Introduction

Nowadays, a great many people learn English as their

mother tongue or as a second or foreign language. Japanese

people also learn English as a foreign language at least for

three years in a junior high school. What should they do to

develop their English ability? To find one answer to the

question, in this thesis we will focus on the mistakes people

make.

Anyone who learns English will make different types of

mistakes such as grammar, word choice, word order,

pronunciation and spelling. When a mistake occurs, the

mistake can make learners feel some frustration about English

learning because it troubles learners many times. The mistake

also may give the other person some displeasure and confusion

in their communication because it makes the other person

misunderstood and it breaks communication.

Many learners may think that it is bad to make mistakes.

Although there are of course some disadvantages in making

mistakes, we should do something positive to develop learners’

English abilities because we necessarily encounter some

mistakes and they can not be avoided if we continue to learn

English.

As we have learned English for a long time, we have

experienced many kinds of mistakes from simple ones to complex

ones. If learners make a simple mistake, they must understand

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the cause of mistake soon and go to the next stage in

learning. But, if they encounter a complex mistake for which

they do not understand the cause, what do many learners do? In

my opinion, if learners ignore such mistake, they will commit

the same mistake which will increase the difficulty in the

future, even though they can resolve the mistake temporarily.

So, it is necessary for learners to go through the next stage

of acquisition by understanding the cause of mistakes

properly, and try not to repeat the same mistake or make

useless mistakes.

To do something positive to develop learners’ English

abilities, we need to see some examples so we can understand

the causes of their mistakes and help them. Therefore,

Chapter One of this thesis shows why learners make mistakes.

In Chapter Two we will look at what kinds of mistakes learners

make and in Chapter Three we will look at what types of

mistakes Japanese learners make. In Chapter Four we will

think why Japanese learners often make such mistakes. In the

end, we must find good ways to help learners to deal with

mistakes successfully.

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Chapter One

Why do learners make mistakes?

1.1. Introduction

No one can learn a language without making any mistakes.

In Japan, students only read correct language and only hear

correct language from their teachers and textbooks. So why do

they make mistakes? When we think of the reason simply, we can

say that mistakes must mean something to learners. If

mistakes mean something to learners, what is the something? To

be able to answer this question, we must first know the

process of making a mistake, the definition of the mistake and

the significance of the mistake. In the next chapters, we

will look at the various kinds of mistakes, their causes and

the sources of the mistake.

1.2. When does a mistake occur?

Learners go through some stages when they learn a

language, and they make mistakes at certain stages, so it is

essential to know these learning stages and process which they

go through. Figure 1 shows the learning stages and the

process which foreign language learners, including Japanese

people, go through. We are not concerned here with the

difference with the first, second and foreign language

learning. We explain the general idea of language learning in

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this chapter, and we will examine more detailed conditions

like the learners’ environment in Chapter Four.

Figure 1: The stages and process of foreign language learning

Learners get language input by listening and reading. In

most cases, they can automatically understand the input and

successfully produce it. If they meet unknown language, they

should observe it carefully and hypothesize what it means and

how to use it. For example, they may guess what a new word

means. The hypothesis about what the new word means needs to

be tried out to see if the hypothesis is correct. Thus,

learners produce it in their speaking and writing. At this

time, the learner makes a mistake if the hypothesis is wrong.

Learning happens when the learner knows whether the

hypothesis is right or wrong and this comes from feedback from

the other person. For example, if the learner says I goed to

school and the listener says Pardon me, you should say went

not goed. After this the learner knows a mistake has been

made. Learners have to go back to the previous stages such as

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input observe Hypothesize

memory

output

successful

unsuccessful

la mistake

input and hypothesize and successfully produce it in other

ways. After successful production, they also should go back

to other stages for confirmation and put this in memory, and

continue to develop their abilities by repetition.

Hence, learners always go through these stages little by

little, and they come to develop their English abilities.

From the stages and process which foreign language learners go

through, it is clear that the hypothesis learners make is very

important in finding their mistakes. In short, we found

simply that a mistake occurs when learners can not make the

correct hypothesis. But, we do not know whether learners

successfully or correctly can process the input, both in their

observing and committing it to memory. Therefore, we will

turn to how learners make a hypothesis and know what a mistake

is in the next section.

1.3. What is a mistake?

Although a mistake is produced from an incorrect

hypothesis, we first should know the meaning of a mistake

clearly. A mistake is defined as “something that is not

correct, that you do, say, or write without intending to.” 1

and it is synonymous with fault, error, lapse and slip. These

synonyms sound almost the same, but their meanings are very

different when we talk about the types of mistakes in a

foreign language. In this thesis, we will refer to mistakes

and errors in different senses.

