ERROR ANALYSIS ON STUDENTS’ WRITING;
(A Case Study of the Eleventh Year Students of “MAN 2 Kota Bogor”)
A ”Skripsi”
Presented to the Faculty of Tarbiyah and Teachers Training in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of S.Pd. in English Language Education
By
Elis Fadliyah NIM: 103014026945
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TARBIYAH AND TEACHERS’ TRAINING STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY ”SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH”
ERROR ANALYSIS ON STUDENTS’ WRITING; A Case Study of the Eleventh Year Students of “MAN 2 Kota Bogor”
A ”Skripsi”
Presented to the Faculty of Tarbiyah and Teachers Training in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of S.Pd in English Language Education
Approved by the Advisor
Drs. Arifin Toy, M.Sc. NIP. 150 031 215
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TARBIYAH AND TEACHERS’ TRAINING STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY “SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH“
ENDORSEMENT SHEET
The examination committee of the faculty of Tarbiya and Teachers Training certifies that the “skripsi” (scientific paper) entitled “Error Analysis on Students’ Writing (A Case Study of the Eleventh Year Students of “MAN 2 Kota Bogor”)”, written by Elis Fadliyah, student’s registration number is 103014026945, and was examined by the committee on 2nd June 2008, and was declared to have passed and, therefore fulfilled one of the requirements for the academic title of “S.Pd” (Bachelor of Education) in English Language Education at Department of English Education.
Jakarta, 2nd June 2008
Examination committee
Chairman : Drs. Syauki, M.Pd. ( ) NIP. 150 246 289
Secretary : Neneng Sunengsih, S.Pd. ( ) NIP. 150 293 236
Examiners : 1. Drs. Nasrun Mahmud, M.Pd. ( ) NIP. 150 041 070
2. Drs. H. Munir Sonhadji, M.Ed. ( ) NIP. 150 050 682
Acknowledged by:
Dean of Tarbiya and Teachers’ Training Faculty
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
In the name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful.
All praises be to Allah, The Lord of Worlds, by His helps, guidance, and blessing finally the writer is able to finish this “skripsi”. Peace and blessing be upon Muhammad SAW., his descendants, his companions, and his followers.
In this opportunity, the writer would like to express her greatest honor to her beloved family; his parents H. Abd. Rosyid and Hj. Khoiriyah, her brothers and sisters who always give their support and moral encouragement in finishing her study.
The writer would love to address her thanks and great gratitude to her advisor Drs. Arifin Toy, M.Sc., for his time, guidance, and valuable helps and corrections during completing this “skripsi”.
The writer realized that she would have never finished in writing her “skripsi” without the help of some people around her. Therefore, she would like to give her gratitude and best appreciation to:
1. All lecturers in English Department who always give their motivation and valuable knowledge during her study at State Islamic University of Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta.
2. Drs. Nasrun Mahmud, M.Pd., the previous Head of English Department. 3. Drs. Syauki, M.Pd., the Head of English Department and Neneng Sunengsih,
S.Pd., the Secretary of English Education Department.
4. Prof. Dr. Dede Rosyada, MA., the Dean of Faculty of Tarbiyah and Teachers’ Training of State Islamic University of Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta.
5. Drs. Kosasih Ismatullah, M.Pd., the head of “MAN 2 Kota Bogor” and Drs. Ruyani, the English teacher of “MAN 2 Kota Bogor” who had sincerely spent their spare time and offered much help in collecting the data that the writer needed.
7. The eleventh year students of “MAN 2 Kota Bogor”, especially class XI IPA 5 who had given their best attention and participation during gaining the data.
The words are not enough to say much appreciation for their help and contribution in finishing this “skripsi”. May Allah SWT guides and gives you the happiness throughout your life. May Allah, The Almighty, bless them all.
