TKT Module 1: Background to language learning
The role of error

Oops!

Everybody makes mistake and pobody's nerfect.

Key concepts in this guide

By the end of this guide, you should be able to understand and use these key concepts:

slips and errors
teacher-induced error
interlanguage
developmental errors
productive error: syntactical, phonological, register and style
receptive error
covert error
concept checking questions
recognising errors
explaining error: ignorance, over-generalisation, L1 interference (grammar, lexis and style)
dealing with errors

Look out for these words like this in the text.
There will be tests at the end of the guide for you to check that you understand the ideas.

There are guides on this site which will tell you more about errors. Here we will only discuss what you need for TKT.

Slip or error?

We make a distinction between two types of mistake: an error and a slip.

Errors are caused by a lack of language knowledge or communication strategies
Slips are caused by tiredness, inattention or just having too much to think about at the time

For example, two of the following are just slips which can be ignored (unless they persist) but three are real errors that may need us to do something constructive in the classroom. (All of them are real, noted in the classroom, by the way.)
Can you identify which is which? Click here when you have an answer.

He go fishing every Sunday (advanced learner talking about his father)
There are stone stairs down to the beach (low-level learner describing a picture)
The house's roof is blow off (intermediate learner summarising a newspaper report about something which happened last week)
The car won't starting because something is wrong with the engine (intermediate-level learner explaining a problem)
Please give that me (upper-intermediate learner asking a classmate to pass a pen)

Numbers 1, 4 and 5 are just slips or mistakes.
Number 1: it's unlikely that an advanced learner doesn't know that it should be he goes.
Number 4: it's also unlikely that an intermediate speaker doesn't know that won't is followed by the infinitive, not the -ing form.
Number 5: it's unlikely that an upper-intermediate student doesn't know that it should be it not that in this case.

Numbers 2 and 3, however, are real errors.
Number 2: the speaker clearly doesn't have the word steps in his or her vocabulary
Number 3: there are lots of errors: the form of the genitive (it should be the roof of the house), the form of a passive (it should be the verb be followed by the past participle, blown) and the tense of the verb (it should be was or has been). So many errors in one sentence need attention. It is possible that the teacher has chosen a task which is simply too difficult for the learner and that is a teacher-induced error. (There is a guide to teacher-induced error on this site.)

Two views of error

With which of the following do you have the most sympathy?
Click here for some comments when you have an answer.

View 1: errors made by students are evidence that something has gone wrong in the teaching-learning process.
View 2: making errors is a natural part of learning a language and should be viewed positively as an opportunity to help the learner.

There is no right answer to this question but you should know that what you believe about error is likely to affect how you handle it.
View 1: is often held by those who believe that learning a language is mostly about forming good habits and, through lots of practice and repetition, we can get to the point where we are producing correct language automatically, almost without thinking.
View 2: is often held by those who see language learning as a process of thought: learning by testing hypotheses, adjusting our theories, comparing what we say with what we hear and noticing gaps in knowledge for ourselves. For these people, errors are seen as developmental.
These are very different ways of seeing the process.

How do the two different views change how we handle error?

Well, how might they? Think for a moment and then click here.

If you hold view 1:: You may feel it's your duty to correct every error as soon as it's made for fear that otherwise the learners will acquire bad language habits. You may also try to avoid putting your learners in a situation in which errors are going to happen.
If you hold view 2:: You will probably be rather more relaxed about error and focus only on those which are important for the purposes of what you are teaching at the time or which seriously get in the way of communication. Note that none of the errors in the first list of five makes the learner's meaning unclear.

Interlanguage

This is a key concept and describes where the learners' ability is on a scale from knowing nothing of the target language to complete control. It can be pictured like this:

It is, of course, crucial to know where a learner's interlanguage currently is. There are three reasons (at least) for this. Can you come up with them? Click when you've made a note (or at least thought about it!).

Reason 1:	it tells us what the learner is likely to know already and that helps us plan what to teach.
Reason 2:	it helps us to decide what to correct in class. There's little point in trying to correct a very elementary student who is trying to produce a complex third conditional form with a modal auxiliary verb because it will take too long and probably confuse the learners.
Reason 3:	it helps us to recognise whether an error should be corrected by you or whether the error can be self-corrected by the learner.

Handling error in the classroom

The following assumes that you are closer to those that hold view 2 than view 1.

