Error and Error Analysis

9 from different language background and showed the different types of errors relating to production and distribution of verb groups, prepositions, articles, and the use of questions. Based on this, he distinguished three sources of errors: a. Interference errors: errors resulting from the use of elements from one language while speaking or writing another. b. Intralingual errors: errors reflecting general characteristics of the rule learning such as faulty generalization,incomplete application of rules and failure to learn conditions under which rules apply c. Developmental errors: errors occurring when learners attempt to build up hypothesis about the target language onthe basis of limited experiences. 10 According to Richards intralingual errors are also divided to the following categories: a. Overgeneralization errors: the learner creates a deviant structure on the basis of other structures in the targetlanguage b. Ignorance of rule restrictions: the learner applies rules to context where they are not applicable c. Incomplete application of rules: the learner fails to use a fully developed structure d. False hypothesis: the learners do not fully understand a distinction in the target language. James in his study, showed the different types of learners errors relating to omission, overinclusion,misselection use wrong words not wrong forms, misordering, blends or blending arises when two alternative grammatical forms are 10 Robinett Betty Wallace Jacquelyn Schachter, Second Language Learning, the University of Michigan, the University of Michigan Press and simultaneously,1983,.p198 10 combined to produce an ungrammatical blend.Based on this, he stated that there are four causesof errors. 11 a. Interlingual errors Mother-tongue influence: these kinds of errors are influenced by the native languages which interfere with target language learning b. Intralingual errors: those due to the language being learned target language c. Communication strategy-based errors which are subdivided into the holistic strategies or approximation and analytic strategies or circumlocution d. Induced Errors: these errors are the result of being misled by the way in which the teachers give definitions, examples, explanations and arrange practice opportunities. In other words, the errors are caused mostly by the teaching and learning process as follows: Materials-induced errors, Teacher-talk induced errors, Exercise-based induced errors, Errors induced by pedagogical priorities, Look-up errors. The writer concluded that the errors made by the students were both from the intralanguage andinterlanguage interference. This is while the errors caused by mother tongue interference were in a small proportion. 4. Types of Error Dulay, Burt, and Krashen said that errors are the flawed side of learner speech or writing. Students cannot learn languages without first systematically committing errors. There are four descriptive taxonomies to analyze errors 12 , there are: 11 Carl James, Error in Language Learning and Use, New York ,Longman Inc, 1998, p. 179 12 Heidi Dullay, op.cit.,p.146 11 a. Linguistic category taxonomy which classifies errors according to either or both the language component phonology, syntax, morphology, semantics, and discourse. b. Surface strategy taxonomy which high lights the way surface structures are altered omission, addition, misinformation, and misordering. c. Comparative taxonomy which classifies errors based on comparison between the structure of language learner errors and certain other types of construction. d. Communicative effect taxonomy which deals with errors from the perspective of their effect on the listener or reader. According to Richards intralingual error types are caused by the target language itself like: a. False analogy, misanalysis or learners form a wrong hypothesis, b. Incomplete rule application this is the converse of overgeneralization or one might call it under generalization as the learners do not use all the rules c. Exploiting redundancy this error occurs by carrying considerable redundancy. This is shown throughout the system in the form of unnecessary morphology and double signaling d. Overlooking co-occurrence restrictions this error is caused by overlooking the exceptional rules e. Hypercorrection or monitor overuse this results from the learners’ over cautious and strict observance of the rules f. Overgeneralization or system simplification this error is caused by the misuse of words or grammatical rules Error analysis does not regard as the persistence of old habits but rather as sign that learner is internalizing and investigating the system of the new language. 12 5. The Procedure of Error analysis Error analysis is proposed as a means to supplement diagnostic techniques with exceptional students. A purpose and definition of error analysis are provided. Also, procedures to use error analysis are explained along with basic guidelines to prevent abuse of error analytic techniques. Pit Corder as quoted by Rod Ellis suggest the following steps in error analysis research 13 , there are: a. Collection of a sample of learner language. this step depends on correct interpretation of the learners intentions. It can be arrived by teachers interpretation. b. Identification of error. Here one needs to distinguish between true errors and slips. Errors can be overtly idiosyncratic ill-formed in terms of target language rules or covertly idiosyncratic sentences superficially well-formed but when taking the context into account they are clearly ungrammatical. c. Description of error. This involves assigning a linguistic classified to each error. d. Explanation of error.In this stage of the procedure, an attempt is made to identify the psycholinguistic cause of the errors. e. Evaluation of error.This stage involves assessing the seriousness of each error in order to make principled teaching decisions which are to be processed in step. The steps that learners follow get the researcher and language teachers realize that if the mistakes or errors of language learners in constructing the new language system are analyzed carefully. 13 Rod Ellis.The Study of Second Language. Oxford: University Press,1995p.48 13

