APPLIED LINGUISTICS:1
WHAT IS APPLIED LINGUISTICS?
by Taoufik El-Ayachi
October 21, 2014
What is applied linguistics? By Vivian Cook, Newcastle University
If you tell someone you're an applied linguist, they look at you with bafflement. If you
amplify – it's to do with linguistics – they still look baffled. You know, linguistics the science of
language? Ah so you speak lots of languages? Well no, just English. So what do you actually do?
Well I look at how people acquire languages and how we can teach them better. At last light
begins to dawn and they tell you a story about how badly they were taught French at school.
The problem is that the applied linguists themselves don't have much clearer ideas about
what the subject consists of. They argue over whether it necessarily has anything to do with
language teaching or with linguistics and whether it includes the actual description of language.
All of these views exist among applied linguists and are reflected in the MA courses available at
British universities under the label of applied linguistics.
The language teaching view of applied linguistics parallels TESOL or TEFL, by looking at
ways of improving language teaching, backed by a more rigorous study of language. The
motivation is that better teaching will be based on a better understanding of language. However
in British universities language teaching itself is not highly valued, often carried out by ancillary
staff, because it does not lend itself easily to the kind of research publications that university
careers now depend upon.
The closeness of the link to linguistics is also crucial. At one extreme you need the latest
ideas hot from MIT on the principle that information about linguistics must be up-to-date – and
linguistic theories change so fast that undergraduates discover their first year courses are out of
date by their final year. It's up to the end users how they make practical use of the ideas, not the
applied linguists.
This raises the issue whether other disciplines are as important as linguistics for applied
linguistics. Psychology enters into many courses, as does education, particularly ideas about
testing and about language learning. To some applied linguists the discipline draws on any
subject with anything to say about language teaching or language learning. To others linguistics
is the sole source of ideas. Sometime this is referred to as the issue of 'autonomous applied
linguistics'; is it a separate discipline or a poor relative of linguistics?
To some, applied linguistics is applying theoretical linguistics to actual data. Hence the
construction of dictionaries or the collection of 'corpora' of millions of words of English are
applied linguistics, as are the descriptions of social networks or of gender differences (but not
usually descriptions of grammar). Once applied linguistics seemed boundless, including the
study of first language acquisition and computational linguistics. Now many who call themselves
applied linguists seldom attend general organisations such as BAAL (British Association of
Applied Linguistics) but go to more specialist conferences such as EUROSLA (European Second
Language Association) for second language acquisition (SLA) or MATSDA (Materials
Development Association) for materials construction.
To many, however, applied linguistics has become synonymous with SLA (though never
linked to first language acquisition). SLA research has had an enormous growth over the past
decades. It enters into all of the above debates. Some people are concerned with classroom
language acquisition because of its teaching implications, ; drawing mostly on psychological
models of language and language processing and on social models of interaction and identity;
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others are concerned with SLA in natural settings. On another dimension, SLA can be seen as
providing data to test out linguistic
theories rather than to increase our knowledge of SLA
itself; they are then more like linguists who happen to use SLA data than investigators of SLA in
its own right. On a third dimension the linguistic world is more or less divided between those
who see language as masses of things people have said and those who see it as knowledge in
people's minds. Some SLA researchers analyse large corpora of learner's utterances or essays;
others test their ideas against the barest minimum of data; neither side really accept that the
other has a valid point of view.
Applied linguistics then means many things to many people. Discovering what a book or a
course in applied linguistics is about involves reading the small print to discover its orientation.
Those with an interest in linguistic theory are going to feel frustrated when bombarded with
classroom teaching techniques; those who want to handle large amounts of spoken or written
data will be disappointed by single example sentences or experiments. Of course many people
discover unexpected delights. One of my students who came to an MA course as an EFL coursewriter ended up doing a Ph.D. thesis and book on learnability theory. This does not mean that
most prospective MA students should not look very carefully, say checking the titles of the
modules that actually make up the degree scheme, before they back a particular horse.
APPLIED LINGUISTICS: 2
WHAT IS APPLIED LINGUISTICS?(CONTINUED)
by Taoufik El-Ayachi
October 21, 2014
APPLIED LINGUISTICS:
The term 'applied linguistics' refers to a broad range of activities which involve
solving some language-related problem or addressing some language-related concern. It
appears as though applied linguistics, at least in North America, was first officially
recognized as an independent course at the University of Michigan in 1946. In those early
days, the term was used both in the United States and in Great Britain to refer to applying a socalled 'scientific approach' to teaching foreign languages, including English for nonnative
speakers. Early work to improve the quality of foreign language teaching by Professors Charles
Fries (University of Michigan) and Robert Lado (University of Michigan, then Georgetown
University) helped to bring definition to the field as did the 1948 publication of a new journal,
Language Learning: A Quarterly Journal of Applied Linguistics
During the late 1950s and the early 1960s, the use of the term was gradually broadened to
include what was then referred to as 'automatic translation'. In 1964 following two years of
preparatory work financed by the Council of Europe, the ‘’Association Internationale de
Linguistique Appliquée’’ (the International Association of Applied Linguistics usually referred to
by the French acronym AILA) was founded and its first international congress was held in
Nancy, France. Papers for the congress were solicited in two distinct strands--foreign language
teaching and automatic translation.
APPLIED LINGUISTICS TODAY:
Over the intervening years, the foci of attention have continued to broaden. Today the
governing board of AILA describes applied linguistics 'as a means to help solve specific
problems in society...applied linguistics focuses on the numerous and complex areas in society
in which language plays a role.' * There appears to be consensus that the goal is to apply the
findings and the techniques from research in linguistics and related disciplines to solve practical
problems. To an observer, the most notable change in applied linguistics has been its rapid
growth as an interdisciplinary field. In addition to foreign language teaching and machine
translation, a partial sampling of issues considered central to the field of applied linguistics
today includes topics such as language for special purposes (e.g. language and communication
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problems related to aviation, language disorders, law, medicine, science), language policy and
planning, and language and literacy issues. For example, following the adoption of English as the
working language for all international flight communication by the International Civil Aviation
Organization (ICAO), some applied linguists concerned themselves with understanding the kinds
of linguistic problems that occur when pilots or flight engineers from varying backgrounds
communicate using a nonnative language and how to better train them to communicate in
English more effectively.
Some applied linguists are concerned with helping planners and legislators in countries
develop and implement a language policy (e.g. planners are working in South Africa to specify
and to further develop roles in education and government not only for English and Afrikaans but
also for the other nine indigenous languages) or in helping groups develop scripts, materials,
and literacy programs for previously unwritten languages (e.g. for many of the 850+ indigenous
languages of Papua New Guinea).
Other applied linguists have been concerned with developing the most effective programs
possible to help adult newcomers to the United States or other countries, many of whom have
limited if any prior education, develop literacy in the languages which they will need for survival
and for occupational purposes. Other topics currently of concern to applied linguists are the
broad issue of the optimal role of the mother tongue in the education of culturally and
linguistically diverse students, the language of persuasion and politics, developing effective tools
and programs for interpretation and translation, and language testing and evaluation.
In the United Kingdom, the first school of applied linguistics is thought to have opened in
1957 at the University of Edinburgh with Ian Catford as Head. In the United States, a nonprofit
educational organization, the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL), was founded in 1959 with
Charles Ferguson as its first Director. CAL's mission remains to 'promote the study of
language and to assist people in achieving their educational, occupational, and social
goals through more effective communication'. The organization carries out its mission by
collecting and disseminating information through various clearinghouses that it operates, by
conducting practical research, by developing practical materials and training individuals such as
teachers, administrators, or other human resource specialists to use these to reduce the barriers
that limited language proficiency can pose for culturally and linguistically diverse individuals as
they seek full and effective participation in educational or occupational opportunities.
Organizations
In addition to the international organization AILA, there are also major national
associations of applied linguists such as the American Association for Applied Linguistics
(AAAL) and the British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL). The work of applied
linguists is frequently presented or described in publications such as the journal Applied
Linguistics (Oxford University Press) and the Annual Review of Applied Linguistics (Cambridge
University Press).
*AILA Vademecum. Association Internationale de Linguistique Appliquée. Amsterdam, 1992, p.
2.
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APPLIED LINGUISTICS: 3
An Introduction to Applied Linguistics
by Taoufik El-Ayachi
October 24, 2014
Introduction :
Applied Linguistics (AL) is considered a new and burgeoningdiscipline. "Applied Linguistics . .
. has undergone a significantbroadening of its scope and now contributes its theoretical
perspectives to
a range of areas" (Baynham, 2001, p. 26). However, what exactly ismeant by AL is quite
controversial and somehow vague. It is described differently by many scholars. Davies (2007)
brought a group of
descriptions of AL by some prominent figures: A mediation between theory and practice (Kaplan
and Widdowson 1992: 76); a synthesis of research from a variety of disciplines,including
linguistics (Hudson 1999); 'it presupposes linguistics ...one cannot apply what one does not
know' (Corder 1973: 7); it is'understood as an open field, in which those inhabiting or passing
through simply show a common commitment to the potential valueof dialogue with people who
are different' (Rampton 1997: 14).(p.1)In spite of a lot of dispute on what it is to be:Applied
Linguistics has grown quickly and is now flourishing, with academic positions, academic
departments, international journals,an international association (Davies & Elder, 2004, p.
9).AL`s regular publications are, to name a few, Applied Linguistics, the International Review of
Applied Linguistics, the Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, the International Journal of
Applied Linguistics. And, its international associations (Association Internationale de
Linguistique Appliquée [AILA], American Association for Applied
Linguistics (AAAL), British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL) and Applied Linguistics
Association of Australia (ALAA). However, through the above aspects, AL merits itself to be an
academic discipline.
To approach AL as an academic discipline, the present paper is organized into the following
sections:
1. Linguistics applied vs. applied linguistics,
2. The scope, problems and topic areas of AL,
3. Definitions of AL, Theories of AL,
4. AL way of approaching problems (language related ones) and
5. Conclusion.
1. Linguistics applied vs. applied linguistics
It is noteworthy to state that AL doesn't refer to the construct of linguistics applied. To solve
those problems, applied linguists turn to the discipline of linguistics to seek insight and potential
solutions. But, this doesn't mean that applied linguists` main task is to apply linguistic theories
which, in turn, the process is identified as linguistics applied (LA). Rather, AL is thought to be
problem-driven, not theory-driven discipline. AL`s area of inquiry is much more broader than
simply applying linguistic theories, approaches and models: it is a critical approach to those
theories, etc., in that AL`s recourse to linguistic sources is determined by the problem area it is
treating. That is to say, the problem applied linguists attended to decides what discipline to draw
on to find insights and possible solutions. In contrast to linguistics applied, AL draws on a
greater range of disciplines in its research and applying methods and theories from
psycholinguistics, sociology, education,measurement theory and so on (Davies, 2007).
Furthermore, what it is that AL more concerned about is data rather than theory, i.e. it is more
interested in analysis of new data rather than developing new theories.
This made Ellis (1994) to contrast to models of theory which reflects the variation between
linguistics applied and AL. The models are like theory then-research and research-then-theory:
the former referred to Linguistics applied and the latter to AL.
2. The Scope, problems and topic areas of AL
The range of purposes and problem areas were identified as sixteen topics as they illustrated by
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AAAL (2010). They are as follows:
? Analysis of discourse and interaction
? Assessment and evaluation
? Bilingual, immersion, heritage and language minority education
? Language and ideology
? Language and learner characteristics
? Language and technology
? Language cognition and brain research
? Language, culture, socialization and pragmatics
? Language maintenance and revitalization
? Language planning and policy
? Reading, writing and literacy
? Second and foreign language pedagogy
? Second language acquisition, language acquisition and attrition
? Sociolinguistics
? Text analysis (written discourse)
? Translation and interpretation
(Cited in Schmitt & Celce-Murcia, 2012, p. 1)
McCarthy (2001), in turn, proposed that the problems AL approaches are summarized as 14
real-world language-related problems (p. 1-2).One can conclude that a kind of congruence can
be seen between the topic areas proposed by AAAL and language problems by McCarthy.
The scope of AL is still remained somehow vague. However, Cook(2003) identified AL`s
areas of study in to three headings under which Specific subject areas have been identified:
1- Language and education: first-language education, additional language education, language
education, clinical linguistics and language testing.
2- Language, work, and law: workplace communication, language planning and forensic
linguistic.
