Introduction

 IDENTIFICATION AND CORRECTION OF FOUR COMMON ERRORS THAT SPANISH SPEAKERS MAKE IN ENGLISH

 

It could be said that "error" is an anomaly in the second language that the learner produces involuntarily and which it is unable to correct, and "mistake" is an anomaly that can occur with or without intention but that the learner can correct himself. Therefore, it is very important to know the weaknesses of a person whose mother tongue is Spanish to find the correct strategies in English and, thus, improve each of their skills.

                Error analysis is a small creation or production of language that has not been produced successfully. According to Allwright and Bailey (1991), mention that, the typical definition of error refers to the production of a linguistic form that deviates from the correct form. The perception of error as a negative product of learning changed from the works of Stephen Pit Corder in the late 1960s, "the errors are not to be regarded as signs of inhibition, but simply as evidence of his strategies of learning" (Corder, 1987). Thus, learning is no longer seen as the acquisition of a set of habits and is now understood as the acquisition of a series of cognitive strategies by the student.

                 To identify the errors that Spanish speakers make in English, we have selected two frequent examples found in some practices. For example, Addition Errors: "She *smelts the hand he held before ...", where the 3rd person present ending is added to a past verb. Another example would be Misordering Errors: "He must teach his pupils without * them are * boring during his lessons." The expected structure should be "He must teach his pupils without boring them ..." As well to these errors we can find different bad skills in Spanish speakers when formulating sentences, in grammar, and even when pronouncing.

                Going deep, we could say that the most important type of error is one that produces a misunderstanding. We make this statement based on the communicative purpose of a language. If because of an error, there is no effective communication, that error becomes a disturbing factor that interferes with the message. Let's take an example:

Al (1) How long are you here for?

BI Two years.

Al What! (2) You are already here for two years?

BI Oh no, 1 arrived yesterday. I'm staying for two years...

We already know some errors made by Spanish speakers, but what are these pronunciation errors and how could they be corrected by the teacher? Firstly, the teacher could identify the errors of the student by asking them what the errors are that they have noticed for themselves. A practice that works a lot is asking the students basic questions to notice what errors are in their pronunciation. In addition, the teacher could use strategies such as HINTING / PROMPTING which consists of giving the student a clue that will help them to self-correct and remember the correction.