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According to the dictionary, an error is “a mistake,

especially one that causes problems.”2 So, we need to focus on

two aspects of these definitions a) that they are not

“intended” and b) that an error “causes problems”. We will

explain the two words in the framework of unit 1.

1.3.1. How does a mistake occur?

First, a mistake goes through these stages.

Figure 2: The process of making a mistake

Input Output

*goed went 　　　　Successful

learners recognize it is wrong

ⅰ)self-correct

ⅱ)correct by other person

A mistake can be immediately corrected by learners or

other person after producing something wrong in the output.

For example, a learner may say the sentence *I goed to school

yesterday.3, but he or she is aware of the mistake by himself

or herself at once and the learner can correct it and say Oh

sorry, I meant I went to school yesterday. In this case, it is

said the learner made a mistake. Even if a learner is not

aware of the mistakes soon, it is also said the learner made a

mistake when other person says “what is goed?” and the learner

corrects the verb goed by saying I went to school.

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A mistake is produced from an incorrect hypothesis, but

it can happen if a learner is tired or excited, or rather the

learner is disturbed by tiredness and excitement and he or she

notices and observes language incorrectly. In this way, the

learner tends to make an incorrect hypothesis and a mistake

occurs. Over and above that, the mistake is caused when

learners do not produce correctly what they had already

learned, and it is not caused when learners practice what they

have not learned yet.4 A mistake can also be accidental and can

not be seen many times because the mistake can occur through

the carelessness of learners. Moreover, Corder insists that

mistakes have nothing to do with the learning development.5

All in all, a mistake is made unintentionally.

1.3.2. How does an error occur?

On the other hand, an error goes through these stages.

Figure 3: The process of making an error

Input Output ⅰ)feedback 　　　

*goed 　 Unsuccessful 　Input

Output

learners do not recognize soon 　 went

Successful

ⅱ)leave it

unsolved

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An error occurs because there is a problem with the

language system. Learners are not aware of their error just

after they produced it, but when learners are aware of their

mistake because of a misunderstanding or a breakdown in

communication with other person in their speaking and writing,

they try to find out why it is wrong and go back to the

previous stages. They have then observed the wrongful

production and can now hypothesize about an alternative

explanation which they can experiment in output again.

Otherwise, they can not go back to the previous stages

and it will remain the wrong form if learners are not aware of

their mistake. As an example, learner A writes *I goed to

school yesterday and knows that learner B could not understand

it, learner A checks it carefully and remembers that the

correct form of *goed is went. Thus learners can correct it

and communicate successfully. However, if B ignores the

mistake and A does not check it, then learner A is unaware of

the mistake. In those cases, it is said the learners made an

error. For these reasons, an error is caused without

intending to, but it is caused a problem.

By comparison with a mistake, an error is caused when

learners try something new and unsuccessful which they have

not learned.6 In other words an error is a problem with the

knowledge in the system, whereas a mistake is like a slip of

the tongue. Errors are furthermore systematic, and errors

which a learner makes are common to errors which other all

learners make, and their errors are necessarily repeated.7

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Therefore, errors are related to learning development in the

language system.

1.4. Is a mistake or an error significant in language

learning?

We now know when, how and why a mistake and an error

occur roughly. Table 1 below, shows them clearly.

Table 1: The differences between Mistakes and Errors

Mistakes Errors

When it occurs When producing

something with an

incorrect hypothesis

When producing

something with an

incorrect hypothesis

Why it occurs Carelessness or a

slip

Immaturity of the

language system

When it’s

corrected

Recognized soon after

producing it

From feedback

Intention Not intended Not intended

Learning The features has

already been learned

Not learned yet

From Table 1, we can understand an error is more

significant than a mistake in terms of developing learners’

English abilities. Let us now focus on an error.

Figure 4 : The cycle of learning

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As we can see in Figure 4, learners usually make a guess

at the meaning of a new word when they meet it, and they

should try to find out whether the guess is right or not.

“Errors” are thus an unsuccessful result of the learners’

attempt to guess. In most cases, learners have to go from

input to output for learning to take place. They can not

learn anything without guessing, except in special cases. If

they do not use guessing as a strategy, they may not be able

to produce anything and they may not be able to speak and

write anything correctly. This is because the cycle of

learning is broken and without feedback on success they cannot

tell if their production is correct. At these points, an

error is very necessary and indispensable for learners.8

In addition, an error is significant for learners as well

as teachers and researchers.5 This is because teachers and

researchers can see and know their learners’ abilities and

their development from their errors. This analysis is useful

for teachers so they can teach their learners better.

