Errors and Mistakes in Foreign Language Learning: Drawing Boundaries from the Discourse of Argentine Teachers

Abstract

From a psychoanalytical perspective, we associate the subjective development of the human being with his/her appropriation of the environment language. This subject is hampered by words of others. In this way, we affirm that the subject is structured in and on a language. This issue takes an important place in the increasing migratory movements. In this study, we focus on the significance of error on the processes of teaching and learning languages. First, we present a theoretical review on the polysemy – plurality of meanings – of the concept of error in the field of foreign language teaching. Next, we discuss the first results of qualitative research, which analyzes the discourse of Argentine foreign language teachers about the theme. We adopt the sociolinguistic perspective of Marcos Bagno and the methodological approach of discourse analysis. The differences between error and mistakes were first systematized by the studies carried out during the 1970s, which considered that the errors should be corrected, whereas not necessarily the mistakes. Nowadays, the need for correction is being replaced by a positive view of learners’ mistakes and errors. The discourse elicited in our interviewees shows a communicative vision of the errors and places the polysemy of the term in a secondary problem.