This study aims at analyzing the errors committed by the Iranian elementary EFL learners. The present investigation not only takes the types of errors committed but also tries to shed as much light on the sources of these errors. To this end a worksheet of ten Persian sentences that have been translated from the original English content of the learners’ course book have been given to a class of twenty students. The elementary English learners were supposed to translate each sentence back into English. The researcher then had to analyze each translated sentence with regard to three aspects of grammar, choice of words and spelling. The next step was to categorizing the errors and finding the frequency of each of them. The results indicated that errors in the use of articles are the most frequent ones (20% of the total number of errors), followed by the wrong uses of verbs (18.66%), and wrong use of the tense (10.66%). According to the findings correct use of articles should be focused in the EFL context more often and the use of correct verbs and tenses should be totally clarified and emphasized as well.
Keywords: error analysis, contrastive analysis, learn English, translation
1. Introduction
Language,as a means of communication, permits people to convey their ideas and represent their communicative aims. Catford (1978) outlines language as a kind of shaped human behavior. For human beings, it is believed to be the most important way of interacting intheir social situations.
Language is essential to every interaction and aspect in human’s everyday lives. Imagine a world without language, everyone will be mute and doesn’t have any connection with each other. Being able to communicate through language with each other forms bonds and that’s what make human different from any animal species. And language gives us a unique and diverse characters to each of us.
Language is an integral part of human existence. It is not only a crucial tool in which we use to convey meaning to others, but also a cultural construct passed down from previous generations that helps to define who we are and how we relate to others. Ultimately language defines our relationships with others, the way we use language is shaped by our own socio- cultural background and also that of whoever we may be communicating with. Self awareness of how our own use of language has been shaped by our background and an understanding of what shapes others use of language leads to better communication, understanding and empathy.
Language can be defined as a means of communication through spoken sounds, written symbols, or hand and body gestures. Subject to this simple definition language is neither human nor animal exclusive, meaning that all living creatures use some form of language to communicate. Humans have created the most advanced system of language. Human language has advanced to include listening, speaking, reading, writing, viewing and visual representation. These components are known as the six language arts and while they are individual components they are as well interdependent. What you learn about one affects what and how you learn about the others.
When looking through animal history, we humans have praised ourselves for our exceptional ability to communicate in an advanced manner. Whether we are listening or speaking, humans have crafted language into a powerful tool that is boundless and flexible against other arts. Moreover, through the perspective of building civilizations, communication has been the foundation of community. As Language is our most advanced form of communication; to what degree of value do we hold it in our society? Throughout the seminars, groups of people explored the history and significance of how we perceive language and the hidden advantages or disadvantages it provides.
The Language of our Time Language, spoken or written, is a form of human communication consisting of the use of words in a conventional and structured way. The language of our birth, the language of everyone’s first words, creates a powerful bond and shapes an individual’s perception of the world. And yet, only few people truly understand the effects a language can have on others or the extent a language can manipulate people through their state of mind. Language can help define the identity of an individual. It shapes a person’s mind based on their past and helps people into the future.
