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Mehdi Abbasi
English Department, Fars Science and Research Branch
Islamic Azad University, Fars, Iran
Amin Karimnia
Department of English, Fasa Branch
Islamic Azad University, Fasa, Iran
Abstract
The present paper investigated a number of grammatical errors that were committed by
Iranian students in their translation and compared the errors of junior and senior students to
reach their possible dominant errors which had not been remedied during the years of
studying at university. To do so, errors in translation of eighty Translation Students, forty
seniors and forty juniors from Azad and Payam-e-Noor University in the academic year of
2009/2010 were examined. The errors in the corpus were identified and were then
classified into two main categories namely, lexico-Semantic and Syntactico-Morphological
according to Keshavarz’s (1994) model. Analysis of errors in students’ translation revealed
significant shortfalls in English grammar. Findings showed that 98 percent of the students
had problems grammatically, and most errors that the students produced were of
interlingual errors, indicating the influence of the mother language.
1. Introduction
1.1. Overview
In the speech or writing of a second or foreign language, error is the use of a linguistic item (e.g. a
word, grammatical item, speech act, etc.) in a way which a fluent or native speaker of the language
regards as showing faulty or incomplete. (Richards,2002)
Regarding learners’ errors, error analysis (EA) enthusiasts make a distinction between mistakes
and errors, which are “technically two very different phenomena” (Brown, 2004, p. 216). Brown(2004)
also maintains that a mistake can be self-corrected, but an error cannot. Therefore, native speakers can
identify and correct them immediately because they are fully aware of their mother tongue structures
and rules. Non-native speakers or L2 learners not only make mistakes, but also they commit errors in
their writings; since their knowledge of L2 structures and rules is not sufficient.
According to Brown (2004, p.216), “a mistake refers to a performance error in that it is a failure
to utilize a known system correctly; while an error is a noticeable deviation from the adult grammar of
a native speaker, reflecting the interlanguage competence of the learner.”
According to Nord (1991, p.88), “linguistic problems arise from differences of structure in the
vocabulary and syntax of second language (SL) and target language (TL)”. Some of these problems
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European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 25, Number 4 (2011)
may be caused by what Newmark (1988) calls “false friends” or by “situations of one-to many or one-
to-zero equivalence. These problems can also be caused by lack of grammar knowledge in the SL or
the TL.” (Nord, 1991, p.89)
According to Harmer (2003, p.142), “grammar is the description of the ways in which words
can change their forms and can be combined into sentences in that language.” Grammar is one of the
most important aspects in translation. In order to make a well structured translation, one should be
mastered in grammar. As suggested by Brown (2004, p.298) “before the learner becomes familiar with
the system of the second language, the native language is the only linguistic system upon which the
learner can draw. Therefore, not having enough knowledge in this sense will lead learners to use their
own system of syntax in the TL and this interference(s) makes them Erroneous.” Therefore, it seems
impossible to learn a language without learning its grammar.
Another aspect that should be considered in translation is vocabulary. Llach (2005, p.46) states
that “language learning starts up with vocabulary, words are the first linguistic items acquired by the
learner and no language acquisition at all can take place without the acquisition of lexis”.
According to Read and Chapelle (2001, p.48) “vocabulary is one of the basic components of
language.” Both researchers and teachers believe that one should enhance his knowledge of lexis in the
field of translation; since with insufficient vocabulary knowledge, it is a natural matter for students to
make such mistakes as misuse of words. Therefore, as a language learner, one must strive to enlarge
one’s vocabulary to enable him to use the correct forms in their translation.
As Erdogan (2005, p.263) emphasizes, “Error analysis deals with the learners’ performance in
terms of the cognitive processes they make use of in recognizing or coding the input they receive from
the target language. Therefore, a primary focus of error analysis is on the evidence that learners’ errors
provide with an understanding of the underlying process of second language acquisition.”
