Reflection 9

Capturing L2 Accuracy Developmental Patterns:

 Insights from an Error-Tagged EFL Learner Corpus

               

By JENNIFER THEWISSEN

Theories of error in foreign language teaching research provide for not only correct appreciation of student errors but also understanding of how L1 as well as L2 is acquired. Through a study of a learner’s erroneous linguistic performance which deviates from formal target language, researchers can obtain evidence how language is acquired or learned and what strategies the learner is employing in his/her learning of languages, and educators can learn information of how far towards the goal the learner has progressed and consequently what remains for him/her to learn. Therefore, I believe error theories in EFL/ESL research have significant value.

This study indicated that the EFL error developmental patterns tend to be dominated by progress and stabilization trends and that progress is often located between B1 and B2, whereas the performance range between B2 and C2 is characterized by a plateau‐like stabilization tendency. As it was mentioned in our discussion, the higher the level, the slower the progress. All the calculations were done by means of ANOVA, t-test, and r-test. Our class discussed helped me refresh my knowledge of statistics; ANOVA is used for measuring more than two groups, t-test can be of two types: independent t-test which measures the difference between two different samples, and paired t-test which measure the two different scores of the same sample. I have used these tools to measure the data for my capstone project.

This kind of investigation, although did not consider the influence of L1, contributed some cumulative evidence for a better understanding of the interlanguage and shed light on teaching and testing techniques as remedial pedagogical interventions which are inextricably linked with error analysis. Students do not pick up language features in a linear, highly predictable, sequential manner. Rather, the key for getting them to use, for example, grammar correctly lies in getting them to notice how grammar is used by proficient speakers, to notice the gaps in their performance, to explore through cycle of hypothesizing, testing, and verifying patterns and rules, to use the data they find and expose to large amounts of language through extensive reading. The question of how to put all of these techniques together is, in my conviction, most suitably answered by the task-based approach, as a needs-based approach to content selection – a productive pedagogical intervention.

Considering the significant research value of error-analysis, I think more and more data-based evidence is necessary for determining with confidence the nature of learning strategies and interlanguage, and for establishing a viable theory of foreign language learning and teaching – a concern and occupation of current research in applied linguistics.