| No one can learn a foreign language without committing any errors in his learning process. There were arguments on the definition of errors. Dulay (1982) argues that 'errors are the flawed side of learner speech or writing.' According to Rod Ellis (1994), an error can be defined as a deviation from the norms of the target language. It was not until the 1970s that Error Analysis (EA) became a recognized part of applied linguistics, a development that owed much to the work of Corder. EA constituted the first serious attempt to investigate learner language in order to discover how learners acquire an L2. The most significant contribution of EA lies in its success in elevating the status of learners' errors. Errors are no longer seen as 'unwanted forms', but as evidence of how learners are setting about the task of learning. If teachers undertake a systematic analysis of errors, they could know how far towards the goal the learner has progressed and consequently what remains for him to learn. Besides, teachers could know the strategies and procedures that the learner uses in his learning process. From the standpoint of the learner, he may know better by the analysis and corrections of his errors, in what aspect he is weak and to what he should pay more attention in his learning process. In fact, the making of errors can be regarded as a device the learner uses to learn. It is the way by which the learner can test his hypothesis about the nature and rules of the language he is learning.The structure of this thesis is as follows: Chapter one is mainly concerned with the definition and classification of errors. Major perspectives concerning language errors are presented in this chapter. All learners make errors, it is an inevitable and indeed necessary part of the learning process. Errors play a very important role in foreign language learning. According to comparative taxonomy, errors can be classified into three categories: (1)interlingual errors,(2)intralingual errors, (3)ambiguous errors.Chapter two attempts to give a brief account of the stages of Error Analysis. Thestudy of errors is carried out by means of Error Analysis(EA).At the early stage of error study, it consisted mainly in building large collections of "common" errors and their linguistic classification. The goals were pedagogic: errors provided information for teaching and for designing remedial lessons. No theoretical framework existed for explaining the role played by the errors. It was not until the 1970s that EA became a recognized part of applied linguistics, a development that owed much to the work of Corder. Meanwhile, EA has received much criticism as a result of its perceived weaknesses. Since 1980s, there is a shift from linguistic errors to discourse and pragmatic errors which have attracted much attention among researchers.Chapter three is devoted to a tentative study on the errors produced by Chinese non-English major college students. The purpose of this experiment is to show the possible portion of interlingual errors and intralingual errors made by college students learning English as a foreign language.Chapter four deals with the interlingual errors and the intralingual errors in foreign language learning. Lots of examples from students' compositions are presented here to throw some light on the causes of these errors. Compared with the intralingual errors, the interlingual errors are small in number. But they are very significant, because they can not only tell what kind of role the first language plays in the learning process but also can help locate possible areas of first language interference at lexical, grammatical and discourse and pragmatic levels. Though the intralingual errors are various, they have a lot in common which can reveal the learner's learning strategy and learning stage. The errors are to be studied in terms of Carl James(1998) categorized criteria.Chapter six presents some pedagogical implications of error studies by considering four aspects of language teaching. Proper techniques should b...
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