who I saw him violates the limitation on subjects in structure with who. This is again a type of generalization of transfer, since the
learners is making use of previously acquired rule in a new situation.
Brown said “causes of error as sources of error and he classifies into 4
categories is Interlingual Transfer, Intralingual Transfer, Context of Learning, Communication Strategies
”.
19
The four types of causes of error will be discussed briefly below.
a. Interlingual Transfer
The beginning stages of learning a second language are characterized by a good deal of interlingual transfer 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 linguistic
system in previous experience upon which the learner can draw. We have all heard English learners say “sheep” for “ship”, or “the book of
Jack” instead of “Jack’s book”. All these errors are attributable to
negative interlingual transfer. While it is not always clear that an error is the result of transfer from the native language, many such errors are
detectable in learner speech.
20
b. Intralingual Transfer
The second cause of errors is Interlingual transfer. It is the transfer within the target language itself. Researchers have found that the early
stages of language learning are characterized by a predominance of interference interlingual transfer, but once learner have begun to
acquire parts of the new system, more and more intralingual transfer- generalization within the target language-is manifested. This of course
19
H.D. Brown, Principle of Language Learning and Teaching, New Jersey, Prentice- Hall, 1993, p. 213-217
20
Ibid, p. 213-214
follows logically from the tenets of learning theory. As learners’
progress in the second language, their previous experience and their existing subsumes begin to include structures within the target language
itself.
21
Negative intralingual transfer, or overgeneralization, has already been illustrated in such utterences as “Does John can siing ?” other
example like “He goed,” and “I don’t know what time is it ?”. Once
again, the teacher or researcher cannot always be certain of the source of an apparent intralingual error, but repeated systematic observations
of a learner’s speech data will often remove the ambiguity of a single observation of an error.
22
c. Context of Learning
The third cause of errors is context of learning. “Context” refers, for example, to the classroom with its teacher and its material in the case of
the school learning or the social situation in case of untutored second language learning. In the classroom context the teacher 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.
23
d. Communication Strategies
Communication strategies were defined and related to learning styles. Learners obviously use production strategies in order to enhance
getting their messages across, but at times these techniques can themselves become a source of error. Once an ESL learner said
“Let us
21
Ibid. p. 214
22
Ibid. p. 214
23
Ibid. p. 215
work for the well-done of our country”. While it exhibited a nice little
twist of humor, the sentence had an incorrect approximation of the word “welfare”. Likewise, word coinage, circumlocution, false cognates, and
prefabricated patterns can all be sources of error.
24
From Cause of Error above, the writer concludes if the Cause of Error is derived from the four theories; first, the theory of the Norrish,
Cause of Error which was composed of Carelessness, First language, Translation. Second, the theory of Richards, which was comprised of
Error Cause of Interference, Overgeneralization, Performance Error, Markers of Transitional Competence, Strategy of Communication and
Assimilation, Teacher-Induced Error. Third, another theory of Richards, Cause of Error which was composed of Overgeneralization, Incomplete
Application of Rules, False Concepts Hypothesized, Ignorance of Rule Restriction. And the last theory of Brown, Cause of Error which was
composed of Interlingual transfer, Intralingual transfer, Context of learning, and Communication Strategies. In making a descriptive
paragraph, not the student may not make an error. Certainly the student made an error in making the descriptive paragraphs. The errors occur
because students do it like the following factors: first, the student carelessness in make and writing the descriptive paragraph-sentence;
Second, students are still influenced by their native language Indonesian, so that in making a sentence, word order is like upside
down; Third, students add a few words that do not need to be place in the sentence, Fourth, students eliminate words that should exist or that
needed in the sentence, so the meaning of the sentence is being obscured. And of course there are many more factors that cause
students to make errors in writing and make sentences in descriptive paragraph, as has been explained above that. Of the factors causing the
above error, so that the teacher can correct errors made by students in
24
Ibid. p. 217
creating descriptive sentences in a paragraph. And teachers also know how to justify the errors made by the students.
B. Error Analysis
1. Definition of Error Analysis
The fact that “learners do make errors and that these errors can be
observed, analyzed, and classified to reveal something of the system operating
within the learner, led to a surge of study of learners’ errors, called error analysis
”.
25
Another concept of error analysis is given by Richards. He states “that
error analysis is the study of errors made by the second and foreign language learners
”. Error analysis may be carried out in order to find out how well someone knows a language, find out how a person learns a
language, and obtain information on common difficulties in language learning, as an aid in teaching or in the preparation of teaching
materials ”.
26
Moreover, Brown said “that error analysis as the process to observe,
analyze, and classify the deviations of the rules of the second language and then to reveal the systems operated by learner
”.
