Course Handout of Contrastive Analysis & Error Analysis (English-Arabic) by DRSHAGHI

Contrastive Analysis & Error Analysis, handout, by Dr. A. Shaghi, 4th Y.E B.Ed.
1st semester
2014-2015, Zabid-College of Education, Hodeidah University
IN THE NAME OF ALLAH

Contrastive Analysis & Error Analysis
(CA & EA)

(Note: This course-material of Contrastive Analysis & Error Analysis
(CA & EA) includes further readings /references related to the subject and Available
in the Library & Your Pen-drives
(It is For Private Circulation Only)

4
th
-Year-B.Ed.-English 2014-2015, 1
st
semester 2014-2015,
Department of English,
Zabid-College of Education,
Hodeidah University

Mondays, 11:00 a.m. 02:00 p.m.
Hall Ash-Shabiyyah
Lecturer:

Contrastive Analysis & Error Analysis, handout, by Dr. A. Shaghi, 4th Y.E B.Ed. 1st semester
1
I N THE NAME OF ALLAH

Contrastive Analysis & Error Analysis
(CA & EA)

(Note: This course-material of Contrastive Analysis & Error Analysis (CA & EA)
includes further readings / research papers / references related to the subject and are Available in
the Library & Your Pen-drives)
(It is For Private Circulation Only)
4
th
-Year-B.Ed.-English 2014-2015, 1
st
semester 2014-2015,
Department of English,
Zabid-College of Education,
Hodeidah University
Mondays, 11:00 a.m. 02:00 p.m.
Hall Ash-Shabiyyah
Lecturer:
Dr. Abdullah Shaghi

1. Introduction to the Course

Hello Everybody!
I am really glad to meet you again this year. If you remember, we studied together
the course Phonetics and Phonology of English as well as Morphology and
Syntax last year, and this year we are going to study the course Contrastive
Analysis and Error Analysis.

What I am going to do in the lecture of today is just give you an introduction to the
course. So, today I am going to introduce you to the course since you do not have
the books with you yet. You have to know that the course that we are going to
study this semester is entitled Contrastive Analysis and Error Analysis.

Also, I want to tell you that this course is not an easy one. Why? This is because it
is all theoretical, and it does not have a practical part. It is not like the Scientific
Texts course in which we had both theoretical and practical parts. So, it is all
theoretical and you have to understand the information which is mostly rigid and
dry. I said you have to understand the information. In fact you have to memorize
this information but first you have to understand it in order to be able to memorize
it. Make-routine
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As you all know, the exam is automated/made-routine and that is why you have to
memorize the information and also you have to be very precise. Before we start, I
want to tell you that I am used to give my students lecture notes, handouts and
some up-to-date related published papers to read instead of the books.

For this year I am going to give you the same; the only difference is that the lecture
notes, handouts and some up-to-date related published papers summarize the books
in a well-organized way. So, this semester you have to depend mainly on the
lecture notes, handouts and some up-to-date related published papers because there
will be no books available.

Now, let us start with the introduction: Contrastive Analysis and Error Analysis is
a branch of Contrastive Linguistics? So, what is Contrastive Linguistics?
Contrastive Linguistics is a branch of knowledge; it is a kind of study and
research which works among languages. If we agree that linguistics is the science
that deals with language, so what do we mean by contrastive? The word
contrastive comes from the verb to contrast. In English, we have the verbs
contrast and compare. To remind you, when you contrast, you discuss the
differences, but when you compare, you discuss the similarities.

Thus, when we contrast two languages, we analyze each language from all levels
and aspects. We study the words of the language, the grammar, the semantics, the
pragmatics, and so on. So, in our course, we are going to compare and contrast
between the Arabic language and the English language. Why do we do this? What
is the main goal behind this study? The main goal behind this study is to find the
types of differences and similarities between the two languages, and when we
search for the points of differences and similarities, we are actually searching for
the points where the students would make mistakes. We are going to study these
differences on different levels, such as:
Phonologically,
Lexically,
Morphologically,
Syntactically,
Semantically,
Pragmatically, etc.

Of course, the most important aim of this study is to find the errors that the native
speaker of Arabic commits when he/she learns (or speaks) English. So, what we
are going to do is:
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1. To look for points of similarities and differences in order to predict points of
differences during the learning process.
2. To search for mistakes that students may commit and their solutions.
3. To help students overcome these mistakes.

As native speakers of Arabic, and as students of English as a second language, you
unconsciously commit certain mistakes that you do not know about, but why dont
you know about the mistakes we make? This is because your Arabic language
interferes unconsciously when you use English.

Let me give you a simple example: As you know, in English, we have the sounds
/b/ and /p/, while in Arabic we just have the sound /b/ the Arabic script of which is
//. Therefore, we often pronounce all the English words that have /b/ or /p/ with
one soundwhich is wrong, of course.

Other examples: In Arabic we have the letter // which we do not have in
English, but we have the letter /d/. It represents the emphatic consonant d was
actually pronounced , or possibly d
either way, a highly unusual sound. The

medieval Arabs actually termed their language lughat al-aad 'the language of
the aad' (the name of the letter used for this sound), since they thought the sound
was unique to their language.