3- Language, information, and effect: Literary stylistics, Critical discourse analysis, translation
and interpretation, information design and lexicography. (p. 7-8).
3. Definitions of AL :
Applied linguistics does not lend itself to an easy definition, perhaps because it means
many things to many people. Cook (2003) defined it as"the academic discipline concerned with
the relation of knowledge about language to decision making in the real world" (p. 5). Brumfit
(1997), in
turn, stated that AL is "the theoretical and empirical investigation of real world problems in
which language is a central issue" (p. 93). "'Applied Linguistics' is using what we know about (a)
language, (b) how it is learned, and (c) how it is used, in order to achieve some purpose or solve
some problem in the real world" (Schmitt & Celce-Murcia, 2002, p. 1).
Grabe (2002) described what AL is trying to do with the people who
involved in doing AL:The focus of applied linguistics is on trying to resolve language based
problems that people encounter in the real world, whether they be learners, teachers,
supervisors, academics, lawyers, service providers, those who need social services, test takers,
policy
developers, dictionary makers, translators, or a whole range of business clients (p. 9).
Richards and Schmidt (2010), in turn, defined it as:
First, the study of second and foreign language learning and teaching. Secondly, the study of
language and linguistics in relation to practical problems, such as lexicography, translation,
speech
pathology, etc. (p. 29).
In the light of the above definitions of the discipline, AL is a problem-driven discipline which
used to happen in the real world in which language is the state of affairs.
Theories in applied linguisticsThe diversity of approach marks out the domains of operation of
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applied linguistics. Richards and Schmidt (2010) stated:Applied linguistics uses information
from sociology, psychology,anthropology, and information theory as well as from linguistics in
order to develop its own theoretical models of language and language use, and then uses this
information and theory in practical areas such as syllabus design, speech therapy, language
planning,
stylistics, etc. (p. 29).
Applied linguists can hardly not be theoretical as in any problem situation certain
perspective, a set of beliefs or attitudes that inform the decision which is taken to resolve the
problem. Thus being theoretical and have a theoretical stance does not mean to be a conformist
and is not allegiance to theories. McCarthy (2001) confirms this point, he stated "the theoretical
life-blood of applied linguistics is not allegiance to theories but is more a commitment to a
discourse" (p. 7). Crystal (1981)
described this discourse as: the communication of varied positions among peers using a shared
language that enables us to find common ground with the positions taken by others already
reported and established" (p.10). Thus, McCarthy concludes the discussion like "Encountering
problems and adopting a convincing stance towards them is what defines applied linguistics as a
discipline" (p. 7). Finally, the positive characteristics of AL are 1) lack of unitary theory and clear
disciplinary
boundaries, 2) openness to outside influence, 3) "and the community of applied linguists has
characterized itself in the historiography of the discipline by variety and Catholicism of
theoretical orientation"(McCarthy, 2001, p. 4).
4. AL way of approaching problems (language related ones):
In one of the AL`s professional branches, that is of language teaching and learning, the way
applied linguistics deals with a certain problem has its methods and procedures. The problem
No. 2 of McCarthy`s (2001) 14 problems: the teacher is trying to understand why learners from
the same
language background are having difficulty with a particular structure in English. By recourse to
linguistics to address the problem, the may ask questions such as:
1- What is known about the learner`s first language which might be interfering with their
learning of the foreign language?'
2- What do researchers say about this structure?
3- What psychological barriers might be preventing the learning of the structure?
4- Are some structures of the foreign language difficult to learn?
According to McCarthy (2001), the teacher confronts the same basic questions:
Can linguistics offer an approach or a solution to the problem? If so, which branch (es) of
linguistic study, and by what method(s)? How reliable is the information offered by linguists?
How tenable
are their theories and models of the language? How willing and ready are linguists to contribute
to this kind of practical undertaking? (p. 8-9) Below is an example which is taken from my MA
thesis (Omar, 2012):
In an answer to one of the items of the questionnaire conducted in the study (item No. 14,
Appendix, p.101), which sought to have data from three different groups of subjects and
compare them to find out the problem, one of the Kurdish learners of English answered it like
this:
Q/ You are wearing a new watch. Your friend sees it and become excited' it is a nice watch, man,
where did you get it?
A/ He/she: thank you, take it.
Given the answers of the native speaker participants, the answer of Kurdish learner of
English does not correspond to native speakers reply to a compliment in that they never offer
the object to the person who complimented the object. On the other hand, the answer of the
Kurdish learners of English resembles the answer by Kurdish native speaker.
What answer could be obtained from analysis of the above reply by a non-native speaker of
English? Indeed, the above questions the teacher considers are brought into the fore, and one of
them might have an insight and a possible solution to the problem. This can be done through
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recourse to the levels of linguistics to find out which is most addresses the present problem. On
the other hand, to tackle the issue under enquiry might need to conduct and implement a
prescribed methodology, and the degree of its reliability of that method and its tool of data
collection are also points need to be considered. Thus, the AL way of approaching a language
problem goes through some phases in which the theory, method, data collection tool, data
analysis and the results are all liable to be scrutinized and tested. In case of involving of the
learners` first language, a few other questions raise such as does the learners` L1 interfere
positively or negatively? In case of positive transfer, the pattern or structure might be similar to
that of the foreign language and vice versa. Other questions might be does this a strategy by the
learner to enhance the learning process? Thus many questions emerge when approaching that
problem.
According to McCarthy (2001) the success of any applied enterprisedepends on:
1- Identifying and defining problems
2- Contextualizing those problems within linguistic study and developing a theoretical stance.
3- Harnessing appropriate resources for the exploration of possible solutions
4- Evaluating the proposed solutions. (p. 13)
As a result, How AL approaches language related problems is pretty methodological and framed.
Thus, one can posit that AL, as a discipline,has its own methods and approaches to deal with
language problems.
5. Conclusion:
All the above preliminary points and views on applied linguistics emphasize its multi-faceted
nature. However, given the positions in the above definitions, there is a consensus that AL is a
real-world language related problem-driven discipline with a theoretical stance. Practicing AL
needs to recourse to linguistics and a range of other disciplines such as psychology, sociology,
etc. to solve the problems. However, the theories, models and approaches in linguistics
discipline which inform the
decisions by applied linguist to find solutions are separate from those of the applied linguists`
positions, beliefs and attitudes of those problems. Thus, applied linguists have a critical view
towards real-world language –related problems. Finally, AL`s way of approaching those
problems goes
through procedures that of identifying the problem, contextualizing it into its specific linguistic
level, using suitable sources to solve those problems and evaluating the results.
References
Baynham, M. (2001) Applied linguistics: imagining the future. Applied Linguistics Association of
Australia Newsletter, new series 44, 26–8.
Brumfit, C. (1997). How applied linguistics is the same as any other science. International
Journal of Applied Linguistics, 7(1), pp. 86-94.
Cook, G. (2003). Applied linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Crystal, D. (1981). Directions in applied Linguistics. London: Academic Press.
Davies, A. (2007). An introduction to applied linguistics: from practice to theory, (2nd edit.).
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Davies, A & Elder, C. (2004). General introduction, Applied Linguistics: subject to discipline. In A.
Davies and C. Elder (eds.), The handbook of applied linguistics, pp. 1-15. London: Blackwell
Publishing Ltd.
Ellis, R. (1994). The Study of Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Grabe, W. (2002). Applied linguistics: an emerging discipline for the twenty-first century. In R. B.
Kaplan (ed.) The Oxford handbook of applied linguistics, (pp. 3-12). Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
McCarthy, M. (2001). Issues in applied linguistics. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Omar, J. A. (2012). Cross-linguistic influence on second language acquisition/learning for
Kurdish learners of English: a case study. Unpublished MA thesis, Beirut Arab University, Beirut,
Lebanon.
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Richards, J. C. & Schmidt, R. (2010). Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied
Linguistics (4th Ed.). Great Britain: PearsonEducation Limited.
Schmitt, N. & Celce-Murcia, M. (2002). An overview of applied linguistics. In N. Schmitt (ed.), An
introduction to applied linguistics (pp. 1-16). London: Arnold.
Schmitt, N. & Celce-Murcia, M. (2012). An overview of applied linguistics. In N. Schmitt (ed.), An
introduction to applied linguistics (2nd edit.) (pp. 1-16).
Great Britain: Hodder and Stoughton Ltd.
APPLIED LINGUISTICS: 4
What is Applied Linguistics (hand out 1)
by Taoufik El-Ayachi
October 28, 2014
Applied linguistics is notoriously hard to define. What sets it apart from other areas of
linguistics? How has it evolved over the years? What do applied linguists do?
We asked ten leading and up-and-coming academics to give us their answer to the question:
'What is applied linguistics?' Below are their responses. Take a look at them and then add to the
debate by sending us your definition.
Of course, several commentators have offered definitions of applied linguistics in recent
decades, including Crystal (1980: 20), Richards et al, (1985: 29), Brumfit (1995: 27) and
Rampton (1997: 11). For me, applied linguistics means taking language and language theories as
the basis from which to elucidate how communication is actually carried out in real life, to
identify problematic or challenging issues involving language in many different contexts, and to
analyse them in order to draw out
practical insights and implications that are useful for the people in those contexts. As an applied
linguist, I'm primarily interested in offering people practical and illuminating insights into how
language and communication contribute fundamentally to interaction between people.
Anne Burns, Professor in the Faculty of Human Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney A wit
once described an applied linguist as someone with a degree in linguistics who was unable to get
a job in a linguistics department.
More seriously, looking back at the term 'applied linguistics', it first emerged as an attempt to
provide a theoretical basis for the activities of language teaching (witness Pit Corder' s book on
the subject from 1973). Later, it became an umbrella term for a variety of disciplines which focus
on language issues in such fields as law, speech pathology, language planning, and forensic
science. In the meantime,language teaching has evolved its own theoretical foundations, and
these include second language acquisition, teacher cognition, pedagogical grammar, and so on,
and there is a declining interest in viewing 'applied linguistics' as having any relevance to
language teaching. Some years ago, many graduate programs in language teaching were labelled
as programs in applied linguistics. Today they are generally called programs in TESOL. Many
specialists in language teaching, such as myself, don't call themselves 'applied linguists'. We are
what we are – specialists in language teaching, and we don't see that adding the label 'applied
linguistics' to our field adds any further understanding to what we do.
Where those in other disciplines find the label 'applied linguistics' of use to them, is of
course, something they need to decide for themselves. Jack C. Richards Professor and part-time
lecturer at the Regional Language Centre, Singapore Applied linguistics is any attempt to work
with language in a critical and reflective way, with some ultimate practical goal in mind. This
includes (amongst other things): deliberately trying to learn (or teach) a foreign language or to
develop your ability in your native language; overcoming a language impairment; translating
from one language to another; editing a piece of writing in a linguistically thoughtful way. It also
includes doing any research or developing any ideas or tools which aim to help people do these
sorts of things.Phil Durrant Visiting Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Education, Bilkent
University'Applied linguistics' (AL) is one of several academic disciplines focusing on how
language is acquired and used in the modern world. It is a somewhat eclectic field that
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accommodates diverse theoretical approaches, and its interdisciplinary scope includes linguistic,
psychological and educational topics. Although the field' s original focus was the study of
foreign/second languages, this has been extended to cover first language issues, and nowadays
many scholars would consider sociolinguistics and pragmatics to be part of the AL rubric.
Recently, AL conferences and journals have reflected the growing influence of psychology-based
approaches, which in turn is a reflection of the increasing prevalence of cognitive (neuro)science
in the study of human mental functions.
Zoltán Dörnyei Professor of Psycholinguistics, University of NottinghamIn my discipline (I am
a Germanist), applied linguistics is perceived almost exclusively as research into the teaching
and learning of the foreign-language, often resulting in the production of teaching materials.
However, a broader definition (e.g. Dick Hudson – see references and below) sees applied
linguistics as concerned with providing theoretical and empirical foundations for investigating
and solving language-related problems in the 'real world'. This definition would be relevant to
some of my research interests; for example, the problems facing speakers of non-standard
dialects at schools in Germany. Nevertheless, I tend to regard myself as a sociolinguist rather
than an applied linguist, because my main interests are in investigating the use of language as a
social practice in a more general way. As is the case for most sociolinguists, I study language in
use in a social context although I may not have specific real-life problems in mind when
embarking on research. Wini Davies Reader in German, Aberystwyth University Applied
linguistics (AL) provides the theoretical and descriptive foundations for the investigation and
solution of language-related problems, especially those of language education (first-language,
second-language and foreign language teaching and learning), but also problems of translation
and interpretation, lexicography, forensic linguistics and (perhaps) clinical linguistics...The main
distinguishing characteristic of AL is its concern with professional activities whose aim is to
solve 'real-world' language-based problems, which means that research touches on a
particularly wide range of issues - psychological, pedagogical, social, political and economic as
well as linguistic. As a consequence, AL research tends to be interdisciplinary.
