6.2.2　Errors from overgeneralization

One approach to the explanation of learners'errors is that which H V George（1972）as well as other workers in the field，touches on.J Richards terms it‘overgeneralization’and H V George‘redundancy reduction’.Overgeneralization errors arise when the learner creates a deviant structure on the basis of other structures in the target language.It generally involves the creation or one deviant structure in place or two target language structures（for example，‘He can sings’where English allows‘He can sing’and‘He sings’；for another example.‘He goed’where English‘He went’，and in the former example，the learner has overgeneralized the use of the third-person singular present-tense morpheme-s to modal verbs；in the latter example，the learner has overgeneralized the use of the past-tense morphemeed.In other words，the learner has overgeneralized certain rules of English morpho-syntax）.For some other examples：

（a）We are visit the library.

（b）She must goes.

（c）Last night I walk to the shop and I buy...

As Richards points out，this type of error can be regarded as a blend of two structures in the‘standard version’of the language.The error might be made as a result of blending structures learnt early in the learning sequence.In the three sentences given as an example，sentence（a）shows a blending of the continuous and the simple present and in sentence（b）both the modal verb and the standard third person singular-s suffix are used.Sentence（c）is slightly different，in that the redundancy（the additional information which any natural language incorporates）is removed：the adverbial marker‘yesterday’is，for the learner，sufficient to indicate a time reference，and consequently the-ed is omitted from the stem of the verbs.In the first two examples，（a）and（b），the overgeneralization is that of removing the necessity for concord，and overgeneralizing the rule which states that in the present simple，there are no suffixes except for the third person singular.In the case of（c），the redundancy involves the-ed form and‘yesterday’，both indicating time past.The information in the message is，under optimum conditions，not interfered with—but with less favorable conditions，the listener would have only one indicator of‘time past’and could miss it，thus leading to failure to interpret the speaker's or writer's intention.

What actually gives rise to the overgeneralization can be any one or more of a number of factors.Some possibilities are the manner or order in which the language items are presented by the teacher or in the text；and the actual exercises which the learner is called upon to complete.For example，learners may produce the following incorrect responses：

exercise　response

（a）She goes：（must）She must goes.

（b）I walk to the shop：（last night）Last night I walk to the shop.

The general pedagogic dictum of‘never teach together what can be confused’is often a sound one.‘He sings’is often contrasted with‘he issinging’in the lessons and texts，after what seems like sufficient learning time.Soon after this the learner produces a blend of the two‘he is sings’.

The problem with contrived use of language items is precisely that since they form data that the learner will use to form his hypotheses，the learner may be misled in his assumptions.Motivation，naturalness and a sensible context for the language are clearly vital，if we accept the view that learners will use the data presented to them actively，in order to test the use of the language items and form assumptions as to the kind of language they are learning.

It is probably even more difficult to avoid errors arising from ignorance of rule restriction than it is to avoid false conceptualization.This is because such errors often involve the construction of false analogies，a very similar activity to what children do when experimenting with their own language.A learner，for example，may have cause to use the noun‘discussion’，and recalls that it is linked to another noun or noun phrase with the preposition‘about’（e.g.，‘a discussion about nuclear energy’）.What then is more natural when the verb‘discuss’occurs，than to use it with the same preposition，leading to‘We discussed about the oil crisis’？Or，similarly，‘Tell him to write the letter’or‘Ask him to write the letter’may lead to‘Make him to write the letter’.

The suggestion made before—not to practice together things that can be confused—will not completely solve this problem；as can be seen，the learner is a far more active participant in the language learning activity than may be imagined.Once again it seem that errors are virtually inevitable.