The Nature of Errors Types of Grammatical Errors

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6. Language Errors

In order to answer the first research question about what errors are made by the samples of research, the researcher refers to the theories related to errors, such as the nature of errors, the types of errors, and the classifications of errors.

a. The Nature of Errors

Errors are the condition where flawed side of learners appears whether in their speech or writing. However, errors are very common mistakes made by any language learners since people cannot learn language without committing any errors Dulay, Burt, Krashen, 1982. On the contrary, errors are different from mistakes. Corder 1967 as cited in Freeman and Long 1983 defines errors as systematic deviation made by language learners. At this point, Corder 1967 as cited in Freeman and Long 1983 claims that language learners are not able to self-correct the errors because the errors they made are the product of lack competence on the language mastery. On the other hand, mistakes are random performance failures caused by fatigue, excitement, or any other external factors. In fact, language learners can obviously self-correct the deviant forms they made. In addition, Corder 1967 as cited in Dulay, Burt and Krashen states that “we use error to refer to any deviation from a selected norm of language performance, no matter what the characteristics or causes of the deviation might be” 1982, p. 139. It means that errors can be used to define any deviation from the rules used in a language. 21

b. Types of Grammatical Errors

Corder 1971 as cited in Ellis and Barkhuizen defines that grammatical errors must concern about the deviation or breach of the rule of the code 2005. Furthermore, according to Dulay, Burt, and Krashen 1982, there are four types of grammatical error commonly made by language learners as follows: 1 Error Types Based on Linguistic Category Linguistic category taxonomies classify errors based on either or both the language component or the particular linguistic constituent. The language components include phonology, syntax and morphology, semantics and lexicon, and discourse. Meanwhile, constituents include the element compromising each language component Dulay, Burt, Krashen, 1982. Linguistic taxonomy or linguistic category is determined based on categories from descriptive grammar of target language. For instance, sentence structure, phrase building, sentence connection, etc. Further, errors should not be classified based on linguistic categories used by language learner but based on violated target language categories Ellis Barkhuizen, 2009. 2 Surface Strategy Taxonomy Surface Strategy Taxonomy reveals the ways surface structures of language are altered. It means that the errors made by language learners have specific and systematic characteristics. The language learners may make such error not because the result of laziness or sloppy thinking but they use interim principles to produce a new language Dulay, Burt, Krashen, 1982. 22

a Omission

Omission errors are characterized by “the absence of an item that must appear in a well- formed utterance” Dulay, Burt, Krashen, 1982, p. 154. Somehow, while producing English sentence whether it is statement or question language learners may miss to put grammatical morphemes which play role in conveying the meaning of a sentence. The Grammatical morphemes involve noun and verb inflection, such as -s, -ed, -ing, etc; articles, such as a, an, the, etc; verb auxiliaries, such as is, will, can, was, have, etc; and prepositions, such as in, on, at, etc. The example showing the omission errors is “ Mary president new company ” which should be “Mary is the president of the new company”.

b Addition

Addition errors are identified by “the presence of an item which must not appear in a well- formed utterance” Dulay, Burt, Krashen, 1982, p. 156. Addition errors can be classified into three different types of errors. They are double marking, regularization, and simple addition. Double marking errors are identified when two items are marked for the same feature in a sentence Dulay, Burt, Krashen, 1982. The same features that are possibly marked can be tenses, singular marker, plural marker, gerund marker, etc. The example can be “He doesn’t knows my name” or “We didn’t went there”. Regularization errors are identified in which a marker that is typically added to particular item is erroneously added to items that do not take a marker. It may happen in the addition of plural marker –s to uncountable nouns or past tense marker –ed to irregular verbs Dulay, Burt, Krashen, 1982. The examples are sheeps and putted . 23 Simple addition errors according to Dulay, Burt, Krashen 1982 are errors making in constructing a sentence but it is characterized in neither double marking errors nor regularization errors, for example, “The fishes doesn’t live in the water” or “ In over here”.

c Misformation

Misformation errors are characterized by “the use of the wrong form of the morpheme or structure .” Dulay, Burt, Krashen, 1982, p. 158 In misformation errors, the language learners tend to supply something regarding the wrong morpheme or structure, for example, the word “eated” in “The dog eated the chicken”. According to Dulay, Burt, and Krashen 1982, there are three types of misformation errors namely regularization, archi-form, and alternating form. Regularization errors under the misformation category are defined as errors in which a regular marker replaces the position of irregular marker, for example, the word “runned” is used for “ran” or the word “gooses” is used for “geese”. Archi-form errors are errors in the selection of one member of a class to represent others in the class, for example, the word “that” in “ that dogs” or the word “to watch” in “I finish to watch TV”. According to the correct grammar, “that” should be replaced by “those” or “these”, whereas “to watch” must be replaced by “watching”. Alternating form errors are errors in which language learners alternate a member of a class with various other members, for example, “ Those dog” is used instead of “that dog” or “I seen her yesterday” is used instead of “I saw her yesterday”. 24

d Misordering

Misordering errors are characterized by “the incorrect placement of a morpheme or group of morphemes in an utterance” Dulay, Burt, Krashen, 1982, p. 162. The example is “What Daddy is doing ?” instead of “What is Daddy doing?” or “I don’t know what is that ” instead of “I don’t know what that is”. In reality, language learners may commit misordering errors that are word-for-word translation of native language surface structures. 3 Comparative Taxonomy Errors in a comparative taxonomy are determined based on the comparison between the structure of L2 errors and certain other types of constructions. There are two major error categories in this taxonomy which are developmental errors and interlingual errors Dulay, Burt, Krashen, 1982. a Developmental Errors “Developmental errors are errors which similar to those made by children learning the target language as their first language” Dulay, Burt, Krashen, 1982, p. 165. The example can be “Dog eat it.” b Interlingual Errors Interlingual errors or known as interlanguage errors are errors which have similar structure or equivalent semantics of sentence constructions in the learner’s native language. In addition, Corder 1983 as cited in Ellis Barkhuizen 2009 states that interlingual errors are the result of mother tongue influences. It is a matte r of ‘transfer’ and ‘borrowing’, for example, “The man skinny” equivalent to “ laki-laki itu kurus ”. 25 4 Communicative Effect Taxonomy Different from Surface Strategy Taxonomy and comparative taxonomy, communicative effect taxonomy deals with the effect of errors from the point of view of readers or listeners Dulay, Burt, Krashen, 1982. However, in the application, the errors based on communicative effect taxonomy, such as omission of article “the” and the misused of “many and much”, do not really affect the message delivery.

7. Sources of Errors