38
d. Types of Errors
It is essential to classify errors based on the type because various and a lot of errors can be possibly found in learners’ writing production. It aims to make
the researcher able to analyze the errors that he has found in learners’ writing production easier.
According to James 1998, describing errors could be presented at the terms of descriptive category named taxonomy as cited in Ellis Barkhuizen,
2005, p. 60. James 1998 further states that there are two kinds of taxonomy that are used in order to describe errors, namely linguistic taxonomy and surface
structure taxonomy as cited in Ellis Barkhuizen, 2005, p. 60.
1 Linguistic Taxonomy
Ellis and Barkhuizen 2005 mention that this kind of taxonomy is usually based on categories described from a descriptive grammar from the target
language p. 60. In addition, Ellis and Barkhuizen 2005 further state that grammar included in linguistic taxonomy are general categories dealing with basic
sentence structure, the verb phrase, verb complementation, the noun phrase, prepositional phrases, adjuncts, coordinate, and subordinate constructions and
sentence connection p. 60.
2 Surface Structure Taxonomy
According to Dulay, Burt, and Krashen’s 1982: 150, the ground for this kind of taxonomy is based on the ways surface structure are changed in erroneous
utterances or sentences as cited in Ellis Barkhuizen, 2005, p. 61. In addition, Dulay et al. 1982: 150 define that under the surface structure taxonomy, errors
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39 can be categorized into four types, namely omission, addition, misinformation,
and misordering as cited in Ellis Barkhuizen, 2005, p. 61.
a Omission
According to Dulay et al. 1982, omission errors means the absence of an item that actually must exist in a well-form utterance p. 154, e.g., the omission
of be in the sentence: my sister very pretty Ellis Barkhuizen, 2005, p. 61.
b Addition
According to Ellis and Barkhuizen 2005, this type of errors can be explained as the presence of a form that does not appear in a well-formed
utterance p. 61. Furthermore, Dulay et al. 1982 mention that addition errors can be characterized by the presence of an item which must not appear in a well-
formed utterance p. 156. Then, addition error can be sub-categorized into:
1 Regularization
Regularization deals with those in which a marker that is typically added to linguistic item is errorneously added to exceptional items of the given class that
does not take a marker Dulay et al., 1982, p. 157. For examples: womans and putted. Both womans and putted can be classified into regularization in which
the regular plural and past tense markers –s and –ed, respectively, have been added to items which do not take markers Dulay et al., 1982, p. 157.
2 Double-Marking
According to Dulay et al. 1982, double-marking error may be the result of two items rather one which are used for the same feature p. 156, e.g., He
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40 didn’t came Ellis Barkhuizen, 2005, p. 61, Is this is a cow? Dulay et al.,
1982, p. 157, She doesn’t brings the book.
3 Simple Additions
This type of errors deals with other cases of addition and it does not involve regularization and double-marking Ellis Barkhuizen, 2005, p. 61. In
addition, Dulay et al. 1982 also mention that if an addition error is neither a double marking nor a regularization, it can be called as a simple addition p. 158.
c Misinformation
According to Ellis and Barkhuizen 2005, this type of errors may happen because of the use of the incorrect form of the morpheme or structure p. 61 . In
addition, Dulay et al. 1982 state that there is a difference between misinformation errors and omission errors p. 158. In omission errors, learners do
not supply the item at all, while in misinformation errors, learners supply the item, although it is not correct. Then, Dulay et al. 1982 mention that misinformation
errors can be sub-categorized into p. 158:
1 Regularizations
Dulay et al. 1982 say that regularization under the misinformation category refers to those in which a regular marker is applied in place of an
irregular one p. 158. For examples: runned for ran and gooses for geese Dulay et al., 1982, p. 158.
2 Archi-Forms
According to Dulay et al. 1982, archi-form can be defined as one member of a class of forms that is used to represent others in the class selected by
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41 learners p. 160, e.g., the learner uses me as both a subject and object pronoun:
give me that, me hungry Ellis Barkhuizen, 2005, p. 61. Another example is learners may temporarily select only one of the English demonstrative adjectives,
such as this, that, these, and those, to do the work for several of them. Learners, therefore, sometimes write that dog and also write that dogs in another time
Dulay et al., 1982, p. 160.
3 Alternating Forms
Dulay et al. 1982 mention that alternating forms errors can happen because of the learners’ use of archi-forms that often makes free alternation of
various members of a class with each other p. 161, e.g., the pattern: Don’t +V and No + V Ellis Barkhuizen, 2005, p. 61. Another example is the use of
demonstratives pronoun, e.g., those dogs and this cats Dulay et al., 1982, p. 161.
d Misordering
Misordering errors can happen because of the wrong placement of a morpheme or group of morphemes in an utterance Ellis Barkhuizen, 2005, p.
61. For examples: she fights all the time her brother and he is all the time late. In both sentences all the time is misordered.
e. The Significance of Errors