Definition of Error Analysis

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CHAPTER II THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

A. Definition of Error Analysis

Error analysis is an ancient study that continuously done and developed by some researchers. As Corder noted that learners ‟ errors are significant; it is because they provide to the researcher evidence of how language is learned or acquired, what strategies or procedures the learner is employing in the discovery of the language. 1 In learning a language, there would be trial and error process because error is a natural process when learners learn a second language or a foreign language. Error analysis deals with learn ers‟ performance in terms of the cognitive process. Learners usually make errors in recognizing or coding the input they receive from the target language. The principal focus of error analysis is on the evidence of the underlying process of second language acquisition. 2 Error which happen on learners‟ competence can be observed, analyzed, even can be classified to reveal the system operating within the learner. In these sense, as Brown stated on his book that error analysis is the fact that shows learners make errors, and the error itself can be observed, analyzed, and also can be classified to reveal something of the system operating within the learner,caused a surge of study of learners‟ error, called error analysis. 3 Error analysis is not a new development. The analysis of learner errors had long been a part of pedagogy. Some researchers had done the study of error analysis on the past; one of them was Lee. Lee 1957 had done the research on analysis of some 2,000 errors in the written of work of Czechos lovakian learners‟, the result shows some errors which were „hurriedly grouped into categories‟ such as wrong punctuation, misuse, or omission of articles, misspellings, non-English constructions, 1 H. Douglas Brown, Principles of Language Learning and Teaching, New York: Pearson Education, Inc., 2007, 5 th edition, p. 257. 2 Vacide Erdogan, Contribution of Error Analysis to Foreign Language Teaching, Mersin University Faculty of Education, Vol. 1, Issue 2, December 2005, p. 263. 3 H. Douglas Brown, op. cit., p. 259. and wrong use of tenses. Lee also argued that such an analy sis lies on teachers‟ position in deciding how teaching time should be spent. 4 There are three different ways in learners‟ error that suggested by Corder. He divided into three sides; teachers, researchers, and learners. First, for teachers, the learners‟ errors could tell them how far towards the goal the learner has progressed and, consequently, what remains for him to learn. Next, for researchers, the errors provide evidence of how language is learnt or acquired and what strategies or procedures the learner is employing in his discovery of language. The last, for learners, committing errors is a way the learner has of testing his hypotheses about the nature of language he is learning Corder; 1981. 5 It can be concluded that the case which happen on learner such as an error, it can be analyzed and observed. An error itself not only lies on learners‟ side, but also on teachers to know the goal the learner has progressed or no, and the last on researchers to do more research about error and to know that language is learnt or acquired.

B. Errors and Mistakes