He has been here since June. 5.
+ Add a Word Example:
I want Λ go to the zoo. I want to go to the zoo.
- Omit a Word
Example: She entered to the university.
She entered the university. 6.
Word Order Example:
I saw five times that movie. I saw that movie five times.
7. Incomplete Sentence Example:
I went to bed. Because I was tired.
I went to bed because I was tired.
8. Spelling
Example: An accident occured.
An accident occurred. 9.
Punctuation Example:
What did he say What did he say?
10. Capitalization
Example: I am studying english.
I am studying English. 11.
Article Example:
I had a accident. I had an accident.
12. Meaning Not Clear
Example: He borrowed some smoke.
????? 13.
Run-On Sentence Example:
My roommate was sleeping, we didn’t want to wake up
her. My roommate was sleeping.
We didn’t want to wake up her.
17
In this classification of errors, it shows that Betty Azar emphasized on grammatical and structure errors; such as singular-plural, word form, word choice,
verb tenses, addition or omission a word, word order, incomplete sentence, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, article, meaning not clear, and run-on
sentence.
5. Differences between Errors and Mistakes
Error and mistake are not the same; it is crucial to make distinction between error and mistake and most of people still misunderstand about the
definition of both. To be more classified between error and mistake, Jeremy
17
Betty Schramfer Azar, Understanding and Using English Grammar, Prentice-Hall inc. 1989, pp. A29
—A30.
Harmer said “mistake” is “less” serious since it is the retrieval that is faulty not the knowledge.
18
In other words the students know the rule, but they make a”slip” when producing it. Meanwhile Douglas Brown gave different meaning, “a
mistake refers to a performance error that is either a random guess or a slip”.
19
In that meaning it is a failure to utilize a known system correctly. All people make
mistakes in both native and second language situations. Hubbard stated “Errors caused by lack of knowledge about the target
language English or by incorrect hypotheses about it; and mistakes caused by temporary lapses of memory, confusion, slips of the tongue and so on”.
20
From those points of view, it can be said that mistakes are failure to use language because of slip of the tongue, or spelling. The learner easily corrects this
failure since they conceptually understand the language system. On the other hand, errors are mistakes that the students make due to lack of competence. They
are not able to do self-correction because they do not know the concept.
B. Error Analysis
1. Definition of Error Analysis
The study of error is called error analysis. It is a way of looking at the errors made by the learners of target language. Error analysis tries to identify, to
describe, and to explain the errors. It can help the teachers to minimize the students error in their learning.
Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistic differentiates the term error from mistake. Error, in the speech or writing of
second or foreign language learner the use of linguistic item e.g. a word, a grammatical item, a speech act, etc in a way which a fluent or native speaker of
the language regard as showing faulty or in complete learning. A distinction is
18
Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching, USA : Longman Group: 1983, p. 35.
19
H. Douglas Brown, Principle of Language and Teaching, Fourth Edition, Addison
Wesley: Longman, 2000, p. 170.
20
Peter Hubbard, a Training Course for TEFL, New York: Oxford University Press, 1983, p. 134.
sometimes made by a learner when writing or speaking and which is caused by lack of attention, fatigue, carelessness, or some other aspect performance.
21
To be more detail, Sharma explained Errors analysis is defined as process based on analysis of learners error with one clear objective; evolving a suitable
and effective teaching learning strategy and remedial measures necessary in certain clearly marked out areas of the foreign language.
22
On the other hand, Jeremy Harmer said: error is the result of incorrect rule learning; language has
been stored in the brain incorrectly.
23
From those definitions, it can be said that error may happen in teaching learning process, maybe it is caused by the teacher; they have the lack of grammar
competences in English teaching or by students who have different understanding or wrong perception then they save in the brain for long time and improve in their
English grammar.
2. The Procedures of Error Analysis
Carl James states that there are five steps in analyzing learners’ errors;
they are: a.
Detecting Error. Error detection means that we have to aware of its presence. We can spot the
error. b.
Locating Error. To locate an error is to identify it in some other way, such as saying that it is
in the last part of a sentence or simply by pointing it out c.
Describing Error. The system used to describe learners’ error must have two essential
characteristics. First, the system must be well-developed and highly elaborated. The second essential characteristic is the description must be as
simple, self-explanatory, and easily learnable as possible. In description error, there are three main purposes. The first is to make
learners’ errors explicit. The next is to prerequisite for counting errors. And the last is to create categories.
21
JC Richard, John Platt, and Heidi Platt, Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics, London: Longman. 1992, p. 127.
22
SK. Sharma, Error Analysis: Why and How? English Teaching forum, XXX, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. 1980, p. 164.
23
Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching, USA: Longman Group: 1983, p. 35.
