Study of the causes of common errors in english at secondary level

Abstract

There is a growing concern regarding results in English. It has been noted that on the one hand the results of English are not up to the mark and on the other hand there has been an increase in the number of drop outs and failures in English. Moreover it has also been observed that students generally lack the adequate LSRW skills of the English Language. Therefore, an analysis of the errors committed by students can help to locate the difficulties that they face and suggest measures for improvement. Errors are an integral part of language acquisition. In a traditional second language teaching situation, they are regarded as the linguistic phenomenon deviant from language rules and standard usages. With modern advancements errors are not considered as problems but are actually stages in the target language development. It is believed that the better the understanding of the sources of errors, the better second language teachers will be able to detect the process of second language learning. By Error Analysis is meant the study and analysis of language learners to find how to obtain information on the problematic areas of language in the preparation of teaching material. The concept of Error Analysis to identify the hard spots occupies significance in Assessment and also helps in locating difficulties in learning amongst learners. Here, the variables are errors and results. The Independent variable is errors and the dependent variable is results. If the errors are less, the results would be good. The study of errors themselves without proper analysis would have been misleading. The number of correct responses gives a good picture of which items are being mastered and which are not. Therefore, this study hopes to enlighten teachers on the errors that require remedial work so that they can help the students in gaining competence in English and develop their language skills.