It is generally agreed that in spite of its name AL is not simply the 'application' of research
done in linguistics. On the one hand, AL has to look beyond linguistics for relevant research and
theory, so AL research often involves the synthesis of research from a variety of disciplines,
including linguistics. On the other hand, AL has been responsible for the development of original
research in a number of areas of linguistics - e.g. bilingualism, literacy, genre.
Beyond this agreement, there is at least as much disagreement within AL as within
linguistics about fundamental issues of theory and method, which leads (among other things) to
differences of opinion about the relationships between the two disciplines. Richard Hudson
Emeritus Professor of Linguistics, University College London One way I can answer this broad
question is by considering the Applied Linguistic issues that currently interest me, namely how
languages interact and what differences we might expect when the languages concerned are not
related to each other. For example, the Hong Kong language policy seeks to develop people who
are trilingual in Cantonese, Putonghua and English. What specific linguistic difficulties will such
learners face and how can we help them overcome them? What does it mean to be multilingual?
Can we describe a multilingual model from which we could derive useful linguistic benchmarks
for the language classroom?
Andy Kirkpatrick Professor, Hong Kong Institute of Education Applied linguistics is a
broadly interdisciplinary field concerned with promoting our understanding of the role language
plays in human life. At its centre are theoretical and empiricalinvestigations of real-world issues
in which language plays a leading role. Applied linguistics focuses on the relationship between
theory and practice, using the insights gained from the theory-practice interface for solving
language-related problems in a principled way.
Applied linguistics is not 'linguistics applied', because it deals with many more issues than
purely linguistic ones, and because disciplines such as psychology, sociology, ethnography,
anthropology, educational research, communication and media studies also inform applied
linguistic research. The result is a broad spectrum of themes in applied linguistics such as first,
second and foreign language learning and teaching, bilingualism and multilingualism, discourse
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analysis, translation and interpreting, language policy and language planning, research
methodology, language testing, stylistics, literature, rhetoric, literacy and other areas in which
language-related decisions need to be taken.
Juliane House Professor of Foreign Language Teaching, Universität Hamburg One answer to
this question is that it is the study of language in order to address real-world concerns. Another
is that it is the study of language, and language-related topics, in specified situations. The realworld concerns include language learning and teaching but also other issues such as
professional communication, literacies, translation practices, language and legal or health issues,
and many more. Applied linguistics is practically-oriented, but it is also theory driven and
interdisciplinary. Models of how languages are learned and stored, for example, are 'applied
linguistics', as are descriptions of individual language varieties that prioritise actual and
contextualised language use.
Susan Hunston Head of Department of English, University of Birmingham
Applied linguistics is a discipline which explores the relations between theory and practice in
language with particular reference to issues of language use. It embraces contexts in which
people use and learn languages and is a platform for systematically addressing problems
involving the use of language and communication in realworld situations. Applied linguistics
draws on a range of disciplines,including linguistics. In consequence, applied linguistics has
applications in several areas of language study, including language learning and teaching, the
psychology of language processing,
discourse analysis, stylistics, corpus analysis, literacy studies and language planning and
policies.
Dawn Knight Research Associate, University of Nottingham
APPLIED LINGUISTICS: 5
Behaviorism
by Taoufik El-Ayachi
November 5, 2014
BEHAVIORISM THEORY OVERVIEW:
Behaviorism is more concerned with behavior than with thinking, feeling, or knowing. It
focuses on the objective and observable components of behavior. The behaviorist
theories all share some version of stimulus-response mechanisms for learning.
Behaviorism originated with the work of John B. Watson, an American psychologist.
Watson held the view that psychology should only concern itself with the study of
behavior, and he was not concerned with the mind or with human consciousness. He
considered it paramount that men could be studied objectively, like rats and apes.
Watson's work was based on the experiments of Ivan Pavlov, and classical
conditioning.
Nowadays, behaviorism is associated with the name of B.F. Skinner, who made his
reputation by testing Watson's theories in the laboratory. Skinner ultimately rejected
Watson's almost exclusive emphasis on reflexes and conditioning. Skinner believed that
people respond to their environment, but they also operate on the environment to
produce certain consequences. Thus they participate in a feedback loop as an important
part of a larger system.
Skinner developed the theory of "operant conditioning," the idea that we behave the way
we do because this kind of behavior has had certain consequences in the past.
PRESUPPOSITIONS OF BEHAVIORISM:
1. Behaviorism is naturalistic. This means that the material world is the ultimate reality,
and everything can be explained in terms of natural laws. Man has no soul and no mind,
only a brain that responds to external stimuli.
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2. A central tenet of behaviorism is that thoughts, feelings, intentions, and mental
processes, do not determine what we do. Behaviorism views behavior as the product of
conditioning. Humans are biological machines and do not consciously act; rather they
react to stimuli.
3. Consistently, behaviorism teaches that we are not responsible for our actions. If we
are mere machines, without minds or souls, reacting to stimuli and operating on our
environment to attain certain ends, then anything we do is inevitable.
4. Behaviorism is manipulative. It seeks not merely to understand human behavior, but
to predict and control it. From his theories, Skinner developed the idea of "shaping." By
controlling rewards and punishments, you can shape the behavior of another person.
Other significant behaviorist researchers were Guthrie and Thorndike.
EARLY BEHAVIORISM IN RETROSPECT:
Behaviorist theories ultimately have been relegated to mere historical significance as
early attempts to explain learning, but are generally regarded as failures not so much
because the stimulus-response ideas are inaccurate, but more because they are
insufficient. They could be used to explain some behavior, but their generality was
extremely limited. Other kinds of explanations were needed.
SKINNERIAN BEHAVIORISM IN RETROSPECT:
Skinner stands out in the history of psychology as a great system-builder. Probably his
greatest contribution was his description of effects of reinforcement on responses. He
related these findings to individuals as well as social groups.
BEHAVIORIST APPROACH:
Behaviorism (also called the behaviorist approach) was the primary paradigm in
psychology between 1920s to 1950 and is based on a number of underlying assumptions
regarding methodology and behavioral analysis:
* Psychology should be seen as a science. Theories need to be supported by empirical
data obtained through careful and controlled observation and measurement of behavior.
Watson (1913) stated that "psychology as a behaviorist views it is a purely objective
experimental branch of natural science. Its theoretical goal is ... prediction and control"
(p. 158).
* Behaviorism is primarily concerned with observable behavior, as opposed to internal
events like thinking and emotion. Observable (i.e. external) behavior can be objectively
and scientifically measured. Internal events, such as thinking should be explained
through behavioral terms (or eliminated altogether).
* People have no free will – a person's environment determines their behavior
* When born our mind is 'tabula rasa' (a blank slate).
* There is little difference between the learning that takes place in humans and that in
other animals. Therefore research can be carried out on animals as well as humans.
* Behavior is the result of stimulus – response (i.e. all behavior, no matter how complex,
can be reduced to a simple stimulus – response association). Watson described the
purpose of psychology as: "To predict, given the stimulus, what reaction will take place;
or, given the reaction, state what the situation or stimulus is that has caused the
reaction" (1930, p. 11).
* All behavior is learnt from the environment. We learn new behavior through classical
or operant conditioning.
VARIETIES OF BEHAVIORISM:
Historically, the most significant distinction among versions of behaviorism is that
between Watson's original classical behaviorism, and forms of behaviorism later
inspired by his work, known collectively as neo-behaviorism.
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In his book, Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It Watson (1913, p. 158) outlines the
principles of all behaviorists:
Psychology as the behaviorist views it is a purely objective experimental branch of
natural science. Its theoretical goal is the prediction and control of behavior.
Introspection forms no essential part of its methods, nor is the scientific value of its data
dependent upon the readiness with which they lend themselves to interpretation in
terms of consciousness. The behaviorist, in his efforts to get a unitary scheme of animal
response, recognizes no dividing line between man and brute. The behavior of man, with
all of its refinement and complexity, forms only a part of the behaviorist's total scheme
of investigation.
THE HISTORY OF BEHAVIORISM:
* Pavlov (1897) published the results of an experiment on conditioning after originally
studying digestion in dogs.
* Watson (1913) launches the behavioral school of psychology (classical conditioning),
publishing an article, "Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It".
* Watson and Rayner (1920) conditioned an orphan called Albert B (aka Little Albert) to
fear a white rat.
* Thorndike (1905) formalized the "Law of Effect".
* Skinner (1936) wrote "The Behavior of Organisms" and introduced the concepts of
operant conditioning and shaping.
* Clark Hull's (1943) Principles of Behavior was published.
* B.F. Skinner (1948) published Walden Two in which he described a utopian society
founded upon behaviorist principles.
* Bandura (1963) publishes a book called the "Social Leaning Theory and Personality
development" which combines both cognitive and behavioral frameworks.
* Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (begun in 1958).
* B.F. Skinner (1971) public shed his book Beyond Freedom and Dignity, where he
argues that free will is an illusion.
APPLIED LINGUISTICS: 6:
Critical Evaluation of Behaviorism
by Taoufik El-Ayachi
November 5, 2014
Critical Evaluation
An obvious advantage of behaviorism is its ability to clearly define behavior and to measure
changes in behavior. According to the law of parsimony, the fewer assumptions a theory makes,
the better and the more credible it is. Behaviorism, therefore, looks for simple explanations of
human behavior from a very scientific standpoint.
However, Humanism (e.g. Carl Rogers) rejects the scientific method of using experiments to
measure and control variables because it creates an artificial environment and has low
ecological validity.
Humanistic psychology also assumes that humans have free will (personal agency) to make
their own decisions in life and do not follow the deterministic laws of science.
Humanism also rejects the nomothetic approach of behaviorism as they view humans as being
unique and believe humans cannot be compared with animals (who aren't susceptible to
demand characteristics). This is known as an idiographic approach.
The psychodynamic approach (Freud) criticizes behaviorism as it does not take into account the
unconscious mind's influence on behavior, and instead focuses on external observable behavior.
Freud also rejects that idea that people are born a blank slate (tabula rasa) and states that
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people are born with instincts (e.g. eros and than atos).
Biological psychology states that all behavior has a physical / organic cause. They emphasise
the role of nature over nurture. For example, chromosomes and hormones (testosterone)
influence our behavior too, in addition to the environment.
Cognitive psychology states that mediational processes occur between stimulus and
response, such as memory, thinking, problem solving etc.
Despite these criticisms behaviorism has made significant contributions to psychology. These
include insights into learning, language development, and moral and gender development, which
have all been explained in terms of conditioning.
The contribution of behaviorism can be seen in some of its practical applications. Behavior
therapy and behavior modification represent one of the major approaches to the treatment of
abnormal behavior and are readily used in clinical psychology .
APPLIED LINGUISTICS: 7:
Audio-Lingual Method and Behaviorism (F.B.Skinner)
by Taoufik El-Ayachi
November 21, 2014
Definition of Audio-Lingual Method
The audio-lingual method was developed in the United States during World War II. At that
time there was a need for people to learn foreign language rapidly for military purposes.
Communication in the target language was the goal of the Direct Method, there were at the time
exiting new ideas about language and learning emanating from the disciplines of descriptive
linguistic and behavioral psychology.
This approach to language learning was similar to another, earlier method called the direct
method. Like the direct method, the audio-lingual method advised that students be taught a
language directly, without using the student's native language to explain new words or grammar
in the target language. However, unlike the direct method, the audio-lingual method did not
focus on teaching vocabulary. Rather, the teacher drilled students in the use of grammar.
The Behaviorism Theory (B. F. Skinner)
Language is a fundamental part of total human behavior, and behavioral psychologists
examine it as such and sought to formulate consistent theories of first language acquisition. The
behavioral approach focused on the immediately perceptible aspects of linguistic behavior – the
publicly observable responses – and the relationships or associations between those responses
and events in the world surrounding them.
The Relationship between Audio-Lingual Method with Behaviorism Theory (B. F. Skinner)
A behaviorist might consider effective language behavior to be production of correct
responses to stimuli. If a particular response is reinforced, it then becomes habitual, or
conditioned. Thus children produce linguistic responses that are recognized. Skinner's theory of
verbal behavior was an extension of his general theory of learning by operant conditioning.