Researchers also can see and know some characteristics about

errors which are seen with many learners, and it is useful for

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input observe hypothesize

memory

output

successful

unsuccessful

l

them to develop their knowledge of this. As a result, it is

said that an error is significant for learners, teachers and

researchers, though a mistake is not very significant in

language learning.

1.5. Conclusion

Why do learners make mistakes? What does a mistake mean

to learners? In this chapter, we could find the answers to

those questions. Learners make a mistake when they can not

produce the hypothesis successfully, and to be exact, the

mistake is different from an error. They work differently,

and from the above we can see that we need to check learners’

errors in detail and know from their errors how learners deal

with their input and remember it and what observations and

hypotheses they made. Besides, we should look at whether an

error reflects immaturity and development of learners. In

Chapter two, we will look at kinds of errors in more detail.

1 Longman Active Study Dictionary (1998)

2 Longman Active Study Dictionary (1998)

3 Throughout this thesis, incorrect forms will be marked with a * preceding the sentence.

4 Bartram, M. and R. Walton (1991)

5 Robinett, B. and J. Schachter (1983):Corder, P. The

Significance of Learners’ Errors

6 Larsen-Freeman, D. and M. Long (1991)

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7 Gass, M. and L. Selinker (2001)

8 Robinett, B. and J. Schachter (1983)

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Chapter Two

What kinds of errors do learners make?

2.1. Introduction

In Chapter One, we came to know the mechanism of

learners’ mistakes, and yet, the mistakes which learners make

can not be easily explained only by the two patterns of a

mistake and an error as they are shown in Figures 2 and 3.

They were only the basic and superficial idea of what

constitutes a mistake. So, what kinds of errors can we see?

This chapter introduces seven kinds of errors which learners

make in two categories that have been discovered through

research on errors conducted by many researchers.

2.2. What have researchers found about errors?

Many errors appear in many forms in language learning, so

learners, teachers and researchers have had many chances to

recognize different errors. So, what do scholars think of the

mistakes? What is more, how do they connect errors with

English education?

Research on learners’ errors has been done by many

people, and now this research has conducted in various fields

such as ‘morphology’, ‘lexicology’ and ‘syntax’. In Japan,

they are examined in detail in aspects of language such as

‘article’ and ‘relative clauses’.

The four main areas of error research are

a) Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis

b) Error Analysis

c) Interlanguage

d) Creative Construction Hypothesis

According to Lightbown and Spada and so on9, we will now

look at these in turn.

2.2.1. Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis

As Figure 1 shows, foreign language learners face some

difficulty to grasp the meaning and use of something until

they learn it properly. This difficulty can make learners

uncomfortable and irritated, so researchers have thought it

necessary to minimize their difficulty for development of

learners’ abilities. One way to do this was to look at their

errors.

In the 1950s, the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (CAH)

originated with Lado, Fries and other researchers.

Contrastive Analysis is done by comparing the first language

and the target language. The basic idea was to compare the

languages to find out what were similar and what were

different. They thought that the differences between the two

languages would be difficult for learners (that is called

“negative transfer” or “interference”) and similarities would

be easy to learn (this is called “positive transfer”). For

example, if we compare Japanese and English, using “articles”

in English which do not appear in Japanese, would be difficult

for Japanese learners. They found many differences and

similarities, and they tried to predict learners’ errors and

protect them in advance and to prescribe various teaching

strategies to help learners avoid these errors.

However, in fact, their findings could not apply to all

the learners’ errors. One problem they found was that if one

language differed from another, then the differences would be

bi-directional, and equally difficult for both learners of the

other language. But in fact researchers found that it was not

always equally difficult to pick up the contrasting features.

2.2.2. Error Analysis

Research on errors was done in another way. It is to

examine errors from structure of English itself without

comparing with other languages. This is called Error

Analysis(EA) and it was advocated by Richards and Corder etc.

in the 1960s.

As a result, it was found that learners’ errors come from

not only the first language but also other factors. Their

errors are classified into some kinds such as ‘developmental

errors’, ‘overgeneralizations’ and ‘simplifications’ (see

later), and similarities were seen in the errors between

native children and the second language learners. Corder also

made much of treatment after making errors, not treatment

before making errors, and he thought learners’ errors should

be examined from wider viewpoints. Nevertheless, EA was not

enough, either because some errors was difficult or ambiguous

to classify and explain the cause or their source, and there

were some errors which did not appear in learners’

productions, as Japanese learners often avoid errors with some

forms such as ‘relative clauses’.(This is known as ‘avoidance’

in the above classification.) In Chapter Three, we will show

these more clearly.

