Quid Pro Quo

Corpus-Related Research

ERROR and CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS

Instructor: Dr Maskanah Ahmad Lotfie

-We were given collection of essays in English by students from various level and competencies as to examine and define the errors and mistakes. Factors and sources contributing to errors and mistakes were also emphasized such as fossilisation and/or first language influence or L1.

-Dr Maskanah then instructed to each of us to write 2 essays within the same topic both in English and in Bahasa Malaysia. These were for our further analysis and her own records.

-The second most significant assignment was for us to conduct a research based on written and spoken form of English. We need to pick a non-BENL student, record his/her speech and ask him/her to write an essay based on the same topic that he/she had spoken. In the meanwhile, we need to transcribe the oral form into a written one.
Then we need to compare and contrast between those two types of written and spoken language.

-As for conclusion, spoken form of language will contain more mistakes and errors compared to written form because of the time factor. A speaker needs to deliver his speech in a split second in order to be comprehended by others while a student will have more time to analyse and look back at the essay he/she has written so it will minimise the number of errors and mistakes in it.
Looking at a bigger perspective, more hours needed to strengthen student's communication skills compared to teaching them writing skills if we consider all the findings based of corpus available as well as the oral form of language deliverance.