The Merits of Exploiting Error Analysis in Foreign Language Teaching and Learning

Abstract

The rejection of contrastive analysis (CA) input in foreign/second language teaching materials, in North American context, in the late seventies resulted in the emergence of Error Analysis (EA) both as a theory and method, and the suitability of the latter to foreign language teaching and learning on the basis of empirical evidence. The status of EA as persona grata in language pedagogy was praised by the findings of many works that had proven successful in isolating inter- and intra-lingual errors. There is, therefore, a need to make use of EA as a pedagogical technique in second language learning. This article is a contribution on how ErrorAnalysis can be exploited in identifying the errors of L2 learners and explaining their sources. It hypothesizes that language pedagogy using Error Analysis will be effective in identifying errors that may not be predicted by classic CA. The results of the study support the hypothesis whose implications are further examined.