In Arabic we have / ,/ which does not exist in English, but we write instead /kh/,
/gh/ or their IPA corresponding sounds /x/ and ; they are often post-velar,
though velar and uvular pronunciations are also possible.

In Arabic we have // and in English we use instead /k/ or /q/. So, here we have
differences in pronunciation which could lead to mistakes made by students and
this very simple comparison between the English language and the Arabic
language makes it easy to know what kind of problems the Arabic students may
face when they study English. Some speakers do not concentrate on the aspiration
of the sound /ph/ at the beginning of words, and this is a mistake in itself.

In Morphology, there are very few English Arabic cognates and because English
and Arabic are not cognate languages, i.e. genetically related. They are
considerably different in the classes that are characterized by inflectional affixes.
Arabic has inflection in the nouns, adjectives, verbs, pronouns, relative and
demonstrative pronouns; English has inflection in all these except adjectives. In
Arabic, Inflectional affixes may be prefixes (in verbs), suffixes; in English they are
suffixes only. Arabic has three number forms: singular, dual and plural; English
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has singular and plural. The Arabic equivalent to an English singular countable
noun is singular and to an English plural countable noun is always plural in regular
and irregular variable nouns that have both singular and plural forms, e.g.:

English Arabic Transcription English Arabic Transcription
A Boy /walad-un/ Boys awlaad-un/
A Girl /bint-un/ Girls /banaat-un/

In Syntax, there are two tenses in Arabic: past and present. There is no future tense
corresponding to the time/tense relation for present and past. The future time is
rendered by means of the future particles ( /sa-/) and ( /sawfa/). What are
they? Also, Arabic has no verb tense to be in the present tense and no auxiliary
to do. Furthermore, there is a single present tense in Arabic, as compared to
English, which has the simple and continuous forms. These differences result in
errors such as She good teacher!, When you come to Germany?, I flying to
Egypt tomorrow. or Where he going?

The word order of Arabic is Verb, Subject, Object (VSO), but that of English is
Subject, Verb, and Object (SVO). Moreover, Arabic uses punctuation much more
loosely than English.

Why do we make this kind of contrastive study? This kind of study is very
important for learners, like yourselves, in order to avoid the mistakes you, as
learners, may commit in the future while you are studying English.

So, this is the main aim of our study. For example, one of the mistakes on the level
of pronunciation is the word foreign! Some of the students may pronounce the
letter g, but the correct way is not to pronounce it. Why? This is because in the
Arabic language there is no letter that is written and not pronounced; all the letters
that are written are pronounced.

On another level such as the grammatical level, for instance, students may
commit mistakes like:

*We talking a second language.
*He running very fast.

NB: The asterisk (*), here and after, will be used to indicate the grammatical
mistakes/errors.

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In these two examples, the wrong is the absence of the verb to be, so the
sentences should be:

We are talking a second language.
He is running very fast.

The reason of such mistakes is that we do not have something similar to verb to
be in Arabic.

Also, under the word/phrase Contrastive Analysis we have two languages to be
contrasted: the Arabic Language and the English Language. This will be on the
level of sounds/phonemes (consonants & vowels, & diphthongs), letters,
words/morphemes, phrases etc.

By the way, the course is really a theoretical one; that is why we will, first of all,
have an idea about Contrastive Analysis in general.

There is also another section dedicated to the interference [= intervention] of the
Mother Tongue (MT) in the process of learning a new language. For example,
your mother language is Arabic; when you want to study a new language such as
English, or French, your storage of words, vocabularies, sentences and rules in
Arabic will interfere in the conception of the new language or in the understanding
the new language. That is, for example, in translation, if you want to translate an
English text, you will try to translate the text word by word, and this kind of
translation is impossible and even wrong, at times [= sometimes/now and again].

In other words, there are sentences in English which cannot be translated into
Arabic word by word. Sometimes, you have to change the sentence completely, but
it has to convey the same meaning to the Arabic/English audience or to the
Arabic/English reader.

In general, this will be our main field of studying in this course. I want to tell you
that the course might seem a little bit uninteresting because most of it is theoretical.
But, as I did last year with your friends, we will try to make it a little bit practical.
How?

I will give you some pieces of translation, and you will do them in the class and I
will also correct them here in the class. After that, I will collect the papers and see
what kind of mistakes most of the students commit. We will try to know why this
kind of mistake is committed.
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May be it is committed because of the interference of your Arabic language, or
maybe because of some difficulty in absorbing the vocabularies of the new
language, or because grammatical rules of the new language are completely
different from grammatical rules of your mother tongue. We will try to see all this
in our course for this semester.

2. Contrastive Analysis (CA):

2.1. General Overview:

By definition as attested in literature, Contrastive Analysis (CA) means the
comparison of two languages by paying attention to differences and similarities
between languages being compared; or the CA is the study and comparison of two
languages, learners Target Language (TL) and learners Native Language (NL);
or, in other words, the CA is the systematic study of a pair of languages with a
view to identifying their structural differences and similarities.

