“If intelligibility- as a threshold for international communication or for any

level of EFL acquisition- is to be achieved when speaking English,

emphasis much be put upon pronunciation aspects such as word-stress.”

(Benrabah, 1997, p.163)

“An English sentence often contains many small words that do not carry the

essential meaning of the idea or thought. A common mistake made by

nonnative speakers is to pronounce every word with equal stress, creating a

very stilted rhythm that does not match that a native English speakers.”

(Cameron, 2012, p.205)

…paragraph length responses in classroom tests…may be hard pressed to

decide whether a certain kind of error, particularly in native language transfer,

seriously affects the intelligibility of an entire utterance in the presence of

other contextual information.” (Fischer, 1984, p.16)

“if the goal of the foreign language classroom is to attain a level of acceptable

communicative competence, it is crucial that the teacher be able to evaluate

students’ progress towardthat goal.” (Fischer, 1984, p.17)

“Swain specified three specific functions of learner output. Firstly, producing

output allows learners to test hypotheses about the target language grammar.

Secondly, it may trigger the type of metal-linguistic reflection that is

benefictal to interlanguage decelopment. Finally, output has the ability to

promote noticing and to push learners’ awareness of the gaps and problems in

their interlanguage system….’if students are given insufficient feedback or no

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feedback regarding the extend to which their messages have successfully

(accurately, appropriately, and coherently) been conveyed, output may not

serve these roles. ” (van Beuningen, 2010, p.6)

“…by offering learners opportunities to notice the gaps in their developing L2

systems, test interlanguage hypotheses, and engage in metalinguistic

reflection, written CF has the ability to foster SLA and to lead to accuracy

development.” (van Beuningen, 2010, p.21)

“A communicative approach must be based on and respond to the learner’s

(often changing) communication needs and interests.” (Canale, 1984, p.18)

“…exploring the role of feedback in the process of developing learners’

editing and revision skills.” (van Beuningen, 2010, p.2)

“The concept of noticing combines the two crucial cognitive linguistic notions

of attention and awareness….Schmidt thus argued that noticing is a necessary

condition for language learning.” (van Beuningen, 2010, p.5)

Another essential role assocaiated with attention is its ability to make learners

aware of ‘a mismatch or gap between what they can produce and what they

need to produce, as well as between what they produce and was target

language speakers produce….Ellis used the term cognitive compartision” (van

Beuningen, 2010, p.5)

“Rather than treating communicative competence as just an outcome of L2

instruction, we see it as an enabling condition.” (Lee, 2006, p.368)

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Quality of execution of performance plus the underlying state of knowledge

“…if we consider this exchange purely to be a matter of linguistic error and

correction, we would miss and thus take for granted the competent practices of

language use that make this exchange intelligible in the first place.” (Lee,

2006, p.358)

“Rather than treating communicative competence as just an outcome of L2

instruction, we see it as an enabling condition.” (Lee, 2006, p.368)

Quality of execution of performance plus the underlying state of knowledge

“diagnose the individual’s specific strengths and weaknesses” (Harris, 1969,

p.3)

“indicates what an individual is capable of doing now (as the result of his

cumulative learning experiences), though it may also serve as a basis for

predicting future attainment.” (Harris, 1969, p.3)

“students can cover up weaknesses by avoiding problems” (Harris, 1969, p.70)

“Normally two or more short compositions will prove to be more reliable than

one long one. And having the compositions written at different times will

yield better results than having them written at one sitting.” (Harris, 1969,

p.77)

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Corder quoted by Şanal “The first to the teacher in that they tell him, if he

understands a systematic analysis, how far towards the goal the learner has

progressed, and consequently what remains for him to learn. Second, they

provide to the researcher evidence of how language is learnered or aquired,

what strategies or procedures the learner is employing in his discovery of the

language. Thirdly (and in a sense this is the most important aspect) hey are

indispensible to the learner himself, because we can regard the making of

errors as a device the learner uses in order to learn.” (Şanal, 2008, p.598)

“In order to understand the process of L2 learning, the mistakes a person made

in the process of constructing a new system of language should be analysed

carefully”. (Şanal, 2008, p.598)

