It's okay to make mistakes: "The Significance of Learners' Mistakes"

In 1967, S. P. Corder published the article "The Significance of Learners' Mistakes," which can be regarded as the beginning of Second Language Acquisition research. Before SLA became an independent discipline, errors in language learning were often seen as signs of learning failure, primarily attributed to interference from the native language. The focus of teaching was on preventing and correcting errors through extensive practice. In this article, Corder challenged this view and affirmed the positive significance of errors in second language acquisition.

1967年，S. P. Corder发表了《学习者错误的意义》一文，这可以视作二语习得研究的开端。在第二语言习得成为一门独立学科之前，语言学习中的错误通常被视为学习失败的表现，主要归因于母语的干扰。教学的重点在于通过大量练习来预防和纠正错误。Corder在这篇文章中反驳了这种观点，肯定了二语习得中错误的积极意义。

Corder put forward a core argument in this seminal paper: systematic errors are not negative products that need to be eliminated, but rather crucial evidence for understanding the learner's internal learning process. He argued that these errors provide valuable information for three distinct groups.

Corder在这篇标志性的论文中提出了一个核心论点：系统性的错误并非需要杜绝的负面产物，而是理解学习者内在学习过程的重要证据。他认为，这些错误为三个不同的群体提供了宝贵信息。

First, for teachers, errors serve as a diagnostic tool. By analyzing common student errors, teachers can identify weaknesses in their instruction and determine which knowledge points have not yet been mastered by students, thereby adjusting their teaching focus.

首先，对教师而言，错误是一种诊断工具。通过分析学生常犯的错误，教师可以了解教学中的薄弱环节，判断哪些知识点尚未被学生掌握，从而调整教学重点。

Second, and most revolutionary, is the significance for researchers. Corder pointed out that errors are a window into the learner's "transitional competence" (later known as "interlanguage"). Learners are not passive recipients of language but are actively constructing the rule system of the target language. When a learner produces an utterance like "he go-ed," it is not a random mistake but the application of an overgeneralized rule ("add -ed for past tense"). This indicates that the learner is, like a scientist, formulating and testing hypotheses about the language. Therefore, studying errors can help us understand the learner's internal, and potentially universal, sequence of acquisition and strategies.

其次，也是最具革命性的，是对研究者的意义。Corder指出，错误是窥探学习者"过渡能力"（即后来被称为"中介语"）的窗口。学习者并非被动接收语言，而是在主动地构建目标语的规则系统。当一个学习者说出"he go-ed"这样的句子时，这并非随意的失误，而是他应用了"过去式加-ed"这一过度概括的规则。这表明学习者正在像科学家一样，提出并检验关于语言的假设。因此，研究错误可以帮助我们了解学习者内在的、可能普遍存在的习得顺序和策略。

Finally, for learners themselves, making errors is an indispensable part of the learning process. Producing errors and receiving feedback is a way for them to test their own language hypotheses.

最后，对学习者自身而言，犯错是学习过程中一个不可或缺的环节。产出错误并接收反馈，是他们验证自己语言假设的一种方式。

Corder's article shifted the research focus from "Contrastive Analysis," which compared the native and target languages, to "Error Analysis," which examined the learner's own language system. It prompted researchers to view learners as active constructors of language, thereby laying a solid foundation for the proposal of the "Interlanguage" theory and the development of Second Language Acquisition as an independent discipline.

Corder的这篇文章，将研究焦点从对比母语与目标语的"对比分析"，转向了分析学习者自身语言系统的"错误分析"。它促使研究者将学习者视为语言的积极构建者，从而为"中介语"理论的提出和第二语言习得作为独立学科的发展奠定了坚实的基础。