Operant conditioning refers to conditioning in which the organism (in this case, a human being)
emits a response, or operant (a sentence or utterance), without necessarily observable stimuli;
that operant is maintained (learned) by reinforcement (for example, a positive verbal and nonverbal response from another person).
The audio-lingual method is a style of teaching used in teaching foreign languages. It is based
on behaviorist theory, which professes that certain traits of living things, could be trained
through a system reinforcement – correct used a trait would receive positive feedback while
incorrect use of that trait would receive negative feedback.
In short, verbal behavior (like drill techniques in the audio-lingual method) is controlled by
its consequences. When the consequences are rewarding, it is maintained and is increased in
strength and might frequency. For example, by drilling techniques they always repeat the
expression of wishes. So, using audio-lingual method in the language classroom will make
students easier to remember the material.
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APPLIED LINGUISTICS: 8:
LANGUAGE ACQUISITION (1) : PIAGET STAGES OF DEVELO
by Taoufik El-Ayachi
December 1, 2014
The Piaget stages of development is a blueprint that describes the stages of normal
intellectual development, from infancy through adulthood. This includes thought, judgment, and
knowledge. The stages were named after psychologist and developmental biologist Jean Piaget,
who recorded the intellectual development and abilities of infants, children, and teens.
Piaget's four stages of intellectual (or cognitive) development are:
• Sensorimotor. Birth through ages 18-24 months
• Preoperational. Toddlerhood (18-24 months) through early childhood (age 7)
• Concrete operational. Ages 7 to 12
• Formal operational. Adolescence through adulthood
Piaget acknowledged that some children may pass through the stages at different ages than
the averages noted above and that some children may show characteristics of more than one
stage at a given time. But he insisted that cognitive development always follows this sequence,
that stages cannot be skipped, and that each stage is marked by new intellectual abilities and a
more complex understanding of the world.
SENSORIMOTOR STAGE:
During the early stages, infants are only aware of what is immediately in front of them. They
focus on what they see, what they are doing, and physical interactions with their immediate
environment. Because they don't yet know how things react, they're constantly experimenting
with activities such as shaking or throwing things, putting things in their mouths, and learning
about the world through trial and error. The later stages include goal-oriented behavior which
brings about a desired result.
Between ages 7 and 9 months, infants begin to realize that an object exists even if it can no
longer be seen. This important milestone -- known as object permanence -- is a sign that
memory is developing.
After infants start crawling, standing, and walking, their increased physical mobility leads to
increased cognitive development. Near the end of the sensorimotor stage, infants reach another
important milestone -- early language development, a sign that they are developing some
symbolic abilities.
PREOPERATIONAL STAGE:
During this stage, young children are able to think about things symbolically. Their language
use becomes more mature. They also develop memory and imagination, which allows them to
understand the difference between past and future, and engage in make-believe.
But their thinking is based on intuition and still not completely logical. They cannot yet grasp
more complex concepts such as cause and effect, time, and comparison.
CONCRETE OPERATIONAL STAGE:
At this time, elementary-age and preadolescent children -- ages 7 to 11 -- demonstrate logical,
concrete reasoning. Children's thinking becomes less egocentric and they are increasingly aware
of external events. They begin to realize that one's own thoughts and feelings are unique and
may not be shared by others or may not even be part of reality.
During this stage, however, most children still can't think abstractly or hypothetically.
FORMAL OPERATIONAL STAGE:
Adolescents who reach this fourth stage of intellectual development -- usually at age 11-plus 14
- are able to logically use symbols related to abstract concepts, such as algebra and science. They
can think about multiple variables in systematic ways, formulate hypotheses, and consider
possibilities. They also can ponder abstract relationships and concepts such as justice.
Although Piaget believed in lifelong intellectual development, he insisted that the formal
operational stage is the final stage of cognitive development, and that continued intellectual
development in adults depends on the accumulation of knowledge.
APPLIED LINGUISTICS: 9:
FLA DEVELOPMENT : NATURE VS. NURTURE
by Taoufik El-Ayachi
December 1, 2014
First Language Acquisition Development Theories: Nature vs. Nurture
How do children learn to speak? Behavioural theory assumes that children imitate what they
hear, and thanks to continuous, positive reinforcement, children learn language through
conditioning and habit formation. Behaviourist theorists such as Skinner also claim that all
errors during first language acquisition are due to 'bad habit formation,' which, in due course,
children correct as they hear and imitate accurate speech. In contrast to behaviourists,
'nativists,' like Chomsky, believe that human beings are born with an innate capacity for
language development.
Deliberations continue between linguists regarding the importance of 'nature' over 'nurture'
in acquisition of language.
Language Acquisition as a Result of Nurture:
Behaviourists propose that a child's environment is the most important factor in first
language acquisition, and if a child is exposed to 'rich language,' then 'good habit formation,' and
proper language development will occur. It is possible that first language acquisition includes
speech imitation, but:
• Children do not imitate everything they hear; they appear to be very selective and only
reproduce unassimilated language chunks. Therefore, their replications seem to be controlled by
an internal language-monitoring process.
• Children learn the basic rules of language at around the age of five; the behaviourist theory
cannot account for the speed that first language is acquired.
• Children say things that are not adult imitations; in particular they use inflectional
overgeneralisations such as 'goed,' 'putted,' 'mouses,' and 'sheeps.'
• Children produce language structures that do not exist; you often hear, "Where I am?" instead
of "Where am I?"
• Children that acquire language from habit formation seem to memorize certain structures
prematurely. These phrases become lodged in their minds as unassimilated chunks of
information that they cannot incorporate into their own verbal expressions.
• Children produce many more sound-combinations than they hear, and understand many
more than they can produce.
• Children are exposed to language performance and not to language competence. Often they
are exposed to "debilitated" language, yet, they manage to extract the language rules from these
utterances and speak correctly.
We are Wired to Acquire Language
"When we study human language, we are approaching what some might call the 'human
essence,' the distinctive qualities of mind that are, so far as we know, unique to man." (Noam
Chomsky)
Unlike the behaviourist approach that does not take into consideration the child's own cognitive
processes, the 'Innateness Hypothesis' proposed by linguist Noam Chomsky supports the idea
15
that language acquisition has a biological foundation. Facts that support this theory include the
following:
• Children acquire language sounds in a certain sequence, and the first sounds that children
learn are those that are common to all world languages: a stop consonant followed by an open
vowel: thus a child's first utterances are usually those found in words for 'mother' and 'father,'
sounds such as 'pa,' 'ma,' 'ba' or 'ta,' as seen in French: maman, papa; Greek: mama, baba;
Hebrew: eema, aba.
• Children tend to learn language in the same sequence, suggesting that universality of language
exists and the environment alone cannot be responsible for language acquisition.
• Children acquire function words such as 'or' and 'on' and the less salient sounds connected to
possessives, pluralisation and third person singular in a certain order. Interestingly, the plural 's'
and other forms of 's' are not all developed in unison.
Language Development: An Innate Neurological Process:
For language development to occur, interaction has to take place; language cannot be
acquired passively. Although imitation and habit forming do have a role in language acquisition,
children seem predisposed to acquire speech and competency in language by being able to map
language, possibly onto what Noam Chomsky calls a 'language acquisition device.'
Further Reading:
-Chomsky, N. Knowledge of Language: Its Nature, Origin, and Use. (1986). Praeger.
-Chomsky, N. Language and Mind. Third edition. (2006). Cambridge University Press.
-Skinner, B. F. Verbal Behavior. (2009). Copley Publishing Group.
-IASCL. Trends in Language Acquisition. Accessed December 7, 2011.
-Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Language Acquisition and Language
Processing Lab. Accessed December 7, 2011.
-Cornell University. Virtual Center for the Study of Language Acquisition. Accessed December
7, 2011.
APPLIED LINGUISTICS: 10:
ENGLISH WRITING
by Taoufik El-Ayachi
December 11, 2014
Dear all:
Since you will have to write a short paragraph on a topic at the final exam, I thought it would be
useful to send you some tips about Academic Writing.
Some Academic Writing Tips:
Use straightforward language.
Take care with grammar and sentence construction. Avoid using a note-style of writing.
Try not to use pompous language.
For example: use "find out" rather than "endeavour to ascertain". Try not to use jargon or clichés
Provide definitions.
Include explanations of technical or unusual terms, unless you can reasonably expect your
reader to know them.
Use impersonal language.
Essays and reports should be written in the third person singular. Avoid personal terms such as
'I' or 'We'; the word 'It' should be used instead:
For example:
"I decided to interview the Tourism Planning Officer..." should read
"It was decided to interview the Tourism Planning Officer..."
The only exceptions to this may be where you are asked to link theory to your own professional
16
practice.
Be precise.
Avoid using terms such as 'nice', 'good' or 'excellent' that lack a precise meaning One person's
idea of what is meant by 'good' is not necessarily another's.
Be concise and to the point.
For example: Use 'now' or 'currently' instead of phrases like 'at the time of writing' or 'at this
point in time'.
Try not to make generalizations.
For example: "Everyone agrees that cold calling does not produce results".
While this may be true you can only make such statements if supported with evidence. Instead
you should write:
"According to the Mori Report (2000), cold calling does not produce results."
Use cautious language.
This means that statements cannot easily be challenged:
"Cold calling may not produce results."
Use appropriate verb tenses.
Reports often use the present tense in the introduction and the past tense when discussing
findings.
Introduction: "This report examines..."
Findings: "Results showed that..."
Be careful when using acronyms.
The use of acronyms is allowed if you also write the words out in full the first time you write the
letters.
For example: curriculum vitae (C.V.)
Ensure you are linking points together
When using a lead sentence make sure that the points that follow on link to this:
Incorrect example:
This style of CV creates the opportunity to:
Can highlight skills and achievements
Identifies personal attributes.
Correct example:
This style of CV creates the opportunity to:
highlight skills and achievements
identify personal attributes.
Other writing pitfalls to avoid
Do not address the reader directly or use questions
For example: "Does this mean that some strategies are better than others?"
Be careful not to use redundant phrases.
For example: 'various differences'.
Various implies different so you do not need both words.
Do not start sentences with linking words.
Such as: but, and, or yet.
Avoid using contractions.
For example:
'they're' for 'they are'.
'etc' and 'ie' should also be avoided.
Avoid making negative statements.
For example:
"Calling firms directly should not be discouraged." This can hide the meaning. Instead write
positive statements.
"Calling firms directly should be encouraged."
Try to avoid making sentences overlong and complicated.
Wordiness and padding can hide meaning.
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- See more at: http://www.learnenglish.de/writing/essaystructure. html#
sthash.rCoQK1Gg.dpuf.
APPLIED LINGUISTICS: 11:
CONTRASTIVE LINGUISTICS & CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS
by Taoufik El-Ayachi
December 19, 2014
CONTRASTIVE LINGUISTICS AND CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS HYPOTHESIS:
1. INTRODUCTION
English has undoubtedly become today's global lingua franca. Apart from the 350-450 million of
native speakers of English there are also about 800 million of people who speak it as a foreign
language (James, 1998: 25). This suggests that most of the interaction in English takes place
among its non-native speakers (Seidlhofer 2005). English as a lingua franca (ELF) therefore
serves as "a contact language between persons who share neither a common native tongue nor a
common (national) culture, and for whom English is the chosen foreign language of
communication" (Firth 1996: 240 cited in Seidlhofer 2005: 339). Other terms used for this
phenomenon are 'English as an international language', English as a global language' and
'English as a world language', but as Seidlhofer argues, the preferred term when referring to
people from different mother-tongue and cultural backgrounds is 'English as a lingua franca'
(Seidlhofer 2005: 339). Seidlhofer (2005: 339) also claims that current English is being shaped
by both its native and non-native speakers, the fact which is quite paradoxical and calls for
further study of ELF. And this is exactly what led me to the idea of analysing non-native
speakers' English, i.e. English as a lingua franca. In my thesis I will provide a theoretical
background for an analysis of ELF or 'English as a second/foreign language' (ESL/EFL) on the
level of lexis and grammar, with attention to learners' errors influenced by their mother tongue
(MT). I will supply some of the types of errors with examples from my own collected data,
demonstrating that MT transfer is a frequent, but not the only source of errors in ESL/EFL. I will
not take into account examples on the level of phonology, although I know that it is the level on
which the MT transfer is most apparent.
