996). Transfer errors and intralingual errors were analyzed. Lexical Tutor and AntConc software were used to conduct the analyses. Lexical errors, including incorrect word choices, misspellings, and word insertions, deletions or replacements occurred primarily due to students’ insufficient mastery of vocabulary. The top three grammatical errors were verb forms, article errors, and preposition errors. Based on the research results, pedagogical implications that focus on teaching EAP writing to vocational university students in Taiwan are discussed.</p>

Factors Influencing Spanish Instructors’ In‐Class Feedback Decisions

While oral corrective feedback is a principal focus in second language acquisition research, most studies examine feedback once it has been provided. Investigating how instructors make in‐class feedback decisions has not been thoroughly explored, despite the fact that classroom feedback occurs at the discretion of the individual language instructor and evidence from case studies that feedback provision varies greatly between instructors (recently reviewed in Lyster, Saito, & Sato, ). This study investigates how 32 instructors make their moment‐to‐moment feedback decisions in response to learner errors during natural, university‐level Spanish foreign language lessons. Each instructor had a 50‐minute grammar‐focused lesson videotaped and participated in a stimulated recall. Results reveal instructor in‐class feedback decision making to be a systematic and ordered cognitive process: Instructors who reflect on learner errors report that contextual (e.g., error type), learner (e.g., perceived student ability), and instructor factors (e.g., research background) influenced their decision whether or not to provide feedback, as well what type(s) to provide, and when. Others report having automatized their feedback practices and not reflecting on learner errors. All instructors report that their individual characteristics, specifically their native language, teaching experience, and training in second language acquisition, mediate the corrective feedback they provide.

An Analytical Study of Errors made during Learning Second Language

Error Analysis can be considered as a type of linguistic analysis that focuses on the errors learners make. It consists of a comparison between the errors made in the target language and that target language itself. Many scholars in the field of Error Analysis have emphasized the significance of second language.Corder (1967:161) ,for example, in one of his articles , says that ''they are significant in three different ways .He starts with the teacher in that they show how far towards the goal the learner has progressed. Second , they provide to the researcher evidence of how a language is acquired , what strategies the learners is employing in his learning of a language .Thirdly , they are indisputable to the learner himself because we can regard the making of errors as a device the learner uses in order to learn''. The present paper mostly illustrates fundamental background studies done in the field of Error Analysis. There is a hope that the present work helps EFL teachers and educators to become familiar with the most frequent errors made by EFL learners leading them to make more objective decisions about how to go about adapting a appropriate teaching strategies to help EFL student learn better

A Study of Written Grammatical Errors of Iranian EFL Learners at Undergraduate Level

This article is designed to investigate a study of written grammatical errors of Iranian EFL learners at undergraduate level. The main purpose of error analysis is to express the learners' errors in target language. One of the major topics interested in English language is error analysis by research scholars more than four decades. Today, Error analysis plays an important part in the study of foreign or second language acquisition in over the world. There is, in fact, errors in learning and teaching of language are significant. This project is designed for the students who are studying at Payam Noor University in the first year under graduate level with a Persian language as a native language. The participants for this article were 100 students at undergraduate level at Payam Noor University in Bushehr city, Iran. In this article, the three kinds of tests such as General English Proficiency Test; Background Questionnaire; and Grammatical Test were used in order to show the ability of the students in the field of Error analysis. The outcome of this article indicated that there is a significant difference in types of written grammatical errors by Iranian EFL learners.

Exploring Learner Errors in Solving Quadratic Equations

Exploring Learner Errors in Solving Quadratic Equations

Eliciting Learner Errors and Misconceptions in Simplifying Rational Algebraic Expressions to Improve Teaching and Learning

Eliciting Learner Errors and Misconceptions in Simplifying Rational Algebraic Expressions to Improve Teaching and Learning

Eliciting Learner Errors and Misconceptions in Simplifying Rational Algebraic Expressions to Improve Teaching and Learning

This study determined the level to which the learners’ errors and misconceptions were reduced when a teaching intervention was directed at their learner challenges. Data was collected from a sample...

