An examination of the elimination of errors as a crucial element of teaching language. Includes types of errors (cultural, fluencty, style, etc.), linguistic competence, accuracy and structure of language.
Introduction
Before one can understand or help to eliminate the kinds of errors that speakers make when acquiring a secondary language, it is necessary first of all to understand the kinds of mistakes that occur in all speech production. The kinds of mistakes that all speakers make from time to time are not of especial interest to the teacher or researcher of second language acquisition because they exist within the universe of language at large rather than within the smaller universe of second language acquisition. They can – and should – be weeded out as a sort of background noise for the researcher or teacher who wishes to concentrate on the issue of secondary language acquisition.
While the concepts of error and mistake might seem to be interchangeable, within the realm of speech production they must be viewed as different type…
Before one can understand or help to eliminate the kinds of errors that speakers make when acquiring a secondary language, it is necessary first of all to understand the kinds of mistakes that occur in all speech production. The kinds of mistakes that all speakers make from time to time are not of especial interest to the teacher or researcher of second language acquisition because they exist within the universe of language at large rather than within the smaller universe of second language acquisition. They can – and should – be weeded out as a sort of background noise for the researcher or teacher who wishes to concentrate on the issue of secondary language acquisition.
While the concepts of error and mistake might seem to be interchangeable, within the realm of speech production they must be viewed as different type…