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examples of carelessness causing errors in students’ writings are they forget to write down fullstop in the end of the sentence, and they mistype the word.
b. First Language Interference
The first language, or generally considered as mother tongue, is one of the cause of errors proposed by Norrish 1983. Norrish 1983 says that language is a
matter of habit formation. The learner’s utterances were thought to be gradually shaped towards those of the language he was learning p. 22. In other words, it
can be drawn that first language interference appears when the target language is not used in the daily communication, both spoken and written. Related to this
study, mother tongue interference comes when students want to learn a new language or a target language.
c. Translation
Another popular cause why students make errors is translation word by word. Norrish 1983 says, “Translation word by word of idiomatic expression in
the learner’s first language can produce classic howlers” p. 26. Norrish 1983 says that this cause of errors is the most common one. In this cause of errors, the
learners try to translate a familiar expression in their first language into the target language they are learning. This happens when students or learners do not know
the exact translation of such expression they want to write. As Norrish 1983 says, “the most typical situation is when a learner has been asked to communicate
something writing but is aware that he does not know the appropriate expression or structure” p. 27. For example, the students try to translate the word “Rumah
Tangga” into “Ladder House”.
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d. Overgeneralization
Norrish 1983 argues that in this cause of error, “the error might be made as a result of blending structures learnt early in the learning sequence” p. 31. In
other words, this kind of errors happens when students or learners use two kinds of structures in one sentence. As Ellis 1994 states, “overgeneralization error
generally involves the creation of one deviant structure in place of two target language structures” p. 59. The example is the sentence “We are go to school”.
It shows a blending simple present and continuous tense.
e. Error As a Part of Language Creativity
Norrish 1983 says that the learners who have limited capability in English would form a hypothetical rules related to English on insufficient
evidence. It means that when learners do not have enough capability but they need to create new utterances, they may produce errors. According to Norrish 1983,
language creativity is divided into two major factors. The first factor is the incapability of the students to follow the rules of the target language. The second
one is the creative arts. It deals with literature, such as song lyrics, poems, novels or prose.
3. Error analysis
Ellis and Barkhuizen 2005 state that “error analysis is the study of errors that learners make in their speech and writing” p. 51. It means that through error
analysis, the identification, description and explanation of learners’ errors are stated. Asher 1994 adds that error analysis is the procedure of describing and
