8 if the learner has adopted the strategy that all verbs are either transitive or
intransitive, he may produce Interlanguage forms such as ‘I am feeling thirsty’ or ‘Don’t worry, I am hearing him’. Selinker 1972 quotes Coulter 1968 and says
that learners avoid grammatical formatives such as articles, plural forms and past tense forms as in:
1. ‘It was nice trailer. big one.’
2. ‘I have many hundred carpenters my own.’
3. ‘I was in Frankfurt when I filled application.’
All these could be the result of a learning strategy of simplification but Coulter 1968 attributes them to a communication strategy. He thinks, because
of past experience, the learners have come to know that if they worry about grammatical processes their speech would not be fluent and hence native
speakers may not have the patience to hear them through. Besides the learners also felt they did not need a form such as English plurals to communicate
efficiently. It is this phenomenon which inspired the writer most to conduct a piece
of research on the learning strategy used by L2 learners which results in interlanguage errors as the focus of this study. The research findings would give a
significant contribution to foreign language pedagogy.
B. The Research Problem
Based on the above background the writer formulates research problem
9 as follows: “What learning strategies used by the high school students of MAN 1
Surakarta which result in Interlanguage Errors. In order to answer this research problem, the writer raises some subsidiary research questions as the followings:
1. What are the types of learning strategies used by the learners which result
in interlanguage errors? 2.
What is the frequency of each type of learning strategy used? 3.
What is the dominant learning strategy used? 4.
What is the implication in foreign language teaching?
C. Objectives of the Study
The objective of this study, in general, is to find the answer related to issue of learning strategy used by the learners which results in interlanguage
errors. It is believe that by investigating the learners’ interlanguage errors, we may come to the understanding of the second language learning process
because interlanguage errors are the product of learning strategies. We may also get a thorough understanding of the use of learning strategies which may
contribute to error stabilization.
D. Benefit of the Study
The study may provide two important benefits, the theoretical as well as the practical point of view:
10 From the practical point of view, the findings of this study provide
contributions to foreign language learning. They can give us clear pictures of the common phenomenon that usually occurs in classroom. English students,
practitioners, and researchers will find these research findings useful for language teaching and learning; since theories and claims about language
teaching and learning should be based on actual research in language classrooms. To sum up, this study has practical significances described below:
1. In general, the findings will be useful for researchers and language
practitioners in understanding foreign language learning process. They can also draw inferences from factors which contribute to interlanguage errors.
2. This research is also significant in order to help foreign language learners
understand their own problems i.e. committing errors in learning the target language, such as why errors occur; what factors which can lead or
contribute to interlanguage errors. From the theoretical point of view, the findings can make us aware of
the theoretical and methodological account of the foreign language learning or acquisition. Thus this study is significant theoretically in the following respects:
1. The researchers may take a benefit from the theoretical foundations, such as
theories of interlanguage studies, learning strategies, and error analysis. They can use them as analytical tools for interlanguage studies.
2. Language practitioners and researchers can also take benefit from the
methodological framework. The framework used in this study exemplifies
11 that it is suitable for handling data of interlanguage errors in classroom
research. 3.
The understanding derived from this research can contribute to the development of the theory of applied linguistics, especially interlanguage
errors and learning strategies. This research would give contribution to the existing theorization of the learning strategies. It is hoped that the
conclusions reached in this investigation and the directions suggested for future studies will lead researchers to investigate more on related issues.
E. Limitation of the Study
