Chapter 1

1-How psychology and CA are related?
Any new science would be based on a new point of view on philosophy. When the philosophical standing changes, the way scientists look at the problems will change as well. Since learning is a mental process, it is in close relation with psychology.
2-What is the relation between philosophy and CA?
In the field of linguistics and teaching, the new philosophical beliefs creates a psychological view and this psychological view effects the method of language teaching.
3-During the World War II, which psychological view was dominant? Explain
The Faculty psychology was the main psychological belief. According to this point of view brain is considered as a muscle. It means that if the student practices more, he’ll learn better.
4-What was the dominant philosophical view after the World War II?
Which psychological and linguistic views were based on it?
Empiricism was the common philosophy.Behaviorist psychology was greatly accepted in the scientific studies. According to it, the brain is a black box and we don’t know anything about its role. The brain is a blank pot and we just put knowledge in it! And learning happens through the process of “rote learning”. Structural Linguistics was based on this psychology.
5-Which philosophical view was born during sixties? Which psychological and linguistics view were born on the basis of this philosophy?
It,s under the influence of rationalism philosophy; Generative Transformational Grammar was developed based on 1- Cognitive Psychology. Cognitive-Learning Theory view the mind as an active agent in the thinking process and it emphasis on meaningful learning. According to this view learning takes place in the human organism through a meaningful process of relating new events or items to already existing cognitive concepts or propositions.
2- Humanistic Psychology : is a new approach that believes the whole brain (left and right hemisphere) should work together in the process of learning.Carl Rogers worked on the ‘whole person” theory that human beings are physical, cognitive and emotional. He insisted that the emotional part is more important than the physical or cognitive parts. If no intention to learn, they won’t learn. He believes in learner-centered approach of teaching. Teachers should help students learn how to learn. Teachers should make an association between learners’ emotional part and the new learning situation.
6-What do linguists study in comparative historical linguistics?
Linguists can study and compare a single language during the time to find out about how they had changed. Or they compare two or several different but related languages to find their proto-language.
7-What do linguists study in comparative typological linguistics?
Linguists compare different languages so they will be able to divide the languages into different groups.
8-What is Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (CAH)?
“Individuals tend to transfer the forms and meaning and the distribution of forms and meanings of their native language and culture to the foreign language and culture, both productively when attempting to speak the language and receptively when attempting to grasp and understand the language… as practiced by natives.”
9-What is transfer? How many types can it have?
“Transfer” is the central idea in the CAH. It can have positive or negative form depending on the similarities or differences of two languages.
10-What is positive transfer? Give examples?
If there is a similarity between NL and TL and the old habits facilitates the formation of new habits, ‘positive transfer’ happens.
Positive transfer such as pronunciation of English phonemes for Iranian students except for ….. and …..
11-When does negative transfer happen? Give examples?
When there is a difference between the two languages and the old habit makes it difficult to form the new habit; ‘negative transfer’ is taking place.Negative transfer such as noun and adjective structure of English for Iranian students
12-What is the Strong Version of CA?
Those who believe in strong version of CA, consider transfer as the principal barrier in second language learning. They believe that if we are about to plan a book on language teaching, we should know the structures that will cause difficulty and those that will not; by comparing all parts of the language and culture of NL and TL.
13-What are the most important factors of the Strong Version of CA?
1-They see transfer as the most important cause, and maybe the only cause, of difficulties in language learning.
2-When there is a difference, there will be a difficulty.
3-The greater the difference, the greater the difficulties will be.
4-We should compare two languages to be able to predict the probable errors.
5-After comparing two languages we can subtract the similarities, and whatever is left can be considered as the points that should be thought.
6-They strongly insist on the idea that the point of difficulties can be predicted.
14-Why the Strong Version of CA is not practical?
As you can see, the strong version cannot actually be practiced by linguists. So later a less ambiguous, more practicable version was introduced in which the linguist uses the best knowledge available to him to find difficulties in second language teaching.In this version after the errors were committed by the students, the linguist will consider them as the point of difficulties.
