Heidi Dulay said that errors are the flawed side of learner speech or writing. They are those parts of conversation or composition that deviate from
some selected norm of mature language performance.
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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. According to
Peter Hubbard et al, so far all incorrect forms produced by the student we have called “errors”.
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Carl James defines Error Analysis as the process of determining the incidence, nature, causes and also the consequences of unsuccessful
language.
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According to H. Douglas Brown, The fact that learners do make errors, and that these errors can be observed, analyzed, and classified to
reveal something of the system operating within the learner, led to a surge of
study of learners’ errors, called error analysis.
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So, in this study the writer would like to observe, analyze and classify
learner’s error in mastering regular and irregular verbs.
2. Types of Error
Basically, there are many classifications about types of errors in learning English that classify by Corder and Heidi Dulay et, al.
According to Corder, errors are classified into four basic such as errors of omission, errors of addition, errors of selection, and errors of
ordering. If some element is omitted which should be present, it is called errors of omission. If some element is present which should not be there, it is
called errors of addition. Next, if the wrong item has been chosen in place of the right one, it is called errors of selection. And the last, where the elements
presented are correct but wrongly sequenced, it called errors of ordering.
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4
Dulay, et al., op. cit., p. 138
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Hubbard et al., op. cit., p. 136
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Carl James, op. cit., p. 1
7
Brown, op. cit., p.259
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S. P. Corder. Error Analysis and Interlanguage. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981, p. 36
This types of error would be explained more in the next explanation about error based on the surface strategy taxonomy according to Dulay et al.
Dulay et al. claim that errors are divided into four types. They are error based on the linguistic category, error based on the surface strategy
taxonomy, error based on the comparative taxonomy, and error based on the communicative effect taxonomy.
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Here, the writer would like to explain more to make them clearer.
a. Error based on the linguistic taxonomy
This category carries out specification of errors of linguistic categories in terms of where the error is located in the overall system of the Target
Language TL, based on the linguistic item that is affected by the error. First, this taxonomy shows on what level of language the error is
located, such as in phonology, grammar, graphology, lexis, text, or discourse. Next, it indicates the specification of the category of linguistic unit where the
error occurs. Finally, we need to specify the grammatical system that affected by the error tense, voice, countability, etc
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For example: Rani study math last night.
This sentence above is incorrect, the learner used “study” in term of
the verb in the past form. This error is located in the grammar level of the simple past tense, which is specified into morphological category that shows
omission of –ed as the past form of verb. So, the correct sentence is:
Rani studied math last night.
b. Error based on the surface strategy taxonomy
This second type of descriptive taxonomy proposed by Dulay, Burt and Krashen, it divided into four categories. They are omission, addition,
misformation, and misordering. Besides, that four categories, James adds one categories blends that complements the Target Modification Taxonomy.
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Dulay, et al., op. cit., p. 140
10
James, op. cit., p. 104-105
