Chapter 2

The Nature of Learner Language

By : Annisa Mustikanthi

• Errors and error analysis

• Developmental patterns

• Variability in learner language

• Summary

Errors and error analysis

Identifying errors Describing errors

Explaining errors

Identifying learner errors is the first step in analysing them.

To identify errors we have to compare the

sentences learners produce with what seem to

be the normal or ‘correct’ sentences in the

target language which correspond with them.

For example, Jean, an adult French learner ofEnglish, says:

A man and a little boy was watching him.

It is not difficult to see that the correct sentence shouldbe:

A man and a little boy were watching him.

Several ways of doing describing errors:

• Classify into grammatical categories.

• Try to identify general ways in which the

learners’ utterances differ from the

reconstructed target-language utterances.

An analysis of Jean’s errors revelals that the most common grammatical category of error is

‘past tense’

Errors are, to a largeextent, systematic and, to acertain extent, predictable.

Errors are not only systematic, in many of themare also universal.

Not all errors are universal. Some errors are

common only to learners who share the same

mother tongue or whose mother tongues

manifest the same linguistic property.

Error evaluation

Some errors, known as global errors, violate

the overall structure of a sentence and for this

reason may make it difficult to process.

Developmental patterns

Learners do begin to learn the grammar of the

L2. One concerns the acquisition order,

another question concern the sequence of

acquisition.

The order of acquisition

• Researchers choose a number of grammatical structures of study to investigate the order of acquisition.

• They collect samples of learner language and identify how accurately each feature is used by different learner.

• This enables them to arrive at an accurancy order.

The research treats acquisition as if it is a

process of accumulating linguistic structures.

Even the simplest structure is subject to a

process of gradual development,manifesting

clear stage. To investigate this we need to

consider the sequence of acquisition.

Sequence of acquisition

The acquisition of a particular grammatical

structure, therefore, must be seen as a process

involving transitional constructions.

Acquisition follows a U-shaped course of

development;that is,initially learners may

display a high level of accurancy only to

apparently regress later before finally

performing in accordance with target-language

norms.

Variability in Learner Language• Variability in learner language is clearly not just

random.• It would seem that at least some variability is

‘free’. Learners do sometimes use two or more forms in free variation.

• Not all learners reach the completion stage for every grammatical structure. Many will continue to show non-target language variability in at least some grmmatical features.

Summary• In this section we have examined a number of

properties of learner language and, in so doing.• Researchers focused on exploring the

regularities of L2 acquisition by searching for ‘orders’ and ‘sequence’of acquisition.

• Research on variability has sought to show that, although allowance should perhaps be made for some free variation, variability in learner language is systematic.

Thank you