UNIT 29 CATEGORISING LEARNERS MISTAKES

Mistakes can be both good and bad according to the learner process in which they are just playing with the language and they are trying to figure it out how the language works.

Mistakes as we know are either errors or slips.

There are many reasons why students make errors here I’m going to mention some: L1 Interference which is when students think all the time in their first language and that has a consequence on their second language.

Errors are mistakes when the learner does not know the language, this happen very often at the time of the process of learning a new language.

Slips: are kind of developmental error which occurs in the class but mainly students can correct them and will overcome the problems of fossilization.

Fossilization: is when a word wrongly acquired or learned got stuck in our brain and is difficult to correct because is in our brain memory. This can be resolved by lots of repetitions “drills” in which the language repeats the vocabulary wrongly acquired.

Mistakes can be oral or written, with the teachers help this kind of mistakes can be corrected.

Learners can lose motivation and the disire of learning the language if we try to correct every single mistake they make, thats why a teacher must know the right time when to correct these language falences.

Source: Spratt, M., Pulverness, A., & Williams, M. (2011). The Teachink Knowledge Tests Course . United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.