- Email: [email protected]
Error analysis
394
REVIEWS
can more easily and slowly be trained to understand native speakers. This practice gets more difficult if the list of missing words is left out and/or the gaps are only numbered. All these options can be chosen from a menu at the bottom of the screen. It can be great fun for learners if you decide for CLOSE UP, because this means that the gaps are no longer discernible and the printed out text looks quite complete. Pupils will have to discuss with each other, where to place all the words from the alphabetic list. These discussions generate a high level of language awareness already in low grades and it has become evident that this kind of practice is not only highly didactic, but also great fun for learners. Choosing the Editor option you can not only write new texts, but also re-edit old ones, import any ASCII file as a selected extract from a longer text or edit and write wordlists. The latest version of ECLIPSE even allows you to produce texts in languages other than English and store them in different directories on your disk. For this purpose you can use the F3-F8 keys as soon as you have chosen a different language than English, e.g. when writing or using German texts as a line at the bottom of the screen shows you which function key to use for which letter F3 = a, F4 = 6, F5 = ii. No more different versions for different languages, just one licence of eclipse and off you go! This system of F-keys can also be used with French, Spanish and Swedish texts, and makes the programme even more versatile for language teachers and learners alike. From the first idea way back in 1953, when Wilson Taylor first called the process of practising with texts of regularly deleted words CLOZE: it has been a long-winded way to ECLIPSE 2.0 in August 1992. The earlier you start using ECLIPSE in your language classroom the sooner you will improve your teaching success. In other words, the programme is highly recommendable, go and get it, either for yourself or for your institution. Klaus
Peters
CALL Austria BG8 Jodok Fink Platz 2 A-1080 Vienna Austria
S,~s,en~, Vol. 21, No. Pergamon Press Ltd.
3, pp. 394-396. Printed in Great
1993 Britain
SPILLNER, BERND, Error Analysis. A Comprehensive Bibliography. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia, PA: Benjamins, 1991, xliii + 552 pp., Hfl. 225.00/$118.00 (Amsterdam Studies in the Theory and History of Linguistic Science, Series V, Library & Information Sources in Linguistics, Vol. 12). In 1980, with the boom of interlanguage research and criticism of contrastive analysis, error analysis reached its zenith of almost 400 publications. With 100 publications in 1989
REVIEWS
395
it was still an attractive research field, and may receive new impetus from Spillner’s bibliography. This important publication, compiling the enormous total of almost 5400 titles from 1578 to 1990, fills a considerable gap in the documentation of this research field. The introduction deals primarily with the multidisciplinary scope of error analysis, and also states the criteria for choosing and listing the titles. Part I contains a list of the 283 acronyms used. The 5398 titles of the bibliography then follow, grouped alphabetically according to the names of the authors and editors. The main external criterion is that the titles are available in published form. The fact that the list of addenda was not integrated into the main list makes it more difficult to use the bibliography. Part II consists of a chronological index, giving a perspective on the development of interdisciplinary tendencies. It shows, for example, that in the years from 1978 to 1990 there were as many titles published as in the 400 years from 1578 to 1977. There then follows a list of the 143 languages handled in the publications (arranged according to international classification and standardized codes). The work concludes with a subject and key word index with 283 entries. The original intention was to present an annotated bibliography, but this was abandoned because of the enormous amount of data. The three indices are supposed to compensate this lack. Spillner’s wide scope makes the bibliography particularly valuable. Thus, studies focusing on the analysis of errors in learning, acquisition and performance of foreign, second and first languages are included, as are bilingualism as a first language. That is why publications originate not only from theoretical, historical and applied linguistics, but also from specialized linguistic domains, such as, to name but three, psycholinguistics, reading research and shorthand research. Moreover, this bibliography comprehends publications, to name a further three disciplines, from medicine, cybernetics, criminology etc. Such a generous scope clearly makes the bibliography an instrument that will facilitate a survey across several disciplines. In some rare cases, publications on error in action and arithmetical errors were included; unfortunately, the selection criteria are not stated (cf. p. XIV). Thus, the bibliography would also offer a basis for a general theory of human mistakes. However, the key word index does not help find these non-linguistic studies. As far as the list of languages is concerned, Spillner remarks that it does not distinguish between errors in Ll, L2 or further languages, because such a distinction would not have been possible in many cases. This is unfortunate because the “larger” languages in particular need to be subdivided as much as possible. A user who would like to compile a bibliography for a language pair with English as a foreign language would have to go through more than a third of the entire bibliography-2061 titles (for German 1168, for French 874 titles). The user would then have to inspect those publications with titles that do not permit a clear decision on relevance-although Spillner and his team have already performed this task for all publications (p. XIV). On the basis of the inspection of the publications, the subject and key word indices could have been used to provide a finely differentiated descriptive network representative of all titles, but the chance was missed. There are many publications that are represented by only one key word, though more would be appropriate. Thus, KASPER, G. (1975) Die Problematik der Fehleridentifizierung. Ein Beitrag zur Fehleranaiyse im Fremdsprachenunterricht. Bochum: ZFI, is only entered under “error location”, although
