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this is the incorrect use of rules in the target language. 3 Context of Learning.
This is the overlapping of the interlanguage transfer and intralingual transfer. The role of teacher and textbook is very important, because teachers and textbooks
might make wrong generalization about the language.4 Communication Strategies.
Communication strategies are used as a conscious verbal mechanism for communicating when linguistics forms are not available to the students for
some reasons. Richards 1971b as cited by Ellis 1994: 58 also presents three sources of
errors. They are 1interference errors.
„Interference errors occur as a result of the use of elements from one language while s
peaking another‟. 2 Intralingual errors
. „intralingualerrors reflect the general characteristics of rule learning such as faulty generalization, incomplete application of rules and failure to learn
conditions under which rules apply‟. 3 Developmental errors.„Developmental
errors occur when the learner attempts to build up hypotheses about the target language on the basis of limited experience‟.
4. Causes of Errors
Norrish 1983 presents the causes of error. That is essential because those causes could explain the error made by seventh grade students of SMP
PangudiLuhur Yogyakarta.Those causes are presented as follows.
a. Carelessness
Norrish 1983stated that carelessness is often done due to lack of motivation. Another reason is that the teachers‟ materials do not suit the students‟
20 capabilities. One aid to overcome those “carelessness” problems is to get the
students to check each other‟s work. This activity requires the students‟ capabilities in English and English can be used as a class language in this activity.
b. First Language Interference
Norrish 1983stated that learning language whether it is a mother tongue or a foreign language is a matter of habit formation. The learners‟ utterances were
elaborated to be gradually shaped towards the language they were learning. Skinner 1957 as cited by Norrish 1983 stated a definitive statement of
behaviorist theory of language learning. It says that a language is essentially a set of habits, and then when the learners try to learn the new habits, the former habits
will interfere with the new habits. That is called mother tongue interference. The most appropriate way for teachers to overcome the first language interference is to
re-teach a given structure, or a piece of vocabulary, in a way which allows the students to see the language item from as many points of view as possible. In
addition to that way, the student must have chance to use the items in an appropriate situation.
c. Translation
Norrish 1983 also says that another popular idea why students make errors is due to translation. The students often do word-by-word translation in
translating idiomatic expression. Errors due to translation may occur during the discussion. It is where students have reached the stage of concentrating more on
the message things they want to deliver than the code they are using to express it the language itself. The use of conscious or unconscious translation can be
21 considered as a communication strategy. That means a learner can express himself
in the language he is learning using „interlanguage‟ as bridge between his own language and the target language.
d. Overgeneralization