There are three main steps:

Step 1: RECOGNITION

This may sound obvious. After all, we all know when something is wrong, don't we?
Usually, yes, because we are focused on productive errors: the errors learners make when speaking or writing. For example:

I go often to the cinema
This is an error in the syntax or structure so we call it a syntactical error. It should be I often go to the cinema.
He journeys to London every morning
Here the learner has chosen the wrong word so it's a lexical error. It should be He travels / goes to London every morning.
I crossed the Channel on a sheep.
Here the learner has not confused the meaning of ship and sheep but has failed to pronounce the word correctly. It's a phonological error. The learner means ship not sheep.
The criminal was punished to four years
Here the learner doesn't know the legal verb to sentence so it's a register error. The correct version would be The criminal was sentenced to four years.
(To a waiter in a restaurant) Excuse me, sir!
This is not how we address a waiter so it's a stylistic error. Just Excuse me would be enough.
Note: Cambridge uses no distinction in TKT between style and register so this error and the previous one would not be distinct. You can go to the guide on this site for information in this area.

But there are two sorts of error we need to be aware of where the situation is not so clear:

Receptive error: We can make a mistake in understanding what we read or hear so it is important that we have ways in the classroom to find out whether something has been adequately understood or not. To do that, we ask questions or make sure the language has a clear context so we can judge. This is a concept checking routine.
Covert error: If, for example, a student says
    She has been to London
how do we know if it is right or wrong? The form looks and sounds OK but the learner might have meant
    She went to London
or
    She has gone to London
and that's another reason we need a clear context for all the language we practise in the classroom. We also need to ask concept-checking questions such as When?, Where is she now? etc.

Step 2: EXPLANATION

Can you think of any reasons why students may make errors?
Click here when you have thought of something.

Ignorance: the learner may simply have never learnt the form or the meaning and is just guessing. This is most common at lower levels because that's where learners' needs often exceed their abilities.
Over-generalising the rule: sometimes, when a 'rule' has been learned, learners will over-extend it. For example, if you have learned the rule to add -ed to make a past tense, it seems logical to form catched. Equally, over-extending a rule might lead to the production of wonderfuller. This is a true developmental error.
First language interference: all learners, especially adult ones, will draw on language(s) they know to try to learn and understand a new one. This is most obvious in the area of pronunciation, of course, but occurs frequently in other areas:
Structure: the learner's first language may have a structure that looks similar but means different things. For example, the German structure of
    Ich habe gesehen [I have seen, literally]
often is better translated into English as
    I saw
rather than
    I have seen.
That's only one reason for finding out a bit about our learners' first languages.
Lexis: many languages, and not only European ones, have words which look the same but have different meanings. For example, simpatico in Italian means nice or friendly, sensibel in German means sensitive and un smoking in French is a dinner jacket. There are many hundreds of these so-called false friends. There's a set of exercises on this site focused on false friends.
Appropriacy and style: in many languages, such as Greek, it is perfectly acceptable, for example, to go into a shop and state I want ...or Give me ... with no please to soften the instruction. That will not work well in most English-speaking cultures.

Step 3: REMEDY

Here is where teachers need to think on their feet. There are questions to ask whenever you hear an error. What might these be?
Click here when you have thought of some ways to handle error.

Question 1: Am I going to correct this?: If the error isn't holding up communication and has nothing to do with the subject of the lesson, it may be that correcting it will lead you away from the target of the lesson, slow down the lesson and confuse the learners. If that's the case ignore it.
If, on the other hand, the error is interfering with comprehension or is made in the language that is the target of what you are doing, then you will have to deal with it.
Question 2: Do I need to correct this?: Very often, learners can correct their own production so a quizzical look or stopping learners and getting them to retrace their steps and reconsider may be more effective than your correcting the error.
Question 3: Can anyone else correct the error?: If the learners can't correct their own errors, perhaps someone else in the class can. If you think this is the case, give them the chance to do so.
Question 4: How will I correct?: A last resort is normally to give the correct answer yourself. Often, learners can be led to discover the right answer with questions to check concepts and suggestions such as
    There's something wrong with the order of the words
    What preposition do we need here?
    What tense should this be?
    Are we talking about tomorrow or today?
    Is this a long 'a' sound or a short one?
and so on.
If all else fails, however, there are, obviously, times when providing the right answer is the best approach providing you make sure that the learner can produce the correct language independently after you have done so.
Question 5: Do I need to focus on this now?: Often, stepping in and correcting an error will interrupt the learners and stop them from communicating. If this is the case, consider delayed correction: make a note of the error and return to it after the activity has finished. Then deal with it as above.

Self-test questions

Before you go on, make sure you can answer these questions. If you can't, go back to the sections which give you trouble.

What's the difference between a slip and an error?
Give an example of a teacher-induced error.
Explain the idea of interlanguage.
Give an example of the following types of error:
- syntactical
- phonological
- style
Explain what a covert error is and what you can do about it.
Give an example of a concept-checking question for the difference between
He has been out
and
He has gone out

If you are happy with your progress, go on.

Tests and practice for TKT

Test 1	A short matching task
Test 2	A 5-item, multiple-choice test on handling error

Return to the Module 1 index:
or go on to the next guide which is to the differences between first and second language learning.

TKT Module 1: Background to language learning The role of error