This study attempts to determine whether the syntactic errors children make while learning a second language are due to native language interference or to developmental cognitive strategies, as has been found in first language acquisition. (Author)

In recent years, there has been a growing research interest in the analysis of errors adults make while learning a second language. The underlying objective of most of these analyses has been to reveal the systematicity of adult errors in an effort to understand the process of adult second language learning. This paper deals with errors from a…

In deciding what grammar should be taught, teachers of English as a second language can notice and record common errors (goofs) made by their students. It is possible to expose all types of goofs, state the rules to correct them, acquaint the teacher with the types of goofs made by persons from all over the world, and give them the grammar…

Revised and abridged version of You Can't Learn without Goofing (An Analysis of Children's Second Language Errors')'' to appear in Jack Richards (ed.), Error Analysis -- Perspectives in Second Language Acquisition,'' (Longmans). A goof'' is a productive error made during the language learning process. (RS)

The types of syntactic errors made by children learning a second language provide insight into the way in which children acquire the second language. The contrastive analysis hypothesis states that while the child is learning a second language, he will tend to use his native language structures in his second language speech; where there are…