Unit 29 Categorising learners’ mistakes

■ How do we categorise learners’ mistakes?

Mistakes are either errors or slips. There are two main reasons why learners make
errors: L1 interference and the stage of the learner’s development. Mistakes result
in problems of accuracy, i.e. students not using the correct form of the language; of
appropriacy, i.e. students not using language suitable for the context or the situation;
or of communication, i.e. students not making their message clear. We can categorise
learners’ mistakes in accuracy and appropriacy in a number of different ways. We can
refer, for example, to what is missing from a word, sentence or utterance, what is
wrongly used, what is unnecessary and what is inappropriate (see Unit 11 for more
information on the role of error).

■ Key concepts
What kinds of mistakes do learners make?
Here are some examples of the ways in which we can categorise learners’ mistakes.

Categories Examples Descriptions

Inaccuracy: pronunciation There was a terrible flood. ɻXG
Inaccuracy: grammatical
Inappropriate style/
register
Inaccuracy: lexical
Inaccuracy: spelling
Inaccuracy: punctuation
● We swum in the lake every summer.
● He have taken more than 100
photos last week.
● News are reported 24 hours a day.
● I’m pleased that you are
interested of the story.
● Do you come from the Canada?
Give me a cup of coffee.
(used in a café to order a coffee)
My grandfather is a senior man.
The leafs were a beautiful colour.
Where does he live.
Incorrect pronunciation of ɻֺG
● Wrong/incorrect verb form
● Unnecessary auxiliary
used as part of the wrong
tense / wrong subject-verb
agreement
● Wrong/incorrect subject-verb
agreement
● Wrong/incorrect (dependent)
preposition
● Unnecessary article
Inappropriate register
Wrong/incorrect adjective
Wrong/incorrect spelling (plural
leaves)
Inaccurate use of full stop

Mistakes can of course be oral or written. We can see some further examples of them
in these extracts.
Oral mistakes
Here is an example of spoken learner discourse from the classroom. Two students are
checking their answers from a listening activity. The mistakes are underlined.
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 Unit 29 Categorising learners’ mistakes

Student A: What you have for this one? I have ‘the supermarket’. He wants food and
drink.
Student B: Yes, supermarket. And number two? I think it is his birthday, but he talks
for the birthday of friend also.
Student A: Yes friend’s birthday. He is sixty. (/‫ۉ‬siksti/)
Student B: Sixty (/‫ۉ‬siksti/) …? I think they are friends in school.
Student A: No, sixty (/‫ۉ‬siksti/) … as me and you …
Student B: (laughing) Sixteen (/siks‫ۉ‬ti:n/) … not sixty (/‫ۉ‬siksti/) … you speak bad.
Student A: That’s nokind … number three … I have …

Now read about the kinds of mistakes the students made.

What you have for this one? This utterance (unit of speech) is missing the auxiliary verb
do and is an example of grammatical inaccuracy.
he talks for the birthday of friend There are several grammatical inaccuracies in this
utterance: the preposition for after talk is incorrect; the possessive adjective his is
missing and the phrase the birthday of friend should be constructed using the possessive
‘s’ (he talks about his friend’s birthday).
as me and you In this utterance the adverb as is used incorrectly, in place of the
preposition like. This is an example of grammatical inaccuracy.
sixteen (VLNVW‫ۉ‬LQ) … not sixty (/‫ۉ‬VLNVWL/). Student A pronounces the person’s age
incorrectly, making the friend 60, not 16.
you speak bad This utterance is an example of inappropriate language and grammatical
inaccuracy. This is inappropriate language for one student to say to another student
because it is impolite. In addition, the student has not formed the adverb correctly.
That’s nokind In this utterance, the student has used an incorrect prefix to make the
adjective kind negative. The correct form of this adjective is unkind.
The mistakes here are in different kinds of accuracy (grammatical and pronunciation)
and in appropriacy.
Written mistakes
Here is an informal letter written by an intermediate learner. The numbers in the
margin refer to the underlined mistakes in each line.

34 Green Street
Brighton
BN4 2QA
22 May
Dear Janet
1 Thanks for your letter. I’m absolutely excited that you are coming to visit me in
2 Brighton. I hope you can stay for a week for I want to show you the town.
3 There are a lot of things to do in Brighton. I like shoping. We’ve got all the
4 big, famous shops here and there are also many small shops. You like classic music
5 I think. I will look after a concert for us to see.
See you soon.
6 Yours sincerely
Sarah

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Now read about some of the mistakes the students made.