15-What is the Weak Version of CA?
In the weak version just the parts causing difficulties would be studied. And accept the errors’ occurrences as a usual event in the way of language learning. In this version the errors are studied after have been committed and has diagnostic and explanatory nature.
16-What is the similarity of Weak and Strong versions of CA?
Both of these points of views accept the ‘interference’ as a factor in causing difficulties.
17-What are the differences between Weak and Strong version?
1-The strong version says that all the parts of both languages and cultures should be compared (impossible), but in the weak version just the parts causing difficulties would be studied.
2-The strong version sees errors as sins, their occurrences should be prevented. The weak version accepts the errors’ occurrences as a usual event in the way of language learning. In this version the errors are studied after have been committed.
3-The strong version has a predictive nature but the weak version has diagnostic and explanatory nature.
18-What is the Moderate Version of CA?
Due to shortcomings by CA, its proponents realized to have an adoption a more moderate point of view.After a study on English spelling, they noticed that the students whose mother tongue employs Roman alphabet face more problem while learning English spelling than the students whose NL uses a non-Roman alphabet. It is contrary to the prediction of both strong and weak versions of CA.
So they concluded that minimal distinction between two languages can cause confusion. When the items to be learned are more similar to the existing items, interference is more likely to happen than when they are completely different.Contrary to the assumption of strong version of CAH, greater differences do not always result in greater difficulty.
As you see the moderate version has more explanatory power than the other two versions. It concentrates on the nature of human learning not just on the contrast between two languages.
19-What is the CA procedures ? Name the steps and explain each of them.
In CA studies usually four steps are followed:
Selection: In this step the contrastivist chooses a certain item of the two languages to study.
Description: The contrastivist uses formal grammar to describe the two languages clearly.
Contrast: this step is the mapping/discovering of the relationship of one system to the other one.
Prediction: considering what they have found in the first tree steps, they predict the difficulties that might occur.
Verification: The analyst tries to find out whether his predictions about language learning difficulties are true or not
20-What is the level 0 of difficulty on the basis of Prator’s hierarchy?
Level 0- transfer : In this level there is no difficulty because the sounds, lexical items, or the structures of the two languages are similar, so the students just need to transfer (positively) what he already knew into the other language.
Such as most of the vowels and consonants of English and Persian:
/b, f, s, p,……../
Some words: door, mother, father
Some structures : garden flower گل باغچه , Flower garden
21-Name the levels of difficulty according to Prator’s hierarchy and explain one of them. Give example.
Level 0- transfer , Level 1-coalescence, Level2- underdifferentiation
Level 3-Reinterpretation, Level4- Overdifferentiation, Level 5-Split
Level 2- underdifferentiation
An item in the target language is absent in the target language.
Such as Persian phonemes: /x/ and /q/ مگر و چندمین
22-What is the markedness theory?
We can put things of related forms or structure in a group. These groups can have two or more members. Among the members of the groups the one that Persian is called markedness. The marked one should have at least one more features than the unmarked member of the pair is the one with a wider range of description than the marked one. For example; in the case of the English indefinite articles (a and an) is the more complex or marked form (it has additional sound) and a is the unmarked form with the wider distribution
23-What are the shortcomings of CA?
As it was mentioned earlier, CA was widely influential in 1950s and 1960s in the field of foreign language teaching; however, from the 1970s its influence decline. This was due in part to the shortcomings of structural linguistics, with which it was closely associated.
24-What are the merits of CA?
In the 1980s and 1990s some scholars have found new dimensions for contrastive analysis, such as Contrastive Analysis and Communicative Competence,Contrastive Rhetoric, Contrastive Analysis and Translations, pedagogical Contrastive Sociolinguistics and pragmatic transfer.
Chapter 2

25-Compare syllabus structure of Persian and English on the basis of CA? Would Persian students of English face any difficulty learning English syllables?
Persian syllable structure is CVCC. Considering all the possibilities, in Persian we can have six kinds of syllables.
