3. Description of errors
4. Explanation of errors
1. Collection a Sample of Learner Language.
In this step, the researcher collected a sample of learner language that provides the data for Error Analysis. In doing this step, there must be awareness
that the nature of the sample that is collected may influence the nature and distribution of the errors observed. These factors can be conducted in two ways;
by controlling them, or alternatively taking the sample more generally by collecting a broad sample reflecting different learners, different types of language,
and different production of condition. By using the way of controlling the sample, the researchers can narrowly
specify the sample they intend to collect. For example, they may define the sample in terms of advanced, instructed Indonesian learners in producing English
writing. In this research, the researcher collected the sample from the students’
argumentative texts.
2. Identification of errors
Identification of errors indicates distinguishing error from what is not error. Therefore, it is important to distinguish between „mistakes’ and „errors’. All
of us make mistakes. We even make mistakes while using the first language. If the learner produces the deviated form of language due to the lack of knowledge of
underlying rules then it is called an error. If heshe produces a deviated form not because of the lack of knowledge of underlying rules of language but because of
failure to make appropriate use of the rules in using language because of some non-linguistic reasons then the result is not an error but a mistake.
According to Ellis 1997:17 a learner makes a mistake when writing or speaking because of lack of attention, fatigue, carelessness, or some other aspects
of performance. Mistakes can be self-corrected when attention is called. Whereas, an error is the use of linguistic item in a way that a fluent or native speaker of the
language regards it as showing faulty or incomplete learning. In other words, it occurs because the learner does not know what is correct, and consequently it
cannot be self-corrected. To distinguish an error from mistake, Ellis 1997: 17 suggests two ways.
The first one is to check the consistency of learner’s performance. If he sometimes uses the correct form and sometimes the wrong one, then it is a mistake. On the
contrary, if he always uses it incorrectly, it is an error. The second way is to ask learner to try to correct his own deviant utterance. Where he is unable to, the
deviations are errors; where he is successful, they are mistakes. In some of the second language literature, performance error have been
called “mistakes” while the terms “errors” was reserved for the systematic deviations due to the learners’ still developing knowledge of the second language
Corder in Dulay et al, 1982: 139. The distinction between performance and competence errors is important, but Dulay et al. 1982:139 state that they do not
restrict the term “error” to competence and performance since it is often difficult to determine the nature of deviation without careful analysis. This may lead to
accepting a view expressed by Dulay et al. 1982: 139 that an error is any
deviation from a selected norm of language performance, no matter the characteristics or causes of deviation might be.
For practical reasons, this study does not restrict errors from mistake. The distinction between errors and mistake is not crucial here because the written
language is more deliberate, in the sense that students spend a fair time in choosing or producing a particular construction, this would allow for a more
restricted definition of the concept of error and would exclude lapses and mistakes as described in most of the literature of EA.
3. Description of errors
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