Page 395 - DENG504_LINGUISTICS

Unit 30: Language Teaching Analysis: Contrastive Analysis, Error Analysis

translations of short patterns and simple forms may be a quick way to check whether students have Notes
ascribed the appropriate meaning to that they are practicing. At intermediate and advanced levels,
equivalents of expressions, sentences, and even paragraphs may be necessary, and such practice
could well lead to skill that we should help our students to acquire. One effective way of eliminating
error is self-correction. This can be doneif the teacher uses certain symbols (T = tense error, Sp =
spelling; SgPl = singular and plural concord wrong etc.), explanatory comments in the margin of the
written paper or only underlines the mistakes. Giving back written work with brief comments is a
good way for the student to correct his own mistakes. Another procedure is to offer the students the
possibility to examine the errors and discuss them with each other. After a few minutes, they are
encouraged to ask questions if they still have doubts. The other students are asked to help, if they
can, by giving examples. This procedure offers practice and reinforcement of material (For example,
it can be successfully applied in contrasting the Present Perfect to the Past Tense). From our short
experience we have reached the conclusion that in languageareas, for which generalizations which
are applicable to a large number of factscan be formulated, the chances of errors are smaller. For
instance, when we teachthe interrogative form of different tenses, we draw the students attention to
thespecific English world order: Auxiliary - Subject - National Verb. In view of these observations, it
is our job to help the students arrive at as manygeneralizations as possible. Other solutions refer to
further explanations with more adequate examplesor teaching aids, comparison with the mother
tongue, translations etc. But the most effective way to extinguish error is to have plenty of corrective
exercises which should provide something for the students to say or write, sentences or short
paragraphs to be imitated, completed or added to a series of exercises directed at each typical error.
30.4 Summary

• We may conclude that the aim of contrastive studies is not only a better understanding of the
linguistic structure, but also applied deductions, meant to raise the entire teaching activity
above the empirical and occasional practice, tooutline fundamental teaching programs based
on the scientific knowledge of the language. Contrastive analysis has laid the emphasis on
error analysis as a way to study the difficulties encountered by foreign - language learners. The
findings of such studies can be very helpful in setting up teaching devices. Contrastive analysis
and error analysis are complementary to one another,in the sense that the results obtained and
the predictions made by the contrastive studies are to be checked up and corrected by the
results obtained in the error analysis.
30.5 Key-Words

1. Contrastive analysis : is the systematic study of a pair of languages with a view to identifying
their structural differences and similarities. Historically it has been used
to establish language genealogies.
2. Error analysis : assumes that errors indicate learning difficulties and that the frequency
of a particular error is evidence of the difficulty learners have in learning
the particular form.
30.6 Review Questions

1. Write an essay on the relation between linguistics and language teaching.
2. Discuss the following :
‘The role of linguistics and phonetics in language teaching is not to tell the teacher how to teach.
The teacher of the language is as much a specialist in his field as the linguist is in his, and will
remain so’.
Or
“A study of linguistics in itself does not automatically contribute to the efficient teaching of a
foreign language.”

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