Jakarta, June 2008
TABLE OF CONTENTS
APPROVAL SHEET
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ... i
TABLE OF CONTENTS ... iii
LIST OF TABLES ... v
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. The Background of Study ... 1
B. The Focus of Study ... 3
C. The Research Questions ... 3
D. The Significance of Study ... 3
E. The Organization of Writing ... 4
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK A. Error ... 5
1. The Definition of Error ... 5
2. The Error Analysis ... 7
3. The Types of Error ... 9
4. The Sources of Error ... 10
5. Some Errors on Students’ Paragraph Writing .. 11
B. Writing ... 27
1. The Definition of Writing ... 27
2. The Writing Sentence ... 29
3. The Types of Sentence ... 29
B. The English Teaching Method ... 33
C. The English Textbook ... 34
D. The Profile of English Teacher ... 35
E. The English Activities, Condition, and Environment .. 35
CHAPTER IV RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND FINDING A. Research Methodology ... 37
1. The Objective of Research ... 37
2. The Method of Research ... 37
3. The Instrument of Research ... 37
4. The Technique of Sample Taking ... 38
5. The Technique of Data Collecting ... 38
a. Observation ... 38
b. Written Test ... 38
c. Interview ... 39
6. The Place and Time of Research ... 39
7. The Technique of Data Analysis ... 39
a. Data from the Observations ... 39
b. Data from the Written Test ... 40
c. Data from the Interview ... 41
B. Research Finding ... 41
1. The Description of Data ... 41
2. The Analysis of Data ... 42
3. Data Interpretation ... 49
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION A. Conclusion ... 50
B. Suggestion ... 50
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1 : Common Homonyms ... 17
Table 2 : Homonym Problems ... 17
Table 3 : The Personal Details of the Teachers ... 35
Table 4 : Error in Article ... 42
Table 5 : Error in Capitalization ... 43
Table 6 : Error in Diction ... 43
Table 7 : Error in Omissions ... 44
Table 8 : Error in Preposition ... 44
Table 9 : Error in Pronoun... 45
Table 10 : Error in Punctuation ... 45
Table 11 : Error in Singular/Plural ... 46
Table 12 : Error in Spelling ... 46
Table 13 : Error in Verb Tense ... 47
Table 14 : Error in Word Form ... 47
Table 15 : Error in Word Order ... 48
Table 16 : Error in Wordiness ... 48
Table 17 : Error in Wordiness ... 49
APPENDIXES
Appendix 1: Class Observation
Appendix 2: The Recapitulation of Students Error Appendix 3: Interview
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of Study
In Indonesia, English is considered as the first foreign language because it is necessary to be learned in order to support the people needs in gaining a lot of information and knowledge in various fields, for example in education, science and technology, economy, and others. To achieve its goal, thus English is introduced in every level of learners. Even, it is delivered to the earlier learners; it is for the kindergarten students. Moreover, English may be obtained not only in formal education; in schools, but also in informal education. Therefore, it will be easier for learners to master English.
English is one of compulsory subject which is given from the beginning of Elementary School up to the Senior High School. It is shown in curriculum by all its components; they are standard competence, based competence, indicators, and so on. The curriculum, namely the School-Level Curriculum, contains four English language skills; they are Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing, and its language components are Grammar, Vocabulary, and Pronunciation.
Among the skills, writing is viewed as the most difficult skill to be learnt because it needs more knowledge in producing words, sentences, and paragraphs, and arranging them into a good sequence whether in its structure, logical thinking, and others. Furthermore, writing is complicated because it is done not in one easy step but in series of steps. People begin to select the topics, purposes, and audiences. Then they decide the organization and presentation of ideas, topic sentences, and details. They decide the language structures and vocabulary and to modify and to revise the paragraph.
once. A writer produces words, sentences, paragraph, and extended composition all at the same time. Words must be spelled, sentences punctuated, and paragraph unified1. Therefore, the students have to have extensive knowledge when they want to write anything. The extensive knowledge will support their writing in order to be nice and interested in reading.