2. CONTRASTIVE LINGUISTICS AND CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS HYPOTHESIS: In this chapter I
will give a short overview of how the Contrastive Analysis movement was formed, discuss the
related terminology and then follow the development of the Contrastive Analysis hypothesis
through the three versions until it was displaced by other theories.
2.1 History
Contrastive Analysis has been the first major theory dealing with the relationship between the
languages a learner acquires or masters. Linguists have always been interested in comparing
and contrasting different language systems and first pioneering works appeared at the end of
the nineteenth century (James1981).
The term 'Contrastive Study' was coined by Whorf in 1941; before that this discipline had been
called 'Comparative Linguistics' or 'Comparative Studies' (Fisiak 1981). After the Second
World War the interest in teaching foreign languages increased in the USA and many linguists
were concerned with pedagogically oriented contrastive studies, especially in trying to predict
learning difficulties on the basis of comparing the native language with the foreign language
being learnt, and also with the study of bilingualism and language contact phenomena. It was
believed that pointing to the similarities of the two languages compared will make the process of
foreign language learning easier for the learner. Robert Lado's formulation of the 'Contrastive
Analysis Hypothesis' in his Linguistics across Cultures (1957) is considered the greatest
contribution in the field of contrastive studies (Fisiak 1981, James 1981 and Krzeszowski 1990).
18
2.2 Definitions and Terminology:
Fisiak defines contrastive linguistics as "a subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the
comparison of two or more languages or subsystems of languages in order to determine both the
differences and similarities between them" (Fisiak et al. 1978 cited in Fisiak 1981: 1). As
Krzeszovski explains (1990: 11), there is, unfortunately, not much consistency in the
terminology related to contrastive linguistics. However, the terms 'contrastive linguistics' and'
contrastive studies' are most often used. The term 'contrastive linguistics' is usually used to
refer to the whole field of cross-language comparison, slightly focusing on the instances related
to the theory or methodology of comparisons. Another term, 'contrastive analysis', can be used
interchangeably with the above mentioned terms, but linguists tend to use it to refer to the
comparison proper. And finally, 'contrastive grammar' refers to "the product of contrastive
studies, as a bilingual grammar highlighting the differences across languages" (Krzeszowski
1990: 11). 2.3 Division of Contrastive Studies Fisiak (1981: 2-3) divides contrastive studies into
theoretical and applied: "Theoretical contrastive studies give an exhaustive account of the
differences and similarities between two or more languages, provide an adequate model for the
comparison, and determine how and which elements are comparable ..." They are language
independent, which means that they do not investigate how a particular category or item
present in language A is presented in language B, but "they look for the realization of an
universal category X in both A and B" (Fisiak 1981: 2). Applied contrastive studies belong to
applied linguistics. Fisiak (1981: 2-3) explains that "drawing on the findings of theoretical
contrastive studies they provide a framework for the comparison of languages, selecting
whatever information is necessary for a specific purpose ..." The main focus of applied
contrastive studies is "the problem of how a universal category X, realized in language A as Y, is
rendered in language B, and what may be the possible consequence on this for a field of
application" (Fisiak 1981: 2-3). They are also concerned with "the identification of probable
areas of difficulty in another language where, for example, a given category is not represented in
the surface and interference is likely to occur" (Fisiak, 1981: 3). So they are rather interested in
the surface representation of language. Being a part of applied linguistics, applied contrastive
studies depend on several other disciplines, including theoretical, descriptive and comparative
linguistics, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, didactics and psychology of learning and teaching
(Krzeszowski 1990). 2.4 Formulating Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis The Contrastive Analysis
Hypothesis (CAH) was widely accepted in the 1950s and 1960s USA and its original purpose was
purely pedagogical. The teaching method which used the CAH as its theory of learning was the
audiolingual method. Based on behaviorist and structuralist theories, the basic assumption for
this hypothesis was that "the principal barrier to second language acquisition is the interference
of the first language system with the second language system ..." and "... that second language
learning basically involved the overcoming of the differences between the two linguistic systems
– the native and target languages" (Brown 1980: 148). The term 'interference' here refers to
"any influence from the L1 which would have an effect on the acquisition of L2" (Powell, 1998:
2). I will further discuss the term 'interference' in chapter 3.4.
The assumptions about L1 interference were supported by the evidence from speakers'
performance in their second language. As Brown states, "it is quite common, for example, to
detect certain foreign accents and to be able to infer, from the speech of the learner alone, where
the learner comes from" (1980: 149). Lado's practical findings were based on his own
experience and family background. Being an immigrant to the USA and a native speaker of
Spanish, he observed what difficulties his Spanish-speaking parents had with learning English
and how interference was evident in their speech. In the preface to Linguistics across Cultures,
Robert Lado explains: The plan of this book rests on the assumption that we can predict and
describe the patterns that will cause difficulty in learning, and those that will not cause difficulty,
by comparing systematically the language and the culture to be learned with the native language
and culture of the student. (Lado 1957: vii cited in Brown 1980: 149) Later in the same book he
claims that the student who comes in contact with a foreign language will find some features of
19
it quite easy and others extremely difficult. Those elements that are similar to his native
language will be simple for him, and those elements that are different will be difficult. The
teacher who has made a comparison of a foreign language with the native language of the
student will know better what the real learning problems are and can better provide for
teaching them. (Lado 1957: 2 cited in Fisiak 1981:4) This formulation of the Contrastive Analysis
Hypothesis was later called by Ronald Wardhaugh 'the strong version' of the Contrastive
Analysis Hypothesis (Brown 1980: 157). Another linguist supporting the strong version of the
CAH was Fries. In his opinion, "the most effective [teaching] materials are those that are based
upon a scientific description of the language to be learned, carefully compared with parallel
description of the native language of the learner" (Fries 1945: 9 cited in Powell 1998: 1).
Although the practical process of contrasting languages is not the aim of this paper, I am going to
give a brief outline of the procedure used, as Ellis (1994: 307) mentions it. The procedure
involved four stages: 1. Description (i.e. the two languages were formally described) 2. Selection
(i.e. certain items or areas were selected for comparison) 3. Comparison (i.e. finding similar and
different items) 4. Prediction (i.e. in which areas the errors will most probably occur)
Wardhaugh believed that the strong version was "unrealistic and impracticable", since "at the
very least, this version demands of linguists that they have available a set of linguistic universals
formulated within a comprehensive linguistic theory which deals adequately with syntax,
semantics, and phonology" (Wardhaugh 1970: 125 cited in Brown 1980: 157).
2.5 Moderating Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis As a reaction to the criticism of the strong
version of the CAH, Wardhaugh offered a 'weak version'. The weak version does not imply the a
priori prediction of certain fine degrees of difficulty. It recognizes the significance of interference
across languages, the fact that such interference does exist and can explain difficulties, but it also
recognizes that linguistic difficulties can be more profitably explained a posteriori – after the fact
(Brown 1980: 157). Thus it has rather explanatory power, helping the teachers of foreign
languages understand their students' sources of errors. In the 1970s, Oller and Ziahosseiny
proposed a compromise between the two versions of the CAH and called it a 'moderate version'.
Their theory was based on their research of spelling errors in learners of English as L2 which
showed that spelling errors were more common among those learners who used a Roman script
in their native language (e.g. Spanish or French) than among those who used a non-Roman script
(e.g. Arabic or Chinese). However, the strong version of the CAH would predict the contrary, i.e.
more difficulties on the part of the learners who had to acquire a new writing system (Brown
1980). Brown (1980: 159) concludes that interference is more likely to occur when there is
similarity between the items to be learned and already known items than in the case of learning
items which are entirely new to the learner. He also points to the fact that most of the errors
committed by L2 learners are 'intralingual' errors, i.e. errors which result from L2 itself and not
from L1. Whitman and Jackson carried out a study in which predictions made in four separate
contrastive analyses by different linguists were used to design a test of English grammar which
was given to 2,500 Japanese learners of English as L2. After comparing the results of the test to
the predictions based on the four contrastive analyses, Whitman and Jackson found out that they
differed a lot. They came to the conclusion that "contrastive analysis, as represented by the
four analyses tested in this project, is inadequate, theoretically and practically, to predict
the interference problems of a language learner" (Whitman and Jackson 1972 cited in Brown
1980: 158). Besides the problem of inappropriate predictions, Towel and Hawkins (1994: 1819) state two other problems. One of them is that "not all areas of similarity between an L1
and an L2 lead to immediate positive transfer" (1994: 19). Towel and Hawkins support this
argument by the findings of Odlin's study in which L1 Spanish learners of L2 English omitted the
copula 'be' at the early stages of learning regardless the fact that Spanish also has a copula verb
adequate to English 'be' and thus the positive transfer was possible. However, it didn't happen.
The other problem, they argue, is that only a small number of errors committed by L2
learners could be unambiguously attributed to transfer from L1. Thus, the strong version of
the CAH has been proved inadequate, except for the phonological component of language, where
it is quite successful in predicting the interference between the L1 and L2 in pronunciation in the
early stages of L2 acquisition. Dulay, Burt and Krashen similarly conclude that "... present
20
research results suggest that the major impact the first language has on second language
acquisition may have to do with accent, not with grammar or syntax" (1982: 96). The weak
version is not satisfactory because it is only able to offer an explanation for certain errors. The
only version which remains acceptable is the moderate version. However, its findings as
presented by Oller and Zia hosseiny are in contradiction with Lado's original idea. This doesn't
mean that the idea of L1 interference was completely rejected, but the CAH is applicable in
practice only as a part of Error Analysis, which will be discussed later.
3. INTERLANGUAGE THEORY Interlanguage theory or hypothesis, which arose as a reaction to
the CAH. I will explain how the concept of interlanguage emerged and how it developed and was
understood by different linguists. The focus will be on how a learner's L2 system develops and
how transfer and interference are related to this issue.
3.1 The Birth of Interlanguage: The CAH focused on the influence of L1 on the emerging L2
system and stressed the similarities and differences between the L1 and L2. The Interlanguage
theory, which is a reaction to the CAH, basically understands second language learning as "a
creative process of constructing a system in which the learner is consciously testing hypotheses
about the target language from a number of possible sources of knowledge ..." (Brown 1980:
162); these sources include, among other factors, both L1 and L2.
The term 'interlanguage' was first used by Selinker in 1969 in reference to "the interim
grammars constructed by second-language learners in their way to the target language"
(McLaughlin 1987: 60). However, it was Nemser who in the 1960s first mentioned 'deviant'
learner language: "Learner speech at a given time is the patterned product of a linguistic system
distinct from [NL] and [TL] and internally structured" (Nemser 1971: 116 cited in Powell 1998:
3). And, finally, it was Corder who made the whole issue important. In McLaughlin (1987: 60) we
read that the term 'interlanguage' can mean two things: "(1) the learner's system at a single
point in time and (2) the range of interlocking systems that characterizes the development of
learners over time". Therefore we think that one's interlanguage is different from one's mother
tongue and target language as well. It is, as James (1998: 3) suggests, a system which holds a
half-way position between knowing and not knowing the TL. 3.2 Selinker's View of
Interlanguage In Selinker's view, interlanguage is "a separate linguistic system resulting from
learner's attempted production of the target language norm" (McLaughlin 1987: 60-61).
McLaughlin (1987: 61) also gives Selinker's belief that interlanguage was "the product of five
central cognitive processes involved in second-language learning": Selinker (1972) identified
five central processes underlying language learner language which distinguish it from the way in
which first language acquisition proceeds:
(1) Language transfer, i.e. transfer from the L1; (2) Transfer of training, i.e. some features
transferred from the training process; (3) Strategies of second-language learning, i.e. an
approach to the material taught; (4) Strategies of second-language communication, i.e. those
ways learners use to communicate with L2 speakers; and (5) Overgeneralization of the target
language linguistic material. Selinker also believed that the development of interlanguage was
different from the first-language development because of "the likehood of fossilization in the
second language" (McLauglin 1987: 61). Fossilization can be basically defined as the state when
a learner's interlanguage does not develop anymore, no matter how long the learner is exposed
to the target language. Based on the analysis of children's speech, Selinker found a "definite
systematicity in the interlanguage", which was evidenced by certain cognitive strategies:
language transfer, overgeneralization of target language rules and simplification. So his view of
interlanguage is "an interim grammar that is a single system composed of rules that have been
developed via different cognitive strategies ... and the interlanguage grammar is some
combination of these types of rules" (McLaughlin 1987: 62-63). 3.3 Other Views of Interlanguage
and its Properties Adjemian stressed the dynamic character of interlanguage systems. In his
opinion, interlanguage systems were "by their nature incomplete and in the state of flux". He
saw the individual's L1 system as relatively stable, but not the interlanguage. In this way, "the
structures of the interlanguage may be 'invaded' by the first language" (McLaughlin, 1987: 63).