English Language Error Analysis of the Written Texts Produced by Ukrainian Learners: Data Collection

English Language Error Analysis of the Written Texts Produced by Ukrainian Learners: Data CollectionRecently, the studies of second language acquisition have tended to focus on learners errors as they help to predict the difficulties involved in acquiring a second language. Thus, teachers can be made aware of the difficult areas to be encountered by the students and pay special attention and devote emphasis to them. The research goals of the article are to define what error analysis is and how it is important in L2 teaching process, to state the significance of corpus studies in identifying of different types of errors and mistakes, to provide the results of error analysis of the corpus of written texts produced by Ukrainian learners. In this article, major types of errors in English as a second language for Ukrainian students are mentioned.

The Effect of Metalinguistic Corrective Feedback on EFL Learners’ Grammatical Accuracy

In everyday classrooms, teachers and their students must interact with each other on many levels. High communication abilities are required in order to teach and motivate these students effectively. Therefore, feedback is an important part of the teaching and learning. There are different kinds of feedback. The present study was designed to investigate the effect of metalinguistic feedback on grammatical accuracy among Iranian L2 learners. Sixty learners from Sahand language Institute in Miandoab after taking grammatical judgment test which was administered to homogenize them, were placed in two control and experimental groups. The experimental group, received metalinguistic feedback as the treatment. The researcher corrected the learners errors related to past tense and pronoun after they finished the retelling according to principles of Jigsaw task. But learners in control group did not receive any feedback. After treatment, which lasted for six sessions, post-test was given to both control and experimental groups to observe the difference resulted from the treatment. To be sure about the significance of the difference between post-test means of both groups, a t-test was used. The results at the end showed that learners in experimental group outperformed control group. After that, other tests (pronoun and tense tests) were given to the learners in both control and experimental groups. The data collected was computed through t-test which revealed that the effect of metalinguistic feedback on accuracy of tense is greater than pronoun. The findings of this study can be helpful for language teachers and teacher trainers.

A teacher’s engagement with learner errors in her Grade 9 mathematics classroom

How errors are dealt with in a mathematics classroom is important as it can either support or deny learner access to mathematical knowledge. This study examines how a teacher, who participated in a professional development programme that focused on learner errors, engaged with mathematical errors in her Grade 9 classroom. Data were collected over a twoyear period in the form of videotapes and were analysed qualitatively. Our findings illustrate that this teacher dealt with four types of mistakes: slips, errors derived from misconceptions, language-related errors and errors that occurred from the incorrect usage of the calculator. She dealt with these by correcting, probing or embracing them. We found that, over time, this teacher dealt with more errors and corrected and embraced errors in different ways. We recommend that teachers use their professional knowledge to decide when, why and how it is appropriate to correct, probe or embrace errors in light of their knowledge of the content and their learners.

중국어 모어 화자의 한국어 학습자의 쓰기에 나타난 오류 분석 -어휘 오류를 중심으로-

본 연구는 중국어 모어 화자 한국어 학습자의 쓰기에 나타난 오류 분석을 실시하여 오류의 원인을 살펴보고 이를 분석한 내용을 바탕으로 학습자들이 생산해 내는 오류에 효과적인 교육 방안을 제시하는데 있다. 본 연구의 분석 대상 자료는 '내가 생각하는 한국', '중국과 한국의 문화융합에 대하여', '친구' 등의 주제로 작문한 것을 바탕으로 모든 문장을 입력하고 이들 문장 중에서 어휘 오류를 추출하여 수정한 후, 본 연구자가 설정한 오류 유형의 범주에 의하여 재분류하였으며 분류한 오류의 빈도수를 작성하였다. 연구의 결과, 대치 오류 > 철자 오류 > 오형태 > 누락 오류 > 첨가 오류 의 순으로 오류의 유형이 나타났다. 오류 방지를 위한 교육 방안으로 문법적인 요소나 어휘의 형태적인 면을 제시할 경우에는 그 부분의 제약이 되는 점을 같이 제시해줘야 오류를 미연에 방지할 수 있을 것이다. The aim of study is to present a better teaching strategy to reduce writing errors of Chinese learners of Korean language after finding out what reasons of errors were after analyzing of their writing errors in Korean language. Analyzed contents were writhing in Korean language of 'how I think Korean', 'about Chinese and Korean culture', 'friends' and analyzed what errors were occurred. The vocabulary errors frequencies were counted by the criteria which was set by a researcher. The results were as follows. The frequency of substitute error was the most and were followed by spelling error, wrong type error, omission error and adding error. It is suggested when we teach Korean Language to Chinese learners and develop text for them, the vocabularies should be presented with examples of how to be used in context instead of presenting only vocabulary on the text. It would be a better way to reduce writing errors of Chinese learners of Korean language.

