Error analysis : a hierarchy of difficulty encountered by Japanese students learning English as a second language
Date
1986
Authors
Fukushima, Masayuki
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Abstract
It has been one of the main concerns of Applied Linguistics to seek for an answer to the question of why one aspect of grammar is more difficult than another for the second language learner. In an attempt to provide an answer for this, a systematic investigation of the errors made by Japanese students in learning English has been made on morpho-syntactic and semantic aspects. In the process of studying causes of errors, three sources are determined: first-language transfer, first-language interference, and second-language intralingual and developmental sources. The errors are classified into twelve types in accordance with the three sources. A hierarchy of difficulty of linguistic categories is hypothetically established based on observations of the persistence and frequency of errors.