7
The most of errors of second language learners make indicates that they are gradually building an second language rule systems. According Heidi Dulay,
the most common errors that learners make are: a. Omitting grammatical morphemes, which are items that do not contribute
much to the meaning of sentences, as in: He hit car. b. Double marking a semantic feature e.g. past tense when only one marker is
required as in: She did not went back. c. Regularizing rules, as in womans for women.
d. Using archiforms one form in place of several, such as the use of her for both she and her, as in: Her dances with my brother.
e. Using two or more forms in random alternation even though the language requires the use of each only under certain conditions as in the random use of
and she regardless the gender of the person of interest. Misordering items
in constructions that require a reversal of word order rules that had been previously acquired as in: what are you doing? Or misplacing
items that may be correctly place in more than one place in the sentence, as in: they are all the time late
5
.
2. Differences between Error and Mistakes
To know the differences between an error and mistake, we can see it at least by identifying and distinguishing both how flawed the sentence patterns that
the learners make is, and how correct grammatical rules that the learners apply is. Those are the simple way that the writer describes.
Many linguists who state their opinion about the differences between errors and mistakes such as what Richards said, “Errors refer to the systematic
errors of the learner from which we are able to reconstruct his knowledge to date, i.e. his transitional competence, while mistakes refer to error of performance
6
. James explains other descriptions about the differences between errors and
mistakes. According to him, errors are:
5
Heidi Dulay, et al, Language Two, New York: Oxford University Press, 1982, p. 138.
6
Jack C. Richards and Theodore S. Rodger, Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching
, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986, p. 25
8
a. If the learner is unable or in any way disinclined to make the correction. b. Where the utterances are odd.
c. Corder 1971: 152 in James, the result of some failure of performance. While mistakes are:
a. If the learner is inclined and able to correct a fault in his or her output. b. Either intentionally or unintentionally and self-corrigible.
c. Edge 1989 in James, the cover term for all ways of being wrong as FL learner
7
. Brown also states his opinion about the differences between errors and
mistakes. An error, a noticeable deviation from the adult grammar of a native speaker, reflects the competence of the learner. A mistake refers to a performance
error that is either a random guess or a “slip”, in that it is a failure to utilize a known system correctly
8
. From the brief explanation of the differences between errors and mistakes
above, it can be concluded that errors are deviations from accuracies and correctness so learner does not know what is correct, thus cannot make self-
correction, while mistakes are errors caused by fault of confusion, carelessness, slip of tongue, and dereliction, it means that can be self-corrected by learner when
attention is called.
3. Error Analysis
Learning is fundamentally a process that involves the making of mistakes. Mistakes, misjudgments, miscalculations, and erroneous assumptions form an
important of aspect learning virtually any skill or acquiring information
9
. Until late 60’s, as behaviorist theory suggested that learning second
language was a set of new language habit, which is like children try to acquire their mother tongue. Contrastive Analysis CA grew from this theory which
considered language transfer as the basic process of second language as the
7
James, op. cit., p. 78, 79, 80.
8
Douglas, op. cit., p. 257-258.
9
Douglas Brown, Principles of Language Learning and Teaching, San Francisco: Pearson Education, 2007, Fifth Edition, p. 257.
