It is a widely held belief among researchers that making mistakes is part of the process of acquiring another language. While there are those who do not believe this (click here for an opposing view), the majority of scientific research supports the idea that mistakes are a “natural” part of learning. If you think of children, you will agree that they make mistakes in learning their primary language. It is doubtful that anyone who is fluent in a language became that way without making mistakes along the way.
Performance Versus Competence Mistakes
All students learning English have experienced being corrected by a teacher. Often students say “Oh, of course! I know that. Why did I say such and such”. For example, a student said to me “Teacher, I sended you an email”. When I corrected her, she said ” Yes, sent is the correct past participle. I know that. Why did I say ‘sended’? This is an example of a performance mistake. It is one thing to recognize the correct way to say something in English, and another thing to speak English correctly. In this example, the student is overgeneralizing (adding -ed to make the verb a past participle). But she would not do this on a written test.
What Causes Performance Mistakes in Learning English?
Stress. Plain and simple. The more stress a student feels speaking English, the more likely they are to make a performance mistake. Higher stress leads to a lower ability to communicate (Korturk and Ozturk 2013). This feeling goes away the more time students have speaking English. This is one reason why small classes where students are given a lot of time to talk in the presence of a native speaker are so important. The more English students “perform”, the fewer mistakes they will make.
What Causes Competence Mistakes in Learning English?
Lack of understanding. If you feel you are making competence mistakes, then it means you need to memorize or study the basic ideas more. Competence mistakes in learning English are easily fixed by studying, drilling and completing practice exercises.
Will I Always Make Mistakes?
No. That is the short answer. Most mistakes made my students learning English are interim mistakes. Interim mistakes are those that are made for awhile, but then go away with practice and exposure. Now, if you do not practice or keep speaking English, then it will take a lot longer for these mistakes to fade away.
What Is the Most Common Mistake in Learning English?
Applying rules too consistently. Students tend to overgeneralize rules. Sometimes rules learned in the second language are applied everywhere, such as in the example of “sended” above. Other times, students apply rules from their primary language to English. A frequent one is “My assignment is due until tomorrow”. Often this preposition is needed in other languages, but not in English in this case. The good news is that overgeneralizing passes with time, and if you have a good teacher who corrects you properly, these mistakes end even faster (Ajmal et al. 2013).
Conclusion
The most critical thing is for English students to practice speaking in front of a native speaker. Speaking with peers is OK, but it does not simulate the stress most students feel. Find a small class with a good teacher and speak as much as you can.
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References:
Saban Köktürk and Emine Öztürk, “Modern Aspects of Second Language Acquisition and the Role and Function of Mistakes,”International Journal of Linguistics 5, no. 3 (2013),
Malik Ajmal Gulzar, Sartaj Fakhar Jilani, and Choudhary Zahid Javid, “Constructive Feedback: An Effective Constituent for Eradicating Impediments in Writing Skills,” English Language Teaching 6, no. 8 (2013),
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Reblogged this on So, You Think You Can Teach ESL? and commented:
Mistakes are a great way to see how one can improve.
Yes. They can be frustrating, but still one of the best ways to learn.
Stress and over generalising are issues for me too. I need your guidance to get rid of them. How to contact you?
Sorry I seemed to have missed this. You can find me at http://www.eslhelpers.org. Thanks for asking.
Yes I agree about making mistakes is how you learn, At the same time I notice too that there are some students who have unfortunately learned from a teacher at school who’s English was not that good, so by the time they get to learn English at a proper language centre, though they have good vocabulary and confidence and can communicate well, their grammar is terrible. The hardest part is getting them to change these bad grammar habits….We always find that people who start from Zero English at a good language centre, always make much better progress because they are getting correct corrections from good teachers all the way along.
Thank you. What you bring up is a problem. If course, the original blog assumes competent instruction, but no matter what, mistakes are part of learning.
I find in this country (Malaysia) competent instruction is the number one issue.