By error analysis, teachers would be able to have knowledge of what areas should be focused
on and what kind of materials needs attention in an L2 classroom. So, by error analysis, firstly, the
language teachers can be able to develop curriculum design and select materials that help students’
learning L2. Secondly, as Ferris (2002, p.56) maintains “there is fairly conclusive evidence that teacher
feedback leads to more accurate revisions by students but this improvement could be drawing only on
explicit knowledge.” So, students’ errors are valuable feedbacks and based on their errors, some
remedial teaching could be done. Thirdly, according to Lee (2004) students expect to get feedback
from their teachers and hope that it would be very helpful for them to be good writers. Finally, teachers
need to know the causes of errors and the reasons behind their occurrences. So, by doing error analysis,
light can be shed on the areas to which they should spend more attention and emphasis in their
teaching. For this reason, research is necessary. In a sense, error analysis theory together with other
theories has enriched the second language learning theory.
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European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 25, Number 4 (2011)
Another aim of this study was to compare the grammatical errors of juniors and seniors; by
comparing errors committed at different years, we could reach to their possible dominant errors which
have not been remedied during the years of study in the university.
When quantitative analysis of the distribution and the occurrences of errors from different
aspects were scrutinized, we could find out errors operating in translation and by comparing errors
committed by students at different years, we could reach to their possible dominant errors which have
not been corrected.
2. Literature Review
According to James (1998, p.63) “the TL speaker knows everything and FL learner is more or less
ignorant. Interlanguage is, therefore, a product of ignorance. In order to compensate for their
ignorance, learners produce this substitutive language”. In other words, IL is the type of language
produced by second and foreign language learners who are in the process of learning a new language.
Therefore, interlanguage is the type of language produced by second and foreign language
learners who are in the process of learning a new language. Interlanguage is a term that was coined by
Selinker (1972). It deals with the language of a learner who has not yet learned the target language
completely. An interlanguage is not the same as the L1 or the L2. It is seen as a separate language
which has its own set of rules. These rules may however be related to the L1, which is then seen as a
sign of negative transfer.
Error analysis emphasizes “the significance of errors in learners’ interlanguages system”
(Brown 2004, P.258). So, one way to deal with intelanguage is error analysis. Therefore, error analysis
can give information about learners’ difficulties during L2 acquisition and the way he learns and
develops his language learning. According to Corder(1974, p.27), the results of error analysis“can help
teachers to adapt themselves to the learner’s needs rather than impose upon him their (the teachers’)
preconceptions of how he ought to learn and when he ought to learn”.”
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European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 25, Number 4 (2011)
According to what Scovel as cited in Sárosdyand Tamás (2006) emphasizes, errors are
systematic and may give valuable insight into language acquisition because they are goofs in the
learner’s underlying competence. According to Ellis (1997, p.68) "it was not until the 1970s that EA
became a recognized part of applied linguistics, a development that owed much to the work of Corder".
In fact, the new definition of EA was introduced by Corder (1967) in an article entitled “The
significance of learner errors”. He believed that “errors are visible proofs that learning is actually
taking place” (Corder, 1967, p.56).
Regarding the purpose of the error analysis, Keshavars (1999) suggests that the field of error
analysis can be divided into two branches: (a) theoretical, and (b) applied.Theoretical analysis of errors
primarily concerns the process and strategies of language learning and its similarities with first
language acquisition. In other words, it tries to investigate what is going on in the minds of language
learners. Secondly, it tries to decode the strategies of learners such as overgeneralization and
simplification, and thirdly, to go to a conclusion that regards the universals of language learning
process whether there is an internal syllabus for learning a second language.
Applied error analysis, on the other hand, concerns organizing remedial courses, and devising
appropriate materials and teaching strategies based on the findings of theoretical error analysis. So, as
Mitchell and Myles (2004, p.24) emphasize “errors, if studied, could reveal a developing system of the
students L2 language and this system is dynamic and open to changes and resetting of parameters.”
The analysis of error sources has been regarded as a central aspect in the study of learner errors.
Researchers believe that the clearer the understanding of the sources of learners’ errors, the better
second language teachers will be able to detect the process of L2 learning.
Corder (as cited in Keshavarz, 1999,p.70) categorizes errors into two groups: overt and covert
.“An overt error is easy to identify, because it is unquestionably ungrammatical at the sentence level. A
covert error occurs in utterances that are superficially well formed but which do not mean what the
learner intended them to mean. Therefore, it is not interpretable within the context of communication.”
According to Brown (2004) errors may also be viewed as being either global or local. Global
errors hinder communication. They prevent the message from being comprehend. On the other hand,
local errors do not prevent the message from being understood because there is usually a minor
violation of one segment of a sentence that allows the hearer to guess the intended meaning.
