Error Analysis

Background  Error analysis, a branch of “Applied Linguistics” that was introduced by Pit Corder.  Corder noted: “a learner’s errors are significant in that they provide to the researcher evidence of how language is learned or acquired, what strategies or procedures the learner is employing in the discovery of the language.”  To Corder, a learner’s errors are ‘systematic’ and it is precisely this regularity which shows that the learner is following a set of rules which are not those of the target language but a transitional form of language which is also similar to his mother tongue.

Definition Error Analysis can then be defined as 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”. It is the process of determining the incidence, nature, causes and consequences of unsuccessful language.

The importance of EA Error Analysis is advantageous for both learners and teachers. (1) For learners, error analysis is needed to show them in what aspect in grammar which is difficult for them, (2) whereas for teachers, it is required to evaluate themselves whether they are successful or not in teaching.

Kinds of Errors Brown states further that on a rather global level, errors can be described as errors of addition, omission, substitution, and ordering, following standard mathematical categories. A- In English a “do” auxiliary might be added (Does can he hinge?), B- a definite article omitted (I went to movie), C- an item substituted (I lost my road), D- or a word order confused (I to the store went). But such categories are clearly very generalized. Within each category, levels of language can be considered: phonology or orthography, lexicon, grammar, and discourse.

Types of Unsuccessful Language 1- Lapses or Slips: errors that can be quickly detected and self-corrected by the learner “if given the chance”. 2- Mistakes : can be corrected by the learners in their output if their deviance is pointed out to them. A mistake is either intentionally or unintentionally deviant and self-correctable. A mistake is made by a learner because he does not apply the rule (s) that he actually knows. 3- Errors: Wrong forms that the pupil could not correct even if their wrongness were pointed out. Error is an instance of language that is unintentionally deviant and is not self-corrigible by its author. They are of significance since they reflect knowledge, they are not self- correctable, and we could say that only learners of an L2 make them.

Types of Errors Corder classifies two types of errors: 1- Receptive (Processing) Errors : with processing or receptive errors, students mishear a word in spite of having normal hearing in pure tone testing. As the contextual examples below illustrate, an error of just one phoneme in a word can cause a major change in meaning. In many cases, students “hear” – or at least opt for – a more familiar word. Teacher: Describe a “air head”. >> Student reception “Describe a “bare head”. Student: (Gestures and laughs.) Nothing up there between the ears.

2- Expressive Errors : Errors that occur during the retrieval of a certain word / expression.

Sources of Errors - NOTEBOOK Brown (1980: ) classifies sources of error into, 1) Interlingual transfer, that is the negative influence of the mother tongue of learner, 2) Intralingual transfer, that is the negative transfer of items within the target language. In order words, the incorrect generalization of rules within the target language; 3) Context of Learning, which overlaps both types of transfer, for example, the classroom with its teacher and its materials in 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 wrong generalization about the language; 4) Communication Strategies. It is obvious that communication strategy is the conscious employment of verbal mechanisms for communicating an idea when linguistic forms are not available to the learner for some reasons

Communication strategies, 1- Avoidance: When a learner, for example, cannot say “I lost my way” he might avoid the use of way’ and says “I lost my road” instead. 2-Prefabricated patterns: Another common communication strategy is to memorize certain stock phrases or sentences without understanding the components of the phrases or sentences. “Tourist survival” language is full of prefabricated patterns. 3- Cognitive and personality: In answer to “How did you get here?” a person might be heard to say, “I drove my bicycle” while another might say, “I pedaled my bicycle” in an attempt to be precise. Language errors can thus conceivably be traced to sources in certain personal or cognitive idiosyncrasies. 4-Appeal to Authority: The learner may directly ask a native speaker (the authority) if he gets stuck by saying, for example, “How do you say?” 5- Language Switch: when all other strategies fail to produce a meaningful utterance, a learner may switch to the so-called language switch. That is, he may simply use his native language whether the hearer knows that native language or not.

Causes of Error Norrish (1983:21-26) classifies causes of error into three types that is carelessness, firs language interference, and translation. The three types of causes of error will be discussed briefly below. 1-Carelessness: Carelessness is often closely related to lack of motivation. 2-First language: Learning a language (a mother tongue or a foreign language) is a matter of habit formation. When someone tries to learn new habits the old ones will interfere the new ones. This causes of error is called first language interference. 3-Translation : Translation is one of the causes of error. This happens because a student translates his first language sentence or idiomatic expression in to the target language word by word. This is probably the most common cause of error.

Analyzing Grammatical Errors 1- Error in Using Adjectives: The purpose of this research was to ascertain and evaluate the successful of the implementation of housing renovation of integrated villages …” 2- Error in using preposition This research was carried out in Banteng Regency with the aims at identifying (1) the kinds of ability possessed by…’ 3- Error in using passive voice it was happened because most of the farmers sold their cashew nut to the collectors in the village’.

Miscue Analysis The term ‘miscue analysis’ was coined by Goodman (1969). This approach is based on three cueing systems he believed underlay the reading process: Grapho/phonic (the relationship of letters to sound system), syntactic (the syntax/grammar system) and semantic (the meaning system). Miscue analysis refers to a process of diagnosing a child's reading. It is based on the premise of analyzing the errors a reader makes during oral reading. 1- Grapho/Phonic System > 2- Semantic System > 3- Syntactic >

Graphic Miscues

Semantic / Syntactic 1-Does this sound syntactically correct? 2-Is the sentence semantically correct? 3-Did the student’s reading of this sentence change its meaning?