1 Incorrect intensifier (line 1): we use absolutely with extreme adjectives, for example
absolutely exhausted. Very would be better here.
2 Inaccurate conjunction (line 2): for is incorrect here. Because would be more
accurate.
3 Spelling (line 3): shoping is not spelt correctly.
4 Lexical inaccuracy (line 4): the adjective classic does not have the same meaning as
classical. Classical would be correct here.
5 Lexical inaccuracy (line 5): look after is not the correct phrasal verb to use here. Look
for would be accurate.
6 Inappropriate register (line 6): Yours sincerely is the close for a formal, not an
informal, letter. Yours or Best Wishes would be more appropriate here.
These mistakes are in accuracy (grammatical, lexical and spelling) and appropriacy.
We can see that in speaking and writing, mistakes in accuracy relate to misusing
forms of language and include grammatical, lexical, spelling, punctuation and
pronunciation mistakes. Mistakes in appropriacy relate to misuse of register.

■ Key concepts and the language teaching classroom

Read these tips and tick the ones which are most important for you.
● Learners can lose motivation if we correct every mistake they make. They become
anxious and more unwilling to take risks and this can have a negative effect on
their learning. We need to think carefully about what, how and when we correct.
● When correcting learners’ written work, it is possible to use a correction code.
This uses symbols, for example sp for spelling, which tells learners the type of
mistake they have made. This can help learner autonomy because it raises
learners’ awareness of the types of mistakes they make and encourages them
to correct their own mistakes. It’s not possible to use a correction code with very
young learners, because they are not able to categorise language in this way.
(See Unit 32 for more on using correction codes.)
● How we identify and categorise mistakes influences the way we correct them. For
example, learners may not have learnt the word or the structure yet; they may be
using a word or structure from their first language by mistake (L1 interference);
they may have great difficulty making certain sounds, which is another kind of L1
interference, or they may need more time to check and edit their writing.
● It is important not only to focus on mistakes of accuracy (e.g. grammar and lexis).
Mistakes of appropriacy need correcting as well. Mistakes of appropriacy can
often cause more misunderstanding and lack of communication than mistakes of
grammar and lexis.
● Mistakes can be a very positive aspect of learning. They show us that learning is
taking place and that learners are taking risks with the language.
● Some mistakes matter more than others. Mistakes that cause a breakdown in
communication or cause miscommunication are more significant than those which
do not, e.g. leaving off plural s is unlikely to cause a communication breakdown,
while using the past instead of going to is likely to.

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 Unit 29 Categorising learners’ mistakes

● It is useful to identify and categorise our learners’ mistakes. We might identify

common mistakes made by many students, or focus on mistakes made by individual
students. We can use this information when we plan our lessons to make sure
we focus on the problems that our students have, and help them develop ways to
improve.
● We can get information on our learners’ mistakes and their needs from homework
tasks, informal assessments, observation checklists and so on.
● Students may also make mistakes in communication, e.g. in speaking, they may not
be very fluent or may not have good interactive strategies, and in writing they
may not organise their writing according to accepted structures. Learners’ mistakes
can be in accuracy, appropriacy or communication.
See Unit 32 for correcting learners.

FOLLOW-UP ACTIVITY (Open answers)

Look at the table in the Key concepts section of the ways in which we categorise
learners’ mistakes. Think of at least two more examples for each category of typical
mistakes your learners make. Include examples from their written work as well as
from their oral work.

REFLECTION
Think about these comments from teachers. Which do you agree with and why?
1 I find it hard to categorise my learners’ mistakes. I know something is wrong but I
can’t explain to the learners what it is.
2 It’s very confusing for learners when we talk about inappropriate this or incorrect that.
When something’s wrong, it’s wrong!
3 I can identify when there’s a problem with word order but I don’t always know why
it’s wrong.

DISCOVERY ACTIVITIES

1 Correct some of your learners’ written work, and identify which are the most
common types of mistake and categorise them. Think about why they might be
making these mistakes. Which might be a result of L1 interference and which
might be developmental? Write about what you have learned in your Teacher
Portfolio.
2 Audio-record a short extract of your learners doing a task in the classroom.
Identify the common mistakes and categorise them, as you did for activity 1.
Reflect on the reasons for their mistakes and note your ideas in your Teacher
Portfolio.
3 For more information on categorising learners’ mistakes, look at:
Chapter 9, Section 4 of Learning Teaching (Second edition) by Jim Scrivener,
Macmillan 2005
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/error-correction-1
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/error-correction-2
Also look at ‘Correcting written work’ at:
http://www.cambridge.org/elt/tkt
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TKT practice task 29 (See page 245 for answers)

For questions 1-7, match the learners’ mistakes with the areas of grammar listed A-D.
You will need to use some of the options more than once.

Areas of grammar

A adverbs
B articles
C verb forms
D prepositions

Learners’ mistakes
1 My sister wants to be dentist when she grows up.
2 If I seen him, I would have told him.
3 He is very keen of becoming a musician.
4 My sister and her husband always arrived lately.
5 I’m looking for accommodation to live on next year.
6 One of the students were late for class today.
7 I really want to visit the Oxford University next week.

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