Sárosdyand Tamás (2006, p.125) groups the written errors on the basis of their gravity:
Qualitative errors are errors that are so serious they impede communication or distort the information
transferred. Quantitative errors are errors (misspelled words, misused structures, synonyms, style) that
do not affect communication. However, if any of these quantitative errors distort the meaning they may
become qualitative errors.
Keshavarz (1994) makes two categorizations for errors; the first categorization is Syntactical-
morphological errors which include: errors in the use of prepositions, errors in the use of articles,
wrong use of plural morphemes, wrong use of qualifier and intensifier, and the use of typical Persian
construction in English. The second categorization is Lexical-semantic errors including cross
association and language switch.
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European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 25, Number 4 (2011)
performance, and 17% due to the simplifications of function words, 16% due to overgeneralization,
and 11% due to pronominal reference.
Another research is done by Brown (1994). He found that at the beginning levels of language
learning, a large number of errors happen due to negative transfer. He also found that as language
learners develop their English, intralingual errors overcome interlingual errors.
Based on the writings of 50 Czech learners of English, Duskova (1969) identified 1007 errors
and then categorized them into 9 categories. According to her findings, errors of article were most
frequent by 260 errors. Errors in lexis were 233, errors in syntax 54, and errors in wrong word order
were 31.
Kim (1987) conducted a research in the field of error analysis among 12th grade Korean English
learners in their composition and reported that intralingual errors happened more than interlingual. The
findings also showed that among 2445 different errors, errors in auxiliary were most common; 419
errors.
Scott and Tucker as cited in Frith (1977) describe an interesting error analysis oforal and
writtensamples of 22 Arabic-speaking EFL students at theAmerican University of Beirut.They offer
the following conclusions:
1. For these students native language interference was a persistentproblem in theuse of
prepositions and articles.
2. English word order was an early acquisition whereas object deletionwas late.This
transformation was actually learned during theterm in which the experimentwas carried
out.
3. Relative clauses in which the relative pronoun was the object of aprepositionwere
attempted infrequently and only in writing.
4. The nature of the corpus led the researchers to posit a rule-governedInterlanguage
system which was changed and reorganizedduring the term. Theystate: "We may say
that we were dealingwith two approximate systems, thesecond at Time 2 being a
closerapproximation than the first to adult nativeEnglish".
Wang and Wen’s study (2002) investigated a number of adjective errors related to Chinese
learners. According to her findings 62% of errors were due to transfer in language, 28% were due to
transfer between languages, and 10% were due to strategies in communication.
Ferris (2002) did a study in the field of syntactical errors. His findings are as follows: 22.5%
due to sentence structure, 2.9% due to lack of proper conjunction, and 1.8 due to incomplete sentences.
Chen (1998) reported that most Taiwanese students have difficulties in the use of English
tenses due to the absence of verb conjugation in Mandarin. Since Mandarin is not an inflected
language, Fang (1999) highlighted the teaching of English verb tenses to prevent Taiwanese EFL
students from misusing English tenses due to the linguistic difference.
3. Methodology
3.1. Setting and Participants
Since the aim of the study was to compare the errors of seniors and juniors, eighty students from
Islamic Azad University of Shiraz and Payam-e-Noor University of Jahrom took part in the present
study randomly; forty students from each university, twenty juniors and twenty seniors.
3.2. Materials
In order to figure out the possible linguistic errors of participants, they were given six kinds of different
letters in Persian to translate in two hours and a half. Four kinds of different letters were chosen
randomly from two books related to letter writing; namely, 147 Letters and Messages (Farhat, 2009)
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and two letters were selected from Keshavar (1994). It should be noted that the letters were rather
formal.
errors were classified based on Keshavarz (1994) model. There were 14 classifications of the errors, all
into two main categories.
Table 1 displays lexico-semantic errors in the students’ translation. A total of two
subcategories, 79 individual errors were identified; 45 errors in juniors’ translations and 34 errors in
seniors’ translations. As indicated in Table 1, errors related to language switch were higher than lexico-
semantic errors. As Table 1 demonstrates, there has been little progress in students’ lexico-semantic
competence; since the percentage of the number of lexico-semantic errors in the translations of juniors
and seniors were almost the same.
