22 call mistakes, and the errors of competence is the same as errors in Ellis and
Brown’s definition. Although some linguists have defined the differences of errors and
mistakes, Brown 1994: 206 states that it is not always simple to distinguish
between an error and a mistake. Therefore, this research does not differentiate between errors and mistakes. In this research, the term errors refer to the
explanation proposed by Dulay et al. 1982: 139 which just define the errors because of some factors either because of fatigue or lack of knowledge. In this
study, furthermore, the errors refer to the students’ answers in the test which are inappropriate and deviate from the rule of phrasal verbs patterns without really
considering they are errors or mistakes.
b. Brief Review on the Causes of Errors
There are many possible answers regarding the causes of errors. Corder 1974: 228 mentions that basically there are three causes of errors, namely the
native of the mother tongue, the basis analysis, and the nature of the teaching and learning materials. Meanwhile, Norrish 1983: 21 mentions more than three
causes of errors. However, he categorizes those causes of errors into two parts. The first part is the causes of errors based on popular idea such as carelessness,
first language interference, and translation from the first language. Then, the second part is the causes of errors based on the current theories such as contrastive
analysis, general order of difficulty, and overgeneralization. Then, Dulay et al. 1982 state that “most errors are resulted from the
interference of the learner’s first language or mother tongue.” Richards 1974:
23 173 calls the interference of learner’s mother tongue as interlanguage errors.
Richards 1974: 173 in his paper entitled A Non-Contrastive Approach to Error Analysis mentions another source of errors beside interlanguage. It is intralingual
errors. Intralingual errors deal with the second language itself and those errors reflect the general characteristics of rule of learning, such as faulty generalization,
incomplete application of rules, and failure to learn conditions under which rules apply.
Richards’s explanation about the source of errors is agreed by Brown 1994: 213-215. He mentions three kinds of errors’ sources. The first is
interlingual transfer as mentioned by Richard 1974: 173. Brown 1994: 213 also defines interlingual as interference of native language before the system of
second language is familiar. Then, Brown 1994: 214 mentions the second type of errors’ source as the opposite of interlingual transfer. This type is intralingual
transfer or in other words the errors come from the language itself. Some researchers have found that the early stages of language learning are
characterized by a predominance of interference interlingual transfer, but once learners have begun to acquire parts of the new system, more and
more intralingual transfer –generalization within the target language – is manifested Brown, 1994: 214.
Then, another type mentioned by Brown 1994: 215 is about context of learning. Context, according to Brown 1994: 215, refers to the classroom with its teacher
and its materials in the case of school learning. He states that “in a classroom context the teacher or the textbook can lead the learner to make faulty hypotheses
about the language, what Richards 1971 called “false concepts” and what Stenson 1974 termed “induced errors.” Further, Brown 1994: 215 adds that
24 “students often make errors because of a misleading explanation from the teacher,
faulty presentation of a structure or a word in a textbook, or even because of a pattern that was rotely memorized in a drill but not properly contextualized.”
Therefore, it can be concluded that basically there are some kinds of causes of the students’ errors in learning the target language, in this case, English.
The first is from the students’ first language or mother tongue. The second is the nature of the target language. It seems that English is complicated. The third is
external factors which come from things outside students such as the classroom, the teacher and the textbook.
3. The Mastery of a Language
