Based on some definitions above, it can be concluded that error analysis is a type of analysis which includes the process of observing,
analyzing and classifying the errors on the second language rules and disclosing systems controlled by the learners. It also can be said as way to
investigate the error made by students to get some important data about students’ difficulty in learning a language. It is believed by knowing more
detail about problems faced by the students and solve it, the teacher will improve their teaching to avoid their students in making the same error again.
2. The Procedure of Error Analysis
There are five steps in conducting an error analysis, they are: 1.
Collecting of a sample of learner language The type of data collected can have a marked effect on the result of an
error analysis, as a result of the different production processes which they typically involve. For example, Logoco found differences in the number and
type of errors in samples of learner language collected by means of free composition, translation, and picture composition.
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2. Identification of Errors
The definition of ‘error’ is problematic, as James admits. The difficulty centers on a number of issues. The first is whether grammatically i.e. well-
formedness or acceptability should serve as criterion. An utterance may be gra
mmatically correct but pragmatically unacceptable. ‘I want to read tour newspaper’ addressed a complete stranger is grammatical but pragmatically
unacceptable.
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3. Description of Errors
24
Rod Ellis, The Study of Second Language Acquisition, New York: Oxford University Press, 2008, p. 46
25
Ibid.,pp. 47 —48.
The description of errors involves a comparison of the learner’s idiosyncratic utterance with a reconstruction of those utterances in the target
language or, more recently, with a baseline corpus of a native-speaker language.
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Ellis also describes the category of errors as seen in the table below:
Table 2.1 The Category of Error
Category Description
Example
Omission
The absence of an item that must appear in a well-
formed utterance She sleeping
Addition
The presence of an item that must not appear in
well-formed utterance We didn’t went there
Misinformation
The use of the wrong form of
the morpheme
or structure
The do dated the chicken Misordering
The incorrect placement of a morpheme or group of
morpheme in an utterance What daddy is doing?
4. Explanation of Errors
Explanation is concerned with establishing the source of the errors, i.e. accounting for why it was made. This stage is the most important for SLA
research as it involves an attempt to establish the processes responsible for L2 acquisition.
5. Evaluating of Errors
Error evaluation involves a consideration of the effect that errors have on the person s addressed. This effect can be gauged either the terms of the
addressee’s effective response to the errors. Error evaluation studies proliferated in the late 1970s and in the 1980s, motivated quite explicitly by a
desire to improve language pedagogy.
27
26
Ibid.
27
Ibid., p. 56.
3. Goals of error analysis
According to Gass and Selingker ―the goal of error analysis is clearly one of pedagogical remediation.‖
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It implies that the aim of analyzing error is evidently educational remediation.
Norrish states that ―Error analysis can give a picture of the type of difficulty learners are experiencing. If carried out on a large scale such a
survey, it can be helpful in drawin g up a curriculum.‖
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It means that an error analysis can give useful information about new class. In a class-or country-
with different first languages, it can indicate problems common to all and problems to particular groups.
Whereas, Corder in Fisiak’s book makes two different purpose of error analysis: applied and theoretical purpose. The applied purpose of error
analysis is yields valuable insights into the nature of the intermediate ‘functional communicative systems’ or languages constructed by them.
Meanwhile, thetheoretical purpose of error analysis is to present insight into process of acquiring learner’s language.
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The most typical use of the analysis of the error is the teachers. It is designing pedagogical material and strategies. Dullay states that studying
students’ errors serves two major purposes: a.
It provides data from which inferences about the nature of the language learning process can be made.
b. It indicates to teachers and curriculum developers which part of the target
language students have most difficulty producing correctly and which errors types detract most from a learner’s ability to communicate
effectively.
According to Fisiak, there are four goals of error analysis, they are:
28
Gass and Selingker, op.cit 2008, p. 103.
29
Norrish, op.cit, 1998., p. 80.
30
Jack Fisiak, Contrastive Linguistics and the Language Teacher, Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1981, p. 225.