So Adjemian shares Selinker's opinion about the influence of the first language on the
21
developing interlanguage. Tarone's view differed from those of Selinker and Adjemian because
she thought that interlanguage was "not a single system, but a set of styles that can be used in
different social contexts"(McLaughlin 1987: 64). So she stresses the social factor involved in the
use of interlanguage. Nemser argued that interlanguage was an autonomous system and
supported his argument by the evidence that there are "elements which do not have their origin
in either [i.e. neither L1 nor L2] phonemic system" (Nemser 1971: 134 cited in Powell 1998: 3).
He used the term 'approximative system', as he thought that a learner of a L2 undergoes a
process of approximation of the emerging system to the target language (Brown 1980: 163).
Corder defines interlanguage as "a system that has a structurally intermediate status between
the native and target language". In his opinion, every L2 learner creates an interlanguage which
is unique to this individual and he called this phenomenon 'idiosyncratic dialect' (Brown 1980:
163). He stressed the importance of errors as a source of information and argued that "the
appearance of error in a learner's production was evidence that the learner was organizing the
knowledge available to them at a particular point in time" (Powell, 1998: 4). All these
interpretations stress different aspects of interlanguage. However, all of them share the basic
idea that interlanguage is an independent language system lying somewhere between MT and
TL. As James put it, it occupies a "halfway position ... between knowing and not knowing the TL
(1998:3).
3.4 Transfer, Interference and Cross-linguistic Influence
I have already mentioned the terms 'transfer' and 'interference' in chapter 2.4 since they have
their roots in the behaviourist theories of L2 learning and are closely related to CAH. Now we
know that behaviourism does not give a satisfactory explanation of the learner's native language
influence and that, actually, any of the previously acquired languages can cause interference.
Therefore Sharwood Smith and Kellerman came up with the term 'cross-linguistic influence'
which is theory-neutral and can be used as a superordinate term for the phenomena of 'transfer',
'interference', 'avoidance', 'borrowing' etc. The terms 'transfer' and 'interference' are not
synonymous: Transfer usually refers to the influence of L1 on L2 in both positive and negative
way, whereas interference is usually used in negative sense, so it corresponds to negative
transfer. Weinrich's definition of interference (1953: 1 cited in Dulay et al. 1982: 99) supports
this idea: Interference are "those instances of deviation from the norms of either language which
occur in the speech of bilinguals as a result of their familiarity with more than one language, i.e.
as a result of languages in contact". However, I must note that there is often inconsistence in
usage of these terms by various linguists. Therefore I will use 'transfer' as a neutral term
including both positive and negative transfer, and 'interference' as a synonym of negative
transfer. Kellerman defined transfer as "those processes that lead to incorporation of elements
from one language into another" (Kellerman 1987 in Ellis 1994: 301). Odlin offers a 'working
definition' of transfer: "Transfer is the influence resulting from the similarities and differences
between the target language and any other language that has been previously (and perhaps
imperfectly) acquired" (Odlin 1989: 27 in Ellis 1994: 301). According to Dulay, Burt and Krashen
interference can be understood from two different perspectives. From the psychological or
behaviourist perspective it is the influence from old habits on the newly learned ones. From the
sociolinguistic point of view they see transfer as "the language interactions ... that occur when
two language communities are in contact" (Dulay et al. 1982: 98-99). In this point of view we are
talking about the issues of borrowing, code switching and fossilisation. 3.5 Positive and Negative
Transfer
When talking about language transfer in the behaviourist interpretation of the term, we usually
differentiate between two types of transfer: 'positive transfer' and 'negative transfer'. Positive
transfer occurs where a language item in L1 is also present in L2, so acquisition of this item
makes little or no difficulty for the learner. An example could be the use of plural markers '-s'
and '-es' in English and Spanish. A L1 Spanish learner of L2 English should use the English
plurals correctly if the positive transfer is operating. Negative transfer comes when there is no
concordance between L1 and L2 and thus, acquisition of the new L2 structure would be more
difficult and errors reflecting the L1 structure would be produced (Powell 1998: 2 and Dulay et
al. 1982: 97). In my own research I have found that L1 Spanish learners of L2 English tend to use
22
the English long-adjective superlatives incorrectly. For example, they say the more beautiful girl
instead of the most beautiful girl. The reason is probably a negative transfer, since in Spanish
both comparative and superlative uses the same word más, just the superlative uses it together
with a definite article: 'el/la más + adjective'.
3.6 Borrowing:
Linguistic borrowing is a sociolinguistic phenomenon and a form of language interference which
appears among bilingual speakers. It is very common in multilingual societies all over the world
(Dulay et al. 1982: 113). Powell defines borrowing as "the incorporation of linguistic material
from one language into another" (1998: 8). Most commonly borrowed items are, Dulay et al.
(1982: 113) explain, "lexical items that express either cultural concepts that are new to the
borrowing group, or notions that are particularly important in a given contact situation". For
example, after discovering the American continent, English and other old European languages
borrowed words from the native American languages, such as maize, tomato, igloo, etc. Words
that are borrowed into a language usually preserve their general sound pattern, but they also
modify it according to the phonetic and phonological system of the borrowing language. After
that, the words are incorporated into the grammar of the borrowing language, i.e. they are given
articles, inflections, etc (Dulay et al. 1982: 114). 'Integrated borrowing' refers to a word which
was borrowed into a language and speakers of that language learn this word from each other
without understanding its original meaning in the language of origin. On the other hand,
'creative borrowing' is characterized by speakers using a word from another language to
express a concept closely related to the culture of that language (Dulay et al. 1982: 114).
3.7 Code Switching:
The term 'code-switching' refers to "an active, creative process of incorporating material from
both of a bilingual's languages into communicative acts" (Dulay et al. 1982: 115). Rapid switches
from one language into the other are very characteristic for code-switching. There is a
widespread opinion that code-switching is an evidence of a lack of proficiency, fluency or control
over the language systems on the part of the speaker. However, this is not true. On the contrary,
code-switching is most frequent among the most proficient bilinguals and is governed by strict
structural and grammatical rules of both the languages involved. It has a strong sociolinguistic
function: most importantly, it works as an ethnic marker (Dulay et al., 1982: 115). Codeswitching can take form of (a) inserting words or short phrases from one language into single
sentences in another language or (b) altering the languages in terms of entire phrases or clauses.
The following examples have been taken from a study of adults' speech in Spanish-English
bilingual community by Aurelio Espinosa (in Dulay et al. 1982: 115): (a)Vamos a ir al football
game y después ... We're going to go to the football game, and then ... Comieron turkey pa'
Christmas? Did you eat turkey for Christmas? (b) He is doing the best he can pa' no quedarse
atrás, pero lo van a fregar. He is doing the best he can in order not to be kept back, but they're
going to mess him up.
3.8 Fossilization:
Fossilization is defined in Brown (1980: 181) as "relatively permanent incorporation of
incorrect linguistic forms into a person's second language competence". That means that the L2
learner continues committing certain errors, no matter how much input he or she receives, and
his or her interlanguage doesn't develop anymore - it has fossilized. Selinker in his paper titled
'Interlanguage' (published in Richards 1974: 36) argues that fossilization is a rather a
psychological phenomenon since many of these [fossilized] phenomena reappear in IL
performance when the learner's attention is focused upon new and difficult intellectual subject
matter or when he is in a state of anxiety or other excitement, and strangely enough, sometimes
when he is in a state of extreme relaxation (Selinker publ. in Richards 1974: 36). The main
property which makes the Interlanguage theory different from the CA and also Error Analysis is
that it is wholly descriptive and avoids comparison (James 1998: 6). This fact caused a
revolution in L2 research and teaching because it was for the first time when a learner's
imperfect L2 system was understood as an autonomous system
23
APPLIED LINGUISTICS: 12:
ERROR ANALYSIS
by Taoufik El-Ayachi
December 23, 2014
Error Analysis (EA), third of the major theories dealing with errors in L2 acquisition, will be
the focus of this chapter. First I will define Error Analysis, summarize its goals and
compare it to the CAH and Interlanguage theory. This will be followed by its brief history
and discussion on the importance of learners' errors and concepts of ignorance and deviance.
The main focus will be on various linguists' interpretations of the error-mistake difference,
procedures of the EA itself and finally, the possible sources of errors. Definitions and Goals
Error Analysis is a theory replacing the Contrastive Analysis, which was abandoned by
linguists and teachers due to its ineffectivity and unreliability. EA also belongs to applied
linguistics but it has no interest in explaining the process of L2 acquisition. It is rather "a
methodology for dealing with data" "(Cook 1993: 2 cited in James 1998: 7). At the very
beginning of his Errors in Language Learning and Use, Carl James defines Error Analysis as
"the process of determining the incidence, nature, causes and consequences of unsuccessful
language" (James 1998: 1). Later he goes on explaining that EA "involves first independently
or 'objectively' describing the learners' IL ... and the TL itself, followed by a comparison of
the two, so as to locate mismatches" (1998: 5). There is one difference which distinguishes
EA from the CA and this is the importance of the mother tongue: when doing EA the mother
tongue does not enter the picture at all and therefore has no importance. In the CA, as I have
explained earlier, the mother tongue is of vital importance. However, this does not mean that
EA is not comparative. It is, because it describes errors on the basis of comparing of the
learners' interlanguage with the target language. It actually builds on the Interlanguage theory,
but the distinction between them is that the IL theory remains wholly descriptive and avoids
comparison (James 1998: 6). At the same time EA acknowledges L1 transfer as one of the
sources of errors, which makes it related to the CAH. James (1998: 62-63) also refers to Error
Analysis as the study of linguistic ignorance which investigates "what people do not know
and how they attempt to cope with their ignorance". The fact that learners find ways how to
cope with their ignorance makes a connection between EA and learner strategies, which we
divide into learning strategies and communication strategies. Corder suggests that Error
Analysis can be distinguished from 'performance analysis' in that sense that "performance
analysis is the study of the whole performance data from individual learners, whereas the term
EA is reserved for the study of erroneous utterances produced by groups of learners" (Corder
1975: 207 cited in James 1998: 3).
Development of Error Analysis :
Early works in EA dealing with L2 data were taxonomic, i.e. they focused on collecting and
classifying errors. On the other hand, early analyses dealing with native speakers' data were
mainly interested in searching for the causes of errors (James 1998). In the 1960s EA was
acknowledged as an alternative to the behaviourist CA and in the 1970s it became so popular
thatSchachter and Celce-Murcia could call it "the darling of the 70s" (Schachter and CelceMurcia 1977: 442 cited in James, 1998: 11). EA and CA were competing to establish
24
supremacy of one over theother. H. V. George (1972) and M. Burt and C. Kiparsky (1972)
published two of the most significant taxonomic works. George concludes that the main
causes of L2 learners' errors are(a)redundancy of the code, (b) unsuitable presentation in
class, and (c) several sorts of interference. In The Gooficon by Burt and Kiparsky the authors
argue that the learners' MT has no effect on the errors they make in the L2. They categorized
errors into six groups: (a) clausal, (b) auxiliary, (c) passive, (d) temporal conjunctions, (e)
sentential complements and (f) psychological predicates (James 1998). In 1987 J. B. Heaton
and N. D. Turton published Longman Dictionary of Common Errors which lists
alphabetically the 1,700 most common errors in English made by foreign learners. They
collected the data from Cambridge First Certificate in English answer papers (James 1998).
The Importance of Learners' Errors The most important and innovatory feature of EA is that it
is quite error-friendly, meaning that errors are not seen as something negative or patological
anymore, but as Corder claims, "a learner's errors ... are significant in [that] they provide to
the researcher evidence of how language is learned or acquired, what strategies or procedures
the learner is employing in the discovery of the language" (Corder 1967: 167 cited in Brown
1980: 164). At the very beginning of Errors in Language Learning and Use James stresses the
uniqueness of human errors: "Error is likewise unique to humans, who are not only sapiens
and loquens, but also homo errans" (1998: 1). He supports the idea of the importance of
learners' errors by claiming that "the learners' errors are a register of their current perspective
on the TL" (1998: 7). James (1998: 12) gives Corder's five crucial points, originally published
in Corder's seminar paper titled 'The significance of learners' errors': 1. L1 acquisition and L2
learning are parallel processes, they are ruled by the same mechanisms, procedures and
strategies. Learning a L2 is probably facilitated by the knowledge of the L1. 2. Errors reflect
the learners' inbuilt syllabus or what they have taken in, but not what the teachers have put
into them. So there is a difference between 'input' and 'intake'. 3. Errors show that both
learners of L1 and L2 develop an independent language system – a 'transitional competence'.