While in English we might have three consonants before and four consonants after the vowel. So we might have eighteen different kinds of syllables. The degree of markedness is based on the length of the onset and the coda of the syllable (onset is the consonant at the beginning and coda is the consonant at the end of a syllable). Since Persian and English syllable structures are different, as learning English syllable would be more difficult for Iranian students when it has more consonants.
26-Why learning English prepositions is very difficult for Iranian students?
Prepositions are important since they have important semantic and discourse roles. They convey meaning such as place, time, aim, etc. Learning prepositions is one of the most difficult part of language learning process. learning prepositions is difficult for two reasons: 1.there are several prepositions 2. English and Persian have different prepositions.
- Sometimes a preposition is used in English while in Persian equivalent structure prepositions are not used:
The book consist of five chapters. کتاب شامل پنج فصل است
- Sometimes in English we don’t use a preposition while in the Persian equivalent structure we should use a preposition.
He married his cousin. او با دختر عمویش ازدواج کرد
- Sometimes there are more than one equivalent for a Persian preposition in English: under, below, beneath, under beneath.
-Sometimes both languages have two prepositions,but they use them in different situations.
I,m writing for my dad. از طرف پدرم نامه می نویسم I’m writing to my dad. برای پدرم نامه می نویسم
So there can be three difficulties in preposition learning:
1.Omission of preposition
2.redundant use of preposition
3. wrong use of preposition
The only reason in preposition learning problem is not interference. As we have seen there can be a preposition in a language without having an equivalent in the other. So inappropriate teaching can be another reason for the difficulty.
27-What is the difference of English and Persian indirect questions structures?
In Persian while changing a direct question into an indirect question, we just change our intonation and the verb agrees with the subject.
28-Consider the following information about English and Persian indirect questions?
- in Persian for making an indirect question we change our intonation and the verb and subject agree:
از من پرسید چند سالمه؟
- in English the indirect question won’t have the structure of the question:
He ask how they came here?
A Persian student of English has uttered an indirect question like the following :
He asked how did they come here?
What is the reason for his error?
In English the question structure is changed to statement structure:
The problem is how they came here.
It is very common to see Persian students of English producing sentences such as:
*The problem is how did they come here. There is no similar changes in our mother tongue so the student’s mother tongue is not interfering. The problem is overgeneralization. It means he has learned a structure(question making structure) in his second language, English and he is using it in a wider situations.
29-How many kinds of relation can you recognize between English & Persian lexis?
The relationship between English and Persian words can be of different types:
1.No similarity other than meaning.
Cat گربه
2. One word in TL can have several equivalents in SL. convergence
Uncle عمو،دایی
3. Two or more words in TL are equivalents for one in SL. divergence
Foot, leg پا
4. The words are similar in form and meaning. cognates
Brother برادر
5. The words are similar in pronunciation, but not in meaning.
Deceptive cognates/false friends
Machine ماشین

30- What is the meaning of Deceptive cognates/false friends? Give examples.
The words are similar in pronunciation, but not in meaning.
Deceptive cognates/false friends
Machine ماشین
31- What is the meaning of convergence ?
One word in TL can have several equivalents in SL. convergence
Uncle عمو،دایی
32- When do we say the words are divergence?
Two or more words in TL are equivalents for one in SL. divergence
Foot, leg پا
33- What is the meaning of cognates?
The words are similar in form and meaning. cognates
Brother برادر
34-Why do we need to consider pragmatics n our CA studies?
Learning a new language is not simply learning the words and structures. We should learn about their meaning in cultural situations. When a language learner commit a grammatical mistakes, the natives usually understand that it is a mistake. While committing a pragmatic mistake can lead to misunderstanding and the speaker might seem rude.A good example could be complements
Chapter 3

35- How is language learning viewed in cognitive-code theory?
Before 1960 behavioristic psychology and structural linguistics were the dominant ideas in these areas. After 1960 cognitive code theory took the place of behaviourism under the rationalist philosophy.
36- What is the main beliefs of cognitive-code theory about human learning in general and language learning specifically?
