Some Controversies in Present-Day Error Analysis : "Contrastive" vs. "Non-Contrastive" Error

Authors

Gerhard Nickel

Publication Date

1989-01-01

Abstract

On the relationship between Contrastive Linguistics (CL) and Error Analysis (EA) views have been changing. To some extent these changes in views display a recognizable geographical distribution. Thus it is interesting to note that CL studies are still strongly represented in the major part of Europe, Southeast Asia and the Far East, while they have declined in the USA, though in the field of pragmatics a rising interest in the latter country is noticeable. Where CL still has a firm basis, there seems to be agreement that the CL factor is still a very important one, and that phenomena like 'interference' and 'transfer' can still be explained, at least to a certain extent, in the light of CL. Some scholars in the USA tend to assign little importance to the contrastive element, as is evident in some of the publications referred to in the present article. It is no longer disputable that CL and EA research in Europe and other parts of the world has never contended that errors are predictable entirely on a contrastive basis. Not even the majority of errors stem from contrastive interference. There are many social and psychological factors to be taken into consideration, but interlingual interference is still regarded as a very strong component in contrast to many other factors more difficult to analyse and define. The great numerical discrepancy between errors interpreted as being 'interferential' and those categorized as 'developmental' still calls for explication. Some explanations for this discrepancy may be : (1) The complexity of the possible causes of errors ; (2) the distinction between FL and SL situations ; a great deal of research in the USA of the type mentioned above deals with SL situations. It cannot be pointed out too often that CL and EA are two important and separate disciplines in the field of applied linguistics, which are certainly not conterminous but which have an area of overlap the size of which varies depending on many pragmatic, psychological and social factors. It may certainly expand, under certain conditions (phonology, FL learning age group, emotional stress, to mention only some of the important ones), to something like thirty per cent of the entire field covered by both disciplines.

DOI

10.58837/CHULA.PASAA.19.2.2

First Page

13

Last Page

26

Recommended Citation

Nickel, Gerhard (1989) "Some Controversies in Present-Day Error Analysis : "Contrastive" vs. "Non-Contrastive" Error," PASAA: Vol. 19: Iss. 2, Article 3.
DOI: 10.58837/CHULA.PASAA.19.2.2
Available at: https://digital.car.chula.ac.th/pasaa/vol19/iss2/3