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A Cognitive Process in Second Language Acquisition 

through Speech Errors Analyses 

 
 
AZAMAT Akbarov 
International Burch University Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina 

aakbarov@ ibu.edu.ba 

 

Received 14.06.2014; Accepted 16.07. 2014  
 

Abstract 

Speech accidents can also be evaluated by some psychological constraints as some of the 

interfering effects of the producing some sounds may cause slip of tongue in the coding-encoding 

process. Such an error is the result of the transposing of initial sounds of two words; what's more, 

spoonerism as a linguistic deviation refers to the speech errors of L2 learners while it can also be 

related to the ones of native speakers. Especially errors in the verbal production of the L2 learners 

stem from some slips of tongue, which hinder the intended message as a result of some 

psychological conditions, and sometimes they may convey unintended humorous meaning codes. 

Spoonerisms of the L2 learners are tried to be explained by a psycholinguistics perspective. In this 

context, the linguistic conditions that sanction the slips of tongue will be explained through 

cognitive processes.  

 

Keywords : Cognitive process, speech errors analyses, extroversion, introversion 

 
1.Introduction 

The process of conveying thoughts through articulated speech is a very complex intact. Therefore, 

there have always occurred speech errors in the history of humankind. These kinds of errors are 

committed when the sounds are uttered in an unintended way and cause meaning loss or a different 

message from the intended one. According to Sturtevant (1947), „speech error‟ is “unintentional 

linguistic innovation”. Another definition comes from Boomer and Laver (1968): “A slip of the 

tongue … is an involuntary deviation in performance from the speaker‟s current phonological, 

grammatical or lexical intention. ” Bears (1992) defines slips: “Conceptually, slips are actions that 

mismatch their own guiding intentions. Operationally, they may be defined as actions that are  

quickly recognized to be errors as soon as we become aware of them”. 

 

In fact, people try to communicate each other effectively in an error-free way. But, their wish to 

speak perfectly is far from reality. Several aspects must be taken into consideration while analyzing 

speech errors such as linguistic units and linguistic rules. Psychologists believe that speech errors 

may occur in a speech environment that is probably affected by speaker‟s psychological and 

cognitive state. Additionally, many socio-cultural factors may play an important role in speaker‟s 

communication performance (Yang, 2002).  

 



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Spoonerisms can be defined as the words or phrases containing swapped sounds.  Several studies 

regarded many types of spoonerisms (tongue slips) and language games have the more eye catching 

one are from different scholars. Speech errors may be phonological, lexical, or grammatical, or they 

may be errors against social appropriateness (Nooteboom, 2005).  

 

 Speech errors have traditionally been used to provide evidence for models of speech production 

that utilize the constructs of linguistic theory as psychologically real components of linguistic 

performance (e.g., Levelt, 1989 cited in Frisch and Wright, 2002). In fact, one may be prone to 

commit errors in speech both in mother tongue or target language. In this paper, we tried to explain 

the speech errors or slips of tongues connected with some psychological conditions in second 

language learning 

 

2.Lite rature Review  

In this section, some of the studies dominated in this field are mentioned from different perspectives  

 

Linguistic pe rspective of speech errors  

The concern of this classification is to understand the occurrence of the speech errors in appearance. 

Actually, syntax of a sentence is usually preserved almost in all kinds of speech errors.  

 

What may be intended is about the misused with the changes of the sounds in a word or between 

two words or omissions of the sounds of a unit. It may be understood from the literature review of 

linguistic perspective of speech errors; speech errors do not occur randomly, the occurrence of 

speech errors follow a way of rules (Fromkin, 1968).  Speech errors often occur when there are 

repeated sounds in the unit (MacKay, 1970).  

 

For example: irreplaceable  irrepraceable (Fromkin, 1973). 

 

Fromkin (1973) advocates that speech error has been studied in the history of linguistic to 

understand the mechanisms of speech production process such as studies from Lashley, 1951; 

Boomer and Laver, 1968; MacKay, 1969, 1970; Hockett, 1967; Fromkin, 1968; Nootebom, 1969. 

Boomer and Laver (1968) classify speech errors as disordering of units in the string, omission of a 

unit and replacement of a unit. Fromkin (1973) explains that according to Boomer and Laver the 

units so disordered, omitted, or replaced may be segments, morphemes or words.  

 

The choice of the word in the process of conveying the thoughts is of great importance both for the 

meaning and grammatical rules.  According to the findings of Nooteboom (1969), a mistakenly 

selected word in speech process belongs to nearly the same word class of the intended word.  

 

For example:  

I have some proposals to hand out  hang out   

book of sixes  book of twos (Fromkin, 1973). 

 

MacKay, Boomer and Lever, and Nooteboom (1969) study the influence of stress on errors in 

speech. In the study of Boomer and Laver, it is concluded that “The origin syllable and the target 

syllable of a slip are metrically similar, in that both are salient (stressed) or both are weak 



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(unstressed), with salient-salient pairings predominating” (p.7). Nooteboom supports this 

conclusion, stating that “ In significantly more cases than is to be expected in a random distribution 

the elements involved in a speech error belong to stressed syllables ” (Nooteboom, 1969 cited in 

Fromkin, 1973). As it is seen in the example below, there is no transposition of the stress, in spite of 

the transposition of the words.  

