Error Analysis (EA) and Correction (EC) of Written Work in the Classroom*

Abstract

Over the past 40 years, there has been a shift in pedagogical focus from preventing errors to learning from errors. During the era of audiolingualism in the 1950s and 60s, language learners had to repeat pattern drills and grammatical structures in a mechanistic fashion. By memorising the "correct model", it was hoped that error could be avoided because errors were considered signs of failure in the learning process.

In the late 1960s however, language teaching became more humanistic when studies of cognitive psychology influenced the theory of language acquisition. Language learning was finally acknowledged to be based on active mental involvement and not mere habit formation. Students were then encouraged to learn by communicating in the target language and not by merely repeating grammatical items.