2.2.3. Interlanguage

EA was refined into Interlanguage (IL) by Selinker. The

IL is an imperfect language area in the learners’ head which

is connected to some characteristics of native language and

other characteristics of target language when learners learn

their target language(s). Selinker also asserted that the

imperfect language area continues to change with the language

development of learners. To sum up, interlanguage is a

systematic language system comprising language patterns

sometimes borrowed from the first language, sometimes from the

second language and some wholly invented as a result of trying

to discover the systems underlying the language. For

instance, a learner who says he buyed a book would invent

buyed which does not appear in English nor Japanese as a way

to create the rule of “verb plus past tense –ed”. In this

case it is wrong because the correct form is bought.

Selinker believed that errors seem to come from this

area, and he thought that he can check each stage of

acquisition from each error as well as the process of their

development from old errors and new errors.

2.2.4. Creative Construction Hypothesis

After that, Dulay and Burt10 re-invented CAH again

although the hypothesis had disappeared once from the

researchers’ attention. They suggested a Creative

Construction Hypothesis (CCH) as part of the CAH, and they

mainly did research in two ways. The first research was to

examine what proportion of errors comes from interference and

what proportion from natural language development. 　 　 The

proportion they examined was that interference is 3%,

developmental errors are 85% and others are 12%. But, these

proportions were not clear because other researchers asserted

very different proportions.

The second piece of research was to compare some learners

with other learners who have different native languages but

who are learning the same second language. In this study,

they found that there were some similarities in their errors

between the learners who had different native languages.

Thus, we can see that these scholars have dealt with

learners’ errors using different methods. They resolved some

questions but found some further problems in each study.

2.3. How do errors affect the understanding of the learners?

Errors are incorrect forms which lack accuracy of

language knowledge. The errors can give some difficulties to

people when they try to understand a sentence which includes

errors. However, there are some cases where people can

understand the meaning of the sentence barely or adequately,

even though they can find errors. Therefore, errors differ by

degree, and they are often divided into two types called

Global errors and Local errors.11 Let us look at the two types

of errors with some examples to know errors better.

2.3.1. Global errors

First, what are Global errors? Here are two examples.

a.* I like take taxi but my friend said so not that we should

be late for school.

b.* He went go always and play

Global errors are either an error or errors which affect

all parts of a sentence, and the error(s) prevent people from

understanding the meaning of the whole or a large part of the

sentence.

2.3.2. Local errors

Here are two examples of Local errors.

c.* If I heard from him I will let you know.

d.* He didn’t shouldn’t shout

Local errors show that an error or errors do not affect a

whole sentence, and people can understand the meaning of the

sentence, even though there is at least one error. In c) only

heard is an error and in d) didn’t shouldn’t is wrong.

So, errors differ in degree, and they often affect

understanding the meaning of a sentence.

2.4. What kinds of errors are there?

It was found in the preceding section that mistakes

learners make are not only mistakes and errors, and then there

are two types of errors, Global errors and Local errors.

Research in Error Analysis helped to crystallize kinds of

errors which are generally classified into:

a) L1 interference(L1 transfer)

b) developmental errors

c) overgeneralization

d) simplification

e) avoidance

This categorization is quite common and based on

Lightbown and Spada12 even though the way of classifying kinds

of errors is different for each researcher. How are these

classification different? What elements do they have? We shall

now look at them with some concrete examples.

2.4.1. L1 interference (L1 transfer)

a.* My brother is a unique guy

b.* I played with my part-time job co-workers yesterday

This means that the first language interferes with

learning of learners’ target language. In a) unique in

Japanese means unusual or cool, but in English it means one

and only one of something. In b), we do not use ‘play’ to

mean ‘asobu’ in English unless the people are children. The

people should use ‘enjoy myself’. Unless given a detailed

explanation, learners often produce something which mixes

their first and target languages because the learner does not

have enough knowledge to produce it correctly in the target

language. Thus these errors are caused by the strategy which

learners depend on the first language, and they do not occur

to native people.

2.4.2. Developmental errors

c.* He go to the hospital yesterday

d.* We no have class today

These errors are made when learners are trying to develop

to the next stage in their learning of a feature. For example

in c) the learner is still trying to learn how to inflect go

for past tense. In d) the learner is still trying to learn

how to use negatives correctly. In other words, they are

caused when learners use the same rules and forms because they

do not know how to apply them correctly to a sentence or

grammar. Learners may or may not know the correct rules and

forms after making errors. Also, these errors also commonly

occur not only with the target language learners but also

children learning their first language.

2.4.3. Overgeneralization

e.* They catched the train

f.* My childs are three and seven

Overgeneralization occurs when learners try to use

knowledge or rules which they have already learned in special

cases in which their knowledge or rules do not apply. In e)

the learner knows that to make a past tense form of a verb you

have to add –ed, but in this case the verb is irregular and

the rule is incorrectly applied. In f) the learner over-

applies the rules for plurals. In short, when the new

learning is beyond their general knowledge or rules, it

occurs. Like developmental errors, errors from

overgeneralization also occur to the target language learners

as well as children learning their mother tongue.

