Error Analysis in Second Language Learners Descriptive Study of Errors Made by Competitive Exam Aspirants
Jawaharlal Nehru University, India
ABSTRACT
A comparative study of the results of the usage of Grammar translation method for long period of time has been presented. The frequency of errors made by the participants (Both grammatical and vocabulary) in a given point (for six months) of time is compared and analysed to look for the improvements. By analysing their weekly assessments, the paper proves the inefficiency of this method, for this set of participants. A deductive approach was used to prove the following hypothesises, “The grammar translation method used by the institute should improve the grammatical errors” and “The everyday usage of words should have been improved but the vocabulary level which is expected in the given exam would still have a little effect. “Every participant chosen for the study had to fulfill a particular criterion i.e. they belonged to same ethnic group, and pursued their studies in the same high school with English as a second language. For further studies, they were preparing for a country level competitive exam and were attending the same institute. By controlling every other variable their expertise in English was analyzed through the weekly assessment papers given by them. The statistical analysis of these results shows us that this method is little effective to improve their lexicon rather than helping them improve their grammar.
KEYWORDS
Grammar translation method, interlanguage, second language acquisition