From those definitions of the experts, the writer concludes that an error is a false form made by the learner of target language consistently due to lack of
knowledge of the target language or incorrect assumption of target language. An
error is an indication of how well the learner understands the target language. 2.
Identification of Error
Error happens when the learner has not learnt the correct forms or has wrong assumption about target language system being learnt and consistently
‗gets it wrong‘. It will continue until shehe notices that shehe is wrong. And when the learner has known the right forms and sometimes still gets it wrong,
then, we called it ‗mistake‘. Ifthe teacher is not sure whether one of learners has made an error or a
mistake, the crucial test must be: can he correct himself when challenged? If he can, probably it is a mistake; if not, it is an error.
According to Ellis,the difficulty of errors center in some issues, they are:
a. Whether grammaticality i.e. well-formedness or acceptability can be
a criterion. A sentence can be grammatically correct but pragmatically incorrect.
For example, ‗She cooks me‘ is grammatically correct but
pragmatically incorrect. b.
Whether errors and mistakes should be distinguished. Error can occur because of the lack of knowledge, whereas mistake can occur because
of memory limitations and lack of automaticity. Alongside the problems in identifying error and mistake, it also assumes that
competence is homogeneous rather than variable. For example, if the learner, at times, use a correct form of target language, and at another
time use the incorrect one, it cannot be assumed that shehe knows the target language structure, and the use of incorrect structure assumed as
a mistake. For example, a learner may have no difficulty in using the
target-language form in some linguistic context;
My sisters are older than me.
But produce an error in others:
My three sister are older than me. c.
Whether the error is overt or covert. An overt error is easy to identify
because there is a clear irrelevancy as when a learner says: She like cooking.
In the other hand, a covert error is usually made in well-formed sentence, in which it does not deliver the real meaning. For example,
the sentence
„it was done‟ is grammatically correct until it becomes
clear that ‗it‘ refers to ‗home work‘. d.
The last issue is whether the inaccuracies of the learner from non- native speaker should be considered erroneous. For example, when a
sentence that is correct grammatically but it is not the structure preferred by the native speakers. For example:
One day a Korean man, a popular chef, arrived in Japan. He was coming from Seoul.
The preferred structure is probably ‗had come‘. But, ‗was coming‘ can be considered possible if the speaker wishes to emphasize the duration
of the action.
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Based on explanation from the experts, the writer concludes that it is really important to differentiate between error and mistake. Error is a mistake done by
the learner repeatedly because of wrong assumption about the rules. In the other hand, mistake is wrong performance from the learner because they are not focus
and they can correct it by themselves.Therefore, the four criterions above are needed to avoid mistakes while doing the error analysis.
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Rod Ellis, The Study of Second Language Acquisition, Second Edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009, p. 47-49
3. Causes of Error
