The Role Of Error Analysis And Feedback In EFL Learning

Error analysis is the study and analysis of the errors made by second language learners. Error analysis may be carried out in order to obtain information on common difficulties in language learning, as an aid to teaching or in the preparation of teaching materials. Error analysis developed as a branch of applied linguistics in the 1960s, and reached its heyday in the 1970s. It was replaced by Interlanguage study in America but it is still popular in Europe, which developed from the sentence-study to discourse-study and pragmatics-study. In recent years, scholars and researchers began to study the role of the error analysis and feedback in writing.One of the major characteristics for the Chinese learners is that they learn English in the lack of verbal environment, and studying in class is the main form for students. Of the four basic skills, listening, speaking, reading and writing, the last is the advanced cognitive activity, which reflects one's thinking.Language learners make progress in making errors. According to Interlanguage, making errors are inevitable and is a necessary part of learning the target language. 'Error themselves are the product of learning', and errors are the clearest evidence of the learner's developing systems and can offer us insights into how learners process the data of the language'. How to provide effective errors for the learners? How to help the students to realize their errors? How to help the students to use the explicit knowledge to correct errors? All these are the questions we discuss in this chapter.This thesis is divided into four chapters.Chapter One sketches out the thesis and the plan of the dissertation. First, it presents a general account of the study of error analysis, which serves as the background of the dissertation. Then, it illustrates different points of view on errors analysis and feedback. Finally it discusses the studies made by the scholars and educators.Chapter Two gives a brief review of the research related to error analysis and feedback. The results indicate that productive feedback can help the students toimprove the writing skill. Effective forms of feedback are discussed in this chapter.Chapter Three analyzes errors collected from the students' works. The goal of the analysis is to make Chinese students aware of their inter-lingual and intra-lingual errors in English writing.Chapter Four puts forward teaching suggestions on enhancing Chinese EFL students' motivation to learn English through writing. The writer also gets suggestions on feedback from the eye of the students.In recent years, the local educators begin to pay attention to the role of error analysis and feedback in language learning.