In a sense, all writing starts from simple up to the complex writing. The simple writing is the writing process which is begun by producing words and sentences. Moreover, in producing words, the writers should pay attention for their spelling, diction, word form, and others. And, in producing sentences, the writer should regard the words order, sentence pattern, punctuation, and so on. In addition, the sentence is categorized into four; they are simple sentence, compound sentence, complex sentence, and compound- complex sentence.
Then, the complex writing is the writing process that involves producing paragraph and composition. According to Canavan, “Paragraph consists of sentences (usually more than one), each with its own structural pattern, in a series that develop one single idea”.2 In writing a paragraph, it is necessary to be regarded its parts of paragraph, they are topic sentence, supporting details and conclusion, and its requirements, such as unity, completeness, order, and coherence. Furthermore, in constructing paragraph, the writers should recognize the general rules of transitional words and phrases, repetition and key terms, synonym and other substitutes, pronoun, and parallelism, and others. Those are the items that usually appear when the writers construct the paragraph.
Here, the writer tries to observe the students’ errors in writing by regarding the previous general rules of writing process. When the students
1
Robert M. Gorrel and Charlton Laired, Modern English Handbook, (New Jersey: Englewood Cliffs NJ, 1962), p. 1.
2
write, there are some errors appear, they are, for instance, the error in tenses. The error is shown as follows:
“Last week Young Red Cross win as a favorite champion in SDB (Sasih Darma Bakti)”
It should be:
“Last week Young Red Cross won as a favorite champion in SDB (Sasih Darma Bakti)”.
Observing the students’ errors is the way for the writer to achieve her research which is done at “MAN 2 Kota Bogor”. The research aims to know the types and the most errors happened at the XI year students of “MAN 2 Kota Bogor”. This research is summarized on the “skripsi” titled “The Error Analysis on Students’ Writing”.
B. The Focus of Study
This study focuses on XI year student of “MAN 2 Kota Bogor” in first semester 2007-2008 academic years. To make the description of this study deeper, the problem will be limited in error analysis which is made by the students in paragraph writing.
C. The Research Questions
Based on the background and focus of the study, the writer plans to do an error analysis on students’ descriptive writing. The questions can be stated as follows:
1. What types of errors do the students make in writing? 2. What is the most dominated error on students’ writing?
D. The Significance of Study
By analyzing the student’s errors in writing, the writer wishes the result of the research would be advantageous for the readers who like writing in order they can anticipate errors in their writing and as motivation for the students to make good writing and to know the importance of writing in language learning process, and used as inputs for the writer to identify what part of the language programs are found difficult by the students.
E. The Organization of Writing
This paper is divided into five chapters, namely the first chapter is the presentation of introduction, including the background of study, the focus of study, the research question, the significance of study, and the organization of writing.
The second chapter is theoretical framework. It will be divided into three division chapters. The first is error; it includes discussing about the error definition, error analysis, types of error, source of error, and some error in students’ paragraph writing. The second describes writing. It involves the definition of writing, the writing sentence, and the types of sentence. The third chapter is the profile of “MAN 2 Kota Bogor”, it includes discussing about the history, the geographical position, the vision and mission, the curriculum and method of English teaching learning, the condition, and the activities.
The forth chapter is about the research methodology and findings. It consists of the purpose of the research, the place and time of research, the technique of sample taking, the technique of data collecting, the technique of data analysis. In research finding, it includes data description, data analysis, and data interpretation.
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
A. Error
When the students write in English, they can make a lot of errors. It seems impossible if the learners or students have never been made some errors in their language learning process, because do some errors is human and natural.
1. The Definition of Error
There are many definitions of errors. According to Geographical Webster, Revised Home and Office Dictionary of the English Language, “Error is a mistake made in writing or other wise, a wondering or deviation from the truth,3 it means that error can be found in the writing covering a phoneme, a word, a phrase, a clause, a sentence, a paragraph, a discourse. While in Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary Eleventh Edition, “Error is an act involving an unintentional deviation from truth or accuracy”.4
Dullay stated, “Errors are the flawed side of learner speech or writing.”5 It means that there is something wrong in norms of language performance. As the writer said before, that making errors are unavoidable in learning process. Besides making errors are parts of learning and no one can learn language without his/her first making errors.
