development or underlying competence. Errors are not something to be prevented, but errors are sign that learners are actively engaged in hypothesis
testing which would be the result in the acquisition of target language rules.
8
2. Causes of
Error
Errors are caused by some factors. Pit Corded identifies three major sources of error: transfer error, analogical error, and teaching-induced
error.
9
Meanwhile, Hubbard et.al. mentions that causes of error are mother tongue interference, overgeneralization, and error encouraged by teaching
material and method.
10
For Brown, sources of error consist of inter lingual transfer, intra lingual transfer, context of learning, and communication
strategies.
11
The terminologies “transfer error, inter lingual transfer”, and “mother tongue interference” have the same meaning as well as
analogical error, intra lingual transfer, and overgeneralization. Teaching induced error, errors encouraged by teaching material and method, and context
of learning also have the same meaning. However, Brown adds communication strategies as the fourth sources of error.
As mentioned previously, Brown claims that there are four sources of error in learning language.
a. Inter lingual error
Inter lingual error means errors attributed to the native language L1. There are inter lingual errors when the learners first get language
habits pattern, system, or rules which interfere or prevent the learners from acquiring the pattern and rules of the second language
manifest some degree of different form and some degree of similarity
with the equivalent item in learning the first language.
8
Diane-Larsen Freeman and Michael H Long, An Introduction to Second Language Acquisition Research, New York: Longman, 1999, p.60-61
9
http:abisamra03.tripod.comnadalanguagecq-erroranalysis.htmltheo
10
Peter Hubbard, Hywel Jones, Barbara Thontorn, Rod Wheeler, A Training Course for TEFL New York: Oxford University Press, 1983, p.140-143
11
H Douglas Brown, op.cit, p.225-226
b. Intra lingual error
Intra lingual errors are errors due to the misunderstanding of the language being learned L2, independent of the native language. The
errors proceeded by the learner which reflects not the structure of the mother tongue, but generalization based on partial exposure to the
target language.
12
The learner tries to derive the rules behind the data to which he or she has been exposed, and may develop hypotheses that corresponds
neither to the mother tongue nor the target language. c.
Context of learning
Context refers to the classroom situation that is built by both teacher and material. This situation can urge the learners to make faulty
hypotheses about the language. The teacher’s explanation also pushes the learners to make errors because sometimes the teacher provides
incorrect information by way of a misleading definition, word, or grammatical generalization. However, according to Stephen Pit Corder
the idiosyncratic dialect applies well through social context. For example, a Japanese immigrant who lived in Mexican-American has
produced a learner language that was an interesting blend of Mexican- American English and the Standard English colored by his Japanese
accent. d. Communication
strategies
According to Brown, “learners obviously use production strategy in order to enhance getting their message across. But at the same time
these techniques can themselves become a source of error”. For example, an ESL learner said, “Let us work for the well done of our
country.” The sentence above had wrong approximation of the word welfare.
In 1970, Richards also exposed four types and causes for intra lingual error: a. Overgeneralization: it is associated with redundancy reduction. It
12
http:abisamra03.tripod.comnadalanguagecq-erroranalysis.htmltheo
covers instances where the learner creates a deviant structure on the basis of his experience of other structure in the target language.
b. Ignorance of rules: i.e. applying rules to context to which they do not apply.
c. Incomplete application
rule. d. Semantic error such as building false conceptsystem. i.e. faulty
comprehension of distinction in the target language.
13
Hubbard et al state the cause of error are: a. Mother-tongue
interference Although young children appear to be to learn a foreign language
quite easily and effectively, but mostly older learners experience considerable difficulty.
b. Overgeneralization The mentalist theory claims that errors are inevitable because
they reflect various stages in the language development of the learner. It claims that the learner processes new language data in his mind and
produces rules for its production, based on the evidence. c. Errors encouraged by teaching material method
Having related mentalism to overgeneralization, we can relate behaviorism to those errors which appear to be induced by the teaching
process itself. Those who support the behaviorist theory, at least in its more extreme form, would deny that errors have any positive contribution
to make to the learning of any skill, such as language. To them, error is evidence of failure, of ineffective teaching or lack of control. If material is
well chosen, grade, and presented with meticulous care, there should never be any error. It is fairly easy to accept this in the early stages of language
learning when controls are applied in the shape of substitution tables, conversion, exercises of a mechanical nature and guided sentence patterns,
but more difficult at later stages. However, it might salutary for us to bear in mind the possibility of some off our students’ error being due to our
13
Ibid
own teaching.
14
Other causes of errors are also expressed by Norrish.
15
a. Carelessness
Carelessness is often closely related to lack motivation. Many teacher will admit that is not always the students’ fault if he loses interest;
perhaps the material or the presentation do not suit him. One way of reducing the number of ‘careless’ errors in written
work is to get students to check each other’s work. This will involve students in active search for error and English can be used for a genuine
communication while discussing these errors in class. b. First Language Interference
Skinner’s definitive statement of the behaviorist theory of language learning held that if language is essentially a set of habits, then
when we try to learn new habits the old ones will interference the new ones. In the classroom, the old habits must be drilled out and a new set of
responses must be learnt. The notion of mother tongue interference as a main contributor to error in learner’s use of foreign languages is related
strongly to this particular view of how human beings learn language. c. Translation
One of the most typical situations is when a learner has been asked to communicate something, let us say in writing, but is aware that he
does not know the appropriate expression or structure. He may even be unaware that an appropriate one exist. Naturally, ad he wishes to
communicate his ideas, he will fall back on the language system with which he is familiar, namely that of his mother tongue.
3. Classification of Error Error can be classified into some types. Dullay, in the book
