Pedagogical Exploitation of Contrastive Analysis

1. Pedagogical Exploitation of Contrastive
Analysis
By :
Zahra Aamir

2. Applied CA
• Wilkins (1972: 217) considers in general the relevance of linguistics for
language teaching, raising the whole question of what is meant by ‘applied
linguistics’. He suggests that while most teachers look for direct
applications of linguistics, that is, "cases where notions and informations
drawn from linguistics act directly upon the process of language teaching",
besides these, linguistics provides insights and carries implications for
teaching. These are less direct.

3. • By 'insights' Wilkins means "linguistic notions that increase one's
understanding of the notion of language and consequently of the nature of
language learning",
• while 'implications' are guidelines for materials production based on general
observations of how language is learned.
• Wilkins' statement that linguistics may have only indirect, intangible or long-
term relevance can all too easily be used by academics to dodge the issue and
to parry the teacher's anxious enquiries.

4. •There are two kinds of CA: theoretical and applied.
• Theoretical CAs "do not investigate how a given category present in language
A is represented in language B. Instead they look for the realisation of a
universal category X in both A and B".
• Applied CAs "are preoccupied with the problem of how a universal category
X, realised in language A as y, is rendered in language B".
This means that applied CAs are unidirectional whereas theoretical CAs are
static, since they do not need to reflect any directionality of learning. Applied
CAs are interpretations (of theoretical CAs) rather than independent
executions.

5. CA has applications in predicting and diagnosing a proportion of the L2 errors
committed by learners with a common LI, and in the design of testing
instruments for such learners.
Prediction
• Lado (1957) states that “CA can predicts and describes the patterns of L2
that will cause difficulty in learning and those that will not cause difficulty".
• Oller (1971: 79) again speaks of CA as "a device for predicting points of
difficulty and some of the errors that learners will make".
Traditional Applications of CA

6. There are three things that a CA can predict:
• it can predict in the sense of 'pre-identify', what aspects will cause
problems; or it can predict difficulty; or it can predict errors. It has
been suggested a fourth possibility of CA predicting the tenacity of
certain errors, that is, their strong resistance to extinction through
time and teaching.

7. • There are, of course, purely quantitative limitations on the
numbers of learner errors that CAs can predict, limitations
stemming from the fact that not all errors are the result of L1
interference,
e.g. Interlingual errors and errors from non-contrastive origin which
include: the effects of target-language asymmetries (intralingual
errors); transfer of training; strategies of L2 learning; and L2
communication strategies.

8. • Scales are based on the notions of positive and negative transfer potential,
and the conditions for such transfers are assumed to be statable in terms of
the relations holding between matched rules of Ll and L2.
There are three possible interlingual rule relationships:
a) Ll has a rule and L2 an equivalent one.
b) L1 has a rule but L2 has no equivalent.
c) L2 has a rule but Ll has no equivalent.
Scales of difficulty

9. • An important ingredient of the teacher's role as monitor and
assessor of the learner's performance is to know why certain
errors are committed. It is on the basis of such diagnostic
knowledge that the teacher organises feedback to the learner
and remedial work. Even the learner should know why he has
committed errors if he is to self-monitor and avoid these same
errors in the future.
Diagnosis of error

10. •Wardhaugh (1970) suggested that the CA hypothesis is
only tenable in its 'weak' or diagnostic function, and not
tenable as a predictor of error: "The weak version
requires of the linguist only that he use the best linguistic
knowledge available to him in order to account for
observed difficulties in second language learning".
Diagnosis of error

11. • One of the requirements of a good language test is that it should
have validity: it should be a true measure of the student's command
of the language he has been taught. The most valid test therefore
would be one that was comprehensive, i. e. it would test everything
that has been taught.
• Lado (1961) based his theory of testing to a considerable extent on
CA. Testing experts since Lado have endorsed his approach:
Testing

12. • "If a test is constructed for a single group of students with identical
language background and identical exposure to the target language
then contrastive analysis is essential“.
• CA will have two roles to play in testing. First, it will carry suggestions
about what to test. It will be more informative for the tester to test
only the learning problems predicted by the CA. Second, it shows to
what degree to test different L2 items. It depends on the level of the
learner.
Testing

13. Selection
• A CA specifies those features of L2 which are different from the
corresponding features of the L1, and, by implication, those which are
identical. The L1 : L2 identities will not have to be learned by the L2 learner,
since he knows them already by virtue of his L1 knowledge. Chomsky's
(1965: 51) claim that "the procedures and mechanisms for the acquisition of
knowledge and language constitute in innate property of the mind".
• This means that those L2 structures that match L1 structures must constitute
part of the materials, because we teach not only what is new ,but also what
is already known by virtue of L2 and not ignore similarity.
Course design

14. •This means that those L2 structures that match L1
structures must constitute part of the materials,
because we teach not only what is new ,but also what
is already known by virtue of L2 and not ignore
similarity.
Course design

15. We reject the notion of selection in the sense of
inclusion/exclusion, and prefer to use the term Intensity
Selection. By this we mean that while the learner is exposed
to all parts of the L2, he must be given opportunities to
confirm his positive transfers on the one hand and to learn
what he does not know on the other.

16. Grading
The classical CA statement is that the learner find those elements that are
similar to his native language easier to learn, whereas different element are
difficult. The assumption is that learning should proceed from the simple to
the difficult.
• There are a number of objection for this are:
1-The integrity of linguistics systems requires an order to follow.
2-Some aspect though difficult but are of great functional importance and
need to be learn first.
3-Psychologically the learner will be disappointed when he learns the
difficult aspects.

