The Role of Error Analysis in Teaching and Learning of Second and Foreign Language

What is it about?

The aim of this paper is to investigate errors made by second and foreign language (L2) learners so as to understand the strategies and techniques used in the process of second and foreign language learning. Error analysis is a very important area of applied linguistics as well as of second and foreign language learning. It is also a systematic method to analyze learners' errors. Errors are not always bad, rather they are crucial parts and aspects in the process of learning a language. They may provide insights into the complicated processes of language development as well as a systematic way for identifying, describing and explaining students' errors. Errors may also help to better understand the process of second and foreign language acquisition. This study tries to investigate why Pakistani ESL and Iranian EFL learners fail to produce grammatically correct sentences in English, in spite of having English as a compulsory subject at all levels in their learning institutions and schools. What are the reasons for their poor English written performance? In the present study, the writing assignments of university students as well as intermediate English learners were analyzed for the purpose of error analysis. Results of the analysis suggest that students lack grammatical accuracy in their writing and are not sure of the grammatical rules that may apply in their writing in English. The study concludes that they are highly influenced by the rules of their first language (L1).

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Why is it important?

This paper is very much significant in its subject matter of the research. It aims to provide the knowledge about the different errors committed by the learners and also highlights the causes and reasons behind those errors. Error analysis is basically the linguistics analysis and it throws light on the different underlying processes that are involved in the very complex phenomenon of language learning. It is the major area of applied linguistics and tries to resolve the problems and issues related to the second and foreign language learning as well as teaching and it also offers practical solutions for the language related problems. The paper is also an attempt in providing different strategies to the language practitioners and teachers for making their teaching effective. It also highlights the importance of using the meaningful material for language teaching. It provides the learners an opportunity of self-correcting by making them aware of their mistakes. The study also tries to find out the reasons behind the poor performance of these students in language learning area. Thus, by keeping in mind all these points it can be said that the present study can be of highly significant in its nature.

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