Some sources and types of common errors in Serbian learners' oral presentations in English

Abstract

This paper is concerned with Serbian students' errors in their oral presentations in English and it is based on Error Analysis and the assumptions that many errors can be ascribed to the following sources: mother tongue, L1 (interlingual errors), the target language, L2 (intralingual errors) and the strategies by which the learner acquires the language (developmental errors). All three sources can be permanent or temporal and they affect levels of the language system which will be focal in the study (morphology and syntax). The study reported in this paper offers an account of common errors in intermediate level students' oral presentation in English in the Second Grammar School in Kragujevac. The errors in question are neither accidental nor a result of the classroom situation which may induce errors (e.g. anxiety, low self-esteem) but which are rather recurrent in everyday language production. The overview of errors along with their classification based on sources and types offers a certain teaching methodology for error prevention and their remedy which is based on a comparative study of the two languages in question: Serbian as L1 and English as L2. The study's findings can contribute to language pedagogy and the teaching process itself because they suggest where to search for the sources of errors.