2.4.4. Simplification

g.* I care less

h.* where you go?

This is to simplify something in a sentence because

learners do not know the correct usage. In g) the learner

should say I couldn’t care less and in h) she should say where

are you going?

These errors will occur because learners try to approach as

correct sentences as possible with their limited knowledge,

and we also can see their development or ability from their

errors. In addition, it is thought these are caused by

insufficient input and memory of learners.

2.4.5. Avoidance

i.* Can I len.. err borr.., err ... have your book?

j.* I went to the place to get money

Avoidance occurs when learners find something too

difficult to say or too complex to produce, so they avoid

using the form altogether. In i) the learner does not know

whether to use lend or borrow so avoids it and uses have. In

j) the learner cannot remember bank. Unlike the previous

errors, this kind of error is related with learners’ mental

elements. That is to say, these errors are caused by learner’

anxiety about the learning, and as a result the meaning of the

sentences becomes ambiguous. Moreover, it is difficult to

find learners’ development and ability because avoidance do

not appear clear errors.

Errors learners make, to put it briefly, are the five

kinds, and they have different backgrounds. These are

unsuccessful result of learners’ strategies with which they

try to make correct sentences with their immature knowledge,

and they show learners’ immaturity of language system.

2.5. Conclusion

What kinds of errors do learners make? In this chapter,

we understood that research into errors have been done for a

long time, but we have not yet found out everything we need to

know about errors so we have to continue the research into

errors. Moreover, we found out that there are two kinds of

errors learners make when we consider the significance of

errors. These are global errors and local errors. In

addition, there are five other kinds, such as L1 interference,

simplification, developmental errors, overgeneralization and

avoidance.

In the next chapter, we will look at some errors Japanese

learners often make in their writing. And then we will

classify them into five kinds of errors, and analyze them

according to the above research.

Chapter Three

What types of errors do Japanese learners often make?

3.1 Introduction

This chapter deals with common errors which Japanese

learners make in their writing. Errors are produced by many

learners, without regard to learners’ nationality, their first

language or learning ability as we saw these in Chapters One

and Two. However, it seems there are some common

characteristics in their errors when we examine their errors

in detail. This reason will be shown in Chapter Four.

Therefore, in this chapter we will try to discover what common

errors they make and why they occur. If we find these, it may

be useful for Japanese learners to develop their language

ability from their errors.

3.2. On research in this thesis

3.2.1. How do we analyze common errors Japanese learners

often make in their writing?

Below are some common errors which Notre Dame Seishin

University students actually made in their writing class.

These are common errors which are also found in some books on

errors Japanese people commonly make13. We will focus on only

ten examples, though there are many more examples of their

common errors.

As we saw in the previous chapter, errors can be

classified into 5 types - L1 interference, developmental

errors, overgeneralization, simplification and avoidance. Let

us now look at each of the ten errors by looking at the error

from the view point of each classification. The next examples

are not always classified into only one kind. Afterward we

will show a table of classification of these errors.

3.2.2. What are Japanese common errors?

These are ten errors which some Notre Dame Seishin

University students made, and they are similar to errors in

some books about Japanese common errors.

(1) *Do you have money? (determiner)

(2) *Do you like sea? (article)

(3) *Almost of customers were their parent’s friends.

(adverb)

(4) *Foreign people will be surprising and confusing.

(adjective)

(5) *Did you enjoy? (Verb agreement)

(6) *Dr Orwell was stolen the plants by Sline. (passive

voice)

(7) *Who did steal the money? (word order for questions)

(8) *Which the best movie you have saw? (question form)

(9) *Did you see movies recently? (tense)

(10) *Would you borrow me some money? (word choice)

Later classify these into five kinds in my opinion.

3.2.3. Before analyzing their errors

In Chapter Two, the previous research showed that errors

do not come from only differences between the first language

and the target language and L1 interference. Also, we found

that errors are ambiguous and difficult to classify using

Error Analysis, and the proportion of error production is not

clear in the Creative Construction Hypothesis. How do these

ideas apply to the common errors of Japanese learners? Are

there similarities and differences between the previous

research and this research?

3.3. What kinds of errors are they classified into?

3.3.1 Error 1.

*Do you have money? (determiner)

The correct sentence: Do you have any money with you?

L1 interference

Japanese people often say okane motteru? in Japanese. In

this sentence, there is no word which means any, so this error

occurred because they used Japanese knowledge.

Simplification

The learner who wrote this incorrect sentence must have

already learned that money is an uncountable noun and it does

not need a determiner. But, the learners must not have known

that any is needed in the sentence.