27
It seems this concept is the same by Crystal,
“he defined error analysis is a technique for identifying, classifying and systematically interpreting the unacceptable
forms produced by someone learning a foreign language, using any of the principles and procedures provided by linguistics
”.
28
25
Brown, op cit, p. 206
26
Jack C. Richards, Error Analysis, London:Longman, 1973, p.172
27
Ibid.
28
Ibid.
From the definitions above, the writer concludes “that error analysis is
the study of learners’ error to obtain information on common difficulties faced by someone in speaking or writing English sentences
”. Another
thing, which should be noticed, is the procedure of error analysis. 2.
The Procedure of Error Analysis
Procedure of error analysis is very necessary and important. Without procedures, analyze error will not be correct and clear. Therefore, a learner
needs to know about the procedure of error analysis. So that they know how to write correct. There are some procedures of error analysis which
come from some linguistics experts. One of them came from the linguistics experts, he is Ellis. In his book,
“Second Language Acquisition
”, mentions the procedures of error analysis such as identifying errors, describing errors, explaining errors, and evaluating errors.
29
Where four procedures that was very important and needed in the error analysis.
Without of one of the procedure, the analysis will be doing less truth. Because these procedures related to each other, which in the error analysis,
usually step that should be done by the writer after identifying error is the writer should be done describe the overall error and should detail, this
purposes that the writer know clearly the frequency errors that the students made in using adjective in descriptive text writing, and also know the
development of the students in target language. After describing the error, the next step is the writer sh
ould explaining and evaluating the error, that’s all meant that the writer know the types of errors the students make and
the source of the reason why the students make error in using adjective in descriptive text writing. And the final step is Evaluating the error, this
purposes that the writer can specify what should be emphasized or repaired to test result of the students in using adjective in descriptive text writing.
What is clear, the four procedures are very important and needed in error analysis, so the data is valid of truth in the analysis that.
29
Rod Ellis, Second Language Acquisition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997, p. 15-20.
Procedure of error analysis in Ellis book, he classifies into fourth step is identifying the errors, describing errors, explaining or interpreting, and
evaluating error.
30
The fourth step procedure of error analysis in Ellis book will be discussed briefly below.
The first step in analyzing learners’ errors is identifying the errors; which the researcher should compare the sentence that learner produces
with what would be the correct sentence in the target language. If the sentence is assumed wrong in the target language or inappropriate for a
particular context, it shows the error. The next step is describing errors; the identified errors are described
and classified into the table description of errors in order to know the frequency of error types. Classifying errors in such ways can help the
teacher analyze learners’ problems in their target language development.
The third step is explaining or interpreting. It discusses the error types described in the table description and It is going to be more difficult when
identifying the causes of error since the errors have a varied causes such as mother tongue interference, overgeneralization, error encouraged by
teaching materials or methods.
The last step is evaluating error, which is also necessary. The teacher can determine what should be more emphasized or treated and what should
be not to their students. The fourth step in the above procedure proposed by Ellis is very
necessary and important to the teachers in analyzing the errors made by learners in their writing. Because of the absence of the procedures of error
analysis, then certainly there will be many errors in the writing of the learners and the teacher does not know. So that, this procedures very
30
Ibid.
necessary and important for the teachers to can know the error made by learners in their writing.
Corder in Brown provides a good model for identifying erroneous or idiosyncratic utterances in second language. The first step is the
identification and description of error . According to Corder’s model, any
sentence uttered by the learners and subsequently transcribed can be analyzed for idiosyncrasies. A major distinction is made at the outset
between “overt” and “covert” errors. The model indicates that in both cases if a plausible interpretation can be made of the sentence then one
should form reconstruction of the sentence in the target language, compare the reconstruction with the original idiosyncratic sentence, and then
describe the differences. If the native language of the learners is known, the model indicates using translation as a possible indicator of native
language interference as the source of error. In some cases, of course, no plausible interpretation is possible at all, and the researcher is left with no
analysis of the error.
31
However, once an error is identified, the next step is to describe it adequately, something the above procedure has only begun to accomplish.
A number of different categories for description of errors have been identified in research on learner language
32
: a.
The most generalized breakdown can be made by identifying errors of addition, omission, substitution, and ordering.
b. Within each category, levels of language can be considered:
phonology or orthography, lexicon, grammar, and discourse. c.
Errors may also be viewed as either global or local Burt and Kiparsky 1974.
31
H.D. Brown, Principle of Language Learning and Teaching, New Jersey, Prentice-Hall, 1993, p. 208
32
Ibid, p. 210