“A mistake refers to a performance error, it is a failure to make use of a known

system….not the result of a deficiceny in competence…..errors are deviances

that are due to deficient competency” (Şanal, 2008, p.599)

Errors caused by negative transfer and Errors caused by target language (lack

of knowledge)

“Only when the teachers of English know why an error has been produced

they can set about correcting in a systematic way.” ((Şanal, 2008, p.600)

Paraphrased. Teachers need to modify their lessons to take into account the

wants and needs of their learners. (Harmer, 2003, p. 288)

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“context is a crucial determiner of the success or failure of learners.” (Bax,

2003, p.281)

“…many aspects of the context- such as students’ attitudes, cultural

expectations, and so on- are clearly at least as important as teaching method.”

(Bax, 2003, p. 282-3)

Paraphrased. Teachers need to modify their lessons to take into account the

wants and needs of their learners. (Harmer, 2003, p. 288)

“To social constructivists, students are active constructors and architects of

their own building ideas and knowledge and, thus, not only does the

ownership of learning reside with them, but also sustaining motivation

depends on how much they are confident in using their potential to learn.”

(Amini, 2011, p.9)

“Oral fluency is of great importance to second language learners who need to

be able to participate in academic, occupational, and social contexts. (Rossiter,

Derwing, Manimtim & Thomson, 2010, p.584)

“Oral fluency is one of the most salient markers of proficiency in a second

language.” (Rossiter, Derwing, Manimtim & Thomson, 2010, p.584)

“The most successful classrooms are those that encourage students to think of

themselves and engage in critical thinking. Critical thinking allows us to think

about our own thoughts and the reasons behind our point of view.” (Crawford,

Saul, Mathews & Makinster, 2005, p. 4)

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“At the intermediate midlevel of proficiency, the speech of many students

contains fossilized errors. In some cases, their fluency results in their inability

to recognize their errors, while in others their lack of confidence in language

skills slows down their performance.” (Leaver & Willis, 2004, p75)

Benrabah suggests that intelligibility is a threshold for international

communication or for any level of EFL acquisition. (1997, p.163)

According to Vygotsky’s (1978) socio-cultural theory, learning is facilitated

through interaction with the social environment (interpersonal learning) rather

than intrapersonal learning….Vygotsky’s concept of the ‘Zone of Proximal

Development’ (ZPD) describes the gap between what learners can accomplish

independently and what learners can accomplish when provided external

support. Vygotskians believe that learning occurs when the gap is bridged.”

(Zha, Kelly, MeeAeng, & Fitzgerald. 2006, p.350)

Nature of communication involves a high degree of unpredictability and

creativity in form and message (Canale, 1984, p.3)

“…the performance task itself is of less interest than what the performance

reveals; the underlying knowledge and ability is the actual target of the

assessment.” (McNamara, 1996, p.25)

“The defining feature of a test of language proficiency, then is that the learner

be required to demonstrate not only knowledge of the language but skill in the

use of that knowledge in settings which are in some degree communicative.”

(McNamara, 1996, p.28)

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What can the candidate can actually achieve through the language

(McNamara, 1996, p.37)

“Foreign language educators universally affirm that the goal of the language

classroom should be communicative competence in the foreign

language….Yet many teachers and language educators have paid only passing

attention to evaluating communicative competence in the classroom.”

(Fischer, 1984, p.13)

Namely, that in Italian the element which the speaker wishes to give most

emphasis to is usually moved to the end of the clause. This contrasts with

English, in which the salient element is identified by intonation changes rather

than word order changes. Italians often find it difficult also to produce the

right intonation patterns when asking questions or making requests

(Shoebottom, 1996).

Italian does not use the perfect tenses to make a connection to the present in

the same way that English does (Shoebottom, 1996).

Italian learners frequently have problems with the correct use of articles in

English. Although both the definite and the indefinite article exist in both

languages, their use often does not coincide. As a result it is common to hear

sentences such as: Is he teacher? or The health is the most important in the life

(Shoebottom, 1996).

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The subject pronoun is not required in colloquial Italian, so learners may say

sentences such as: Is impossible (Shoebottom, 1996).

