Error Analysis Of Chinese Intermediate EFL Learners--A Case Study

The present paper, according to the theories of interlanguage and of error analysis, first identifies the subjects by questionnaire investigation, then collects, describes and analyzes error data from them.The paper explores the error sources and finds out that ﹖here are intralingual errors, interlingual errors, errors caused by training transfer and communicative strategies; (2) there are more intralingual errors than interlingual errors; 〤hinese as native language has a considerable negative transfer to the learners.The result, from the linguistic angle (or grammatical angle), also indicates that the most frequently committed errors are the language points to which the teachers have always given emphasis. The author thus proposes her assumptions: (1) there exists "Universal hierarchy of difficulty"; (2) learner's incomplete interlanguage system leads to errors; (3) the effect of psychological factors may lead to errors; (4) some errors are at the necessary stage of the development of interlanguage; (5) learners' tendency to reduce burden of learning may give rise to error. Then, the author discusses the stage the intermediate learners stood at and the learning strategies they employed.Finally, the present paper gives some pedagogical implications to English teaching in both middle schoolsand universities.