Many educators and theorists in the field of error analysis have focused on the
importance of second language learners' errors. Corder (1967) indicates that
errors are significant in three different ways. First to the teachers, in that they tell
them how far towards the goal the learners have advanced and consequently,
what remains for them to learn. Second, they provide to the researchers evidence
of how language is learnt or acquired, what strategies or procedures the learners
are employing in their discovery of the language. Thirdly, they are indispensable to
the learners themselves, because we can regard the making of errors as a device
the learners use in order to learn. Research has provided empirical evidence
pointing to emphasis on learners' errors as an effective means of improving
grammatical accuracy (White et al, 1991; Carroll and Swain, 1993). Indeed, as
Carter (1997:35) notes, 'Knowing more about how grammar works is to
understand more about how grammar is used and misused'. There is a need for
students to recognize the significance of errors which occur in their writing, to fully
grasp and understand the nature of the errors made