Differences between Errors and Mistakes

3. Differences between Errors and Mistakes

We need to distinguish errors and mistakes. Error and Mistakes are synonyms but two or more different words that bear the same or similar meaning. However, there are appropriate ways to use the words, and this will often depend on the context. Ellis 1997 raises the need to distinguish between errors and mistakes and makes an important distinction between the two. He says that errors reflect gaps in the learner’s knowledge; they occur because the learner does not know what is correct. Mistakes reflect occasional lapses in performance; they occur because, in a particular instance, the learner is unable to perform what he or she knows 23 . According to Ancker 2000, a mistake is a performance error that is either a random guess or a slip, it is a failure to utilize a word correctly, and an error is a noticeable deviation from the language of a native speaker 24 . J. Edge 1989 suggests dividing mistakes into three types: slips, errors and attempts. “Slips” are mistakes that students can correct themselves; “errors” are mistakes which students cannot correct themselves; “attempts” are student’s intentions of using the language without knowing the right way. In this article, either the most common linguistic term “error” or the students’ preferred term “mistake” will be used interchangeably 25 . For example of mistakes, a student was answering a question raised by the researchers to describe her daily routine, and her answer which was recorded is as follow 26 : a. My mum wake me up at six oclock then I goes to the bathroom to washes my face and brushes my teeth. As usual my mum prepare my breakfast and give me a sandwich for college . 23 Baljit Bhela, Native language interference in learning a second language: Exploratory case studies of native language interference with target language usage, International Education Journal. Vol 1, No 1, 1999 24 Galina Kavaliauskien , Case Study: Learner Attitudes Toward The Correction Of Mistakes , Socialin s Technologijos Social Technologies 2012, 21, p. 88–101 25 Ibid. 26 Rula Tahsin Tarawneh and Islam Mousa Almomani, The Spoken Errors and Mistakes Committed bySenior English Students at Princess Alia University College, Theory and practice in Language Studies , Vol.3, No.3, pp.497-502, March 2013 As can be seen in the above mentioned example in 1 as a mistake because the student is insisting on adding the –s form to the first person singular; whereas the –s form is omitted where needed. Also the student is not realizing the rule of to-infinitive. Thus, this is a real example from our English class which proves the students unawareness of the grammatical rules and patterns of subject- verb agreement and the infinitive form. b. They goes to school and stays in a big hotel in Irbid. This statement in 2 is also ungrammatical and considered as an error because the learner thinks that the pronoun is plural and accordingly the–s form which is added to the verb is a must. This indicates that learner here cannot distinguish between the plural morpheme and the present tense morpheme -s. It shows that the learner has over-generalized the rule in the example above c. He have wrote her homework and have did it. The above utterance is an error because the learner could not correct herself in the subject verb-agreement as of repeating the same error which is have. The learner is not realizing the ungrammatical utterance because she lacks competence her knowledge of the internal structure of the language. The distinction between a mistake and an error has serious implications for teaching and learning processes. Many of our students are unaware of the differences between the two or if they are aware, they are unable to apply the grammatical rules to their spoken utterances. This is a conclusion in the work of Krashen e.g . 1976; 1981, they are 27 : 27 Nancy Lee, Notions Oferror And Appropriate Corrective Treatment, Hongkong Papers In Linguisticsand Language Teaching, 13 1990, p. 57 Table 2.2 Notions of Error in Linguistics Error Linguistics Applied Linguistics Mistake belonging performance Error belonging Competence Mistake belonging performance Characteristics: - slips of the tongue - lapses of memory - speech condition from physicalmental state - made by NS only - speaker knowledge of language system - can be self-monitored self corrected - rarely corrected by others Characteristics: - speaker knowledge of language in question - monitoredcorrected by others Characteristics: - slips of the tongue - lapses of memory - speech condition from physical mental state - assumed to have speaker knowledge of language system - self-corrected Self-monitored - monitored by others Krashen himself sees the role of the monitor as being confined to conscious learning, a process which he sees as having no effect upon language acquisition, several other researchers have rejected his claims on these points: summaries recent discussion and references 28 . Teaching experience also suggests that 28 Ibid. conscious attention to errors and mistakes could raise learner awareness of form and function and that this will eventually affect acquisition as well as performance and competence. So, the conclusion of various linguistic experts likes Elis 1997. Errors and mistakes are similar but difference in meaning. Errors are mistake that reflect the students and the students could not fix their mistakes. Being according Ancker 2000, mistakes is student error in slip their performance. So, differences in error and mistake were only in knowledge their self. Error centered on student ignorance and mistake in fixing mistakes, fixing errors based on the previous knowledge. Krashen himself sees the differences between error and mistake in his research has serious implications for teaching and learning processes. Errors are divided into two linguistic and applied linguistic. In linguistic, belonging mistake have performance characteristics such as slips of the tongue, lapses of memory, speech condition, can be self-monitored self corrected. And errors in applied linguistics, belonging error competence has different characteristics from mistake such as the speaker knowledge of language in question, monitored by other and corrected by others. So, the obvious conclusions both of them are the error based on competency and performance-based mistakes.

4. The Causes of Errors