Definition of Error Analysis

c. Describing Error

The system used for description of learner’s errors must be one having two essential characteristics. First, the system must be well-developed and highly elaborated because many errors made by beginners are remarkably complex.

d. Classifying Error

Classifying errors not only entries on grammatical category but also lexical category. In this step, the analyst classifies whether the errors belong to subject and verb agreement, tenses, and etc.

e. Counting Error

In this part, the analyst counts the er rors made by learners. That’s why the previous step is classifying error. It can ease the analyst to count the data and analyze it.

4. Grammatical Areas of Error

There are some grammatical areas of error. It consists of four items which will be discussed further in this sub-chapter. These errors are caused by the lack of knowledge on using the Standard English. These grammatical areas of error were mostly made by the students. Usage is the way to use Standard English. The major features of Standard English stay the same regardless of where native speakers live in their country. It is called as Standard English because it is standardize-used and understood everywhere. Within Standard English, we use two major varieties depending on the occasion: We use formal English when we get up in front of a group. We use it for any serious writing; a letter to a goverment office, a letter to the editor of a newspaper, a report. We used relaxed, informal English when we talk in a small group. Informal English is conventional English. But we also use it in a chatty, personal letter. 35 The most basic difference in usage is the difference between standard and nonstandard English. Standard English is the English used in school, offices, and the media. It is the English spoken by announcers, interviewers, or reporters on television program. Meanwhile, Nonstandard English is used by many Americans at work, in their neighborhoods, or at home. The following table will draw about the Standard English.

a. Verb Tense

Tense is different from the time. Tenses are the forms of a verb that show when the action or condition expressed by the verb that show when the action or condition expressed. People characteristically think of time in terms of present, past and future. More complex aspects of time relationships, such as ongoing or completed actions or conditions, are expressed through progressive, perfect, and perfect progressive forms. Present tenses give the idea about the habitual actions. Then, progressive tenses give the idea that an action is in progress during particular time. The tenses say that an action begins before, is in progress, and continuous after another time or action. Moreover, the perfect tenses all give the idea that one thing happens before another time or event. Then, the perfect progressive tenses give the idea that one event is in progress immediately before, up to, until another time or event. The tenses are used to express the duration of the first event. 36 1 Present Tense Form The simple present indicates actions or conditions occuring at the time of speaking or writing. As well as those occuring habitually and those considered to 35 Hans P. Guth, American English Today, New York: McGraw Hill, Inc, 1980, p.246- 248 36 Betty Schrampfer Azar, Understanding and Using English Grammar, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, inc., 1989, p. 2-5