14 errors are classified by similarity with children’s first language learner deviations
from target-language norms andor by similarity with the errors made by L2 speakers from different L1 background.”
4. Communicative Effect Taxonomy
This taxonomy classifies errors based on the effect on the listener or reader. Johnson and Johnson 1999: 112 state that in this taxonomy errors are classified
by “the effect they have on native speakers, whether in terms of comprehension or in terms of the way that non-native speakers are perceived by native speakers.”
d. Sources of Errors
Researchers and linguists have thought of various possible sources or causes of errors made by second language learners. Harmer 2007: 96 states that
someone will make errors if she has not quite comprehended the new information. Another possibility causing errors in the learner’s sentence
production is due to the different way in expressing an idea or using a grammatical construction between English and their first language.
Brown 1987: 82 argues that first language interference has apparently become the most noticeable error made by second language learners. Moreover,
he adds that in order to facilitate the second language learning process, a person will make use of any experiences she has had with language. As the opposite of
interlanguage, intralanguage deals with the second language itself. Richards 1973: 173 points out that the genesis of intralingual errors is found inside the
15 structure of the second language itself, “and through reference to the strategy by
which a second language is acquired and taught.” According to Norrish 1983: 21-36, carelessness and first language
interference are the major causes of errors. Carelessness may occur as the learner lacks motivation. The interference of the learner’s mother tongue can also become
the main contributor to error in the learner’s use of foreign language. Another cause closely related to the learner’s first language interference is translation.
When the learner tries to translate word by word of idiomatic expressions in his first language, what he does may result in fatal errors.
Richards 1974, as cited in Norrish 1983: 30, points out the general order of difficulty as one of error causes. One example of the general error of
difficulty is the fact found by researchers stating that it is difficult for both native speakers and EFL learners to distinguish between the English sounds v and D
and f and . Errors can also be produced because of language creativity. For
instance, when a learner who merely has limited experience of the target language needs to create a new utterance, he may make errors.
e. Ways to Minimize Errors
