mistakes that have been presented by linguist. However, basically those definitions have same meaning while the difference lies only on the way they
formulate it. According to Richard mistake is made by a learner when writing or
speaking is caused of lack of attention, fatigue, carelessness, or other aspect of performance.
7
Then, Brown states that mistakes refer to deviations due to performance error that it is a deviance to utilize a known system correctly, and it
is caused by temporary lapses of memory, confusion, slips of the tongue and so on and it can be self-corrected.
8
From the explanation above, the researcher can infer that mistake is a deviance which occur because the learner tend to be careless in applying the
knowledge or the rules that heshe actually knows and this deviance can be corrected by himselfherself either by giving sufficient prompt or without giving
prompt from the teacher. In other words, an error is made by a learner because of lacking ability of the target language. The researcher can give conclusion to
distinguish between error and mistake; the first way is by checking the consistency of learner’s task or performance. If shehe sometimes uses the correct
form and sometimes the wrong one, it is a mistake. However, if shehe always uses the incorrect form, it is an error. The second is by letting learner to try to
correct his own deviant. If shehe is unable to correct it, the deviation is error, but is shehe is successful, it is a mistake.
2. The Sour ces or Causes of Er r or s
One aim of analyzing students’ errors it to know what cause which influence students’ errors. So, before analyzing it, the researcher should know the
cause of errors. However, there are two terms in discussing this; they are ‘sources of error’ by Brown and ‘causes of error’ by Richard. Then, it does not need to
7
Jack C. Richards, Error Analysis: Perpective oc Second Language Axquisition, London: Longman Group, Ltd., 1985, p. 95.
8
H. Douglas Brown, Principles of Language Learning and Teaching, 5
th
edition, New York: Pearson Education, 2006, p. 257.
confuse about these terms because basically these terms have same meaning while the difference lies only on the way they formulate it.
Errors in learning and performing target language cannot be avoided. One of sources of errors is the rules of students’ language are different to the target
language. Brown mentions that errors are caused by some following factors it interlingual transfer, intralingual transfer, context of learning, and communication
strategies:
9
1. Interlingual transfer is the interference of the first language. Since the target language system is still unfamiliar, so that the first language
becomes the only previous linguistic system that the learner can refer. 2. Intralingual transfer is the source of errors caused by the influence of
target language rules. 3. Context of learning is the source of errors caused by the learners’
misinterpretation of the teacher’s explanation and textbook or an inappropriate pattern contextualization.
4. Communication strategies were related to learning style. Learners usually try an effort to cross their message, but sometimes it can be error.
Richards also mentions some causes of developmental errors is overgeneralization, ignorance of rule restrictions, incomplete application of rules,
and false concepts hypothesized.
10
1. Overgeneralization it happens when the students apply the previous rule that they learned before to another pattern that has a different rule.
2. Ignorance of Rule Restrictions It is still closely related to generalization, which students fail to apply rules to where they do not apply.
3. Incomplete Application of Rules is the structures occur as the representation of development of the rules required to make acceptable
utterances.
9
Brown, op. cit., p. 263.
10
Jack C. Richards, A Non-Contrastive Approach to Error Analysis, International Center for Research on Bilingualism, Laval University,
1970, pp. 8-14.
