reason not readily available to the learner at a point in communication.”
14
Communication strategies caused by the learners‟ learning techniques.
To sum up, there are some sources that may lead errors in learning target language. Those sources may come from the interference of native
language to the target language, the lack of competence of the target language, the learning environment and personal learning strategies.
e. The Stages of Error Analysis
In analyzing students‟ errors, there are some steps to be followed. Many linguists have already discussed how to analyze students‟ errors in
their book. One of them is Corder; he suggests five steps in analyzing students‟ errors, they are: collection of sample of learner language,
identification of errors, description of errors, explanation of errors and evaluation of errors.
15
1 Collection of Sample of Learner Language
The first step of analyzing errors which suggested by Corder is collection of sample. In this step, the researcher must decide a number of
students which is being sample for the research. Then, they will be given regular examination in order to get data.
2 Identification of errors
In this step the researcher must identify error from data collection. For identifying error, the researcher must compare the
sentence that was produced by students to the correct sentence in the target language. For examples,
Sherina watched TV, and Rudi sleeped in his room.
14
Ibid., p. 178.
15
Ellis, op.cit., p.46
The correct form in target language is Sherina watched TV, and Rudi slept in his room.
By comparing two sentences it can be seen that the student produced an error in constructing simple past tense sentence where
she used –ed after sleep instead of using irregular verb.
3 Description of Errros
After identifying errors, the next step is description of errors. In this step, all errors that have been identified, then they would be
classified into the types of errors. In description of error James introduces a table to make it easy. This table can be seen as below
16
: TABLE 2.1
Description of Errors
LEVEL
MODIFICATI ON
SUBSTANCE TEXT
DISCOURSE GRAMMAR
LEXIS Graphology
RANK: Clause-Phrase-Word-
Morpheme CLASS:
Noun,Verb,Adjective ,
Adverb,Preposition, Conjunction,etc.
SENSE RELATION
COLOCATIONS COHESION
COHERENCE GENDER-
FIDELITY FELICITY
OMISSION ADDITION
SELECTION ORDERING
The horizontal columns indicate the levels of errors: substance, text and discourse whereas the vertical columns show the types of errors
16
Carl James, Error in Language Learning and Use: Exploring Error Analysis, New York: Wesley Longman Inc., 1998, p. 274.
which consist of omission, addition, Misformationmisselection, and misorder.
4 Explanation of Errors
This step will explain why errors occur. This explanation concerned on the sources of errors. From example above, the
researcher may consider that the student above does an error in using
–ed regular verb instead of using irregular verb whether because of interlingual transferovergeneralization, ignorance of
the rule restriction, incomplete application of
rules, or false concept hypothesis.
5 Evaluation of Errors
In this step, the researcher must decide the criteria of errors which will be corrected because some errors can be considered more
serious than other. The aim of evaluating errors is to distinct which errors will be corrected so the learner, which made an error, will not be stress of
getting correction.
2. The Simple Past Tense
Elaine Kirn divides the simple past tense into three components. They ar
e “statement with past tense verb, yesno questions and short answers and information questions”
17
A. The Statement with Past Tense Verbs
The simple past tense is the tense that is used to complete events, states or actions in a finished period of time. It is also used to tell story and to
describe the past events; The simple past is one if the tenses we use to refer to completed
events, states or actions. We choose the simple past when we consider that the event, state or action took place within a finished period of
17
Elaine Kirn, et all, Interactions 1 Grammar 4th Edition, New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002, p. 107.
time, such as last week, at the weekend, etc. In telling stories and describing what happened in the past we use the past simple as a „time
anchor‟ – to establish the key „time frame‟ of events.
18
This statement is also supported by Betty Schrampfer Azar. She said that “The simple past tense indicates that an activity or situation began and ended
at a particular time in the past”
19
. The simple past tense can be used to give the information of the time. In
A Student’s Introduction to English Grammar
‟s book said that “Past time is understood as time proceeding the time of speaking”
20
. The simple past tense is also called “time anchor” because the simple past tense can show the time when the action happen. The
simple past tense can be used to talk about completed past events and activities.
21
The way about how to tell activities in the past time, using this tense is the right way.
The form of most verbs in the simple past tense by adding –ed in the
ending of the verbs in singular and also plural form, it is called by “regular
verbs” and “irregular verb” for which has changes in the verb. “Regular verbs are those in which the past tense and the past participle are formed by adding
the suffix –ed or in a few cases, -t to the base form.”
22
From that statement, the regular verbs can be marked by the ending of the verb; suffix
–ed. With suffix
–ed, it is easier to know this regular verbs. From A Student’s Introduction to English Grammar’s book, regular verb is “one whose
inflectional forms are all predictabl e by general rule.”
23
The form of all regular verbs can be predicted because there is the general rule which can be
used as a reference.
18
Martin Parrot, Grammar for English Language Teachers Second Edition, Britain: Cambridge University Press, 2010, p. 219-210.
19
Betty Schrampfer Azar, Understanding and UsingEnglish Grammar 3
rd
Edition, New York: Pearson Education, 1999, p. 27.
20
Rodney Huddleston, A Student’s Introduction to English Grammar, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2005 p. 44.
21
Ibid.
22
Martha Kolln Robert Funk, Understanding English Grammar Eight Edition, New York: Pearson Education Inc., 2010, p. 68.
23
Huddleston, op.cit., p. 33.
