Definition of Terms INTRODUCTION
12 Implicit knowledge is the kind of knowledge we possess of our mother
tongue. That is, it is unconscious and is proceduralized so that is available for automatic use in spontaneous production. p. 5
While explicit knowledge is the vice versa. Ellis explains that explicit knowledge is
produced under learner‟s consciousness. Explicit knowledge is consious and declarative. It consists of both
conscious awareness of the same minor and major schemas that figure in implicit knowledge but represented in an entirely different mental form
and of the metalanguage that can assist in verbalizing this analyzed knowledge p. 6.
Table 2.1 Types of linguistic knowledge
Type of Knowledge Sub-types
Definitions
Implicit procedural Formulaic
Sequence of elements that are stored and accessed as ready-
made chunks
Rule-based Unconscious knowledge of
major and minor schemas consists of abstract linguistic
categories realizable lexically in an indefinite number of
sentencesutterances
Explicit declarative Analysed
Conscious awareness of minor and major schemas
Metalingual Lexical knowledge of technical and non-technical
linguistic terminology.
However, Ellis 2005 raises a big question about what kind of performance of a learner‟s language that provides the most reliable and valid
source of information. According to him, there are many ways of it. A researcher may depend on his intuition in term of judgements about the grammaticality of
sentences presented in discovering what the learner knows about the language. Other researchers may prefer to collect samples of learner language and analyse
the grammar produced. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
13 On one hand some SLA researchers choose to rely on learner intuition in
the form of judgements about the grammaticality of sentences presented to them to discovering what they know. Other researchers, especially those
of a more functional orientation, prefer to collect sample of learner language. Not surprisingly analyses based n grammaticality judgements
and on learner language frequently produce different results. p. 6
As the heterogeneous of the linguistic performance in learner language, Ellis also offers several options of solution. Tarone 1983 says it is
“to redefine competence as its variable
” as cited Ellis, 2005, p. 6, or to identify one type of performances as the preferred source of information about competence, or to
recognize the need of multiple sources of performance data and look for points of confluence as evidence of what learner knows.
In analysing learner language, Ellis also states that we can view the learner language in two entirely distinct ways; learner language viewed as the expressions
and as the content. Both views may serve distinct forms of information. As researcher, Ellis states, one can choose whether, first by examining the linguistic
forms produced by the learners as the evidence of what they know about the L2. Second, by viewing it as the set of propositions relating to whatever topics which
are being communicated about. First view gives researcher information about learners‟ beliefs and attitudes to the target language and also their behaviour that
they gain through the process of learning the language. Ellis, 2005. In this research, error analysis was chosen in order to analyze learner
language as Ellis describes. Corder 1974 then proposes the following points as the steps a researcher can do to analyse the error as cited in Ellis, 2005, p. 57.
14 a. Collecting a sample of learner language
In this step, Corder 1974 suggests that the researcher should be aware that the nature of the sample that is collected may influence the nature and distribution of
the errors observed as cited in Ellis, 2005, p. 57. However, Corder also shares other possibilities that a researcher can do to keep the originality of the data. He
suggests that a researcher may wish to sample errors more generally by collecting a broad sample reflecting different learners, different types of language and
different production conditions. However, it is advisable to provide full and explicit description of the
learner productions that make up the sample so that the effect of different variables on errors can be examined post hoc. p. 58
b. Identifying the errors
In order to identify the errors, Ellis states that the researcher should involve the comparison between what the learner produced with what a native
speaker counterpart would produce in the same context. In this research, the researcher uses general concept and rules of English past tense as what so called
„a native speaker counterpart production‟ as what Ellis mentions. c. Describing the errors
Corder 1974 writes that “the description of errors is essentially a
comparative process, the data being the original erroneous utterances and the reconstructed utterance
” as cited in Ellis, 2005, p. 60. Again, he emphasizes that to describe the errors, the researcher needs to identify how the forms produced by
the learner differ from those produced by the native‟s speaker counterparts. Further, he mentions these two steps:
“the development of a set of descriptive PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
15 categories for coding the errors that have been identified and recording the
frequency of the errors in each category ” p. 60.
d. Explaining the errors In here, Ellis explains that the rule of identifying source of errors works.
He mentions psychological and sociolinguistic sources of errors as what are used in research for second language acquisition. Meaning to say that, Ellis proposes
that in explaining the errors, the researcher elaborates why do the students make certain errors. Further in this researcher, the researcher also looks at what other
experts say about errors source in language learning process. Later would be discussed more in the part of sources of errors.
e. Evaluating errors Ellis states this is not so much a stage in the analysis of learner errors as
supplementary procedure. A reseacher needs to involve other steps in order to conduct an evaluation of errors para. 67. In this research, the researcher only
want to describe the writings and specifically the errors in order to provide models for language teacher about learner language. Therefore, this step is considered as
not necesarry to be done here in this research.