The following 9 points are what to take into consideration with regard to the
general overview of the Contrastive Analysis (CA):

1. It was first suggested by Whorf (1941) as contrastive linguistics, a
comparative study which emphasizes on linguistic differences.
2. The publication of Robert Lados' book (Linguistics across Cultures) in
1957 was the start of modern applied contrastive linguistics.
3. The Systematic comparison of L1 and L2 structures is done in order to
predict difficulties.
4. In the 1940s to 1960s before the SLA field as we know it was established,
a. Charles Fries (1945:9) wrote: "The most efficient materials are those
that are based upon a scientific description of the language to be
learned, carefully compared with a parallel description of the native
language of the learner."
5. The theoretical foundations for what became known as the Contrastive
Analysis Hypothesis were formulated in Lado's Linguistics across Cultures
(1957). In this book, Lado claimed that "those elements which are similar to
[the learner's] native language will be simple for him, and those elements
that are different will be difficult".
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6. CA is founded on the assumption that second/foreign language (L2) learners
tend to transfer into the target language features found in their native (L1)
language.
7. Individuals tend to transfer the forms and meanings, and the distribution of
forms and meanings of their native language and culture to the foreign
language and culture (Lado: 1957).
8. The transfer may be positive or negative. Transfer is said to be positive
when a familiar skill facilitates the learning of a new structure. When the
patterns are similar, the acquisition of the new pattern is facilitated, but
when there are differences in patterns, these differences hinder the learning
of the foreign language.
9. In later studies the term contrastive linguistics changed to contrastive
analysis.

2.2. Mainstream of CA:

Mainstream of CA:

1. The bulk of the Second Language Acquisition (SLA) field was concerned,
however, with prediction of errors.
2. The simplistic model: The most simplistic version was the belief that
linguistic differences based simply on similarities and differences alone
could be used to predict learning difficulties. Thus, the following quote:
3. A simplistic prediction:"Where two languages were similar, positive
transfer would occur; where they were different, negative transfer, or
interference, would result."

2.3. CA and SLA

The following 2 points are what to take into consideration with regard to the CA
and SLA:

1. CA was used extensively in the field of SLA in the 1960s and early 1970s,
as a method of explaining why some features of a Target Language (TL)
were more difficult to acquire than others.
2. According to the behaviorist theories prevailing at the time, language
learning was a question of habit formation, and this could be reinforced or
impeded by existing habits. Therefore, the difficulty in mastering certain
8
structures in L2 depended on the difference between the learners' L1 and the
language they were trying to learn.

2.4. Branches Involved in Contrastive Analysis:

The branches which contrastive analysis is involved are Translation, Teaching,
Linguistics, Textbook Writing, and Error Analysis. These are discussed in
details as follows:

1. Translation:

As regard to translation as a branch involved in Contrastive analysis, there are
the following points to be taken into consideration:

a. As a translator, she/he should be faithful to the text, so she/he should know
the exact equivalents in two languages (Source Language (SL) and target
Language (TL)).
b. A translator understands that most of the differences in two languages are
not semantically but culturally.
c. She/he understands that most of these differences comes from:
i. Different beliefs;
ii. Different values; and
iii. Different patterns of thought.

More often than not, Yemeni Speakers/learners make mistakes in using or
translating English tenses. The mistakes may occur because the number of tenses
in English may be more than any other language. Learners of a foreign language,
as Corder (1969:73) states, will transfer to English the association of adverb and
tense of their own language to the language they are learning. Consider the
following Arabic sentence:

/hal nimta murtahan alaylata albariha/

Which means: (Did you sleep well last night?)

To translate the Arabic sentence above into English the Yemeni learner think
directly of the Arabic question word/hal/ ( under the influence of interference so
he starts his sentence with any auxiliary verb as a substitute for /hal/, and imitates
the Arabic sentence leaving it without any other change, as in;
9
(Did you slept well last night?) This is grammatically wrong.

In Arabic, there are two tenses; present and past. As to the future it can be
expressed by the present simple tense preceded by the common word
/sawfa/ meaning shall or will placed at the beginning of the
verbal Arabic sentence to refer to future, as in ; (I shall go) sawfa athhab .

Or The alphabetic Arabic letter (S) joins the verb and it constitutes the
first letter of the simple present verb in Arabic to refer to future, as in;/sa-athhab

. (I shall go.)

The number of tenses in English is more than those used in Arabic, so the time at
which an action occurs can be expressed by more than one tense. The two
sentences below express a past action by two different tenses, as in, (I wrote the
letter). (Past simple) /katabt-u al-risaalat-a/ (I have written the letter.
(Present perfect)

Usually, the future can be expressed by using shall and will, as in; (I
shall visit him tomorrow.)
/ghadan sa-azuur-u-hu/. The context of

sentence above can also be expressed by present continuous, as in; (I am visiting
him tomorrow.
. /ghadan sa-azuur-u-hu/

Going to also indicates future, as in; (I am going to buy a new house after
summer holiday.)
/sa-'ashtari bayt-an gadiid-an bada al-utlati al-

sayfiyyati)

The simple present tense is also used with future meaning, but not with all verbs, it
is used with verbs of going and coming(corder; 1969:81) The climbing
party plan to set off at dawn tomorrow.

