objective of this study is to provide data to the teacher whether the teaching method has been successful in providing knowledge to the students or it needs
some modification in the future, and the classification can provide the data.
B. Error Analysis
Error is a common occurrence during learning process. Despite its negative image of being incorrect, producing errors can be perceived as an
important part of learning, particularly, foreign language. It is not possible, as Dulay said, to learn something without making any error and mistake.
9
These errors can help to understand how far the learners have mastered the language.
Learners’ errors give measurement do not only on the students’ part, but on the teacher’s teaching method as well. Corder as mentioned in Brown states
that the production of errors by the students is important that it provided the researcher with a trace of how language is learned or acquired by the students, and
also the type of strategies or procedures the learner is employing in the discovery of the language.
10
The analysing process by the researcher mentioned by Corder is called the error analysis. Through error analysis, teacher or researcher is expected to find out
more of the question why students make error and how to prevent it in the future.
1. Definition of Error Analysis
Douglas Brown mentions, “…an error is noticeable deviation from adult grammar of a native speaker reflecting the inter-language competence of the
learner”.
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This statement tells that the proficiency level of a learner in learning the target language can be identified from the errors they make. If learners know
the errors they made then they can identified their level of proficiency. Brown also states that the errors that appeared enable us to identify the system operating
9
Heidi Dulay, et. Al., Language Two, New York: Oxford University Press, 1982, p. 138.
10
H. Douglas Brown, Principles of Language Learning and Teaching, New Jersey: Prentice Hall Regents, 1994, Third Edition, p. 205.
11
Ibid., p. 205.
inside the learners. To identify it, the process that is called error analysis is required. Error analysis consists of identifying, analyzing, and classifying the
errors appeared. Another definition comes from Pit Corder. He mentions
, “Error analysis is the process of determining the incidence, nature, causes and consequences of
unsuccessful language.”
12
Showing that the level of proficiency we want to know through the process of error analysis is going to go through finding the incidence,
nature and consequences of unsuccessful language. Based on these two experts it can be concluded that error analysis is the
process of identifying, analyzing, and classifying errors that occurred because of unsuccessful language which is important in obtaining the knowledge of learners’
target language proficiency.
2. The Purpose of Error Analysis
During the process of learning second language, errors are unavoidable. These errors for a long time had been seen as a faulty in learning the language.
However, this errors are actually has its own function. The errors appeared can be analyzed and classified into groups based on the similarity they have within them.
This classification, later, will show the proficiency level of learners that create the errors.
Heidi Dulay, et al. serve two major purposes in studying learners’ errors; they are:
a. It provides data from which we can make inferences about the nature of
language learning process.
12
Wenfen Yang, A Tentative Analysis of Errors in Language Learning and Use, Journal of Language Teaching and Research, Vol. 1, No. 3, 2010, pp. 266-268.
b. It indicates to language teachers and curriculum developers which part of the
target language students have most difficulty producing correctly and which errors
type detract most from a learner’s ability to communicate effectively.
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3. Procedure of Error Analysis
In conducting error analysis, several procedures are required to conduct the research correctly. Here, Carl James provides us with five steps in analyzing the
learners’ errors: error detection, error location, error description, error classification, and error count.
a. Error Detection
In detecting errors, James states that one thing required is the ability to spot the errors, and it is usually easier to spot the errors of other people than our
own errors. In this first step, we use sentence as our unit of analysis, and use our knowledge to detect it.
b. Error Location
Errors can be located simply by pointing on it, like to the quantifier ‘some’, preposition in, or verb2 went by simply saying here is the error, or by
describing its place in the sentence. However, there are some errors that are not so ‘straightforward’. There is this type of errors called global errors where
its occurrence is diffused into a larger text that contain them Burt and Kiparsky, 1972. The sentence does not simply contain an error, but it is
erroneous or flawed as a sentence.
c. Error Description
In describing learners’ errors, the system used must have two essential characteristics. First, the system must be well-developed and highly
elaborated, since many complex errors made not only by advance learners but
13
Dulay, op. cit., p. 138.
also the beginner ones. The second characteristic is that the description must be as simple and comprehensive as possible.
There ar e three main purposes of describing learners’ errors. The first is to
make learners’ errors explicit. The next is that error description is the prerequisite for counting errors. And the last purpose is to create categories.
d. Error Classification.
Classifying errors means that we put the errors into categories.
e. Error Count.
Counting errors is the last step to do in error analysis procedure. The analyst count the errors made by the students.
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C. Writing
Writing is one of the four skills of English that has to be mastered. The mastery of English would not complete without the mastery of writing. Students
who learn writing during the learning process of English language will find many things that should be mastered in order to master the skill of writing. The two
requirements of a good writing are the grammatical structure, and the structure of ideas.
Jack C Richard identifies writing as an act that does not only a way of communication but also a way to remember and a way of thinking. It is because
writing is, in opposite with speaking, a freeze thought of ours that is visible, permanent that the quality can be examined and tested.
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Based on the experts mentioned above, we can find that writing is an expression of the writer’s soul and knowledge that is arranged in good and correct
grammatical structure, in which the quality is able to be tested and examined as it can be seen and permanent.
14
James, op. cit., p. 91-114.
15
JC. Richard, Writing is Unnatural Act, New York: Harper and Publisher, 1980, p. 2.
