Common Secondary Language Learning Errors

Ellis makes two recommendations with regard to error treatment. the first is that, "...error treatment should be conducted in a manner that is compatible with general inter-language development..." The second is that "...self-repair is more conductive to to acquisition than other repair..." (Ellis 587-88).

Errors should only be corrected by teacher when the learner is linguistically ready to accept the correction. There have been several studies regarding this topic and the end result is that basically this topic does not focus on the theoretical implications but rather what is considered "practical" for language development. The main conclusions are that certain types of errors are much more likely to be treated than others: discourse, content, and lexical errors receive more attention than phono-logical or grammatical errors. (Ellis 585)

Some learner errors are not treated or regarded important on behalf of the learner. Sometimes, language teachers think students' errors are fossilized and therefore, they do not know how to treat them. Some teachers correct errors when errors have not even been made. (Ellis 585) There is a wide gap between the general consensus of how errors should be treated and what is regarded as "linguistically advantageous" for the second language learner with regard to his or her inter-language or, the target language that is in process of being formally acquired.

If teachers are consistent with regard to their correction of learner errors, and if the nature of the context which the teacher and the learner have jointly created is strong and meaningful, then the chances of learners becoming more sensitive to how they express themselves in the classroom will be stronger. Given the inconsistent facts regarding error treatment, "this might suggest that error treatment is often not successful, but it is possible that by raising learners' consciousness it contributes to acquisition in the long run" (Ellis 586).

Krashen states that although learners like to be corrected with regard to form focused activities and conversing with native speakers, he warns about corrections and "its uselessness for acquisition and dangerous in that it may lead to a negative affective response" (Krashen as cited by Ellis 584).

With all the discrepancies and difficulties in finding a simple solution with regard to error treatment, a good language teacher is one who can provide the tools for the language learner so that she or he becomes more linguistically and semantically aware of the language being used when communicating with others. Therefore, self-repair is more conductive to acquisition because the learner is constructing his or her rules of the second language due to consciousness raising of the new information being learned about the second language. By self-correction, a students learns more about the rules of the second language.

Works Cited

Rod, Ellis. Second Language Acquisition. Oxford UP, 1994.