MISTAKE

MISTAKE. A misapprehension of meaning or a fault in execution. Mistakes can be divided into two types: competence mistakes (sometimes technically called errors), that arise from ignorance of or ineptness in using a language (as when an EFL learner says ‘He no comes today’ or a native user spells receive ‘recieve’); performance mistakes (technically mistakes), where one knows what to say or write but through tiredness, emotion, nervousness, or some other pressure makes a SLIP OF THE TONGUE, leaves out a word, or mistypes a letter. People are particularly frustrated if a slip in performance is seen as a gap in their competence.

Native speakers, however, tend to get away with more slips than foreigners; in CONVERSATION, they can stop, start, change grammatical direction, mispronounce and then correct themselves, and so forth, without much or any censure, but a foreign user's shortcomings are on display all the time. Advanced users of a second language often appear to set themselves higher standards for that language than for their own, partly because they are more conscious of the mistakes they make in it. In educational circles, conservative teachers tend to treat mistakes as disease-like symptoms that need isolation through red ink. Radical teachers tend to overlook mistakes in the interests of good relations, students' confidence, and their ability to communicate and create. Neither extreme appears to be efficient in teaching the mother tongue or another language: the first intimidates and depresses, while the second may invite chaos. See ACCEPTABILITY, BAD ENGLISH, BARBARISM, CATACHRESIS, CORRECT, DEVIANT, FREUDIAN SLIP, GRAMMATICALITY, LITERAL, MALAPROPISM, MISPRONUNCIATION, PLEONASM, SOLECISM, SPOONERISM, TAUTOLOGY.