Avoidance

The learner who wrote this incorrect sentence may have

thought that any was needed in the sentence, but they avoided

any because they had no confidence in their production of it

or they had some hesitation.

3.3.2 Error 2.

*Do you like sea? (article)

The correct sentence: Do you like the sea?

L1 interference

Like sentence (1), Japanese people say umiwa sukidesuka?

in Japanese and they do not add anything before umi (sea).

Therefore, they make the error.

Developmental errors

In the above sentence, learners must have thought sea is

an uncountable noun and it does not need the article. In

short, they may have the basic knowledge of the articles, but

do not know the correct usage of it for sea.

Overgeneralization

In the beginning of article learning, learners must have

learned that liquids such as water and milk are uncountable

nouns. But, they may not know where there is only one in the

world such as in the case of the sea and the sun, they need

the definite article, even though they feel it is a liquid.

Simplification

In this case the learners may not have learned the

articles perfectly and they may not know the way to use it.

Therefore, maybe they omitted the.

Avoidance

It is also thought learners found lack of the article

but they avoided it because of some anxiety.

3.3.3. Error 3.

*Almost of customers were their parents’ friends.

(adverb)

The correct sentences: Almost all of the customers were

their parents’ friends. Or

Most of the customers were their parents’ friends.

It is important to analyze this error to find out whether

the learners learn or know how to use most of the customers ~

and most customers ~.

Developmental errors

If the learners do not know how to use most correctly or

at all, they will make such an error.

Overgeneralization

If the learners think that almost and most are the same,

they will make the error.

Simplification

Learners may also omit of the without knowing or noting

that the needs.

Avoidance

Even though the learners have studied how to use articles

and adverbs many times, they will make an error because they

are confused and worried about it.

3.3.4. Error 4.

*Foreign people will be surprising and confusing.

(adjective)

The correct sentence: Foreign people will be surprised

and confused.

L1 interference

This kind of sentence is influenced by the Japanese

language, because the present participle form in English

refers to the progress of action and also it is an adjective.

It seems to be difficult for Japanese people to distinguish

between these because gaikokujinwa odoroite conransiteiru in

Japanese is not strange.

3.3.5. Error 5.

*Did you enjoy? (omitting pronoun)

The correct sentence: Did you enjoy it?

L1 interference

When saying this sentence in Japanese, it is tanosikatta?

They omit the object when they both know the object so they do

not say it because they would not say it in Japanese. In this

way they will make such an error since they can understand the

meaning of the sentence in Japanese.

Developmental errors

There are intransitive verbs and transitive verbs, and if

the learners do not learn them, it is easy to make this error.

Simplification and Avoidance

Because of L1 interference and developmental errors,

learners may leave it out even if they know it or not to need

it.

3.3.6. Error 6.

*Dr Orwell was stolen the plants by Sline. (passive

voice)

The correct sentence: The plants of Dr Orwell were

stolen by Sline.

L1 interference

In Japanese, the sentence that Orwellhakasewa Slineni

shokubutuwo musumareta is possible, so Japanese people produce

such errors.

Developmental errors

When learning the passive voice, learners must understand

that the location of the subject and the object are changed.

Therefore, they make the error because of a lack of practice

or understanding.

3.3.7. Error 7.

*Who did steal the money? (correct form of questions)

The correct sentence: Who stole the money?

Developmental errors and overgeneralization

When they learn how to use who as a question, they should

learn how to use what, when, how and so on together. But, the

way to use who is different from the others, for example, What

did he steal? is correct and *What stole? is incorrect. So

learners tend to make this error.

3.3.8.Error 8.

*Which the best movie you have saw? (question form)

The correct sentence: Which is the best movie you have

seen?

Simplification and Avoidance

When learners learn how to use which, they may have more

chances to use the sentence like which book is mine? In this

case, such errors may be created.

3.3.9.Error 9.

*Did you see a movie recently? (tense)

The correct sentence: Have you seen a movie recently?

L1 interference

This error comes from Japanese language because they say

saikin eiga mita? in Japanese.

Developmental errors

There is an order of learning the tense system. If the

learner has not been using recently, he or she may make an

error because his or her language system for tense is not

fully developed.

3.3.10. Error 10.

*Would you borrow me some money? (word choice)

The correct sentence: Can (Could, May) I borrow some

money? Or Would 　 (Will, Could, May) you lend me some

money?

L1 interference

Opening a Japanese English dictionary on Kariru(borrow),

some words such as borrow, rent, lease which are similar are

written. If learners do not know how to use the some words,

they may choose wrong words and occur such an error.

Table 2 shows a summary of their classification into

error and mistake types.

