An Error in Error Analysis1

Presently, a number of proponents of an error analysis approach to the investigation of 2nd language learning argue that contrastive analysis (CA) apriori is inadequate as an account of target language learning problems. They claim that the only tenable version of CA is an aposteriori approach, i.e. CA in just those areas that have been proven by error analysis to be difficulties in production. This claim is disputed in a study involving the acquisition of English relative clauses by speakers of Persian, Arabic, Chinese, and Japanese. The aposteriori approach obscured the fact that the Chinese and Japanese learners have more difficulty with relative clauses and therefore avoid them, a fact predicted by the apriori approach.