It believes in meaningful learning. The new items should be connected to the old ones in the process of learning.
In accordance with this theory language learning is a complicated cognitive skill. It involves an internal representations. This internal knowledge regulate and guide performance.
37-What is the teacher’s principal role in Cognitive-Code Theory?
Teachers should make the learning process meaningful for the students. They should help students to discover strategies for organizing his knowledge into meaningful units.
38-Why is Generative Transformational Grammar called nativist?
On the basis of rationalist philosophy, Generative Transformational Grammar was formed. It says language learning is an innately determined process so it is sometimes called nativist theory.
39-What is the philosophical basis of Generative Transformational Grammar?
It believes that human infants are born with language learning ability and this ability just belongs to human being ( it is species-specific).
40-What is Language Acquisition Device composed of?
Chomsky insisted that any child is born with an innate capacity called Language acquisition device (LAD). LAD is made of a set of rules called Universal Grammar.
41-What are principals and parameters?
He insists that the speaker of any language innately knows a set of principles that apply to all languages, and a set of parameters that vary from language to language.
42-According to Chomsky how do human children learn their mother tongue?
Children need to get linguistic input. They use the information and samples they receive about their mother tongue to form hypothesis. Then they test these hypothesis in their utterances. They receive environmental feedbacks and they evaluate them. So a child’s language at any stage of its development is systematic.
43-What is Chomsky’s explanation for rejecting the idea that children’s language is an imitation of adult’s language?
Chomsky rejects Pavlovs point of view who said human language is working on the basis of stimulus-response. He also does not believe that human language learning is a kind of habit formation. Chomsky rejects those who believe children’s language is an imitation of adult’s language. He accepts that some parts of language(such as greeting) is a set of fix expressions but in other areas he insist on human child’s creativity. He believes that children are able to produce sentences they have never heard.
44-What are the most important differences between first and second languages acquisition?
First language acquisition is usually considered as a natural part of child’s growth. While learning of a second language is a process that usually takes place after the first language is learned completely. Child normally starts learning his mother tongue unconsciously. In second language learning some nonlinguistic factors can be influential. Factors such as: the age of the learner, the situation of learning, the motivation of the learner, the role of mother tongue.
45-What are the most important similarities between first and second languages acquisition?
In order to found out if there are similarities between first and second language learning, Corder faced two important questions:
1- Do adults learn a second language in the same way that children acquire their first?
2- Do children learn a second language in the same way they acquire their first?
Corder arranged some experiments. The experiments were about the usage of relative clauses and comprehension. They showed that children learning their mother tongue and adults learning second language, made the same errors.
Chapter 4

46-Why did researchers start studying EA?
As you have noticed, CAH cannot completely explain the process of second-language learning, specially the students’ errors. It was why the researchers started to look for a new approach. CA is under the influence of behaviorism and in CA, transfer is considered as the most important and even the only reason for language learning difficulties.
This new approach is called Error Analysis and it was a reaction to CA and its shortcomings. It is based on the theories of first and second language learning and their possible similarities.
47-What is the EA’s point of view toward errors?
EA sees errors as a necessary part of language learning and a sign of the language learning process.
48- According to EA, how can learners benefit from their own errors?
The language learner uses his errors to get feedback from the environment. These feedbacks can help him to test and modify his hypothesis about the language.
49-Why do some researchers claim that EA serves pedagogical aims better than CA does?
The reasons are as follows :
1.EA does not limit the cause of errors just to transfer, what CA does.
2-EA consider other reasons as well, some of reasons it introduces have nothing to do with L1.
3- It’s not dependent on hypothetical problems. It talks about actual problems and it makes it more efficient and economical than CA.
4- Unlike CA, it’s not confronted with the complex theoretical problems.
50-What are three fundamental assumption of EA?
1-We cannot learn any language(L1 or L2) without making errors.
2-Errors are important in different ways.
3-Transfer is not the only cause of errors. They happen because of different reasons.
51-What are productive errors? How can we study them.