Exploring non-native English-speaking teachers' cognitions about corrective feedback in teaching English oral communication

Abstract Exploring teachers' cognitions is a significant endeavour, as teachers' cognitions inform their classroom practice, and, in turn, their cognitions are influenced by their teaching experiences. This study explored the differences between novice and experienced non-native English-speaking teachers' cognitions about corrective feedback (CF) in teaching English oral communication. Data were collected from 20 novice and 20 experienced teachers through a questionnaire and follow-up interviews. Results show statistically significant differences between the two groups. Teachers' personal experiences influenced their cognitions about the necessity of CF and the effectiveness of different CF types and timing. Interview data show teachers' teaching experiences raise their awareness of the role of mediating factors, namely learner factors, error frequency, types, and severity, target form difficulty, instructional focus, and task types in their cognitions about the necessity, timing, and types of CF. In contrast, novice teachers, partially due to their insufficient teaching experiences, had rigid cognitions about CF. Novice teachers attributed their cognitions to their personal language learning experiences. As a pedagogical implication, we recommend that student teachers be provided with opportunities for acquiring theoretical understanding about CF and translating it into classroom practice.

Managing language errors in real-time: A microanalysis of teacher practices

Abstract In addressing learners' language errors in classrooms, second language acquisition (SLA) scholars have formulated, examined, and categorized feedback types as having varied influences on language learning; not often accounted for in this line of inquiry, though, is the contingent nature of teachers' management of language errors in relation to the actions and activities within real-time classroom interactions. Rather than investigating such management vis-a-vis pre-conceived feedback types, the current paper utilizes the microanalytic lens of conversation analysis to document the emergence of teaching practices when learner errors arise and the reasons behind their usage as evidenced in the discourse itself. Based on 26 h of video-recorded data, two management practices surfaced: (1) foregrounding achievement and addressing correction, and (2) providing personal appreciation and addressing correction. The specific sequential environments in which they are found and their varied constructions are presented. As shown, teachers' management of language errors is multifaceted, performing simultaneous actions beyond solely doing error correction. The paper concludes with a discussion on the importance of using microanalytic lenses to provide fuller, more enriched understandings of how teachers’ management of language errors surface in authentic classroom interactions, why such management is constructed as it is, and what it accomplishes.

Essay Writing Errors of Iranian EFL Learners at Under-graduate Level: A Case Study of Medical Learners

This study aimed at analyzing essay writing errors of Iranian EFL learners at under-graduate level in Bushehr. Moreover, the researcher tried to find that if there was a significant difference between kinds of essay writing errors committed by Iranian EFL learners at under-graduate level. The significance of the results of their committed errors was also considered. The participants of this study were 80 under-graduate students at medical science university in Bushehr. Three questionnaires were used during the fall semester of 2014 to reach the aim of this study. The first one was general English proficiency test in order to have homogenized participants. The second was background questionnaire that was used to elicit information on students' age, gender, and level of education, etc. The last one was essay writing test which was selected to examine the ability of the subjects in order to distinguish various parts of an essay. The findings showed that there was a significant difference between kinds of essay writing errors committed by Iranian EFL learners at under-graduate level. Also, it was found that most of the errors occurred due to lack of knowledge. To eradicate and overcome the errors special drilling and practices have been suggested.