 

For example (Fromkin, 1973): 

a computer in our own laboratory   a laboratory in our own computer 

 

Spoonerisms generally draw a picture of the transposition of the linear ordering of the sounds 

especially the first sound of the words. Wells (1951) supports this situation with his “First Law” of 

tongue slips. According to this law, “A slip of the tongue is practically always a phonetically 

possible noise”.  

 

For example: 

 keep a tape  teep a kape  

sphinx in moonlight  minx in spoonlight (Fromkin, 1973). 

 

Psycholinguistic pers pective of speech errors  

Speaking in target language is mostly regarded by most of the learners as the main skill of a second 

language. Therefore, uttering sounds in target language bear in mind the potential fallacies. If so, 

what can be the real criteria of real speech in target language? Is it only the ability of producing 

sounds in target language or the ability of verbal communication with a native speaker of the target 

language? Probably, another answer is more acceptable for most of the learners. Besides, the fear of 

committing errors can be more dominant when communicating in target language especially with a 

native speaker. From this risky perspective, any speaker committing speech errors because of 

psychological and cognitive state is more probable. Therefore, one may commit errors in both 

mother tongue and target language.  

 

Apart from the linguists‟ speech error studies, there are also some studies, which look insight for the 

cognitive and psychological aspects of the errors (Reason, 1982; Bears, 1992; Garrett, 1992). The 

psychological state of the speaker plays a significant role in both types of verbal productions (L1 

and L2). The extent of effects of psychological factors may vary in both L1 and L2 and therefore 

they do not affect the cognitive state of the learners at the same le vel. Individual differences such as 

extroversion and introversion, motivation, anxiety and willingness to communicate should be taken 

into consideration while analyzing the speech errors. Additionally, communication barriers such as 

lack of subject knowled ge, stress and emotions can be effective on speaker‟s speech performance.  

 

Fromkin, (1971) exemplifies that errors as cup of coffee  cuff of coffee and less young less 

young and these samples are believed to show that speech segments of different sizes in an 

utterance are organized and processed in a linear order. Such segmental errors obey structural laws 

(cited in Yang 2002; 69). Other errors like pleased to meet you  pleased to beat you in a job 

interview competition are thought to be caused by the speaker‟s psychological state (Motley, 1985 

cited in Yang, 2002; p.70).  

 



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Extroverts are more sociable and active people than introverts are. They are active and have many 

friends. Therefore, they are always risk-takers to speak with people (Eysenck & C han, 1982 cited in 

Ellis, 2008). In this respect, introverts are closer to commit errors in speech since they prefer 

loneliness and avoid communication. Motivation can be seen as the captain of psychological 

factors. Speakers especially one of the second langua ges should be motivated to speak in target 

language. Lack of motivation brings stress together with higher rate of speech errors.  Willingness 

to communicate (WTC) can be defined as the intention to communicate. That is, speaker‟s 

unwillingness to communicate occurs in an unplanned context.  When it is thought that speech 

errors are generally committed unintentionally and unplanned manner, lack of WTC can cause 

problems in communication. Most of the people fear speaking in front of society. People start to 

sweat and tremble when it is time to say something to the people they do not know. What is more, 

they can forget what they will talk about. The main reason of this undesired situation is of course 

anxiety. High level of anxiety and stress can end in speech errors and change the meaning 

unintentionally as in the example pleased to meet you  pleased to beat you in a job interview.  

 

Brown&Yule (1983) talks about “communicative stress” drawing an outline including 3 main 

factors- features of the context (the listener and the situation), state of the knowledge of the listener 

(the language and information) and type of task (status of knowledge and structure of the task). 

These factors have the speaker feel worried and give rise to speech errors. Speaker feels more 

comfortable if the listener is one of his peers or „junior‟ to him and talks to one listener than to 

many. If the environment is familiar to the speaker, it is easier for the speaker to communicate. 

When one is talking about a subject who is not known in detail by the listener, speaker gets stressed 

to explain it and transmit the message to the listener. These factors have the speaker feel worried 

and give rise to speech errors. Regarding speech errors in L1 and L2, the following questions may 

be addressed: Which situations and conditions are effective in speech errors in both first language 

and second language? Communication barriers, speaker‟s unawareness of grammatical and 

phonological rules, individual learner differences, and psychological conditions state of the speaker 

and communication stress can all play a role on the performance of speech errors. But their effect 

on L1 and L2 speech can be different. Speakers may commit speech errors in native language 

because of personality differences and psychological factors rather than unawareness of language 

rules.  

 

3. Conclusion and discussion 

Speech errors have been mainly discussed within the frame of linguistic and psycholinguistic 

perspectives. Speech errors may be committed in both mother tongue and second language. We 

have tried to find answers to the question which factors are more effect ive on speech errors 

committed in both languages with the help of literature review (see references). Some linguists such 

as Fromkin (1973), Nooteboom (2005) etc. study speech errors from the perspective of language 

rules. Psycholinguists such as Garrett (1992), Reason (1982) etc. study these errors to understand 

the psychological and cognitive nature of the errors. Apart from these studies, socio -cultural 

perspectives (Yang, 2002) have been developed to understand speech errors. Additionally, the 

effect of L1 on L2 may be taken into consideration while studying speech errors. Speech errors may 

be discussed by analyzing the errors in detail within the perspective of communication stress 

(Brown&Yule, 1983) and individual learner differences. The effects of personality factors may be 

more comprehensible in the light of further studies.  



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