Essay On He Uses Not Only Linguistic Analysis In His Method But Also Psycholinguistic Analyses.

Introduction;

The specific method being used to analyse the text in this case is the method of Carl James. In applied linguistics, Carl James puts forward the idea of contrastive analysis that is effective in thoroughly analysing, identifying and understanding problems and issues in foreign languages or second languages that a person is learning who has an entirely different mother tongue.

The analysis technique by Carl James can be applied to research and study for studying linguistics and as a teaching tool for teachers teaching different languages.
The technique or rather the Carl James methodology is very thorough in analysing every single mistake made by the student and identifying it so that each and every single mistake , be that grammatical or other errors be corrected and proper and correct English usage can be taught effectively and in a way that both the teacher and student can cope and work with each other and also in a way that the student can gain maximum benefit from while on the whole the experience of the teacher should also be very productive.

Choice of the Text to be corrected;

The choice has been made consciously because this text provides some of the most common and basic mistakes that a person whose first language is Spanish make when learning the English language. In some ways these mistakes presented in the text are some of the most oft repeated mistakes made. These mistakes expose the difficulties and the issues that these learners face when learning English, which can be slightly confusing for people who do not speak or commonly communicate in the English language.
In addition to all the above given points this text is precise and limited. Thus it is ideal for analysing according to the Carl James method. These given points are the main reason why this specific text was selected for analysing with this method.

Sample Text;

DR.MR. James orwell. I came to know about you through friend. I have known your father ago many years .He was lawyer and I was accused for stealing something in my town. He helped me. I want express gratitude to him. I would like to have his address and any other contact. These is the reason I write this letter to you.Happy to write to You.
(Tommy Smith)

Substance Level Errors in Language;

These are the errors and mistakes that are made in the punctuation or spelling use by the learner. These errors and mistakes are fairly common but should be avoided as proper English use cannot be done without learning the very basics of the language, and in English language there is much importance given to substance level errors.

Following are the different kinds of errors present in the text:

Lower case letters
Error of emission
Wrong grammar sense
Improper preposition
Wrong usage of Proper nouns
Text grammar error
Punctuation errors
Text level errors
Lexis level errors
Discourse level errors
Errors of style
Errors of usage
Improper spellings of words or mistakes such as extra spaces between words or using lower case letters where upper case capital letters is required are all included in substance level errors in the English language.
In line 1 of the text the name ‘Orwell’ has been written with a lower case letter while a proper noun is always written with a capital letter. This is a substance level error which cannot be avoided if proper usage of written English is to be learned.
Another error that was committed in line one was the use of a colon. Generally in situations like these, a semi-colon is preferred instead of a colon.
On line 6, for the word ‘you’ , the writer has used a upper case first letter , while this word is not in the start of the sentence , thus it is also a substance level error. Such errors are being made consistently by the writer.

Errors of Omission:

1. In line 3, the writer has written ‘He was lawyer’ whereby he has omitted a word. He should have written ‘He was a lawyer’.
2. Again in line 4, another example of the error of omission has been made by the writer of the selected text. It is written there ‘I want express gratitude’, now this is clearly an omission mistake. The writer should have written ‘I want to express gratitude’.

Miss-Selection;

In the text selected, on line five instead of to be used singular ‘this’ a plural has been used in its place. The plural used in the text is ‘these’ which is wrong thus this is a miss-selection on the part of the writer.
Such miss-selection errors and mistakes are common in basic learners of English but less common in learners who have reached an intermediate level of grasp over the English language.

Lexical Errors;

1. In line two of the chosen text sample, the writer makes a lexical mistake. He should have written ‘since’ or even the word ‘for’ would have been an appropriate option instead of using ‘ago’.
2. In another instance, the same type of mistake has been made. A lexical error has been committed in line 3 where the writer writes ‘accused for’.

Punctuation Errors;

Generally the text that is selected is rife with punctuation errors. Even the spaces before full stops are incoherent. This may not only be due to improper language skills of the writer, but they may also be due to inadequate typing skills of the writer, as the text is typed. It is even possible that these mistakes might be due to carelessness.
When the abbreviations for doctor and mister are used both the letters are in the upper case. This is a mistake since they should be written as ‘Dr.’ and ‘Mr.’ specifically.
Using upper case letters in place of lower case letters and vice versa, this is seen fairly commonly in this text which is being analysed.

Discourse Level Errors;

Errors that are made in the written text of English at the discourse level.
The questions that arise are if the text, which is written in the form of a letter, either do or do not conform to the usual standards or norms of a letter written in the English language.
The starting issues here are in the general layout of the letter. The originating address or more commonly known as the letter head is missing. This is a very essential part of letter writing.
In the start no salutation such as dear has been used and over-inclusion has been done by using both ‘Mr.’ and ‘Dr.’ .Only one should have been used. The use of both these abbreviations is redundancy.
Another error in the format of the letter is made by failing to give an ending or a signing off by ending the letter with ‘yours (sincerely, obediently).
Another very similar error committed by the writer of the selected passage is that he has written a letter and has failed to explicitly sign it off with his name. This signing off a letter with the full name or the signature of the writer is standard practice when writing a letter in the English language, so this is a mistake which cannot be avoided and needs to be corrected.
And where he has written his name is also the wrong side. The writer should have written his name on the right corner of the letter whereas he has written it at the left side which is not the standard practice when writing a letter in the English language.

Errors of Style;

These errors exist but cannot be as distinctively be pointed out as the other errors that have been pointed out before. But to raise the understanding of the English being written and also to maintain a certain standard, these errors in style need to be corrected and the particular English style has to be followed to develop a better level of language use.

Nature:

In the letter certain demands are made and impositions made to reply and so on thus clearly pointing out that this particular text is formal. Yet at the very end of the letter a line , the writer goes off track from the formal tone of the whole letter and writes ‘happy to write to you .’.Now this phrase is completely off track as it gives a very informal feel and this is in dispute with the general style of the letter and is thus an error of style.
In the letter, the writer makes a number of demands but by ending the letter in such a way he shifts the whole theme of the letter. Such mistakes are considered to be errors of style and a grasp of the English language is not possible without identifying and then avoiding the inclusion of any sort of style errors in the work done.

Conclusion;

After the complete analysis of the selected text and the detailed classification of the errors and mistakes made by the writer, a definite conclusive analysis can be made about the common errors and mistakes made by the writer. Generally mistakes and errors in second language acquisition are committed due to inadequate knowledge of the specific rules and use of the language that the subject under consideration is trying to learn.
Grammatical errors where the most common and as discussed above already this may also be due to the fact that the writer may have poor typing skills and these may just be typing errors and mistakes instead of actual grammatical mistakes.
Other than that lexicon type errors were also very common. Two lexicon style errors were made in just a few lines. This may be due to the complexity of English as a language or the poor understanding of the lexicon errors.
The way to improve language use and reduce errors is to focus more on the rules and norms of English language use and also to read, write and converse more in English. But the main point remains going back to the basics and focusing on the rules and guidelines of English language.

References

Ellis, R. (1994). The study of second language acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.