Table 2: The numbers and types of errors made for the ten

example sentences

Sentenc

e

number

L1

Inter-

ference

Develop-

mental

errors

Overgener

-

alization

s

simpli-

fication

Avoidance Total

number of

types of

error

1 o x x o o 3

2 o o o o o 5

3 x o o o o 4

4 o x x x x 1

5 o o x o o 4

6 o o x x x 2

7 x o o x x 2

8 x x x o o 2

9 o o x x x 2

10 o x x x x 1

O = Possible

X = Impossible

3.4. Conclusion

From this Chapter, we can see that when we classify some

Japanese learners’ errors into five error categories, we found

that the causes or sources of errors are not as clear as the

previous research shows. Therefore, we will consider their

errors with other factors in more detail in Chapter Four. As

a result of these, we hope to find better ways that Japanese

learners can learn English.

Chapter Four

Why do Japanese learners often make such errors?

4.1. Introduction

In Chapter One and Two, we generally looked at why

learners make mistakes and what kinds of errors they make. In

Chapter Three, we focused on common errors Japanese college

students make, and tried to know their kinds and causes. On

top of those ideas, we need to think why and how such kinds of

errors occurred from other viewpoints.

4.2. What should learners consider when they observe their

own errors?

When we try to investigate the cause of their errors,

there are some things we have to consider: the type of

writing, the learners’ age and proficiency and their own

characteristics and so on. But we must note that these errors

are limited to Japanese learners in fact to these college

students.

4.2.1. Writing form

There are many ways to write sentences in English and it

affects the kinds of errors learners make. For example, there

are Japanese-English translation, limited composition, free

composition, paragraph writing and process writing14. Also,

they differ with the amount of thinking, planning and reading

before writing. They may also be different depending on the

topic learners write about.

4.2.2. Learners’ age

We should not forget the relationship with the learners

and their age. This is because natural errors which children

make are a little different from errors which adults make,

though there are many common errors15. Because errors are made

by learners’ strategies, children do not always use the

strategies as adults use them.

4.2.3. Learners’ proficiency

Errors depend on the learners’ proficiency because the

amount of what is learned differ for beginners, intermediate

learners and advanced learners. In short, with more knowledge

about language learners have and more strategies they have, it

will allow learners to go to the next stage in the learning of

that feature of English.

4.2.4. Learners’ characteristics

Errors also depend on the learners’ characteristics

because learners who try to learn their English positively

will be a little different from those who are not positive in

attending to their errors. Also, motivation and confidence in

language learning will influence the learners’ errors, for

example, those who have high motivation and confidence may not

be afraid of making errors.

4.2.5. Fossilization

The learners’ language will develop if they continue to learn

as we saw when we looked at Interlanguage16. However, it seems

that the development of their language can stop because of the

way of learning and their age. In short, the learners’

language may not change after some stage. This is called

fossilization, and occurs when the feature did not completely

mastere, but the learner feels that the feature is learned

well enough. The learner may or may not be aware that her

production is incorrect. So, there is a possibility that

learners make errors because their language has fossilized.

4.2.6. Backsliding

We also have to remember that sometimes learners go back

to the previous stage suddenly even though they have

progressed to a more advanced stage successfully3. It can

occur when learners feel stress and the complexity of

learning. Then, learners usually learn a language going to

the next and then returning to a previous stage repeatedly.

4.3. What causes Japanese learners to produce the errors?

In Chapter Three, we saw some of the clear causes of

errors. However, there are other factors we should consider

that may have affected learners and their errors, for example,

the educational environment in Japan, English learned in

school and so on. In this section we will consider these

possible sources of their errors.

4.3.1. Educational environment in Japan

In Japan, we study English as a foreign language. In

most cases, we study English only in school and teachers teach

it mostly in Japanese. Recently elementary school students

have begun to study English in their school. However, they

have few chances to use English out of school. As we shall

see, there are some characteristic problems in English

education in Japan. For instance, Japanese students tend to

transfer from Japanese to English, and they have few chances

to make errors by producing.

4.3.2. English studied in school

The English studied in junior or senior high school is

said to be limited. For example, words and expression they

learn are not satisfactory to use English correctly, and the

contents of textbooks are selected unwisely. English studied

in Japanese schools seems to be different from the one English

native speakers use, and it is a part of the necessary English

which the native speakers use.

4.3.3. How to use the dictionary

When we write something, we often use a Japanese-English

dictionary or an English-Japanese dictionary. We do not often

use an English–English dictionary, therefore, they try to use

the word only looking at Kanji such as kariru(borrow and rent)

without knowing the difference of the two. In this way,

errors tend to occur. It will be because only learning

students often look at words at the moment and learn it.

