Perspectives on Errors - Einzelansicht

Learner errors may be traced back to the cognitive processes of speech production, and thus considered a window into the current state of a learner's linguistic proficiency. In that understanding, correction provides a means specifically meant to ensure the linguistic correctness of utterances. Adopting another theoretical basis, repair is understood as interactional phenomenon expressing language users' attempts at avoiding communicative breakdown by resolving problems of hearing, speaking and understanding. Errors, in that perspective, are only one out of a broad variety of 'trouble sources' that learners may be dealing with, and instances of repair provide insight not into a lack of proficiency, but into burgeouning communicative skill.

In this advanced course, we will explore how different perspectives on the notion of 'error', and the correction mechanisms commonly associated with them, may impact our understanding of the nature of language, and consequently the objectives of, and approaches to, language learning and teaching.

Presentation (30‘) (+ written report of 2000 words, if demanded) or written exam (90’) or written paper (3000 words)