Error Analysis: L1 Impact and Syllabi Assessment

Abstract

Analysis and treatment of errors in learners’ developmental progress has a long tradition in ESL and EFL language and teaching practice. However, errors are sometimes disregarded and overlooked. In this paper we aim at exploring the importance of learners’ errors as indicators of failure and success of teaching-learning specific strategies. By looking at the error in this perspective, we draw conclusions that would enable us to formulate ideas to assess the impact of learners’ L1, the learning process of the targeted L2 and the syllabi itself. To do that, we propose a corpus study in which we analysed 128 written samples of Spanish L1 learners of English (Common European Framework Reference for Languages, i.e., CEFR levels B2 and C1). Some of the most significative findings elicit the negative impact that L1 has and how it hinders the adhesion of learners to the descriptors of the targeted level and, thus, the necessity to re-evaluate and re-formulate the syllabi.