Developmental and transfer errors in SLA

Abstract

During the process of learning a new language it is common that most students make errors as they still do not know all the elements, rules and features of that language. Errors have been analyzed and studied for many years, as they are the most important source of information for teachers and learners themselves about the learning process. Errors may be due to several factors, they may be caused by influence of the student’s mother tongue and in that case, they are known as transfer errors, and also, they can emerge because of interferences among elements of the same language and, in that case, they are known as developmental errors. This study focuses on the investigation of the sources of those errors made by two groups of 25 students of first of ESO, taking into account the mistakes that appear frequently and the reasons students give about having made them in order to discover their sources and causes. In this sense, the present research will show several examples of students’ errors with their reasons of having made them as well as the type of errors, and also examples of cases in which boundaries between types of errors are not clear cut and two different types of errors may appear together. Results show a bigger amount of transfer errors followed by several developmental errors and specific cases in which we will find both types combined in one same error.