Error gravity: Evidence from miscommunicated L2 discourse

One of the enduring problems that second language educators face is in determining which of the myriad types of learner error to focus on and which to leave aside. This paper discusses a study of 60 L2 and L1 interactants completing a film retelling task, from which miscommunications were identified and their linguistic and pragmatic triggers revealed. Findings are presented, firstly, of the gravity of noun phrase errors, such as those relating to pronouns and articles. Secondly, I discuss the gravity of certain pragmatic infelicities such as over-explicitness (e.g. use of a lexical noun where a pronoun is appropriate). From these findings, pedagogical implications are discussed in relation to the issues that appear to be most communicatively problematic for advanced second language users. It is argued that this approach to analysing the triggers of miscommunication can usefully inform programme development and course design