f error analysis and interlanguage studies was on the evidence learner error and learner performance provides to an understanding of the underlying processes of second language acquisitionà.
Whereas error-analysis studies often focused primarily on describing the products of language learning in terms of error types, the focus on the field of second language acquisition was on explaining second-language learning in terms of more comprehensive theories of second-language learning processes (pp. 67-8).
The concept of examining systematic errors to determine how language is acquired must take into account ideas held by many linguists about a universal grammar for all languages, a theory whose most notable proponent is Noam Chomsky. As White notes, any heuristics derived from a first language and brought to bear on the learning of a second language must be weighed against the role that a universal language grammar û which would be held by all humans with normal intelligence and neurological functioning û plays in the acquisition of any language.
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