4. The terms 'error' and 'mistake' shouldn't be used interchangeably. 5. Errors are important
because they (a) tell the teacher what he or she should teach, (b) are a source of information
for the researcher about how the learning proceeds, and (c) allow the learners to test their L2
hypotheses. The Criticism of Error Analysis James paraphrases Corder's argument that "it is
not deemed legitimate ... to compare the child's or the FL learner's ID [idiosyncratic dialect] to
the dialect of adults or of native speakers respectively" (James, 1998: 16). The reason is that
"the child or the FL learner are neither deliberately nor pathologically deviant in their
language, so it would be wrong to refer to their repertoires as erroneous" James (1998: 16).
Bell also criticizes EA by calling it "a recent pseudo-procedure in applied linguistics" (Bell
1974: 35 cited in James 1998: 17). In his opinion, the EA data are of only poor statistical
inference, errors are usually interpreted subjectively and it lacks predicative power (James
1998:17). Schachter criticizes that EA does not take into consideration the strategy of
avoidance, i.e. that learners tend to avoid certain language items which they are not sure
about, and so they don't make errors in the areas where they would be expected to make them
(James 1998:18). More criticism comes from Dulay et al. (1982: 141-143) who point to the
fact that EA confuses explanatory and descriptive aspects, in other words the process and the
product; and also that error categories lack precision and specificity. However, despite all the
criticism EA remains the most widespread practice, because it has proven to be the most
effective approach to L2 learners' errors. Linguistic Ignorance and Deviance
I have already introduced James's view of EA as a study of linguistic ignorance. In his
opinion, there are two ways in which the ignorance is usually manifested: silence and
substitutive language. Silence means that the learner makes no response and we can
25
distinguish between cultural silence, referring to the fact that some cultures are from the
nature more silent than others, and silence as a consequence of ignorance which is labeled
'avoidance'. However, the focus of EA is the other category - substitutive language, which is,
in fact, a learner's interlanguage (James 1998:62-63). Another issue related to EA is
Incompleteness which James defines as the "failure to attain full NS-like knowledge of the
TL" or, similarly "an overall insufficiency (compared with NS competence) across all areas of
the TL" (1998: 63). It is different from ignorance in that sense that a learner can be ignorant
of a particular structure, irrespective of his or her proficiency in the TL. There are four
categories of learners' ignorance of TL: (1) grammaticality, (2) acceptability, (3) correctness
and (4) strangeness and infelicity (James 1998: 64-65). (1) When an utterance is grammatical
it means that it is well-formed in terms of a particular grammar. So a piece of language is
ungrammatical if there are no circumstances under which it could be used in this way. We
judge grammaticality of a sentence out of context and regardless of it. (2) According to Lyons
(1968: 137 cited in James 1998: 67) "an acceptable utterance is one that has been, or might
be, produced by a native speaker in some appropriate context and is, or would be, accepted by
other native speakers as belonging to the same language in question". The word 'context' is
the key word in this definition, since we have to contextualize the utterance so that we could
judge its acceptability. On the basis of grammaticality and acceptability, Corder (1973: 272
cited in James 1998: 68) divided errors into covert and overt errors. A covertly erroneous
utterance is superficially well-formed and can be revealed only when referring to the context.
This utterance is grammatical, but unacceptable. On the other hand, an overtly erroneous
utterance is ungrammatical, so it cannot be used in any context. EA is principally concerned
with utterances that are both ungrammatical and unacceptable (James 1998: 68-69). (3) An
utterance is correct when it is in concordance with prescriptive normative standards of the
language in question. Utterances that are acceptable but incorrect at the same time are
common (James 1998: 74). (4) Allerton (1990 cited in James 1998: 75) introduced four
categories of "linguistically strange word combinations": (a) inherently strange combinations,
(b) semantically disharmonious combination, (c) combinations that are simply ungrammatical
and (d) instances of locutional deviance which are common in foreigners' English since they
result from violating co-occurrence restrictions of English (James 1998: 75). Infelicities refer
to errors on pragmatic level (Austin 1962 in James 1998: 76). Austin differentiates between
four kinds of infelicity: (a) a gap appears if the L2 speaker lacks "the linguistic means for
performing the desired speech act" (James 1998: 76); (b) we have a misapplication when a
speech act is performed correctly but the speaker, the addressee or the circumstances are
inappropriate for this speech act; (c) a flaw appears when the linguistic execution of the
speech act is imperfect; and (d) a hitch means that "the execution of the speech act is cut
short" (James 1998: 76).
Defining Mistake and Error :
Brown (1980: 165) insists that "it is crucial to make a distinction between mistakes and
errors" because they are "technically two very different phenomena". The concept of
intentionality plays an essential role when defining an error since "an error arises only when
there was no intention to commit one" (James, 1998: 77). So an erroneous utterance is that
which was made unintentionally, whereas when there is an intention to produce a deviant
utterance, we simply call it deviance. A good example of a language deviance is an
advertising jingle (James 1998: 77). The basic distinction between a mistake and an error is
also based on the concept of corrigibility. If the learner is able to self-correct after using an
incorrect expression or utterance, we are talking about a mistake. On the other hand, when the
learner produces an unintentionally deviant utterance and is not able to self-correct, he or she
26
committed an error (James 1998: 78). Corder (1967 1971 in James, 1998: 78) associates the
error vs. mistake distinction to the issue of competence vs. performance. In this way, errors
are seen as failures of competence and mistakes as failures of performance. Corder argues that
„mistakes are of no significance to the process of language learning since they do not reflect a
defect in our knowledge" and "they can occur in L1 as well as L2" (Corder 1967: 166-167
cited in James 1998: 78-79). On the other hand, errors "are of significance; they do reflect
knowledge; they are not self-correctable; and only learners of an L2 make them" (James 1998:
79). Edge (1989 in James 1998: 80-81) uses the term mistake as a cover term for all the wrong
instances which foreign language learners produce and he divides mistakes into three
categories: ·Slips occur, according to Edge, as a consequence of processing problems or
carelessness. The learner is usually able to self-correct if he or she has a chance to do
so.·Errors refer, in Edge's opinion, to "wrong forms that the pupil could not correct even if
their wrongness were to be pointed out" but it is still evident what the learner wanted to
say(James 1998: 80). ·Attempts, Edge's last category, are "almost incomprehensible, and the
learner obviously has no idea how to use the right form" (James 1998: 81). In this situation
learners usually employ their compensatory communication strategies. The next classification
I would like to discuss is that of Hammerly (1991 in James 1998). For him, "the status of
learner deviance must be determined in terms of the classroom" (James 1998: 81). Hammerly
divides deviances which learners make in the classroom context into distortions and faults.
Distortions are, in his opinion, "unavoidable and necessary, occur even with known TL forms,
and should be ignored by the teacher" (James 1998: 81). He further distinguishes between
learner distortions and mismanagement distortions and this distinction is based on the fact
whether or not the item has been taught in the class. Learner distortions appear when the item
has been "adequately taught ... clearly understood and sufficiently practiced" (Hammerly
1991: 85 cited in James 1998: 81), whereas mismanagement distortions are consequences of
inadequate teaching and practice of the item in question. Hammerly's second category, faults,
appear when the learners "attempt to express freely ideas that require the use of structures
they haven't yet learnt" (Hammerly 1991: 72 cited in James 1998: 82). He again distinguishes
between learner faults and mismanagement faults, the former being consequences of learners'
overextension without being encouraged by the teacher, and the latter appear when the teacher
connives with the students' overextension. As we can see, Hammerly's view is quite extreme
and he has been criticized for his constant search for someone to blame, either the learners or
the teacher. On the other hand, Edge's ideology is completely different because he "applauds
learners who ... keep trying and taking risk rather than playing safe or avoiding error" (James
1998: 82). The most recent classification of deviances is that of James (1998: 83-84): · Slips
refer to lapses of the tongue or pen and the author is able to spot and correct them. The
discipline, which is engaged in studying them, is called lapsology. Mistakes can be corrected
by their author only "if their deviance is pointed out to him or her" (James 1998: 83). James
further divides them into first-order mistakes, when simple indication of the deviance is
enough to enable self-correction, and second-order mistakes, when more information about
the nature of the deviance is needed to enable self-correction. ·Errors occur when the learner
is unable to self-correct until further relevant input is provided, i.e. some more learning has to
take place. Solecisms are defined by James as "breaches of the rules of correctness as laid
down by purists and usually taught in schools" (1998: 83). A good example is split infinitives.
Procedures of Error Analysis Error analysis involves four stages (James 1998): The first
stage is when errors are identified or detected and therefore James (1998: 91) terms it error
detection. It is, actually, spotting of the error itself. First we collect a set of utterances
produced by a L2 learner. A sentence is usually taken as a basic unit of analysis and than the
informant, a native speaker or the analyst himself, points out the suspicious or potentially
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erroneous utterances and decide if the utterance in question is really erroneous or not.
However, this may not be so easy since there are many factors involved. It is easier, for
instance, to spot someone else's error than one's own, or to find the error in written language
than in spoken (James 1998: 91-100). The following stage is called error location and it is
when the informant locates the error. James argues that some errors are difficult to locate
because they can be diffused throughout the sentence or the whole text and appear only after
the whole text is carefully examined (1998: 92-93). Burt and Kiparsky call such deviances
global errors (opposite to local errors): "the sentence does not simply contain an error: it is
erroneous or flawed as a sentence" (James 1998: 93). The third stage is error description. It is
obvious that a learner's language has to be described in terms of some language system. The
Interlanguage hypothesis would suggest that the "learner language is a language in its own
right and should therefore be described sui generis rather then in terms of the target" (James
1998: 94). If we take Corder's idea of idiosyncratic dialect, which is the learner's version of
the target language, we can compare it to the native speaker's code since both the codes are
considered dialects of the same language and therefore "should be describable in terms of the
same grammar" (James 1998: 94). Another reason why a learner's language should be
described in terms of the TL is because EA is, by its nature, TL-oriented (James 1998: 95).
James (1998: 95-96) also argues that the grammar used for the description must be
comprehensive, simple, self-explanatory, easily learnable and user-friendly. For these reasons,
he rejects scientific and pedagogic grammars and recommends descriptive grammars,
particularly Crystal's (1982) Grammar Assessment Remediation and Sampling Procedure
(also known as GRARSP). There are, in James's opinion three main purposes of the
description stage: (1) to make the errors explicit, (2) it is indispensable for counting errors,
and (3) it is a basis for creating categories since it reveals which errors are different or the
same (James 1998: 96-97). And finally, the last step in EA is error classification or
categorization (James 1998: 97). We can categorize errors into dictionaries or taxonomies.
Since the whole chapter 5 will deal with various error taxonomies, in this section I will
concentrate on dictionaries only. Dictionaries of errors are organized alphabetically and
contain both lexical and grammatical information. A good example of up-to-date dictionaries
of errors is Turton's (1995) ABC of Common Grammatical Errors, which includes not only
grammatical errors, but lexical as well. Another one is that of Alexander (1994), based on his
own database of over 5,000 items collected during his ELT career. Interestingly, one of the
categories in Alexander's dictionary is that of errors caused by L1 interference with L2
English (James 1998: 97-101). Dictionaries of 'false friends' represent another kind of
dictionaries. They are, according to James (1998: 101), "relevant to learners of a specific L2
who speak a particular mother tongue". For Czech learners of L2 English there is Sparling's
English or Czenglish (1991) which contains the most common false friends and other items
that usually cause troubles for L1Czech learners. Sources of Error Identifying sources of
errors can be, in fact, considered a part of error classification. Error Analysis is innovatory in
respect to the CAH in the sense that it examines errors attributable to all possible sources, not
just negative L1 transfer (Brown, 1980: 166). Among the most frequent sources of errors
Brown counts (1) interlingual transfer, (2) intralingual transfer, (3) context of learning, and
(4) various communication strategies the learners use. James (1998: 178-179) similarly
classifies errors according to their source into four diagnosis-based categories with the
difference that he terms category(3) induced errors.
