Natalia Muñoz Cuadros, 431191004

4th semester

Error Analysis in Reading and Writing found in Primary School Children

Reading and writing abilities are some of the most important skills acquired by
children in their school process. However, students can face several difficulties in
their way to achieve them. According to Saber 2014, primary school students seem
to struggle with the basic required skills in reading and writing competencies,
therefore, the results of the country in international tests indicate that Colombia
ranks 93 points under the average.
In this regard, to have a better understanding of this problem, we must take
into account the possible complications that can affect the development of reading
and writing skills, such as the family habits, social and economic issues, teaching
methodologies, and school drops out. Nonetheless, there are a few other factors
that can obstruct the acquisition of reading and writing competencies in children.
Firstly, it is required to understand what is a linguistic error. According to
Corder, a linguistic error can be defined as a random performance slip from the
rules of the target language and it can be caused by fatigue, excitement, etc.
Errors are systematic deviation from learners who have not yet mastered the rules
of the foreign language. Therefore, error analysis appeared as the study of kind
and quality of errors that occur in the learning process of a target language.
Regarding to Farhangpour, errors are an inherent part of the learning
process and it is necessary to analyze them in order to develop better teaching
environments. Besides, we must wonder about the ‘why’ and ‘how’ errors exist to
have a better understanding of the learning process of a foreign language. Errors
are natural phenomes since the only way to learn a foreign language is through the
trial and error technique.
In addition, Corder (1974, p.125) argued that “The study of errors is part of
the investigation of the process of language learning. In this respect it resembles
methodologically the study of the acquisition of the mother tongue. It provides us
with a picture of the linguistic development of a learner and may give us indications
as to the learning process.” Thus, we can state that through the comparison of
these two languages (L1 and L2), as well as the error analysis method applied in
the classroom, it is conceivable to develop strategies to improve students' errors in
both languages.
Leal et al. (2005) propose six different categories to classify student's errors
based on psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic approaches. Due to the research
‘Error Analysis in Reading and Writing found in Primary School Children’ we are
able to identify the following frequent errors: omission, united words and
segmentation (phonological), phonematic and articulatory substitution (confusing
phonemes), mirroring letters (visual-tractive), orthographic errors (orthography),
translocation and addition, syllabi and semantic substitution (writing errors).
 Undoubtedly, error analysis can make big contributions in avoiding
children's learning difficulties in reading and writing processes. Likewise, is well-
known that contrastive analysis can´t predict itself all possible errors in the process
of learning a new language. However, we must remember that Contrastive
Analysis is also useful to compare the learners' native language with the L2 using
the contrastive analysis approach as a way to identify how it affects the target
language.
Taking into account Lado’s position in contrastive analysis in 1957, 'those
elements of the target language that are similar to his/her native language will be
simple for him/her and those elements that are different will be difficult.’ And Fries
argument in 1945 “the most effective materials are those based on a scientific
expression of the language to be learned, carefully compared with a parallel
description of the native language of the learner’. It is valid to affirm that the
comparison we make between the mother tongue and the second language
through the contrastive analysis method is effective in the improvement of the
learning process and the correctness of mistakes.
Due to the low results that Colombian students have been performance in
national and international tests it is necessary to turn into an advantage the errors
that occur in the classroom to get better at the foreign language rules and correct
general deviations students have.
As a conclusion, the research exposed the main problems students face in
the process of acquire the reading and writing skills in school. Also, it was showed
the importance of error analysis in the improvement of the teaching strategies in
order to enhance the results of the students in reading and writing tests. In
addition, the concept of linguistic error was defined as random slips that are
caused by fatigue and other emotions to finally relate the research with the
methodologies based on contrastive and error analysis used in the learning
process of a foreign language.
 Referencias bibliográficas

Al-khresheh, M. H. (2016). Review Study of Error Analysis Theory. International Journal of

Humanities and Social Science Research, 49-59.

Khansir, A. A. (2012). Error Analysis and Second Language Acquisition. Theory and Practice in
Language Studies, 1027-1032.

Llani, R. (2016). Linguistic errors analysis in learning a foreign language. Istanbul, Turkey: Azad
University of Arak.

Londoño, Jiménez, González, Solovieva. (2016). Análisis de los errores en la lectura y en el lenguaje
escrito. Revista de Estudios sobre lectura, 97-113.

Vásquez, D. A. ( 2008). Error Analysis in a Written Composition. PROFILE 10, 135-146.

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