/Yu-khatit-u fariiqa al-tasaluqi lilintilaaqi fagra ghadin/

Translation from Arabic into English, as far as conditional sentences are
concerned, will not be easy because the structure of the conditional sentence in
Arabic is not the same as that of English. Consider the following example:

.law thahaba hasan ila al-haflati la-wagada
sadiiqahu hunaaka/
10

To translate the sentence above into English we need to use a conditional sentence
that expresses a situation which is unlikely to happen, becauseGeorge did not
go to the party and consequently he did not see his friend, so the structure is
absolutely different from that in Arabic, as in (Hassan had gone to the party, he
would have seen his friend.

The present study explains and sometimes translates any grammatical unit that is
widely used in English by giving one or two examples related to the topic under
discussion for the purpose of clarity.

All above adapted from: Qassim, Abdul- Hassan Sh. (n.d.), Translation
Grammatically viewed. English Department, College of Languages ,University of
Baghdad.

2. Teaching:

Learning the second language is different from acquiring the first language. A
child acquiring English as a native language makes perceptual differences about
different languages, he acquires language system. But an Arabic child who is
learning English as his / her second language does not have this perception about
different situations, he / she just learns the language. e.g.: the concept of the word
"cousin" for an English child is completely different from that of an Arabic child.

The Contrastive Analysis can help teachers to do the following:

To design teaching and learning materials (methodology);
To engage learner in activities to be a good user of target language.(classroom
activities);
To evaluate text books;
To pay attention to the structure of the texts beyond sentence level;
To pay attention to conversation in its regular pattern in different situations;
To pay attention to complex areas like intonation; and
To pay attention to different underlying rules those differ from culture to culture.

The Contrastive Analysis does not suggest a method or a teaching technique but it
helps methodologists to pay attention to the Whats of teaching and Hows of
teaching.

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3. Linguistics

As regard to linguistics as a branch involved in the Contrastive Analysis, there
are the following points to be taken into consideration:

The Contrastive Analysis pays attention to different languages at the
lexical, phonological, morphological, syntactical and semantic levels; and
The Contrastive studies find similarities and differences between
languages in:

i. Grammatical structures ( pronouns, articles, verbs, consonants and
vowels)
ii. b) Sentences and constructions (interrogatives, relatives, negatives,
normal phrases, syllables, diphthongs)
iii. c) Rules of the compared languages (interrogative, passivization
etc.)

According to Richards (1971), researches show that contrastive analysis may be
most predictive at the level of phonology and least predictive at the syntactic level,
for this, many of the common mistakes are syntactic errors in written work.

4. Textbook Writing:

As regard to Textbook Writing as a branch involved in Contrastive analysis, there
is what is called the Principle Programming for Writing a Textbook as well as
there are the following two points that should be taken into consideration:

a) The Contrastive analysis helps a textbook writer avoid using the material
with a high degree of difficulty and high degree of occurrence in a same text
( which makes the text more difficult ); and
b) The writer should balance among the most difficult items and the least
difficult items throughout the text.

5. Error Analysis:

As regard to Error Analysis as a branch involved in Contrastive analysis, there is
the following point that should be taken into consideration:

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The Contrastive Analysis helps you as a learner of English or any other
language to classify the errors, predict and finally avoid them. (see Error
Analysis (AE) in Section 3. below)

2.5. Interference Theory:

One of the most important factors in studying contrastive analysis is paying
attention to the definition of "Interference Theory".

It has been attested in literature that the contrastive analysis is a valid and useful
but not a unique method in second language teaching, but language interference is
a phenomenon that occurs when learning another language. James (1980, p. 23)
argues that "Interference theory predicts that if a learner is called upon to produce
some L2 form which he has not learnt, he will tend to produce an erroneous [=
mistaken/wrong/incorrect] form having its origin in his L1."

Similarly, Lado (1957, p. 2) considers that language interference is the way in
which learners of a second language transfer "the forms and meanings, and the
distribution of forms and meanings of their native language and culture both
productively when attempting to speak the language and to act in the culture, and
respectively when attempting to grasp and understand the language and the culture
as practiced by natives."

2.5.1. Based on Psycholinguistics:

You look at the second language through filter /glasses of the first language. The
rules of the first language are matched with the rules of the second language. (You
see that the rule systems of the source and target languages are different and
sometimes the rules of languages are interfered with each other). So studying
contrastive analysis can help you to understand and know these interferences. If
certain elements of a second language differed greatly from the students native
language, that student would likely encounter difficulties. (Lado 1957) it means
sometimes your mother tongue interferes. For example, /maryam muhtamat-un bi-
qraaati l-kutub/
*Maryam is interested with reading books.
Maryam is interested in reading books.

2.5.2. Degrees of Difficulty:

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Before discussing about the different hypothesis of contrastive analysis we should
be familiar with the concept of difficulty and simplicity in language study, so we
look at the hierarchy (degrees of difficulty) in languages:

A contrastive analyst should predict the level of difficulties in foreign language to
avoid using high degree of difficulties along with a high degree of occurrences in a
same text. Now we study the different levels of difficulties:

1. Level 0: Transfer

According to some of behaviorists the principle of transfer is at work in
learning. (Transfer: affecting the first language on the second one)

Positive transfer
Transfer
Negative transfer

1.1. Positive Transfer:

It occurs when the first language is similar to the second language.
In positive transfer first language helps learning the second language.
No difference or contrast is present between the two languages.
(Similar sounds, lexical items or similar structures in two languages
are seen (positive transfer)).
The learner can simply transfer (positively) a sound, a structure or
lexical item form the native language to the target language.
Concepts of negation and interrogation in two languages are the same.
Word order in two languages has the same pattern.
Such transfer makes no difficulty; hence the label of "level zero" is
given to it. See the following examples:

L=
A bank= /bank/
The wall= /al-gidaar/
Yeah= /yeh/
A flower garden= /hadiitat-u zahrat-in/
A garden flower= /zahrat-u hadiiqat-in/

1.2. Negative transfer:
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It is problematic, because of interference of the first language on the
second one.
It occurs when the first language is different from the second language.
Learning differences in language takes a lot of time and energy
The first learning inhibits prevents the second learning.