4.3.4. Japanese language or culture

As we can see in L1 interference, it is important and

natural for Japanese learners to have already learned Japanese

as mother tongue and try to use it usefully. Because there

are similarities and differences in the structure of Japanese

and English (and their ways of looking at the world), there is

a possibility of making mistakes if they do not know them

properly.

4.3.5. Other reasons

There are many other possible reasons that errors are

created. For instance, if the way of teaching is poor or

wrong, students may make errors. Or if teachers do not have

enough English ability themselves, errors may be caused or

created by them. Thus, the causes or sources of errors

Japanese learners commit are varied, and these should be

considered when analyzing errors.

4.4. Conclusion

The above points are important for Japanese learners of

English and are in a different environment from that of the

English native speakers and other foreign learners, and they

will probably be related to the common errors Japanese

learners make.

Conclusion

5.1 Introduction

We have looked at the mistakes and errors learners make

in learning English in the previous four chapters. We did

this to find the best ways of learning English so we focused

on them in this thesis. We found out many things in each

chapter. Before we make a list of advice to the learners we

need to review the main points of each chapter.

5.2 Review

Chapter 1

Why do learners make a mistake?

Usually it is because learners make an incorrect

hypothesis and produce it incorrectly.

What does a mistake mean to learners?

The mistake reflects the efforts and attempts that

learners made to develop their ability. Also, the mistake

means there is a possibility of more development of learners’

ability, especially for errors.

Chapter 2

What kind of errors do learners make?

Learners use some strategies to develop their ability,

though the strategies sometimes do not proceed successfully.

Their strategies are mainly classified into seven kinds: L1

interference (which use the knowledge of their mother tongue),

developmental errors (which reflect the way the knowledge of

target language is learned in order) and overgeneralization

(which is based on incorrectly learned rules). In addition,

simplification and avoidance involve skipping something.

Moreover, there are global errors, which prevent

understanding, and local errors, which do not affect

understanding beyond the phrase.

Chapter 3

What types of errors do Japanese learners make?

Although Japanese learners make various kinds of errors, of

the ten errors we looked at, some kinds of errors, not only

one kind of error, are thought to create errors as was found

in the previous research. Of course, there are some common

errors Japanese learners of English make, such as errors of

the, almost and –ing as examples of grammar errors, and there

are errors of question form, word order, word choice and so

on. Some are common to all learners in other countries and

some are peculiar to the Japanese people.

Chapter 4

Why do Japanese learners often make such errors?

This is because the environment which Japanese people try to

learn English in is very different from that of the native

speakers and other foreign learners. For instance, School

English and the insufficient knowledge Japanese learners have

about how to use a dictionary and of the language in general

leads us to make mistakes.

5.3 Advice for learners about making mistakes in English

In this section we will look at some advice for Japanese

learners of English.

1. Do not worry about making mistakes.

2. Remember there are stages of development and going

through these will create errors.

3. Errors are not always bad, because they can be

evidence that your English has developed.

4. Errors do not mean only lack of ability.

5. Errors are natural for everyone.

6. We can, and should, learn from mistakes.

9 Lightbown and Spada (1999), Larsen - Freeman, D. and M, Long. (1991), Robinett, B. and J, Schacher. (1993), Gass, M. and L, Selinker. (2001), R, Ellis (1985)

10 Keith Johnson (2001)11 Ferris (2002)

12 Lightbown and Spada (1999)13 Kizuka, H. / Northridge, R. (1997). Webb J. (1991) , Webb J.

(2001), Iimuro M. (2001) , Seki I. (2001)　

14 T. Komuro (2001)15 B. Harley (1986)16 R. Ellis (1985)3

5.4 Problem and question of this thesis

We have explained the kinds and causes of errors that

Japanese learners make. However, they need to be examined in

more detail with more examples and with a lot more data. In

addition, we have focused only on Japanese common errors,

therefore we need to focus on individual mistakes and compare

them with typical errors Japanese people make. I hope

research into errors from various aspects and fields will be

done soon.

5.5 Conclusion

We have looked at various aspects of mistakes people make

especially in their writing. In this thesis, what we have

found is that we should look at our own errors and learn from

them. Although there are errors that can be bad, there are

naturally some good points about making errors, and errors

cannot always be avoided because of the way language knowledge

develops.

Therefore, we need to keep the following good points in

minds when developing our English ability.

1. We can learn not only from correct language but also

incorrect language from teachers and textbooks.

2. We can know our present proficiency of the language.

3. We can know our development in our old and new errors.

4. We can find our own weak points we often tend to make

errors.

5. We can improve our learning with each learner and

teacher by trying to understand or communicate.

6. We can feel fun and fulfillment from solving the

difficulties of errors.

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