Ambiguous Errors Ambiguous errors are defined as errors that reflect the learner’s native language
structure, and at the same time, they are of the type found in the speech of children acquiring a first language.
Example: I no have a car.
The negative form reflects the learner’s native Spanish and is also characteristic of the speech of children learning English as their first language.
Other Errors Dulay et al., 1982 call these errors unique since they are unique to L2 learners.
Example: She do hungry
4. Communicative Effect
Communicative effect taxonomy is the last classification of errors proposed by Dulay et al. 1982. This classification deals with errors from the perspective of their
effect on the listener or the reader Dulay et al., 1982.
e. Sources of Errors
This part discusses the sources of errors proposed by Brown 1987. Later, this discussion is used to answer the problem formulation number three in Chapter IV.
According to Brown 1987, there are three sources of errors, which are discussed below.
1. Interlingual Transfer
This source explains that errors in language learning are influenced by interference of the native language. This happens because the system of second
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language is not yet familiar for the students. The native language is the only linguistic system for them. Example: Students who learn English often say the book
of Jack instead of Jack’s book.
2. Intralingual Transfer
A major factor in second language learning is intralingual transfer the target language itself. The errors occur because the students have begun to acquire some
parts of the new system. In progression of the second language learning, students begin to include structures within the target language itself, for example: Does John
can sing? It should be Can John sing?
3. Context of Learning
It is stated by Brown 1987 that this source of errors deals with the classroom with the teacher and the material in the case of school learning, or the social situation
in the case of untutored second language learning. Richard 1971 as cited in Brown 1987 also says that in a classroom context,
the teacher or the text book can lead the students to make faulty hypothesis about the language which is called “false concepts.” The teacher with hisher misleading
explanation can cause students in making errors.
B. Theoretical Framework
Reported speech refers to speech used by someone to report what someone else has said to him or her without necessarily using the original speaker’s exact words
Azar, 1989, Swan, 1995, Thomson Martinet, 1980, Celce-Murcia Larsen- Freeman, 1983, Alexander, 1990. In this study, reported speech is one of the
materials learnt by the fourth semester students of the English Language Education 29
Study Program of Sanata Dharma University in Structure IV. Structure IV here is one of the compulsory subjects that must be taken by the fourth semester students.
Reported speech studied in this paper was limited in the written form which the students converted it from direct speech.
In this study, there are three problems regarding the fourth semester students’ mastery and errors of reported speech. This study used a test to collect the
information and also to answer those three problems. To answer the first problem, which was to figure out how far the fourth semester students have mastered reported
speech, this study performed necessary statistical computation. Later, the result of the computation was compared to the standard of mastery stated in the academic
regulation of Sanata Dharma University. The students’ mastery on reported speech was found out from their scores in the test. These scores were then compared to the
minimum standard of mastery stated in the academic regulation of Sanata Dharma University. If their achievement in reported speech is low according to that academic
regulation, it means that they still have difficulties in mastering reported speech. If their achievement is high, then it can be said that they have mastered reported
speech. Concerning the second problem, which was to figure out the types of errors that
students made in reported speech, this study used the students’ answers to analyse what types of errors they made. The analysis of students’ errors was based on 1 the
types of errors proposed by Dulay et al., 2 the grammatical changes of reported speech, and 3 the types of reported speech.
For answering the third problem of this study, which was to figure out what possible causes of students’ errors in reported speech were, this study used the
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