2. Level 1 : Coalescence

Two or more items in the NL become coalesced (come together) into one item in
the TL ( here our NL is Arabic and TL is English).
In NL - - antaanti antumaa antum antunna = you in TL

3. Level 2: Under-Differentiation:

An item in the Native Language (NL) is absent in the Target Language (TL).

NB: The mark (?) indicates the absence of the item in the TL

Phonemes in Arabic , , , , and =? In English

4. Level 3: Over-Differentiation :

A new item in the Target Language (TL) (i.e. English) is absent in the Native
Language (NL) (i.e. Arabic).

NB: The mark (?) indicates the absence of the item in the NL

Consonants in English p, v, =? In Arabic
Phonemes in English /o p, v, , , and =? In Arabic
Initial consonants cluster in English like (school student) =? In Arabic
Present perfect continuous (have been + ing) in English =? In Arabic
Future in the past (would + infinitive) in English =? In Arabic
Past perfect continuous (had been + ing) in English =? In Arabic
(am) in English = ? In Arabic (e.g. I am a student. ana Taalib-un/ )

5. Level 4: Reinterpretation:

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An item that exists in the native language (Arabic) is given a new shape or
distribution. It is similar to a given item in the target language (English) but
not the same.
An Arabic learner over-generalizes on the basis of similarities and make
errors:

(Present Perfect and past tense in Arabic language = Present Perfect in English
language

We have read this book. = /(qad) qaranaa hatha-l-kitaab/ ( ) .

The number of tenses in English is more than those used in Arabic, so the time at
which an action occurs can be expressed by more than one tense. The two
sentences below express a past action by two different tenses, as in, (I wrote the
letter). (Past simple) /katabt-u al-risaalat-a/ (I have written the letter.
(Present perfect)

6. Level 5: Split:

An item in the native language (Arabic) refers to more than one reference in the
target language (English)

/taawilah/ = table, desk .
/madrasah/ = school, institute, college
raiis = president- director-head, chairman, chief, boss, master
/kabiir/ = Big (mistake) Great (man) Large (house) Grown up (boy) Major
(problem)

2.6. Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (= CAH)

Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (CAH):

1. CAH is an extension of the notion of CA. It attributed the ability to predict
errors to a CA of two languages, a predictability that practitioners associated
with the degree of similarity between the two systems.
2. Advantages of CAH (i) Explains pronunciation and phonological
interference (ii.) Enhancing language learner awareness: which elements
they can transfer from L1.
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3. Problems for the CAH version However, the CAH version of CA, that is,
the predictive version ran into some problems:
(i) Association with behaviorism:
-1959 Noam Chomsky's classic review of Skinner's Verbal Behavior,
in which Chomsky seriously challenged the behaviorist view of
language. CAH, intimately associated with behaviorism, got caught in
this discrediting of this view of language.
(ii) Mis-predictions:
In particular, the supposed ability of CAH to predict errors was not
supported by the facts. This is because:
1. It under-predicted, that is, it failed to predict some errors;
2. It over-predicted, that is, it predicted some errors that failed
to occur; and
3. Of course, it also got some right.
4. Why?
(i) As pointed out Long and Sato (1984), one cannot depend upon
the analysis of a linguistic product to yield meaningful insight into
a psycholinguistic process.
(ii) In accordance with Psycholinguistics (Osgood 1953) "When
two sets of materials to be learned are quite different or are easily
discriminated by the learner, there is relatively little interaction,
that is, learning one has little effect upon learning the other. If they
are similar in such a way that the learning of one serves as partial
learning of the other, there may be facilitation, or positive transfer.
If, however, the similarities either of stimuli or responses are such
that responses interfere with one another, then there will be greater
interference as similarity increases."
5. Note CAH failed, not CA
6. The failure discussed thus far is the failure of CAH, not the failure
of CA.

2.7. Strong vs. Weak Versions of CA

Strong vs. Weak Versions of the CA:

1. Wardhaugh (1970) proposed a distinction between the strong and the weak
version of the CA.
2. The strong version [CAH] predicts apriori ((predictive)).
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3. The weak version deals with learner errors and uses CA, when applicable, to
explain them, apostriori, that is, after the fact.

In fact, this was the beginning of error analysis, that is, the detecting of the
source of errors.

