Error Analysis And Its Application In College Oral English Teaching For Non-English Majors

No one can learn a foreign language without committing errors in the process of second language learning. Error analysis is an analytical tool that is used to identify linguistic errors learners make. This tool has been used to significantly change the teaching and learning of second language by making learners react to new linguistic phenomena and by providing useful insights about second language acquisition process. Based on the theory of Error Analysis, the research makes an empirical study on linguistic errors in non-English majors'oral English production.Little research in China has been done on the analysis of oral errors made by non-English majored college students, let alone the research of acceptability and effectiveness of error correction in the perspectives of both students and teachers, and most of the research in China has focused on the analysis of written errors made by English majored college students.This thesis deals with error correcting strategies to the different oral errors made by non-English majored sophomores in Shandong University of Technology. The students'oral errors and its corresponding correction strategies are collected to identify, categorize quantity and analyze the acceptability and effectiveness of error corrections with interview and questionnaire. The statistical analysis of the result indicates that: (1) There are necessities for teachers to correct students'oral errors. (2) Meanwhile, error corrections should be acceptable for students, which should take students'attitudes into consideration. (3) But, the effectiveness of error correction should take students'ultimate improvement in oral English as criteria, besides students'temporary feelings and attitudes. (4) Therefore, both acceptability and effectiveness should be considered in oral error correction both for students and teachers. Finally, the author put forward implications from the perspective of oral English teaching so as to better oral English teaching and learning for non-English majors and Chinese college English teachers.