3
Geographical WebsterRevised Home and Office Dictionary of the English Language
(Chicago), p. 384.
4
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary Eleventh Edition (Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, Inc, 2003), p. 425.
5
Littlewood stated, “Errors are signs of learning failure and, as such, not to be willingly tolerated.6 Error cannot always be easily identified. First of all, the notion of ‘error’ presupposes a norm, and norms, in their turn, are dependent on, amongst other things, the medium (spoken or written language), the social context (formal or informal), and the relation between speaker and hearer (symmetrical or asymmetrical). Furthermore, it is quite possible for something which seems an error in isolation to be perfectly acceptable in context, and vice versa.7
Error and mistakes are not the same. But most of the people still misunderstand about definition of both. To be more clarified between error and mistakes, Hubbard et.al., said “Errors caused by lack of knowledge about the target language (English) or by incorrect hypothesis about it; and unfortunate mistakes caused by temporary lapses of memory, confusion, slips of the tongue and so on”.8
A mistake refers to a performance error that is either a random guess or a “slip,” in that it is a failure to utilize a known system correctly. It is the result of some sort of breakdown or imperfection in the process of producing speech. These hesitations, slips of the tongue, random ungrammaticalities, and other performance lapses in native-speaker production also occur in second language speech, and when attention is called to it, mistake can be self corrected.9 Such mistakes must be carefully distinguished from errors of a second language learner, idiosyncrasies in the interlanguage of the learner that are direct manifestations of a system within which a learner is operating at the time.
6
William T. Littlewood, Foreign and Second language Learning, (Cambridge: Cambridge Univrsity Press, 1988), p. 22.
7
Theo van Els, et. al., Applied Linguistic and the Learning and Teaching of Foreign Languages (London: Edward Arnold, 1991), p. 47.
8
Peter Hubbard et. al., A Training Course for TEFL, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1983), p. 134.
9
An error is a noticeable deviation from the adult grammar of a native speaker, reflecting the interlanguage competence of the learner.10
Julian Edge, in Harmer (2001), suggested that mistake can be divided into two broad categories: ‘slip’ and ‘attempts’. Slips are mistakes which students can correct themselves once the mistake has been pointed out to them, while attempts are mistakes committed when a student tries to say something but does not yet know the correct way of saying it.11
For this paper the writer adopt the definition of genuine errors that caused by lack of knowledge about English or by lack of incorrect hypothesis about English. So, if the student can not correct himself when he was challenged, it means he made an error, but he made mistake if he can correct himself when he was challenged because a mistake is caused by temporary lapses of memory, confusion, slips of the tongue and so on.
2. The Error Analysis
It is impossible that learners never make some errors in language learning process. According to Peter Hubbard et.al., “The behaviorists regarded language learning as the acquisition of skills, comparable to the process of learning to do something practical, like driving a car. The complex skill was broken down into a series of habits, which ere drilled until they became automatic and unthinking. The habits were taught is a series of small steps, so as to avoid errors.” In other words, to achieve the English acquisition, the students must get through some errors first, and then automatically they can learn from their own errors.
The teacher will also need to know which part of the subject matter that most students do some errors and most students do not. Finding out the learners’ errors then analyzing it is called Error Analysis.
10
Muhammad Farkhan, An Introduction to Linguistics, (Jakarta: UIN Jakarta Press, 2006), p. 149.