other key words would be appropriate. A central publication such as CORDER, S. P. (1967) The Significance of Learner’s Errors. IRAf. 5, 161-170, is not listed in the index at all. This study should appear under “longitudinal study”, “error of performance”, “error of competence” and “strategy of learning”, as well as perhaps “built-in syllabus” and “transitional competence”. However, none of these key words is included in the index, so that the important distinction between errors of competence and errors of performance is not represented. Moreover, some key words should have been taken more narrowly or subdivided: “avoidance” (214 references), for example, includes publications on such divergent topics as error prevention, therapy and communication strategy of avoidance and simplification; “correction” (318 references) should be divided at least into oral and written correction; “error frequency” (162 references) could be differentiated according to languages; and so on. Nonetheless, the index facilitates a preliminary sorting of an enormous number of multidisciplinary titles. To sum up: There is no doubt that, with its relative comprehensiveness, with its multidisciplinary selection and with its indices, this bibliography can be a starting point for various research projects. Spillner himself offers some examples: comparative evaluation of the empirical data with a view to a general typology of errors; comparisons and analyses constants with a view to research in “universals of language contact” and in interlingual of foreign language acquisition (p. X); comparisons in order to analyse “error causes typical for specific languages and types of interferences typical for certain pairs of languages” (p. XI) and in (p. XIX); comparisons with a view to “research in linguistic universals” “the explanation of linguistic change” (p. XII). This is not the only sense in which this bibliography, despite a few shortcomings, is an absolutely necessary and valuable research instrument. It is essential not only for error analysts, for pure and applied linguists, but also for researchers in other disciplines who are concerned with the phenomenon “error”. Spillner and his team deserve gratitude, for, as he himself points out (p. XIX), it takes years of work to compile such a bibliography, with no guarantee of receiving the scholarly recognition earned. Horst
Raabe
Ruhr-Universitat Bochum Seminar fur Sprachlehrforschung Universitatsstrarje 150 D-W-6430 Bochum 1 Bundesrepublik Deutschland
.S,s~e,n. Vol. 21. No. Pergamon Press Ltd.
3, pp. 3Y6-398, Printed in Great
I’)93 Britain
HARRISON, BRIAN (ed.), EL T Documents London: Modern English Publications/British
132: Culture and the Language Classroom. Council,
1990, 141 pp., E9.95.
This collection of 13 papers covers a wide range of perspectives on cross-cultural language teaching. It suggests how these perspectives can facilitate the development of language
REVIEWS
can more easily and slowly be trained to understand native speakers. This practice gets more difficult if the list of missing words is left out and/or the gaps are only numbered. All these options can be chosen from a menu at the bottom of the screen. It can be great fun for learners if you decide for CLOSE UP, because this means that the gaps are no longer discernible and the printed out text looks quite complete. Pupils will have to discuss with each other, where to place all the words from the alphabetic list. These discussions generate a high level of language awareness already in low grades and it has become evident that this kind of practice is not only highly didactic, but also great fun for learners. Choosing the Editor option you can not only write new texts, but also re-edit old ones, import any ASCII file as a selected extract from a longer text or edit and write wordlists. The latest version of ECLIPSE even allows you to produce texts in languages other than English and store them in different directories on your disk. For this purpose you can use the F3-F8 keys as soon as you have chosen a different language than English, e.g. when writing or using German texts as a line at the bottom of the screen shows you which function key to use for which letter F3 = a, F4 = 6, F5 = ii. No more different versions for different languages, just one licence of eclipse and off you go! This system of F-keys can also be used with French, Spanish and Swedish texts, and makes the programme even more versatile for language teachers and learners alike. From the first idea way back in 1953, when Wilson Taylor first called the process of practising with texts of regularly deleted words CLOZE: it has been a long-winded way to ECLIPSE 2.0 in August 1992. The earlier you start using ECLIPSE in your language classroom the sooner you will improve your teaching success. In other words, the programme is highly recommendable, go and get it, either for yourself or for your institution. Klaus
Peters
CALL Austria BG8 Jodok Fink Platz 2 A-1080 Vienna Austria
S,~s,en~, Vol. 21, No. Pergamon Press Ltd.
