The Meaning of Error

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

A. Error Analysis

Learning a target language is different from learning one’s mother tongue. In the process of learning a target language it is possible that learners make some errors. Error can be a good part of learning when the teacher correct it and the students know their error. According to Jeremy Harmer, “when second language learners make errors, they are demonstrating part of the natural process of language”. 1 Errors have an important role in the study of language the learners who made errors; automatically they can learn from their own errors and develop the language. Nsakala Lengo says, “Errors are believed to be an indicator of the learners’ stages in their target language development from the errors that learners commit, one can determine their level of mastery of the language system”. 2 The study of learners’ errors and analysis is called error analysis. According to H. Douglas Brown, “The fact that learners do make errors and that these errors can be observed, analyzed, and classified to reveal something of the system operating within the learner, led to a surge of study of learners’ errors, called error analysis”. 3 Errors can not always be easily identified and analyzed, it is important to know more about error analysis and the explanation will be discussed in the following area

1. The Meaning of Error

When the students write in English, most of them can make errors. It is possible for the students to make error because it is natural process of language learning. The students can develop their 1 Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching London: Longman Inc., 1989, p. 100 2 Nsakala Lengo, What is an Error? English Teaching Forum July, 1995, p. 20 3 H. Douglas Brown, Principles of Language Learning and Teaching: 2 nd edition Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1987, p. 171 6 knowledge from the errors. According to Jeremy Harmer, errors are part of the students’ interlanguage that is the version of the language which a learner has at any one stage of development, and which is continually reshape as he or she aims towards full mastery. 4 Error is related to the students’ knowledge about the target language. Douglas Brown said, “...an error is noticeable deviation from the adult grammar of a native speaker reflecting the interlanguage competence of the learner. 5 Some one who learns a foreign language can indicate his or her level of proficiency in learning foreign language. When the learner made errors, the teacher helped to correct them. It can help the teacher to give information whether the language learning process is success or not. Mean while Heidi Dullay et al. defined error are the flawed side or learner speech or writing. 6 Most people thing that error and mistake are same, but that is not true. Corder made a distinction between mistake and error: “A mistake is a random performance slip caused by fatigue, excitement, etc. and therefore can be readily self-corrected, an error is a systematic deviation made by learners who have not yet mastered the rule of the second language. A learner can not self corrected an error because it is a product reflective of his or her current stage of second language development, or under lying competence”. 7 From the statement, we can differentiate between mistake and error. If the students can self- corrected it means he made a mistake. But if they can not self-correct it means he made an error. Peter Hubbard et al. distinguished between an error and a mistake in their book, “Errors caused by lack of knowledge about the target language English or by incorrect hypotheses about it; and unfortunate mistakes caused by temporary lapses of memory, confusion, slips of the tongue and so on. 8 4 Jeremy Harmer, op.cit., p. 100 5 Ibid., p. 170 6 Heidi Dullay, et al., Language Two Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982 P. 138 7 Diana Larsen Freeman and Michael H. Long, An Introduction to Second Language Acquisition Research,London: Longman Inc., 1991, p. 59 8 Peter Hubbard, et al., A Training Course for TEFL, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983, p. 134 From the definitions above, it can be said that errors are something to do with unacceptable and in appropriate forms of the grammar of the target language that have imprinted on learner’s mind, so it can not be self corrected by the learner.

2. The Causes of Error