10 11
students based on Ellis’ classifications which are: omission, addition, selection and misordering.
3. Causes of Error
According to Richards, he distinguishes the types of error into four causes, they are:
a. Over-generalization Over generalization is the use of previously learned rules in new situation.
Over generalization includes instance where the learner makes a rule on the basis of his experience of other rule in the target language.
For example: Do you go to Bali last Year? The correct one is: Did you go to Bali last year?
b. Ignorance of rule restriction This type of errors is the result of the failure to observe the restrictions of
existing structure, that is, the application rules to context where they do not apply.
For example: The man who I saw him yesterday is my teacher. The correct one is: The man whom I saw yesterday is my teacher.
c. Incomplete application of rules This error is the result of the learner’s high motivation to achieve
communicative ability. In achieving this, learner sometimes produces grammatical incorrect sentence.
For example: She go to school every day The correct one is: She goes to school every day.
d. False concept hypothesized This error is the result of the faulty comprehension of distinction in the
foreign language, sometimes this error is because of the poor gradation of materials of teaching.
12
12
Jack C Richards. Error Analysis Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition. London: Longman group limited, 1985, pp. 174 – 178.
According to Brown there are four causes of errors, they are: a. Interlingual Transfer
Interlingual transfer occurs because the interference of a mother tongue into a target language. Interlingual transfer is significant source of error for all
learners. The beginning stage of learning a second language is especially vulnerable to interlingual transfer from the native language.
For example: - I miss he for I miss him
b. Intralingual Transfer Intralingual transfer is a major factor in second language learning. The
early stage of language learning is characterized by a predominance of interference interlingual transfer, but once learners have begun to acquire part of
the new system, more intralingual transfer-generalization within the target language is manifested. Negative intralingual transfer, or overgeneralization has
already been illustrated in such utterances as “he good.” c. Context of Learning
Context refers to the classroom with its teacher and its material in the case of school learning. In a classroom context, the teacher pr the textbook can lead the
learner to make faulty hypotheses about the language. Students often make errors because of a misleading from the teacher, faulty presentation of a structure or
word in textbook. d. Communication of Strategies
Communication strategies were defined and related to learning style. Learners obviously use production strategies in order to enhance getting their
message across but at times, these techniques can themselves become a source of error. In other hand, Ellis mentions three sources of error which are known by
error of omission, overgeneralization error and transfer error.
13
1 Error of Omission. For example, learners leave out the article ‘a’ and ‘the’ and leave the –s of plural nouns.
13
Brown, op.cit., 2007., p. 223.
2 Overgeneralization Error. Learners overgeneralize forms that they find easy to learn and process. The learner processes new language data in his mind and
procedures rules for its production, based on the evidence. For example, the use of ‘eated’ in place of ‘ate.’
3 Transfer Error; reflect learners’ attempts to make use of their L1 knowledge.
14
While Hubbard proposed slightly different names; a. A mother-tongue interference
Although young children appear to be able to learn a foreign language quite easily and to reproduce new sound very effectively, older learners
experience considerable difficulty. The sound system phonology and the grammar of the first language impose themselves on the new language and this
lead to “foreign” pronunciation, faulty grammatical patterns and, occasionally, to the wrong choice of vocabulary.
b. Overgeneralization The mentalist theory claims that errors are inevitably because they reflect
various stages in the language development of the learner. It claims that the learner process new language data in his mind and produces rules for its
production, based on the evidence only partial, such us rules may produce incorrect pattern.
c. Errors encouraged by teaching material or method The teaching material or method can also contribute to the student’s errors.
Unfortunately, these errors are much more difficult to classify, as Pit Corder admits this: “… it is, however, not easy to identify such errors except in
conjunction with a close of the materials and teaching technique to which the learner has been exposed. This is probably why so little is known about them.”
15
The writer concludes that there are three sources of error according to Hubbard et.al. They are mother-tongue interference which actually same with the
“interlingual” term from Brown, overgeneralization which caused by the insufficient knowledge of the learners about the rule of their target language, and
14
Brown, op.cit., 2007., pp. 223—226.
15
Hubbard, et.al., op.cit., 1983., pp. 140—144.
the last source is errors encouraged by teaching material or method which similar with what Brown named “context of learning.”
The writer summarizes what some experts have explained above. As a whole, there are three main sources of errors. First, error happens because the
influence of the student’s mother language is called interlingual. Second, error happens because the target language itself is called intralingual. Third, error
happens because the influence of the process in teaching and learning when the teachers explain the language.
4. Differences Between Mistake and Error
Learning a language is fundamentally process that involves making of mistakes or errors. The mistakes include with vocabulary items, grammatical
pattern and sound patterns as well. Based on Corder in Susan and Larry, “mistakes are akin to slips of the
tongue. That is, they are to recognize it as mistake and correct it if necessary. An error, on the other hand, is systematic. That is, it is likely to occur repeatedly and
is not recognized by the learner as an error.”
16
It means that an error is something that learner do not realize it and always occur, and mistake is something that
learner can correct it if needed because they know where the wrong on their work is.
According to Hubbard et.al, “Error caused by lack of knowledge about the target language English or by incorrect hypotheses about it; and mistakes caused
by temporary lapses of memory, confusion, slip of the tongue and so on.”
17
Based on the statements above, error can appear due to the insufficient knowledge or the
inappropriate rule about the language being learned; while mistake happens because of the learner forget about the rule or their carelessness when do the
work. Furthermore, Brown explains that; A mistake refers to performance error
that is either a random guess or a “slip” in that it is a failure to utilize a known
16
Gass and Selingker, loc.cit.
17
Hubbard, loc.cit.
system correctly. All people make mistakes, in both native and second language situation. While error is a noticeable deviation from the adult grammar of a native
speaker, reflects the competence of the learner and an error that reveals of a portion of the learner’s competence in the target language.
18
Corder made a distinction between a mistake and error. Whereas a mistake is a random performance slip caused by fatigue, excitement, etc., and therefore
can be readily self-corrected, an error is systematic deviation made by learners who have not yet mastered the rules of the L2. A learner cannot self-correct an
error because it is a product reflective of his or her current stage of L2 development, or underlying competence.
19
Fisiak distinguished between error and mistake as follows: “mistakes are deviations due to performance factors such as memory limitations e.g., mistakes
in the sequence of tenses and agreement in long sentences, spelling, pronunciations, fatigue, emotional strain, etc. errors, on the other hand, are system
a given stage of learning.”
20
According to the understanding of mistakes and error above, it can be distinguished the difference between mistakes and errors. Mistakes are
unsystematic of production which the students could correct their own mistakes if their attention in focus and they realize what mistakes that they had done. In the
opposite, students do not understand that they had done and consistently do the same error. They find it so hard to correct the errors they made. Furthermore, a
mistake can be self-corrected by the students but an error cannot be self corrected by the students.
18
Brown, op.cit, 2007, p. 257.
19
Diane Larsen-Freeman and Michael H. Long, An Introduction to Second language Acquisition Research, London: Longman, 1991, p. 59.
20
Jack Fisiak, Constractive Linguistics and the Language Teacher, New Jersey: Prentice hall,Inc, 1987, p. 205.
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