3, pp. 394-396. Printed in Great
1993 Britain
SPILLNER, BERND, Error Analysis. A Comprehensive Bibliography. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia, PA: Benjamins, 1991, xliii + 552 pp., Hfl. 225.00/$118.00 (Amsterdam Studies in the Theory and History of Linguistic Science, Series V, Library & Information Sources in Linguistics, Vol. 12). In 1980, with the boom of interlanguage research and criticism of contrastive analysis, error analysis reached its zenith of almost 400 publications. With 100 publications in 1989
REVIEWS
395
it was still an attractive research field, and may receive new impetus from Spillner’s bibliography. This important publication, compiling the enormous total of almost 5400 titles from 1578 to 1990, fills a considerable gap in the documentation of this research field. The introduction deals primarily with the multidisciplinary scope of error analysis, and also states the criteria for choosing and listing the titles. Part I contains a list of the 283 acronyms used. The 5398 titles of the bibliography then follow, grouped alphabetically according to the names of the authors and editors. The main external criterion is that the titles are available in published form. The fact that the list of addenda was not integrated into the main list makes it more difficult to use the bibliography. Part II consists of a chronological index, giving a perspective on the development of interdisciplinary tendencies. It shows, for example, that in the years from 1978 to 1990 there were as many titles published as in the 400 years from 1578 to 1977. There then follows a list of the 143 languages handled in the publications (arranged according to international classification and standardized codes). The work concludes with a subject and key word index with 283 entries. The original intention was to present an annotated bibliography, but this was abandoned because of the enormous amount of data. The three indices are supposed to compensate this lack. Spillner’s wide scope makes the bibliography particularly valuable. Thus, studies focusing on the analysis of errors in learning, acquisition and performance of foreign, second and first languages are included, as are bilingualism as a first language. That is why publications originate not only from theoretical, historical and applied linguistics, but also from specialized linguistic domains, such as, to name but three, psycholinguistics, reading research and shorthand research. Moreover, this bibliography comprehends publications, to name a further three disciplines, from medicine, cybernetics, criminology etc. Such a generous scope clearly makes the bibliography an instrument that will facilitate a survey across several disciplines. In some rare cases, publications on error in action and arithmetical errors were included; unfortunately, the selection criteria are not stated (cf. p. XIV). Thus, the bibliography would also offer a basis for a general theory of human mistakes. However, the key word index does not help find these non-linguistic studies. As far as the list of languages is concerned, Spillner remarks that it does not distinguish between errors in Ll, L2 or further languages, because such a distinction would not have been possible in many cases. This is unfortunate because the “larger” languages in particular need to be subdivided as much as possible. A user who would like to compile a bibliography for a language pair with English as a foreign language would have to go through more than a third of the entire bibliography-2061 titles (for German 1168, for French 874 titles). The user would then have to inspect those publications with titles that do not permit a clear decision on relevance-although Spillner and his team have already performed this task for all publications (p. XIV). On the basis of the inspection of the publications, the subject and key word indices could have been used to provide a finely differentiated descriptive network representative of all titles, but the chance was missed. There are many publications that are represented by only one key word, though more would be appropriate. Thus, KASPER, G. (1975) Die Problematik der Fehleridentifizierung. Ein Beitrag zur Fehleranaiyse im Fremdsprachenunterricht. Bochum: ZFI, is only entered under “error location”, although
other key words would be appropriate. A central publication such as CORDER, S. P. (1967) The Significance of Learner’s Errors. IRAf. 5, 161-170, is not listed in the index at all. This study should appear under “longitudinal study”, “error of performance”, “error of competence” and “strategy of learning”, as well as perhaps “built-in syllabus” and “transitional competence”. However, none of these key words is included in the index, so that the important distinction between errors of competence and errors of performance is not represented. Moreover, some key words should have been taken more narrowly or subdivided: “avoidance” (214 references), for example, includes publications on such divergent topics as error prevention, therapy and communication strategy of avoidance and simplification; “correction” (318 references) should be divided at least into oral and written correction; “error frequency” (162 references) could be differentiated according to languages; and so on. Nonetheless, the index facilitates a preliminary sorting of an enormous number of multidisciplinary titles. To sum up: There is no doubt that, with its relative comprehensiveness, with its multidisciplinary selection and with its indices, this bibliography can be a starting point for various research projects. Spillner himself offers some examples: comparative evaluation of the empirical data with a view to a general typology of errors; comparisons and analyses constants with a view to research in “universals of language contact” and in interlingual of foreign language acquisition (p. X); comparisons in order to analyse “error causes typical for specific languages and types of interferences typical for certain pairs of languages” (p. XI) and in (p. XIX); comparisons with a view to “research in linguistic universals” “the explanation of linguistic change” (p. XII). This is not the only sense in which this bibliography, despite a few shortcomings, is an absolutely necessary and valuable research instrument. It is essential not only for error analysts, for pure and applied linguists, but also for researchers in other disciplines who are concerned with the phenomenon “error”. Spillner and his team deserve gratitude, for, as he himself points out (p. XIX), it takes years of work to compile such a bibliography, with no guarantee of receiving the scholarly recognition earned. Horst
Raabe
Ruhr-Universitat Bochum Seminar fur Sprachlehrforschung Universitatsstrarje 150 D-W-6430 Bochum 1 Bundesrepublik Deutschland
.S,s~e,n. Vol. 21. No. Pergamon Press Ltd.
3, pp. 3Y6-398, Printed in Great
I’)93 Britain
HARRISON, BRIAN (ed.), EL T Documents London: Modern English Publications/British
132: Culture and the Language Classroom. Council,
1990, 141 pp., E9.95.
This collection of 13 papers covers a wide range of perspectives on cross-cultural language teaching. It suggests how these perspectives can facilitate the development of language