2 Things To Remember Next Time You Make A Language Error

Grammar Notes

8 Feb

Written By Danae Florou

What do you think when you make mistakes in Greek?

“I sound like a toddler”. “Oh no, that was so unintelligible”.

Then you blush. Or beat yourself up.

Many learners think like that when learning a language.

I used to think like that, too.

So, here’s my story and what I’ve learned from it:

When I was a student, I spent a year in France. I loved everything about it. The country, the people, the language, the food, the places I’ve visited.

At some point, self-consciousness kicked in. I remember that instead of focusing on my success of finally speaking French, I was focusing all my energy on avoiding making errors.

At all costs.

Instead of focusing on how I loved speaking French (yes, my “Greek accent - conjugated wrong - using a completely different word than the one I wanted - French”) I was focusing on exactly that: the wrong conjugations, my inevitable Greek accent and the mispronunciation of words which changed the whole meaning.

As a result, I avoided expressing myself in French, out of my fear of making mistakes.

Note: I’ll use both the words “error” and “mistake” throughout the article, although in language learning these are only “errors”, which means that they’re not made on purpose. Mistake is a common way of explaining this, however.

The Cat’s point of view

I wasn’t aware that what I was doing wasn't really helping me speak more and better French, until I read this quote in a class about errors in language learning.

The teacher handed everyone this quote by Philippe Geluck’s “Le Chat” comic character:

"On dit qu'on apprend avec ses erreurs, mais à mon avis c'est une erreur. Et si je me trompe, au moins j'aurai appris quelque chose." (We say we learn from our errors, but in my opinion, this is an error. And if I’m mistaken, at least I would have learned something.)

“Le Chat” had said it all.

But why feel so bad about errors?

Naturally, as adults, we communicate elaborately in our first language(s). Our vocabulary often reflects our education and status.

Which means that going back to the basics in another language can affect our self esteem.

It requires patience and persistence to keep going. It’s not easy.

When I make a mistake, I tend to blush and avoid eye contact.

You might get frustrated to the point you get agitated.

You might start self-blaming.

Or you might barely react.

But, in some cases, learners feel so bad they eventually stop learning the language all together.

Do you see yourself in any of the above?

Looking at these reactions from the outside, it suddenly seems like too much.

Yet, these are all feelings you can’t easily control.

“Just get over it” doesn’t work.

“Stop feeling anxious” doesn’t work.

“Start speaking” doesn’t work either.

So what does?

Why learners make errors? Reason #1: Language transfer

The majority of errors when learning a language is because of language transfer from the first language to our second. Yes, from the one we’re so good at.

In other words, a learner transfers the structure of the first language to the language they learn.

You attempt to use your known patterns (syntax, grammar, vocabulary, expressions etc) to the language you learn and by doing so you apply what you know, to a language that works differently.

Real story: If I got a dollar each time I got confused with “listen” and “hear” - which is only one word, “ακούω” in Greek.

Once, I was on the phone with a doctor’s receptionist.

The connection wasn’t the best so I quickly asked her “Can you listen to me?”

What I simply meant, but failed to say, was the much politer and accurate “Can you hear me?” In my head, the translation “listen” popped up, because in Greek there is no distinction.

I think you can guess how the phone call went!

But how can someone feel better about their errors when they might confuse people and create misunderstandings?

It won’t happen overnight.

But realizing how language transfer works might make you more conscious about the reason behind your mistake.

I might blush again if I make an error in English. But I’ll quickly think “I say this because this is how I'm used to say it in Greek”. And if I have the time, I might explain this to the person I’m talking to. It’s OK. It’s really OK.

Why learners make errors? Reason #2: Emotions

Research on errors in language learning also points out how being tired, stressed out, even sleep deprived (any parents of young kids out there?) can actually trigger language errors.

The other day, I couldn’t remember the word for “transfer”.

This is the “proof of payment” when we use the public transit here in Toronto. It’s just a little piece of paper I’ve been using for years now and for some reason (see below!) my brain got stuck and I couldn’t remember this simple word.

I got on the bus and quickly wanted to tell the driver “May I have a transfer, please?”

But all I was getting in my head was “ticket”.

In the brief moment it takes to get on a bus and ask this 6 word question to the driver, I experienced a “my mind went totally blank-and the driver will think I can’t speak a word of English-but I do know the word-so why can’t I just say it!” kind of moment.

Yet, I was very tired, with a toddler not sleeping so well the last few nights.

There are numerous studies making the connection between memory function and sleep so again, no, there’s no stupidity involved, just a good reason why my mind went blank.

Plus, here’s the language transfer again: In Athens, I used to get paper tickets in public transit. It made sense.

Anytime you experience stress, fatigue, feelings of anger, overwhelm and anxiety, such errors can happen.

On the contrary, have you found that when you speak with a friend at a cozy café, words come easier?

And then, what happens when you try to resolve a stressful situation?

Again, such strong feelings will probably trigger mistakes as the brain functions change with stress.

So what can you do?

Let’s accept the fact that you will make errors. Everyone does.

Realizing where the errors come from and why you tend to make more of them in some cases, is a reminder of your humanity.

Really. You’re not a robot with a malfunction.

You’re a real person, a learner who makes mistakes the same way everyone does.

So take notice of your language errors, take a deep breath and start making a plan about how to deal with them: analyze them, study the structure, find more examples and keep using what you learn in order to practice.

In the next blog post I’ll share with you a list with the most common errors Greek learners make around the Beginner-Intermediate levels, along with some explanations, which will hopefully better support your overall learning.

Thank you for learning with me,

~ Danae