No. No.
The relative frequency of Error types % %
(Juniors) (Seniors)
Errors in the use of tenses 72 10.25 58 11.83
Errors in the wrong use of subject-verb inversion in indirect
55 7.83 40 8.16
questions
Wrong use of quantifiers and intensifiers 35 4.98 21 4.28
Errors in the use of Prepositions 69 8.97 53 10.81
Errors in the use of Articles 56 6.55 42 8.57
Wrong use of active and passive voice 57 9.11 36 7.34
Errors in the use of Relative Clauses and Relative Pronoun 54 7.69 26 5.30
Errors in the use of “it is” instead of “there is” 68 9.68 41 8.36
Lack of subject-Verb inversion in Wh-Questions 58 8.26 39 7.95
Wrong use of parts of speech 55 9.11 33 6.73
Errors due to lack of concord 45 6.41 32 6.53
Use of typical Persian structures 78 11.11 69 14.08
Total Number of Errors 702 100 490 100
Here are some random examples extracted from students’ translations and categorized based on
Keshavarz (1994) model:
1. Syntactico-Morphological Errors
Errors in the use of Tenses
a. Present continuous instead of simple present
*She is going shopping every day.()او ھر روز خريد می کند()من انگليسی درس می دھم
*I am teaching English.
b. present perfect instead of simple past
*I have graduated from university 2 years ago. ()دو سال پيش از دانشگاه فارغ التحصيل شدم
*my father has been born in Shiraz. ()پدرم شيراز متولد شده است
c. simple past instead of past perfect
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*he was very angry about what his friend did ()از آنچه دوستش انجام داده بود عصبانی بود
d. past perfect instead of simple past
()ديشب پدر و مادرش ھمه جا را به دنبال او گشته بودند
*his parents had searched everywhere for him last night.
e. past continuous instead of simple past
()وقتی بچه بودم پياده به مدرسه می رفتم
*I was going to school on foot when I was a child.
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European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 25, Number 4 (2011)
2. Lexico-Semantic Errors
Cross-association
It refers to cases where there are two words in the TL for which there is only one word in the learner’s
SL.
*I come back to Tabriz after 13 o’clock ( ساعت به تبريز برگشتم13 )بعد از
*He had a quarrel with his woman ()پدرش با زن ديگری ازدواج کرد
False Cognate
This type of error refers to the incorrect use of a target language word because of its phonological
similarity with a word in the learner’s mother tongue; similarity in form and not in meaning.
*do you still smoke very cigar? ()ھنوز خيلی سيگار می کشی؟
*it was due to my chance ()به خاطر شانس من بود
*I teach English to children ()به بچه ھا انگليسی درس می دھم
4.2. Results
A brief look at the curriculum applied in Iran Education System shows that a great deal of effort has
been done to master the students in the area of linguistics and to make them produce grammatically
correct sentences. But this study showed that this object is mostly unreached. As the tables 1, and 2
indicate almost everyone has to some extent grammatical problems in their translations (98 percent of
them).
By quantitative analysis of errors from the dimension of grammatical rules and error source, the
researchers have mainly scrutinized the frequency and distribution of errors, and found different kinds
of errors which influenced translation, and accordingly give some suggestions on the knowledge of
second language acquisition.
The analysis of the participants’ translations gave the following conclusions:
1. The comparison between the number of different kinds of errors committed by seniors
and juniors indicates that almost all juniors have more than 12 kinds of different errors in
their translations. And, this average reaches 9 in seniors which is an indication of little
grammatical progress during the years of study at university.
2. Table 1 also reveals that the number of lexico-semantic errors is somehow high and it
proves that the participants have inadequate knowledge of TL.
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European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 25, Number 4 (2011)
3. According to table 2, the most frequent error happening both in seniors and juniors is the
use of typical Persian structures in English; and this is due to negative transfer.
4. The students were still confused in differentiating whether to use the definite or indefinite
articles. It could be because in Persian language grammar there is no definite article used.
5. According to the findings, it can be concluded that the students have not mastered the use
of tenses. We can see it from the number of the errors made. Although they had been
taught about it before, they were still confused which one to use when making a
grammatical sentence.
6. From the explanations above, it can be concluded that the students are still confused,
dealing with English grammar systems.
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