There is no other natural type of communication quite like the system of human language. It consists of vocal sounds, written symbols, signs, and gestures. Human beings use these gestures, symbols, and metaphors for many different purposes such as expressing thoughts, providing information, giving instructions, and effectively negotiating amongst one another. Human language can express many things such as thoughts and feelings between two or more people and is the greatest necessity in human communications. In Philosophy in a New Key, Susan Langer writes “The development of language is the history of the gradual accumulation and elaboration of verbal symbols. By means of this phenomenon, man’s whole behavior-pattern has undergone an immense change from the simple biological scheme, and his mentality has expanded to such a degree that it is no longer comparable to the minds of animals.” Although other species are not without their own forms of communication, it is human language that is responsible for the success of the human species, in which makes human language unique to human beings. It is symbolic, intelligent and consists of writing, grammar, and abstract speech. Language is a main element that separates man from
Language is an essential part of our daily lives. Language is used to communicate with other people to meet our needs and satisfy our understandings. Everyone uses one language or another. Some have an advantage and are able to use
Researchers, such as Corder (1967) define the word ‘error’ when people do not follow grammatical rules or structures. At the basis of the accuracy-fluency controversy is the question of error. Once thought to be deviant behavior, error is now seen as a neutral phenomenon in learning of all kinds; learning to ice skate, to type, to analyze literature, to speak a first or second language. Of course, errors in written language can be due to intonation, memory lapse, or indifference and in an in-class writing situation, NES (Native English Speaker) as well as EFL (English as a First Language) students will make hasty performances errors. Generally, EFL errors are neither random, nor sporadic or deviant, instead they are systematic, regular and
Dolati, I & Seliman, S. (2011, September), An Investigation On Iranian Students’ Weaknesses In Spoken English, Journal of Edupres, Pages 94-99. Retrieved 28th October 2012, from http://eprints.utm.my/15930/1/JOE-1-2011-013.pdf
Language is a media to make a relationship between people in this world. Language is used in human communication in a daily conversation, bussiness, and many aspect of live in order to coorporate and solve the human problems. This is done because human is a communal people whom they always interact with another people. Communication has became as their daily needs and it cannot avoidable from their live. Therefore, language in human communication cannot be separated each other.
This study is expected to give some benefits for the students and for the teachers.For the students,throught TPR,they will get on enjoyable situation and get the clear words and their meanings,pronunciation,spelling and the use of them.The results of this study,hopefully,will improve the student’s English language skills.For the teachers,by understanding the results of this study ,they can ce careful in selecting teaching technique and methods in their class.It is hoped that the results of tus study helps the teachers to teach English language properly by using TPR for Elementary school students.
Although, there is no agreed definition of language among linguists, but we can say that language is the most sophisticated way of communication between any two human beings and far more complex than any other system of communication. The ability of acquiring and using languages is one of the properties that differs us as human beings from other species.
Language is a communication system. It is true that we use language to communicate with others. However, language is much more than a communication system. The most recent thinking about the nature of language suggests that language is first and foremost a representational system; a system which provides us with the symbols we need to model for ourselves, to ourselves, inside our heads, the universe around us. This
In recent decades of research in the field of linguistics and applied linguistics. Error analysis EA increasingly engaging the interest of linguists and non-linguists for the reason that it yields insights into the process of language learning. EA, particularly in second language acquisition has become popular because it is considered as one of the best kind of linguistic studies that concerns about the learners’ errors. Linguist Corder states that EA has two objects, one theoretical to understand how and what a learners’ learns when they studies a second language and other applied object is to enable the learners’ to learn more efficiently and using the knowledge of their dialect for pedagogical purpose (Corder, 1967 cited in Sawalmeh, 2013). The objectives of error analysis is to know the learning strategies for learners’ and reasons for causing errors. Learners’ errors have provided the foundation of how to learn an EFL/ESL (Corder, 1967 cited in Huan, 2011).
Textbooks are based on the communicative approach. “The curriculum recommends that English to be used as much as possible by the teachers and students in the classroom.” (Orafi & Borg, 2009). Yet, the new curriculum is not applied as planned mainly because of the obvious differences between the main standards of these books and teachers’ beliefs. Meanwhile, the controversial concern is why some EFL students attain higher grades in English language exams than others who are under the same conditions and situations. The concern on the learners’ attitudes towards the target language was emphasized by Gardner (1985). He stated that the learners’ attitudes towards learning another language play a key role in enhancing and motivating them to learn that language. This, in turn, affects on their performance, too. 1.2 Research Questions and Hypotheses The research seeks to answer the following questions: 1- What are the attitudes of Libyan secondary school students towards learning English language in terms of their behavioral, cognitive and emotional aspects? 2- Is there any statistically significant difference in Libyan secondary school students’ attitudes towards learning English language by gender? 3 Is there any a statistically significant difference in Libyan secondary school students’ attitudes towards learning English language by the field of study? 4- Is there any a statistically significant