11
There are many definition of error analysis. Oxford Concise Dictionary defined Error analysis is “The analysis for practical but also potentially for scientific ends, of errors made by students learning another language”.12
Longman Dictionary of language teaching and Applied Linguistics
defines error analysis as the study and analysis of the error made by the second language learners.13
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. Error analysis become distinguished from contrastive analysis by its examination of errors attributable to all possible sources, not just those which result from negative transfer of the native language. Error analysis easily superseded contrastive analysis, as we discovered that only some of the errors a learner makes are attributed to the mother tongue, that learners do not actually make all the errors that contrastive analysis predicted they should, and that learners from disparate language backgrounds tend to make similar errors in learning one target language.14 Corder stated, “Error analysis confirms or disproves the predictions of the theory lying behind bilingual comparison.15 In this sense error analysis is an experimental technique for validating the theory of transfer. But error analysis goes beyond this; it aims at telling us something, about the psycholinguistic processes of language learning. We hope to be able to draw certain conclusion about the strategies adopted by the learner in the
12
Mathews, P. H, Oxford Concise Dictionary of Linguistic, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), p. 117.
13
JC Richard, John Platt, and Heidi Platt, Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistic, (London: Longman, 1992), p. 127.
14
Farkhan, An Introduction..., p. 149.
15
process of learning. In this sense, error analysis is part of the methodology of the psycholinguistic investigation of language learning.
According to definition above the writer conclude that error analysis is an effort to get in information about the students’ difficulty in learning a language especially to write it.
3. The Types of Error
Theo van Els, et. al., distinguish the type of students’ error as errors of performance and errors of competence.
Error of competence are the result of the application of rules by the L2 learner which do not (yet) correspond to the L2 norm; Error of performance are the result of mistakes in language use and manifest themselves as repeats, false starts, corrections or slips of the tongue.
Error of performance occurs frequently in the speech of both native speakers and L2 learners. They are especially likely to occur when the speaker suffers from stress, indecision or fatigue. Corder has suggested the following operational criterion for differentiating between these two types of error: L2 learners can recognize and correct errors of performance, but not errors of competence.
However, identification of errors of competence will only be possible if we can establish a difference between actual and intended L2 utterances.16
Noam Chomsky made a distinction between competence and performance. Competence is knowing what is grammatically correct; performance is what actually occurs in practice. He regarded performance as a faulty representation of competence, caused by psychological restrictions, such as memory lapses and limitations, distractions, changes of direction half-way through a sentence, hesitation and so on.17
16
Els, et. al., Applied Linguistic..., p. 52.
17
4. The Sources of Error
The final step in the analysis of erroneous learner production is that of determining the sources of error. By trying to identify sources we can begin to arrive at an understanding how the learner’s cognitive and affective self relates to the linguistic system and to formulate an integrated understanding of the process of second language acquisition.18
Errors-overt manifestation of learner’s system-arise from several possible general sources: inter-lingual errors of interference from the native language, inter-lingual errors within the target language, the sociolinguistic context of communication, psycholinguistic or cognitive strategies, and countless affective variables.19
Pit Corder (Hubbard, 1993) claims that there are three major causes of error, which he labels ‘transfer errors’, ‘analogical errors’, and ‘teaching-induced errors’. While Hubbard proposed a slightly different names;
a. Mother-tongue interference
Although young children appear to be able to learn a foreign language quite easily and to reproduce new sound very effectively, older learners experience considerable difficulty. The sound system (phonology) and the grammar of the first language impose themselves on the new language and this lead to a “foreign” pronunciation, faulty grammatical patterns and, occasionally, to the wrong choice 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 evidence. Where the data are inadequate, or the evidence only partial, such rules may produce incorrect pattern.
c. Context of learning
A third major source of error, through is overlaps both types of transfer, is the context of learning.
18
Brown, Principle of..., p. 213.
