Omission Types of Error
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language. To find out why certain errors are made, we must know about sources of error that learners made.
Douglas Brown distinguishes the sources of errors into three sources, they are: interlingual transfer, intralingual transfer, and context of learning.
a. Interlingual Transfer Interlingual transfer happened when the beginning stages of learning a
second language are influenced from the native language or interference. In these early stages, before the system of the second language is familiar, the native
language is the only previous linguistic system upon which the learner can draw. b. Intralingual transfer
Intralingual transfer causes within the target language itself. Researchers have found that the early stages of language learning are characterized by
predominance of interference interlingual transfer, but once learners have begun to acquire parts of the new system, more and more intralingual transfer –
generalization within the target language – is manifested. As learners progress in the second language, their previous experience and their existing subsumers begin
to include structures within the target language itself. c. Context of Learning
“Context” refers, for example, to the classroom with its teacher and its materials in the case of the case of school learning or the social situation in the
case of untutored second language learning. In a classroom context the teacher or the textbook can lead the learner to make faulty hypotheses about the language.
Students often make errors because of a misleading explanation from the teacher, faulty presentation of a structure or word in a textbook, or even because of a
pattern that was rotely memorized in a drill but improperly contextualized.
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The similar opinion came from Peter Hubbard. He distinguishes the source of error into three parts:
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H. Douglas Brown, Op. Cit,. pp. 223—227.
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a. Mother-tongue Interference The sound system phonology and the grammar of the first language
assert themselves on the new language and this leads to a ‘foreign’ pronunciation, faulty grammatical patterns and, occasionally, to the wrong selection of
vocabulary. 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 proof.
c. Errors encouraged by teaching material or method Errors appear to be caused by the teaching process. According to those
who support the behaviorist theory, error is evidence of failure, of ineffective teaching or lack of control. If material is well chosen, graded and presented with
meticulous care, there should never be any error.
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