17. Contrastive Teaching
'Contrastive teaching' involves presenting to the learner all the terms in a linguistic system of
L2 which, as a system, contrasts with the corresponding Ll system.
Some individual terms of the two systems may be noncontrasting, of course. The systems
concerned may be grammatical, phonological, or lexical: for example:
• Phonologically:
• There are two L sounds in English: light L sound (like, language, clean) dark L
sound (help, circle, pull).
• As In Arabic we have dark and light L
•
‫الالم‬ ‫تفخيم‬
‫تعالى‬ ‫كقوله‬ ‫بضم‬ ‫سبقت‬ ‫إذا‬ ‫أو‬ ‫هللا‬ ‫شهد‬ ‫كقوله‬ ‫بفتح‬ ‫سبقت‬ ‫إذا‬ ‫مغلظة‬ ‫الالم‬ ‫تكون‬
"
‫اللهم‬ ‫قالوا‬
"
•
‫الالم‬ ‫ترقيق‬
‫عارضـا‬ ‫أو‬ ‫عــنــها‬ ‫منـفصال‬ ‫ولو‬ ‫كـسـر‬ ‫بـعد‬ ‫تــكون‬ ‫أن‬
‫مثل‬
:
‫ه‬ّ‫ـ‬‫ِاللـ‬ ‫قـل‬ ،‫ه‬ّ‫ـ‬‫ِالـل‬ ‫بـسـم‬ ،‫ه‬ّ‫ـ‬‫الـل‬ِ‫ـ‬‫ب‬

18. • Finocchiaro (1966: 3) speaks of the need "to make students aware of the
contrasts so that they will understand the reasons for their errors and avoid
committing them".
• Nickel & Wagner (1968: 253) suggest that "there may be instances where a
contrastive comparison is useful to explain certain aspects of the language, to
be taught".
• Hammeriy (1973: 108) defends the use of contrastive drills for pronunciation
on the grounds that ''they allow the student to compare his right with his
wrong".

19. What is Method?
Method is a synonym for how to teach. It is motivated by theories of the nature of human
language, how it is acquired, and how it is put to use. There are three major Methods in L2
teaching:
- Grammar-Translation
- Direct
- Audiolingual
.Method and contrastive analysis

20. Among these the first and third might be called 'artificial' and the second
'natural'.
The 'natural' Method is based on the premise that an L2 should be learnt in the
same way as infants acquire the L1. The term 'nature method' evoked the partly
false idea that the second language could be learnt in the same way as the
mother tongue was in early childhood".
CA hypothesis is Methods-neutral: whatever Method one subscribes to, one
will always view the learner’s possession of the L1 as a powerful factor to be
reckoned with.
Method and contrastive analysis

21. • Simplicity: refers to the easiness of being simple e.g. the exploitation of something must
be easy e.g chilled language, pidgin and foreign talk have universal feature of simplicity.
• Simplification: the L2 materials serves as mediator between the learner and L2 by a
process of simplification.
• Three type of simplification:-
1- Structural Simplification: to simplify the structure of language.
2- Functional Simplification: it means providing the learner with a language which does
not make fine functional distinctions. It is relatively insensitive to variations in situation,
style, register, and nuances of meaning.
3-Developmental Simplification: (other names) interlanguage, transitional competence,
transitional dialect, and approximativel system Its looks at the development of the learner.
Simplicity and simplification

22.  The interlingua
'Reduction', is functional contraction. while 'simplification' is a
term to be reserved for structural contraction.
 An interlingua is a functionally reduced dialect of the target
language.
 reduction. as Widdowson saw. "can involve either an increase
or a decrease in complexity"

23. Naturalization of the interlingua
Interlinguas are approximative systems occupying points on a
continuum between Ll and L2. We have hitherto concentrated on
processes of pedagogical simplification in the direction of the L1.
and have also mentioned the plausibility of universal processes of
simplification.
 Continued learning and teaching involves the elaboration of the
interlingua. Since this elaboration is wholly determined
ultimately by the nature of the L2. The term 'naturalisation' is used
for it.

24. since this word evokes the notion of aliens becoming
officially accepted by the community of the indigenous
Corder's (1975) 'complexification must be rejected ',
since naturalisation can equally well involve structural
simplification as complexification.

25. A language user who is able to put the structural resources
to use as functionally appropriate is said to have
Communicative Competence (Hymes. 1972). So
naturalising the interlingua essentially involves providing
learners with the resources to exploit L2 communicative.

26. Hymes recognizes four sectors of communicative competence
"of which the grammatical is just one”
i) "Whether something is formally possible." This is the
grammaticality sector. and the one which we concentrated
on developing in the earliest interlingual.

27. ii) "Whether something is feasible." This is the sector of
acceptability and concerns 'performance' factors such
as memory and cognitive factors (Cook. 1977).
 The language to be learnt by the learner must not
exceed his capacities.

28. iii) "Whether something is appropriate.'" This is defined in
relation to context, or how the learner's language responds
to demands of styIe and register.
iv) "Whether something is in fact done." This relates to probability
of occurrence and statistical aspects of language use. For
example, F. R. Palmer (1965: 63) suggested that will/shall are
not the commonest forms used for Future Reference in English,
though subsequent corpus analysis proved him wrong .

29. The teaching of comprehension , as Littlewood (1978) has
argued, should concentrate at inferring messages. i.e. on
communicational receptivity, relying on mainly contextual
cues rather than linguistic signaling devices.
 Progress in comprehension involves helping the learner
to associate functions to forms with precision.