This article is mainly about acquiring the mother tongue and learning the second language. One of the inevitable by-product of the process of learning a language is the learner's errors. Corder distinguishes between the errors of performance and the errors of competence. The former refers to 'mistakes' and the latter 'errors' which is respectively 'unsystematic' and 'systematic'. This part was the most interesting but, at the same time, somewhat vague to me. Since Corder didn't provide the concrete examples out of them, it was hard to fully understand the terms. I looked up the Internet to get some help and happened to find the article, 'The Insignificance of learner's errors' by Richard Hamilton. Surprisingly, it also argues that Corder didn't give any examples of a systematic error.
From my understanding, errors of performance are subject to change due to memory lapses, tiredness or strong emotion while errors of competence can define the learners' knowledge of the language to date. Corder mentions that it is significant in that it reflects what the learner has been undertaking a systematic analysis. This process of the 'forming grammar' consists of the certain stages that learners go through over time.
If so, the systematic error related to 'the natural order' which is the common type of learners' errors? If not, how are they different?
From my understanding, errors of performance are subject to change due to memory lapses, tiredness or strong emotion while errors of competence can define the learners' knowledge of the language to date. Corder mentions that it is significant in that it reflects what the learner has been undertaking a systematic analysis. This process of the 'forming grammar' consists of the certain stages that learners go through over time.
If so, the systematic error related to 'the natural order' which is the common type of learners' errors? If not, how are they different?
professor, I have a question about 'mistake' and 'error'
ReplyDeleteI know the rules of perfect tense but,since Korean language doesn't have the same tense, I have to be cautious whenever using it in a sentence. Otherwise I may end up using the past tense instead. I feel like I am BETWEEN the error of performance and the error of the competence because I can produce the correct sentence with the extra attention :-)
Which side am I?
If you can produce the correct sentence by carefully monitoring your speech, then I would say it's more of a performance error.
ReplyDeletethank you for the answer!!
ReplyDeleteI have one more question...hopefully, this is the last :-)
If the errors of performance occur in a systematic order, are there certain stages that all learners go through in common?
If so, the errrors of performance would reflect the natural order???
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ReplyDeleteSorry Yookyung, this is a very late follow-up, as I forgot to type in the code that allows me to post my comment the last time I tried to post something.
ReplyDeleteIt's the other way... i.e., errors of competence that tend to be systematic.
The general consensus is that the route (stages) is similar, but the rate is different.
Thank you very much, professor!
ReplyDelete