Errors as evidence for a creative process (Touchie, 1986, p.75)

“…significant in three respects: (1) errors are important for the language

teacher because they indicate the learner’s progress in language learning; (2)

errors are also important for the language researcher as they provide insights

into how language is learnt; and (3) finally, errors are significant to the

language learner himself/herself as he/she gets involved in hypothesis testing.”

(Touchie, 1986, p.76)

There are mainly two major sources of errors in second language learning. The

first source is interference from the native language while the second source

can be attributed to intralingual and developmental factors (Touchie, 1986,

p.77)

Intralingual and developmental errors are due to the difficulty of the

second/target language. Intralingual and developmental factors include the

following:

1. Simplification: Learners often choose simple forms and constructions

instead of more complex ones. An example of simplification might involve

the use of simple present instead of the present perfect continuous.

2. Overgeneralization: This is the use of one form or construction in one

context and extending its application to other contexts where it should not

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apply. Examples of overgeneralization include the use of corned and goed

as the past tense forms of corne and go and the omission of the third

person singular s under the heavy pressure of all other endless forms as in

I,e go. It should be noted that simplification and overgeneralization are

used by learners in order to reduce their linguistic burden.

3. Hypercorrection: Sometimes the zealous efforts of teachers in correcting

their students' errors induce the students to make errors in otherwise

correct forms. Stenson (1978) calls this type of error "induced errors." For

example, the teacher's insistence that Arab ESL learners produce the

phoneme IpI correctly prompts them to always produce IpI where the

phoneme Ibl is required. Thus Arab ESL learners say piTd and pattie

instead of bird and battle.

4. Faulty teaching: Sometimes it happens that learners' errors are teacher-

induced ones, i.e., caused by the teacher, teaching materials, or the order of

presentation. This factor is closely related to hypercorrection above. Also,

it is interesting to note that some teachers are even influenced by their

pupils' errors in the course of long teaching.

5. Fossilization: Some errors, specially errors in pronunciation, persist for

long periods and become quite difficult to get rid of. Examples of

fos.silized errors in Arab ESL learners are the lack of distinction between

IpI and Ibl in English and the insertion of the resumptive pronoun in

English relative clauses produced by these learners.

6. Avoidance: Some syntactic structures are difficult to produce by some

learners. Consequently, these learners avoid these structures and use

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instead simpler structures. Arab ESL learners avoid the passive voice

while Japanese learners avoid relativization in English.

7. Inadequate learning: TItis is mainly caused by ignorance of rule

restrictions or underdifferentiation and incomplete learning. An example is

omission of the third person singular s as in: He want.

8. False concepts hypothesized: Many learners' errors can be attributed to

wrong hypotheses formed by these learners about the target language. For

example, some learners think that is is the marker of the present tense. So,

they produce: He is talk to the teacher. Similarly, they think that was is the

past tense marker. Hence they say: It was happened last night.

(Touchie, 1986, p.78-9)

“There is an Italian proverb ‘Sbagliando simpara’ (We can learn through our

errors)”

"Italians can't speak foreign languages", "Results of Italian students in foreign

languages are very poor", "Italian foreign language teachers can't teach

foreign languages hecause they themselves can't speak them well", these are

but some of the most frequently expressed statements one could find in the

media (Lopriore, 2002, p.206).

Systematic errors Errors are the result of over application of generalization

( overgeneralization) „ed‟ „ing‟ generalization: the „ed‟ „ing‟ inflections are

added to everything, producing such oddities as I doed, We comed, I am

loving. The learner resorts to a reduction of the speech to a simpler system.

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Indeed, the restricted generalization is a helpful device used by the learner but

also by the teacher (Davutoglu, 2011, p.222)

Unsystematic errors These errors are due to psychological reasons but also

caused by physiological factors, for instance slips of the tongue and slips of

the ear (Davutoglu, 2011, p.222)

“Either four or five components are generally recognized in analyses of the

speech process: pronunciation; Grammar; Vocabulary; Fluency;

Comprehension.” (Harris, 1969, p.81-81)

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