Error Analysis: Activity 1
What errors did you notice?
Please read the information about error analysis before working through these activities.
Instructions
- Look at the Comparison task video for Pari and Fereshteh and take notes. What do you notice about their language?
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Did either of them seem to be more proficient in Persian than the other? Which one? What made you think that?
- Jot down some notes about the features of their learner language that you remember, the ones that seemed to "jump out" at you. Were there instances of "foreign accent"? Grammar error?
Comparison Task Video
Transcript (PDF)
Please type your answers to the questions in the box below.
When you have finished typing your answer, click to compare your response with the Learner Language staff response.
- Did either of them seem to be more proficient in Persian than the other? Which one? What made you think that way?
Our first impression is that Pari seems to be more linguistically proficient and Fereshteh seems to use more colloquial Persian. For example, Fereshteh uses the colloquial expression "Akhey" (line 48) when Pari says, "the engineer lives just with his children, and he is so sad"(line 47). "Akhey" is an interjection word that has no real grammatical value but we use it quite often in Persian, usually more in speaking than in writing, to express a feeling of sympathy. On the other hand, we noticed that Pari used more formal vocabulary even though it wasn’t always appropriate for the context, e.g. she uses "hærekæt mikoneh" (line 27/28). (The more appropriate vocabulary is "jayee mireh" for English "move.")
- Jot down some notes about the features of their learner language that you remember, the ones that seemed to "jump out" at you. Were there instances of "foreign accent"? Grammar error?
We noticed that Fereshteh does not use the definite and indefinite articles correctly: for instance: "fekr mikonæm mohændesi væ pærastar dær khaneh zendegi mikonænd" (line 3). Here, she needs to use the indefinite article "ye(k)" before "mohændes" and "pærastar" (n.). Instead, she has used the noun ending "i" at the end of "mohændes" (which also functions as an indefinite article usually in formal contexts, but she fails to add it at the end of the other noun, "pæræstar"). Fereshteh also needs to use a demonstrative determiner "in" (this) before "khaneh".
Pari does not use definite and indefinite articles correctly either: for instance, "..anha ke tu-ye inja zendegi mikone, anha mishenas, mishnasænt?" (line 50).
Both learners have some problems with subject verb agreement and word order. For example Pari says "…næfær-ha ke pul dar-e zendegi mikonænd" (line 4), where she needs to use a plural adjective verb "pul dar-ænd" to agree with the plural noun and personal subject of her sentence, "næfærha". (It should be noted here that Persian follows the rule of subject-verb agreement only in cases where the subject is [+animate]). Another problematic area seems to be the use of "-e" as an additive marker between two nouns or between a noun and an adjective. For example, Fereshteh fails to use it after "shær" and before "bozorg" (line 20).
We also noticed Fereshteh’s pronunciation of "shæhr" in line 21 and 25; she does not pronounce the "h" sound in the middle of the word; instead she says something like "shær". Pari, too, shows some signs of foreign accent when she uses "fægæt" for "fæghæt" (line 47/48). The "h" glottal sounds are difficult for native English speakers to pronounce.