Those are happening while student is trying to say something. These group of errors are easy to recognize, just by listening to the students utterances.
52-What are receptive errors?
Those are happening because the students cannot understand the speakers intentions. They are difficult to study because we cannot be sure of what others are understanding.
53-How can we study receptive errors?
For studying this kind of errors we should consider their reaction to requests, orders, complements, etc. Studying their reaction we can decide if they have get the right idea about what they have heard. So studying productive errors are easier then receptive errors.
54-What is interlanguage?
At any stage of language learning, the learners have a system in their mind about the structure of that language. This is called interlanguage. This is a set of rules that governs the
55-What are errors?
Errors are rule-governed and systematic. They happen because the language learners’ knowledge of the language rules is not complete. The errors reveals the student’s underlying knowledge of the language(transitional competence)
56-What are mistakes?
Mistakes are random. They are unrelated to any system. They can occur in both language learners’ and native speakers’ utterances.They can be caused by non-linguistic causes such as fatigue, strong emotions, memory limitations, lack of concentration, etc.Some of the most familiar examples of mistakes are slips of tongue, slips of pen and slips of ear.
57-How can we distinguish errors and mistakes?
Frequency of occurrence: those with low frequency of occurrence are mistakes/performance errors.Those with high frequency of occurrence are systematic errors.
This is not a very precise criteria for recognizing errors. If a structure happens just once , we cannot consider it as mistake. It might be a very rarely used structure. We should consider its nature as well.
Self-correctability : if we draw the students’ attention to their mistakes , they can correct themselves; since they know the correct form. While they cannot correct their errors because they think of them as correct forms.
58-What do researchers study in theoretical error analysis?
-It studies the process of fist and second language learning and compares them. In this regard, it is closely related to psycholinguistics. It tries to find out what happens in human mind while they are learning a language. It tries to explain the nature of language learning process and the factors that affect this process.
-Theoretical EA also tries to explain the strategies adopted by language learners while learning a language. Strategies such as overgeneralization, and simplification.
59-What do researchers study in applied error analysis?
It deals with pragmatic and pedagogical issues. It mostly tries for preparing more effective teaching materials for language teaching.At the levels of identification, description and classification of errors, theoretical and applied EA follows the same route. But then they diverge from each other. Applied EA tries to find better ways for teaching through analyzing the errors, while theoretical EA tried to explain the psychological nature of errors. Its aim is to find out the source of errors.
60-Name the four stages of L 2 development.Explain the first stage?
Stage1:Presystematic/random errors. Stage 2: Emergent Stage 3: Systematic Stage4: Pastsystematic/ stabilization
First stage : At this stage, the student have a very limited and vague knowledge about the language. He is not aware of the system. He made wild guesses while he is trying to talk. The sentences he utter are inconsistent.
61-What are the main features of the emergent stage of 2nd development?
At this stage, the student’s sentences show more consistency. He has started to recognize the system. He is learning and internalizing the rules. Of course the rules he is learning are not all correct. Some of them are the result of his incorrect hypothesis. But he thinks they are perfectly correct.
63-What are the main features of Pastsystematic/ stabilization stage of second language development?
At this stage the student has mastered the system. He has few errors. He has the self-correction ability.
64-What are the main features of Systematic stage of L2 development?
At this stage, the sentences are more consistent. Although we cannot say all the rules that student has in his mind are correct, they show more similarity to the actual rules of the language.The student is able to correct his errors when they are pointed out , even very subtly, to him.
65-What are the main features of Presystematic/ random errors stage of L2 learning?
At this stage, the student have a very limited and vague knowledge about the language. He is not aware of the system. He made wild guesses while he is trying to talk. The sentences he utter are inconsistent.
66-What are the differences between systematic and post-systematic stages of L2 learning?
In systematic one,the student is able to correct his errors when they are pointed out , even very subtly, to him.While in pastsystematic the student’s language ability can be in different stages.In other words, all parts of language does not develop at the same rate.

By : A. Mohammadi