Error Analysis And English Teaching In Senior High School

In recent years, the study of the errors committed by Chinese students in senior high schools has increasingly attracted the attention of English teachers in China. Error Analysis (EA), a branch of Applied Linguistics, has undoubtedly made great contributions to the study on second language teaching. In the thesis, different schools of research approaches to errors are reviewed. Obviously, either Contrastive Analysis (CA) or Error Analysis (EA) has its merits and weakness. A careful study of errors reveals the common problems shared by the language learners, which is believed to be of great help to both language teachers and language learners.This thesis, with the theories of Error Analysis (EA), Contrastive Analysis (CA), and Interlanguage (IL) as its theoretical guidance, analyzes the errors committed by senior students in the author' s hometown. A careful survey is conducted of the errors made by senior students. Then efforts are made to find all the sources of errors.The analysis shows that interlingual and intralingual errors are two major types, with the former playing a more prominent role than the latter, in the terms of linguistic transfer, cultural transfer, and thought pattern transfer and so on . Following the analysis and discussion, relevant error correction methods and pedagogical suggestions are put forward in order to be helpful to the language learning and teaching, and increase the writing ability of the learners.The present paper consists of six chapters. Chapter One is an introduction. It introduces the background and necessityof the paper. Chapter Two sets forth the theoretical bases of different viewpoints andapproaches to error studies, together with their merits andweakness reviewed and discussed. They are contrastive analysis,error analysis, and interlanguage. Chapter Three is a classification of different standpoints. First, adiverse classification of errors made by different linguists ispresented. The author adds some new items to the categoriesaccording to the studies of errors made by senior high schoolstudents. Chapter Four makes a careful study of the causes of errors from differentperspectives. Interlingual errors are the chief causes of errors.Some personal factors and objective elements should be included. Chapter Five deals with error correction and proper teaching methods toreduce errors in senior high schools. Chapter Six serves as a conclusion of the paper.