2.8. Types of Contrastive Studies:

It is worth mentioning here that there are two types of Contrastive Studies:
theoretical and applied. Fisiak (1981, p. 2) claims that theoretical contrastive
studies are concerned with showing the similarities and differences between two or
more languages. Applied contrastive studies, on the other hand, is a branch of
applied linguistics and is mainly concerned with providing a framework for the
comparison of languages drawing on the findings of theoretical contrastive studies.
Such findings can be used for specific purposes, e.g. teaching, bilingual analysis,
and translation (Fisiak, ibid).

2.9. How to Compare Languages:

1- Choosing a special theoretical model. (Traditional, structural or
transformational)
2- Then structures are compared and contrasted

There are five steps for systematic comparison and contrast of two languages:

Selection - description - comparison - prediction - verification

1) Selection:

i. It is impossible to compare every sound, word, structure and etc., of two
languages, so the analyst should be limited.
ii. He/she can do the selection through:
- Personal experience
- Bilingual intuition
- Error analysis
iii. In this step you should decide what is to be compared with what.
iv. Two elements to be compared in two languages should be similar in
some extent.

2) Description:
18

1-The selected materials will be linguistically described.
2- Two languages should be described within the same theory.
3- For describing the sound systems of two languages we use structural phonology.
4- For studying and describing syntax and morphology, there is no specific theory.
5-The focus is on differences not similarities

3) Comparison:

1-The similarities and differences are compared in three levels:
- form
- meaning and
- distribution of items in 2 languages which have been collected
2- No comparison is possible without a full description
3- The basic elements and structures should be compared with each other

4) Prediction:

1-Now the contrastive analyst can predict for the differences and similarities of
two languages.
2-He / she should judge whether these similarities and differences are problematic
or not (deviant structures and interference structures are predicted.)
3- Sometimes deviants reflect the structures of mother tongue.

5) 5) Verification:

1- It is the final step in a contrastive study.
2-To find out if the predictions made in the forth step (prediction) is true in reality
or not. (Do Arabic learners of English, in reality commit the errors which the
contrastive analyst predict it or not?)

2.10. Criticism of CA

Criticism of CA:

1. The process of L2 acquisition is not sufficiently described by the
characterization of errors
2. Errors in L2 acquisition do not only arise from interference
19
3. The structural differences between two languages are not sufficient to
predict the occurrence of errors in L2 acquisition.
4. In its strongest formulation, the CAH claimed that all the errors made in
learning L2 could be attributed to 'interference' by the L1. However, this
claim could not be continued by empirical evidence that was accumulated in
the mid- and late 1970s. It was soon pointed out that many errors predicted
by CA were inexplicably not observed in learners' language.
5. Even more confusingly, some uniform errors were made by learners
irrespective of their L1. It thus became clear that CA could not predict
learning difficulties, and was only useful in the retrospective explanation of
errors. These developments, along with the decline/refuse of the paradigms
by behaviorists as well as structuralists considerably weakened the appeal of
CA.

3. Error Analysis

3.1. General Overview

Because of shortcomings of the contrastive Analysis to clarifying the second-
language errors, researchers began to look for another approach which was both
theoretical and practical; this approach is called Error Analysis (EA).

Of course, CA survived. No one can deny that the L 1 influences L2 performance.
Thus, the next approach was to limit the analysis to the examination of errors that
students actually made.

general overview of the Error Analysis (EA):

1. Learners L1 influences L2 learning. Of course, CA survived. No one can
deny that the L1 inuences L2 performance. Thus, the next approach was to
limit the analysis to the examination of errors that students actually made.
This, however, had its problems.
2. EA Focuses on the errors L2 learners produced while using L2
Interlanguage is the starting point of analysis
3. Investigating cross-linguistic influence, language transfer (from the point of
view of errors)
4. Pit Corder (1967) The significance of learners errors.
20
(i) L2 acquisition should not be looked at from a purely
pedagogical perspective.
(ii) Errors in L2 are interesting because they reflect underlying
linguistic rules.
(iii) The study of L2 can be seen as a subfield of general linguistics
or cognitive science.
5. Mistake: random slip in performance self-correction possible
6. Error: systematic deviation from the norm caused by underlying competence
problem self-correction not possible
7. The mathematical analysis done to show quantitatively how uncertainties in
data produce uncertainty in calculated results, and to find the sizes of the
uncertainty in the results.
8. A type of work sample analysis in which the incorrect responses of the
student are described and categorized. In this procedure, samples of learners
language are collected and the errors are identified, described, and classified
according to their hypothesized causes. The errors are then evaluated for
relative seriousness.
9. The analysis of the errors could serve as basis for inferring the learning
strategies the learners employ.

3.2. Contrastive Analysis Vs. Error Analysis:

Contrastive Analysis Vs. Error Analysis
Contrastive Analysis Error Analysis
Pedagogical orientation Scientific orientation
Focus on input, practice inductive
learning
Focus on linguistic and cognitive
processes
Errors of transfer Multiple types of errors

3.3. Differences between Errors and Mistakes:

1) Errors are rule-governed; they are systematic and show the lack of
knowledge of learners.
2) Mistakes are random deviations, unrelated to any system.
3) Mistakes may occur in writing of native speaker, or during speech, such as
slips of tongue, slips of pen, and slips of the ear. Mistakes happen because of
strong emotion, memory limitations, and lack of concentration or tiredness.
4) Sometimes the distinguishing between mistakes and errors is difficult, but
according to linguistics, mistakes have a rather low frequency but errors
have high frequency and they are systematic.
21

The errors can be described in the following three dimensions:

1- Types of Errors
2- Levels of Errors
3- Stages of Errors

1- Types of Errors:

1- Addition:

1. *Does can he go to college?
2. *He will to go home.
3. *He entered into the class room.
4. *They always discuss about different matters.
5. * Please answer on my letter soon.
6. *Good writing is depends on several factors.
7. *He was going to home when I saw him.

