Contrastive Analysis Interlanguage, and Error Analysis Session Notes Dr. E. Vázquez-Montilla

Contrastive Analysis Interlanguage, and Error Analysis Two issues to consider --- What is contrastive analysis? Explain the hierarchy of difficulty by which a teacher or linguist could make a prediction of the relative difficulty of a given aspect of the second language

Contrastive Analysis (CA) Predicts and describes the patterns that will cause difficulty in learning, and those that will not cause difficulty, by comparing systematically the language and the culture to be learned with the native language and culture of the students. Stresses interfering effects of the first language on second language learning.

CA Procedures Description - explicitly describes the two languages in question. Selection - selection of forms (rules, structures ) for contrast. Contrast - mapping of one linguistic system onto the other and a specification of the relationship of one system with the other. Prediction based on the analysis.

Interlanguage Refers to the separateness of a second language learners’ system that has a structurally intermediate status between the native and target language. Stresses the successive approximation to the target language.

Error Analysis Learners errors are significant in that they provide evidence of how language is learned and acquired. Looks for strategies or procedures the learner is employing in the discovery of language. Errors can be observed, analyzed, and classified to reveal something of the system operating within the learner. Examines errors attributable to all possible sources, not just to the result form negative transfer of the native language.