English Language Error

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Error Correction for Student’s Task in EFL Classroom I. INTRODUCTION The reasons why the teachers should correct errors and how to give a proper respond to student’s task and activity is still a topic of constant debate in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom. Should the teacher correct the students’ language errors? Most EFL teachers would answer this question with a ‘Yes’ while at the same time wondering how to do those activity. Although there is research that suggests error correction is ineffective as a means of improving student task (Cohen & Robbins, 1976; Polio, Fleck, & Leder, 1998; Robb, Ross, & Shortreed, 1986; Truscott, 1996), EFL teachers quite know that students are demanded their feedback in form of error…show more content…
However, there are appropriate ways to use the words, and this will often depend on the context. ‘Error’ and ‘Mistake’ are two of these words. Both of the words mean: “A wrong action attributable to bad judgment, or ignorance, or inattention”. People use these words interchangeably, which can be right for certain situations, but one word would be more appropriate in certain situation than the other. In error correction/analysis, people often get confused to distinguish between error and mistake. In terms of etymology, the words are more deeply differentiated. The root of the word ‘mistake’, came from the old Norse word, ‘mistaka’, which means ‘mis’ (wrong) and ‘taka’ (take). As to sum up, it means ‘wrongly taken’. The word ‘error’ came from the Latin word ‘errorem’ or ‘errare’, which means ‘to wander or stray’. According to dictionary, a mistake refers to a performance error that is either a random guess or a “slip”, in that is a failure to utilize a known system correctly. So basically, the learners are know what is the ‘correct’ thing but they fail to utter it due to some reason such as anxiety, nervous, external problem, etc. However, error is usually made due to the lack of knowledge. So, the action was wrong because the learners does not know what is the ‘correct’ thing or certain…show more content…
This is when the student transfers their L1 knowledge to the target language (L2), and it can caused error in grammar and vocabulary. The learners often use their native languages rule and the thinking way of their language in their English utterance. Native language transfer is an unavoidable factor. There is a lot of evidence that showed that “language transfer” is indeed a real and central phenomenon that must be considered in any full account of the second language acquisition process (Gass and

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