(1) Interlingual transfer, i.e. mother-tongue influence, causes interlingual errors. They are
very frequent at the initial stages of L2 learning since the L1 is the only language system the
learner knows and can draw on and therefore negative transfer takes place (Brown 1980: 173).
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Brown also argues that when one is learning L3, L4 etc., transfer takes place from all the
previously learnt languages but the degree of transfer is variable (1980: 173).
(2) Intralingual negative transfer or interference is the source of intralingual errors (Brown
1980: 173-174). Brown gives only overgeneralization as a representation of negative
interlingual transfer, but James (1980: 185-187) goes into more details. He refers to
intralingual errors as learning-strategy based errors and lists 7 types of them: · False analogy
arises when the learner incorrectly thinks that a new item behaves like another item already
known to him or her. For example the learner already knows that dogs is plural from dog, so
he or she thinks that *sheeps is plural from sheep. ·Misanalysis means that the learner has
formed an unfounded hypothesis in the L2 and is putting it in practice. James (1980: 185)
gives as an example the situation when the learner assumes that *its can be used as a
pluralized form of it. · Incomplete rule application happens when the learner doesn't apply all
the rules necessary to apply in a particular situation. In fact, it is the converse of
overgeneralization. · Exploiting redundancy appears because there is a lot of redundancy in
every language, e.g. unnecessary morphology, and intelligent learners try to avoid those items
which they find redundant to make their learning and communication easier. The opposite of
exploiting redundancy is over-laboration which is usually observable in more advanced
learners. ·Overlooking co-ocurrence restrictions means that the learner doesn't know that
certain words go together with certain complements, prepositions etc. An example given by
James (1998: 186) is when the learner ignores that the verb to enjoy is followed by gerund
and not bare infinitive. · Hypercorrection, as James argues (1998: 186), "results from the
learners over-monitoring their L2 output". · Overgeneralization means that the learner uses
one member of a set of forms also in situations when the other members must be used. This
usually leads to overuse of one form and underuse of the others. Well known candidates for
overgeneralization are pairs as other/another, much/many, some/any etc. (James 1998: 187) the learner uses one of them instead of distinguishing between them and using each in the
appropriate situation. Overgeneralization of language rules is also common, e.g. *Does she
can dance? reflects that the learner overgeneralizes the use of auxiliary verbs in questions.
(3) Context of learning refers to the setting where a language is learnt, e.g. a classroom or a
social situation, and also to the teacher and materials used in the lessons. All these factors can
cause induced errors (Brown 1980: 174). As Brown explains, "students often make errors
because a misleading explanation from the teacher, faulty presentation of a structure or word
in a textbook, or even because of a patent that was rotely memorized in a drill but not properly
contextualized". James (1998: 191-200) divides induced errors into the following
subcategories: · materials-induced errors ·teacher-talk induced errors ·exercise-based induced
errors ·errors induced by pedagogical priorities ·look-up errors. (4) Communication strategies
are consciously used by the learners to get a message across to the hearer. They can involve
both verbal and non-verbal communication mechanisms (Brown 1980: 178). We distinguish
among the following communication strategies: ·Avoidance arises when a learner consciously
avoids certain language item because he feels uncertain about it and prefers avoiding to
committing and error. There are several kinds of avoidance, e.g. syntactic, lexical,
phonological or topic avoidance (Brown 1980: 178-179). · Prefabricated patterns are
memorized phrases or sentences, as in 'tourist survival' language or a pocket bilingual
phrasebook, and the learner who memorized them usually doesn't understand the components
of the phrase (Brown 1980: 180). However, their advantage is, as Hakuta (1976: 333 cited in
Brown 1980: 179) notes, that they "enable learners to express functions which they are yet
unable to construct from their linguistic system, simply storing them in a sense like large
lexical items". · Cognitive and personality styles can also cause errors. For instance, Brown
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(1980: 180) suggests that "a person with high self-esteem may be willing to risk more errors,
in the interest of communication, since he does not feel as threatened by committing errors as
a person with low self-esteem". ·Appeal to authority is a strategy when the learner, because of
his uncertainty about some structure, directly asks a native speaker, a teacher or looks up the
structure in a bilingual dictionary (Brown 1980: 180). · Language switch is applied by the
learner when all the other strategies have failed to help him or her. So the learner uses his or
her native language to get the message across, regardless of the fact that the hearer may not
know the native language (Brown 1980: 181)
ERROR TAXONOMIES Although error taxonomies are part of the EA, I decided to dedicate
a whole chapter to them, since they are a huge topic. According to Dulay et al.(1982), the
most commonly used taxonomies are based on (1) linguistic category, (2) surface strategy,
(3) comparative analysis, and (4) communicative effect. James (1998: 102) drew on the
New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (1993), which defines 'taxonomy' as "the branch of
science which deals with classification". James (1998: 102-103) also argues that "a taxonomy
must be organized according to certain constitutive criteria. These criteria should as far as
possible reflect observable objective facts about the entities to be classified". However, he
notes, the criteria are not mutually exclusive: we classify errors simultaneously according to
more criteria at the same time. Dulay et al. (1982: 145) in their discussion about taxonomies
"focused on error taxonomies that classify errors according to some observable surface feature
of the error itself, without reference to its underlying cause or source" and they call these
'descriptive taxonomies'. I have supplied the most common categories of errors with examples
from my own data collection. This is the case, above all, in the Comparative taxonomy, since
this taxonomy best accounts for the issue of mother-tongue transfer. The data was collected
mainly among exchange students at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, and
among my own students in private language schools in the Czech Republic. My subjects' level
of English was from pre-intermediate to upper-intermediate, none of them was a native
speaker of English. The mother tongue background of my subjects was Czech/Slovak
(CZ/SK), Spanish (ES) or Greek (GR).
Errors Based on Linguistic Category :
These taxonomies classify errors according to the language component or linguistic
constituent (or both of them) which is affected by the error. Among language components we
count phonology, syntax and morphology, semantics and lexicon, and discourse (Dulay et al.
1982: 146). Researchers use the linguistic category taxonomy as either the only one or
combined with some other taxonomy. This taxonomy is also useful for organizing the
collected data. Dulay et al. (1982: 147-154) give as examples two error analyses that used this
taxonomies for primary classification of the collected data. The first one was carried out by
Burtand Kiparsky (1972) and the other by Politzer and Ramirez (1973). Both of them
classified errors made by students of English as L2, just the background of the analyses was
different. The former contains the following main categories: A. The skeleton of English
clauses, containing missing parts and misordered parts B. The auxiliary system C. Passive
sentences D. Temporal conjunctions E. Sentential complements F. Psychological predicates
Surface Strategy Taxonomy
This taxonomy concentrates on the ways in which surface structures are altered. Using this
taxonomy Dulay et al. (1982: 150) divide errors into the following categories: (1) omission,
(2) additions, (3) misformation, and (4) misordering. Omission is typical for the early stages
of L2 acquisition, whereas in the intermediate stages misformation, misordering, or overuse
30
are much more common (Dulay et al. 1982: 155) (1) Omission means that an item which must
be present in a well-formed utterance is absent. There is an evidence that grammatical
morphemes (e.g. noun and verb inflections, articles, prepositions) are omitted more often that
content morphemes which carry the meaning (Dulay et al. 1982: 154-155). For instance, in
the sentence *My father plumber the grammatical morphemes is and a are omitted. (2)
Additions are the second category of Surface strategy taxonomy and also the opposite of
omission. The presence of an extra item which mustn't be present in a well formed utterance
is characteristic for additions (Dulay et al. 1982: 156). Dulay et al. divide them into three
categories: (a) double markings, as in *Did you went there?, (b) regularization, e.g.* sheeps,
*cutted, and (c) simple addition, which contains the rest of additions (1982: 156-158). (3)
Misformation refers to "the use of the wrong form of the morpheme or structure" (Dulay et al.
1982: 158). There are three types as well: (a) In regularizations an irregular marker is replaced
by a regular one, as in *sheeps for sheep. (b) Archi-forms refer to the use of one member of a
class of forms instead of using all the members, e.g. using this in the situations when either
this or these should be used. (c) Alternating forms are represented by "free alternation of
various members of a class with each other", as in *those dog and this cat used by the same
learner (Dulay et al. (1982: 157). The following examples of misformation are taken from my
own data collection: Do all the *childs go through all the stages? (GR) regularization I have
*take one packet of *tissue. (FR) archi-form and omission (4) We talk about misordering
when we come across an utterance where a morpheme or a group of them is incorrectly
placed, as in *I get up at 6 o'clock always, where always is misordered (Dulay et al. 1982:
162).
Comparative Taxonomy :
The Comparative taxonomy classifies errors on the basis of comparing the structure of L2
errors to other types of constructions, most commonly to errors made by children during their
L1 acquisition of the language in question. In this taxonomy, we work with two main error
categories: (1) developmental errors, and (2) interlingual errors, and, of course, (3) ambiguous
errors, and (4) the 'grab bag category' of other errors (Dulay et al. 1982: 163-164).
(1) Developmental errors refer to errors which are similar to those made by children who are
acquiring the target language in question as their mother tongue. They are the opposite of
interlingual errors, i.e. those caused by L1 interference. The research has shown that most of
the errors committed by L2 learners are developmental. They are called developmental
because they are characteristic for both L1 and L2 development (Dulay et al. 1982: 164-165).
The following are my examples of developmental errors: I have *take one packet of *tissue.
(FR) Let's *close the light. (GR) On the *opposite we have several studies ... (ES) ... *on the
centre of the page ... (GR) (2) Interlingual errors are, as Dulay et al. (1982: 171) argue,
"similar in structure to a semantically equivalent phrase or sentence in the learner's native
language", e.g. *the man skinny said by a Spanish speaker of English reflects the word order
of the Spanish equivalent phrase el hombre flaco. In my own research I have come across
these deviant sentences containing interlingual errors: *Ambulance is the place where you go
when you are sick. (CZ) false friends with ambulance I must *tell him for that. (CZ) reflects
ríci o neco, intended ask for I *have birthday. (CZ) instead of It is my birthday, reflects mám
narozeniny Yesterday we discussed *about these things. (Lucka, CZ) reflects diskutovat o
You should buy a ticket because they *control them very often. (CZ) false friends with
kontrolovat I *gave this exam last year. (GR) wrong collocation, reflects de??? e?et?s? = to
*give an exam I haven't *given the exam yet. (GR) wrong collocation, reflects de??? e?et?s?
= to give an exam (3) Ambiguous errors could be classified as both developmental and
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interlingual errors. Such erroneous utterances usually reflect the learner's L1 and, at the same
time, are similar to errors produced by children during their L1 acquisition (Dulay et al. 1982:
172). E.g. I don't have *nothing (SK), as well as They are speaking *before toilet doors (CZ)
could be considered both interlingual and developmental error. (4) Other errors are those
which simply do not fit in any of the above mentioned categories of this taxonomy (Dulay et
al. 1982: 172).
5.4 Communicative Effect Taxonomy This taxonomy focuses on the effect the errors have on
the listener or reader. Dulay et al. (1982: 189) argue that "errors that affect the overall
organization of the sentence hinder successful communication, while errors that affect a single
element of the sentence usually do not hinder communication". They call the former (1)
global errors and the latter (2) local errors. (1) Among global errors they include: ·wrong
order of major constituents ·missing, wrong, or misplaced sentence connectors ·missing cues
to signal obligatory exceptions to pervasive syntactic rules ·regularization of pervasive
syntactic rules to exceptions ·wrong psychological predicate constructions (i.e. predicates
describing how a person feels) ·improper selection of complement types (i.e. subordinate
clauses) (2) Local errors include, according to Dulay et al. (1982: 191-192), errors in noun
and verb inflections, articles, auxiliaries, formation of quantifiers, etc.
CONCLUSION
In this paper I have compared three main theories concerning the emergence, explanation and
classification of interlingual and intralingual errors in learners of L2 English: the Contrastive
Analysis Hypothesis, the Interlanguage theory and Error Analysis. Error Analysis has proven
to be the most appropriate and successful in explaining learners' errors since it acknowledges
more possible sources of errors than the CAH and Interlanguage theory do. Error Analysis is
also successful in identifying the source of those errors which the CAH leaves unclassified.
The examples from my own data testify the already known fact that both interlingual and
intralingual negative transfer account for the sources of errors in L2 speakers of English.
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