8. Omission / Deletion:

1. *I went to # movie. (the)
2. * My father is # doctor. (a)
3. *I am learn # English well. (ing)
4. * I bought three new book# yesterday. (s)
5. * What # you want to do now? (do)

9. Ordering / Reordering:

1- * I to the cinema went. (I went to the cinema.)
2- * We last night went to the cinema. (We went to the cinema last night.)
3- * He comes always late to school. (He always comes to school late.)
4- *My brother is a driver fast. (My brother is a fast driver.)
5- * I don't know why is he late. (I don't know why he is late)

10. Substitution:

1. *I lost my road. (way)
2. *I goed home. (went)
22
3. *I am not afraid from dogs.( of)
4. *She was angry from her friend. (with)
5. *His bigger brother is a teacher.(elder)
6. *I always do many mistakes in spelling (make)

2- Levels of Errors:

a. Phonology (Orthography) Error
b. Grammar (Syntax) Error
c. Lexicon (Vocabulary) Error
d. Discourse Error

a. Phonology / Orthography Error:

*I went to skuul. (I went to school.)
* he is happyer than Maryam. (He is happier than Maryam.)

b. Grammar (Morphology and Syntax) Error:

He has been in London since 1990.
*He was in London since 1990. (Level: Grammar-Type: substitution)
* I to the cinema went. (Level: Grammar.- type: ordering)

c. Lexicon (Vocabulary) Error:

i. *I lost my road. (Level: Lexicon- type: substitution)
ii. *I drank a glass of lion yesterday. (Level: Lexicon- type: substitution)
iii. *I enjoyed from the film. (Level: Lexicon- type: addition)

d. Discourse Error: it is beyond sentence level.

A: How are you?
B: The crops were destroyed by the rain! (No cohesion and coherence)

3- Stages of Errors :

1. Pre-systematic Stage
2. Systematic Stage
3. Post Systematic Stage:

23
1. Pre-systematic Stage:

a. Random Errors:

The learner has no any definite rule in his mind. He cant explain his error
and naturally cannot correct it.
Heshe doesnt know where he should use the rules and how. He has no any
system in mind.

i. *Hassan cans sing. (Hassan can sing.)
ii. *Hassan can to sing. (Hassan can sing. Or (Hassan has to sing.))
iii. *Hassan can singing. (Hassan can sing. Or (Hassan like singing.))

a- Emergent Errors:

In these kinds of errors, the learner tries to make a rule and internalize a
system in his mind.
These rules may not be correct but they are legitimate in the mind of the
learner.
Again in this stage the learner cannot correct the errors and even after
correcting the native speaker he doesnt understand his errors.
Avoidance of structures and topics can be seen here. .e.g.:

Learner: I go to New York.
Native-Speaker: You are going to New York?
Learner: (doesnt understand) what?
Native-Speaker: You will go to New York?
Learner: Yes
Native-Speaker: when?
Learner: 1999
Native-Speaker: Oh, you went to New York in 1999.
Learner: Yes, I go 1999. (Again he doesnt understand the correction of
the Native speaker.)

1- Systematic Errors:

In this stage the learner is more mastered on language and he has some rules
in his mind although these rules may not be well-formed.
The system in hisher mind is very near to the native speakers.
24
In this stage the learner is able to correct his /her errors whenever a native
speaker mentions them.
She/he tries to convey his idea through paraphrasing. (Changing words to
convey the message)

Learner: Many fish are in the lake. These fish are serving in the
restaurants near the lake.
Native speaker: (laughing) the fish are serving?
Learner: (laughing) Oh, no, the fish are served in the restaurant.
Learner: I lost my road.
Native speaker: What?
Learner: I got lost. (Paraphrasing and avoiding the use of structure)

2- Post-systematic Errors: (Stabilization)

In this stage the learner has a few errors and has mastered the system.
The learner is self-controlled on his/ her errors without waiting for feedbacks
from someone else.

Learner-*I lost my road; I mean I lost my way.

4. Fossilization:

If the learner in this stage makes some errors it means his errors has been
fossilized and correcting these kinds of errors will be very difficult, these
errors are permanent.

5. Source of Errors:

1- Inter-lingual Transfer

Inter-lingual errors result from the transfer of the elements of the learners mother
tongue to the learning of the target language.

a) Transfer of Phonological Elements of the Mother Tongue:

* /sukuul / instead of /skuul/

b) Transfer of Morphological Elements:

25
* Three clever student instead of three clever students

c) Transfer of Grammatical Elements

* I am going to university at 8 o'clock every day.

