Learners and their errors

This chapter examines the role of learner errors in understanding foreign language (FL) acquisition. It first discusses Contrastive Analysis (CA), rooted in behaviourism, which attributes errors to transfer between the first language (L1) and the target language. While CA predicts some interlingual errors, it fails to explain many others. This limitation gave rise to Error Analysis (EA) and the concept of interlanguage , highlighting learners&s; internally constructed linguistic systems. Creative construction theory further argues that most errors are developmental rather than transfer-based, with research showing universal patterns in morpheme acquisition across learners regardless of L1 . The chapter then shifts to sociocultural theory (SCT), emphasizing interaction, mediation, and learners&s; zones of proximal development in shaping error production and correction. Finally, the chapter links these perspectives to global English use, questioning native-speaker norms and highlighting English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), where intelligibility and adaptability become central to understanding ‘errors’.