B. Reported Speech

1. Meaning of Reported Speech In English grammar, reported speech is one of many grammatical categories which is important to be learnt by students. It is needed to be learnt because it is one of three ways for students to report or share their statements or thoughts to other people especially when they communicate between each other. Reported speech is commonly used to report what other people have said or thought without reporting the exact word. With indirect reported speech, one wishes to report the content of the original source without necessarily repeating sentences exactly as they were originally uttered. 14 To report people word’s, thoughts, and beliefs there are two main ways: direct and indirect speech. Reported speech is also used when people are interested not in the words that someone has chosen, but in the essential information they conveyed. Reported speech can be found in newspaper reports, fiction, talking or writing about conversation, reports, articles or speeches peoples have heard or read. By learning reported speech definitely students will able to quote somebody’s words or thoughts, whether in direct or indirect speech and also the students will learn and understand the way to report speeches such as statements, questions and imperative. Reported Speech refers to rep roducing the idea of another person’s words. Not all of the exact words are used verb forms and pronoun may change. Michael Swam stated in Practical English Usage that reported speech are spoken or thought in one place by one person may be reported in another place at a different time, and perhaps by another person 15 14 George E. Wilson, Julia M. Burk, Let’s Write English, American Book Company, New York: 1980 15 Michael Swan,Practical English Usage, Oxford University Press, 1980,p.501. 14 Betty Schamper Azar stated on Understanding English Grammar, “Reported Speech refers to using a noun clause to report what someone has said” 16 A.J. Thompson and A.V. Martinet stated in their books A Practical English Grammar, “In indirect speech we give the exact meaning of a remark or a speech, without necessarily using the speaker’s exact words.” 17 Reported Speech also referred to as reported speechrefers to a sentence reporting what someone has said. It is almost always used in spoken English. It can be known from several definitions above that reported speech is to quote somebody’s idea or thoughts without exactly repeating the exact word produced by the speaker. 2. The Kind of Speech When someone try to report what someone else says or has said thinks or has tought or what another said or thought on a previous occasion oneself two ways are open to one, either to give the exact words : direct speech , or to adapt the words according to the circumstances in which they are new quoted: indirect speech. In other words,there are two main ways of reporting people words, thoughts, and beliefs: a. Direct Speech A sentence or several sentences that reports speech or thought in its original form, as phrased by the original speaker also called Direct or quoted speech. It is usually enclosed in quotation marks in writing. 18 The cited speaker is either mentioned in the inquit heshe says or implied. 16 Betty SchrampherAzar, Understanding And Using English Grammar, BinarupaAksara, 1993,p.275 17 A.J.Thompson and A.V.Martinet, A Practical English Usage, New York: Oxford University Press, 1986 4 th ed, p.269 18 Azar, op. cit., h. 273 15 When the student reported used direct speech forms , it is possible to include many features that dramatize the way in which an utterance was produced. The quotative framecan also include verbs which indicate the speakers manner of expression e.g. cry, exclaim, gasp, voice quality e.g. mutter, scream, whisper, and type of emotion e.g. giggle, laugh, sob. It can also include adverbs e.g. angrily, brightly, cautiously, hoarsely, quickly, slowly and descriptions of the reported speakers style and tone of voice, as illustrated in. b. Indirect Speech Indirect speech, also called reported speech 19 , means of expressing the content of statements, questions or other utterances, without quoting them explicitly as is done in direct speech. In terms of grammar, indirect speech often makes use of certain syntactic structures such as content clauses thatclauses and sometimes infinitive phrases. In indirect speech certain grammatical categories are changed relative to the words of the original sentence. Indirect speech is not normally enclosed in quotation marks or any similar typographical devices for indicating that a direct quotation is being made. However such devices are sometimes used to indicate that the indirect speech is a faithful quotation of someones words. Example:  Please leave the room. I asked them to leave the room. use of infinitive phrase In indirect speech, words generally have referents appropriate to the context in which the act of reporting takes place, rather than that in which the speech act being reported took place or is conceived as taking place. The two acts points are in time and place and the person speaking and also in the person being addressed and the linguistic context. So when a sentence 19 Idib. 16 involves words or forms whose referents depend on these circumstances, they are tend to change when the sentence is put into indirect speech.

C. Types of Pronoun

1. Personal pronouns Personal pronoun describes the person speaking I, me, we, us, the person spoken to you, or the person or thing spoken about he, she, it, they, him, her, them. 20 TABLE 2.1 Personal Pronoun Person Subject Object 1st Person I Me Singular 2nd Person You You 3rd Person He, She, It Him, Her, It 1st Person We Us Plural 2nd Person You You 3rd Person They Them 2. Reflexive Pronouns They are : myself, our self, thyself, yourself, himself, herself, oneself or one’s self, itself; ourselves, yourselves, themselves. They refer to the subject of the preposition in which they stand, indicating that the action performed by doer passes back to him. 3. Reciprocal Pronouns They are: each other, one other. They express mutual action or relation on the part of the persons indicated by the subject. 20 Curme George O, ENGLISH GRAMMAR, NEW YORK, BARNERNOBLE, INCp.13- 15