accordance with the social context; epistemic sources that concern the learners
‟ lack of world knowledge, and discourse sources that involve problems in the organization of information into a coherent
„text‟.
39
Form a more specific viewpoint; Corder states that the explanation of errors is a matter for the psychology of second language learning
process. In agreement with this point, Richards suggests that there are three possible explanations for the learner errors. They are:
40
a. Interference errors. Language transfer from L1 causes interlingual errors. Moreover, in a more up to date work, Saville-Troike suggests
that the most likely causes of L2 errors are interlingual factors that result from negative transfer or interference from L1.
41
b. Intralingual errors. They do not reflect the features of the L1 and they are not attributable to cross-linguistic influence, but they result from
learning process itself such faulty generalisation, incomplete application of rules, and failure to learn conditions under which the rules apply.
42
c. Faulty teaching techniques or materials. Corder states that when learner errors do not fall into inter-lingual or intra-lingual categories they can
be assigned to this category of explanation. It is called false concept hypothesize which means the learners does not fully understand a
distinction in the target language.
43
5. Evaluation of errors The final stage in error analysis is to evaluate the errors. In so
doing, Burt suggests that errors can be evaluated as global errors that affect overall sentence organization, or local errors that affect single elements in a
sentence i.e. morphology or grammatical functors.
44
Ellis indicates to this
39
Ibid.
40
Ibid., p. 58
41
Saville-Troike. loc. cit.
42
Ellis, op. cit., p. 58
43
Ibid., p. 59
44
Ibid., pp. 63-64
point and states that studies concerning error evaluation have addressed three main research questions. They are:
45
a. Are some errors judged to be more problematic than the others? b. Are there differences in the evaluations made by Native Speakers NS
and Non Native Speakers NNS? c. What criteria do judges use in evaluating learners
‟ errors? Ellis also states that error evaluation studies have often been
pedagogically motivated and error judgment essentially affects the ways in which errors are prioritized and dealt with by the teachers.
46
Depending on who the judge is, teaching priorities may change. For example, as Ellis
states, NSs judge lexical errors to be more serious than grammatical errors, whereas NNSs appear to be especially hard on morphological errors.
47
In agreement with the problematic nature of error evaluation Khalil suggests
three criteria in assessing error gravity. They are:
48
a. Intelligibility; concerned with the extent to which sentences containing different kinds of error can be comprehended
b. Acceptability; indicating the seriousness of the error c. Irritation; concerned with the emotional response of an addressee, and
is related to the frequency of error occurrence.
B. Conditional Sentences
1. The Definition of Conditional Sentence
Conditional Sentence describes situations that occur or do not occur because of certain conditions.
49
They consist of two clauses, the if-clause and the main clause
50
. If suggests that situation is real – that is, the situation is or
45
Ibid.
46
Ibid., p. 67
47
Ibid., p. 66
48
Ibid.
49
Jay Maurer, Focus on Grammar: An Integrated Skills approach: Third Edition, New York: Pearson Education, 2006. p. 409.
50
A. J. Thomson A. V. Martinet, A Practice of English Grammar: Fourth Edition, New York: Oxford University Press, 1986. p. 197.
was true, or may have been or may become true.
51
In the sentence if it rains I shall stay at home
„If it rains‟ is the if-clause, and „I shall stay at home „is the
main clause.
2. Types of Conditional Sentence
There are 3 three types of conditional sentences, each type contains a different pair of tenses
52
.
1. Conditional Sentence Type 1
The verb in the if-clause is in the present tense, the verb in the main clause uses will and the infinitive, or simple present.
Table 2.1 Conditional Sentence Type 1 TYPE
IF CLAUSE MAIN CLAUSE
MEANING
Type 1
Simple present
If you work hard,
Simple present
you succeed.
True in the present or possible in future
It ‟s possible to happen in
the future
Simple future
you will succeed.
Function: a. We use conditional sentence type 1 to talk about possible situations in the
present or future.
1
If you leave earlier, you will not be late.
2
If you open the windows, the room will get some fresh air. b. We often use conditional type 1 to talk about facts or processes:
1
If you heat water to 100 degrees, it will boil.
2
If we stare into the sun, we will hurt our eyes.
51
Martin Hewings, Advanced Grammar in Use, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. p. 198
52
A. J. Thomson A. V. Martinet, Loc. Cit.
Note:
Other modal verbs can also be used in place of will and would. a. If it rains like this all day, the river might flood. might = will possibly
b. If it rains like this all day, the river could flood. could = will be able to
2. Conditional Sentence Type 2
The if-clause is in the simple past or the past continuous tense, the main clause uses would and the infinitive, or would be and the present
participle Verb-ing.
Table 2.2 Conditional Sentence Type 2 TYPE
IF CLAUSE MAIN CLAUSE
MEANING
Type 2
Simple past
If you worked hard,
would + simple form
you would succeed.
Untrue in the present Fact:
You don ‟t work
hard, so you don ‟t
succeed
Past continuous
If it were not raining now,
would be + present participle
I would be going out for a walk.
Fact: It
‟s raining now, so I
‟m not going out for a walk.
Conditional sentence type 2 is used to talk about actions or situations that are not taking place in the present or future, but we can imagine the
probable result. 1 If we didn
‟t live in a big city, we would not have to breathe polluted air every day. In truth, we live in a big city
2 If he were here, I would tell him about my plan. In fact, he isn ‟t here
Note:
1 „Were‟ is used for both singular and plural subjects.
2 The use of type 2 conditional in “If I were you, I would ………” is a
common form of advice.
3. Conditional Sentence Type 3
The if-clause is in the past perfect or the past perfect continuous tense, the main clause uses would have and past participle Verb 3, or would have
been and present participle Verb-ing.
Table 2.3 Conditional Sentence Type 3 TYPE
IF CLAUSE MAIN CLAUSE
MEANING
Type 3
Past perfect
If you had worked hard,
would have + past participle
you would have succeeded.
Untrue in the past Fact:
You didn ‟t work
hard, so you didn ‟t
succeed.
Past perfect continuous
If it had not been raining
yesterday afternoon,
would have been + present participle
I would have been
going out for a walk.
Fact: It was raining
yesterday afternoon. I was not going out for a
walk.
Function: Conditional sentence type 3 is used to talk about actions or situations
that did not take or were not taking place in the past, but we can imagine the probable result.
1 If you had come to the party last night, you would have met my cousin. In truth, you didn
‟t come to the party last night.