In Arabic: Simple Present Tense = Present Progressive

d) Transfer of Lexicosemantic Elements:

Two different concepts in Arabic are used with the same word which makes
interference in English:

1. *I can't study in the dormitory because some students open their radios
loudly.
2. *He had a quarrel with his woman.
3. *My father bought a new machine last week.
4. *He smokes a lot of cigar.
5. *It was my chance to be in your class.

e) Transfer of Stylistic and Cultural Elements:

* Mr. Hassan are a good teacher. /al-ustaath hasan mudarris-un gayid/
.

2- Intra-lingual Transfer

The learner applies one rule in the Native Language for other structures in the
Target Language inappropriately.

a) Overgeneralization

I always try to study.
We always go to cinema on Saturdays.
Maryam and Hassan always play the chess-set every night.

* He always try to help me.
* I don't know how did they find my address. (Subject Verb inversion)

b) I gnorance of Rule Restriction
26

The Arabic learner doesn't know the restriction and exceptions of a general rule in
English.

*There are many fishes in the lake.
*Teachers always give us good advices.

c) False Analogy

It refers to the use of certain elements in inappropriate contexts through analogy.

*I think she should remain home and grow up her child.

3- Language- Learning Strategies:

It refers to strategies used by the learners in dealing with the target language:

a) Overgeneralization
b) Transfer of rules from the mother tongue
c) Simplification: (we discuss in here) in this strategy learner tries to simplify
the rules of target language form himself:

* I am student English language.
* I begin my work afternoon usually.

4- Communication Strategy:

It is used when the learner is forced to express himself with the limited linguistic
resources.

1- Paraphrase:

"Pipe" () unbuub/ instead of "the water pipe" ( ( unbuub al-maa"
Air-ball" (which the learner makes it himself) instead of "balloon"

2- Borrowing:

* Dont be tired. Instead of dont work hard. (The learner translates word for word
from the native language.)

27
3- Appeal for Assistance:

*What is this? What called? (The learner asks for the correct term)

4- Mime:

Clapping his hands instead of applause (Using nonverbal action in place of lexical
items)

5- Avoidance:

i. Lexical Avoidance:

I lost my road.
You lost your road?
UhI lost. I lost. I got lost.

(The learner tries to avoid the lexical item 'road', not being able to come up with
the word ' way' at that point)

2. Syntactic Avoidance:

He finished his homework; he went to bed. (Instead of "Having finished his
homework, he went to bed.)

6- Prefabricated Patterns:

The learner memorizes certain stock phrases or sentences:

- Where is the toilet?
- How much does it cost?
- Where is this address?

7- Language Switch:

Finally, when all the strategies fail, learners may resort to language switch. That is,
they may simply use their native language whether the hearer knows it or not.

5- Context of Learning:

28
The source of error here is teacher or text book. For example wrong or unsuitable
usage of a rule by teacher or using dialogues in a text book without mentioning the
formality or informality of occurrences may cause some errors for learning.

6. Nonlinguistic Errors: (Idiosyncratic Errors):

These kinds of errors are specialized to individuals or a small group of learners
who had the same teacher, used the same textbook, shared identical learning
strategies, but the learners do not have a specific methodology for learning and
cannot make a generalization for designing a textbook or give the students a
specific learning activity.

7. Criticism of EA
There are three points to consider as to criticism of errors according to Schachter
and Celce-Murcia (1977):

1. Focused only on errors
2. Did not deal with avoidance (relative clauses: Chinese and Japanese vs.
Spanish and Farsi English passive avoidance by Arabic speakers phrasal
verbs by Hebrew speakers)
3. In short, EA did not deal with what the students were doing that caused them
to succeed, that is, it did not deal with what led to learning.

General Readings and Bibliographies

Aziz , yowell . Y . ( 1989 ) . A C ontrastive Grammar of E nglish and Arabic.
Mosul : The University of Higher Education .
Chalker, Sylvia . (1984 ). Current English Grammar. London . Macmillan
Publishers .
Crystal, David. (1985), A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. New York:
Basil Blackwell.
Fisiak, Jacek. Ed. (1981). Contrastive Linguistics and the Language Teacher.
Oxford: Pergamon Press Ltd.
Gramely, Stephan and, Kurt Michael,Patzold . ( 1992 ), A Survey of Modern
English. London: Rutledge.
James, Carl (1980). Contrastive Analysis. London: Longman Group Ltd.
Lado, Robert (1957). Linguistics Across Cultures: Applied Linguistics for
Language Teachers. Michigan: The University of Michigan Press.
29
Maggie, Tallerman . ( 1989 ) . Understanding Syntax. London: Edward Arnold,
LTD.
Qassim, Abdul- Hassan Sh. (n.d.), Translation Grammatically viewed. English
Department, College of Languages ,University of Baghdad.
Quirk , R , S. Greenbaum , G . Leech , and J . Svartvik. (1973 ) . A Concise
Grammar of Contemporary English. London. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich ,
Inc .
Wright, W. (1974) . A grammar of the Arabic Language .2 vols . Beruit :
Libbrairie Du Liban .

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Contrastive Analysis & Error Analysis, handout, by Dr. A. Shaghi, 4th Y.E B.Ed.

either way, a highly unusual sound. The

/hal nimta murtahan alaylata albariha/

/ghadan sa-azuur-u-hu/. The context of

/sa-'ashtari bayt-an gadiid-an bada al-utlati al-

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