Between fossilization and evaluation: Old and new uses of errors

Abstract

The study of errors has contributed to establish Second Language Acquisition Studies as an autonomous research endeavour, aimed to describe non-native linguistic systems and to explain particular phenomena characterizing the acquisition process. Errors, as manifestations of non-native systems, interest both SLA researchers and L2 teachers, but they have different and sometimes conflicting perspectives (for example, when fossilization or assessment issues are considered), on which we will focus in this paper.