19
“Context” refers to the classroom with the teacher and the material in the case of school learning or the social situation. In a classroom context, the teacher or the textbook can lead the learner to make faulty hypothesis about the language what Richards called “False concept” and what Stenson termed “Induced errors.” Students
Transfer and overgeneralization are not distinct processes. Indeed, they represent aspects of the same found transfer errors to be more frequent with beginners than with intermediate students. The beginner has less previous second language to draw on in making hypotheses about rules, and might therefore be expected to make correspondingly more use of his first language knowledge.
c. Ambiguous source of many errors d. Simplification by omission.21
5. Some Errors on Students’ Paragraph Writing
Every learner has a different type of making errors. Furthermore, the most common errors that occur in writing are:
20
Hubbard et. al., A Training…, p. 140-143.
21
a. Article
The occurrence of the article varies depending upon the type of noun. The definite and indefinite article is customary to recognize a zero article. The two article are the and a. They may be used with a singular or a plural noun. Each of articles undergoes a change before a word beginning with a vowel sound – the changes in pronunciation, a changes in both pronunciation and spelling.22 The spelling of a is changed to an before a word that begins with a vowel sound (a, e, i, o, u). an essay, an heir (silent h). Use a before a word that begins with a consonant sound (all the other sounds except the vowels). a pencil, a hotel, a university (here the u sound is really a consonant sound like yu instead of like the vowel sound of u in understanding above).23 In Indonesian writing, no need to use article. It influences the students in their writing. Some students did not use articles in their composition. e.g. “I have cute little brother” it should be “I have a cute little brother.”
The chief semantic function of articles is to mark nouns as definite or indefinite. The signals a particular person or thing that has been singled out from others – the students sitting next to you. A signals unspecified one of others – a students sitting in front of row.24
22
Douglas Bibe, Stig Johanson, et. al., Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English, (England: Personal Education Limited, 1999), p. 260.
23
Teresa Ferster Glazier, The Least You Should Know About English Basic Writing Skills,
(New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1977), p. 6.
24
b. Capitalization
There are many uses of capitalization, some clearly understood by most writers and some not so clearly understood. According to Eugene Ehrlich, there are many rules that are presented:25
1) Sentences
The first word of every grammatical unit punctuated as a sentence is capitalized.
Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their party.
2) Poetry
The first word of every line of conventional poetry is capitalized. The great majority of poets start each line with a capitalize word.
One impulse from a vernal wood May teach you more of man, Of moral evil and of good, Than all the sagas can. -- William Wordsworth 3) Quotations
The first word of a quotation is capitalized, unless the quotation is less than a sentence long. Quotations sometimes do not consist of complete sentences. When they do not, the opening word of the quotation is not capitalized unless there is some other reason for capitalization. When the quotation is a complete sentence, the first word is capitalized.
Dave’s father said, “You must learn to fend for broken into two parts in the sentence quoting it. The second part is not capitalized if it is not treated as a sentence.
“You will,” he went on, “do exactly as I say.” 4) The Words I and O
The pronoun I and the interjection O are capitalized. Except for I, pronouns are not capitalized unless they are the first word of a sentence or a line of poetry.
He and I are going into business together. (He is capitalized because it is the first word of a sentence, I because it is I.)
25
The interjection O, which is seen mainly in literature and prayer but is rarely used today, is always capitalized, even though the interjection oh is not.
Hear me, O Israel! 5) Names
Proper Nouns and Adjectives
Proper nouns and adjectives are capitalized. A proper noun is the name of a particular person, place, or thing. A proper adjective is an adjective derived from a proper noun.
Frank met Lucy for dinner. (Frank and Lucy are proper nouns.)
The White House is the center of political activity in the United States. (White House and United States are proper nouns.)
Eleanor Holm was expert in the Australian crawl. (Australian is a proper adjective.)
6) Particles
American family names beginning with the particles Van, Von, De, Di, or Da are capitalized. Do not capitalize Paul Von Hardenburg. (An American name.)
Wernher von Braun started his career as a racketeer at Dortmund, Germany. (A German name.)
7) Geographical Names
Since geographical names are proper nouns, they are capitalized. There are several conventions that are followed with geographical names.
The words such as river, ocean, mountain, and gorge are geographical terms that are used both alone and as a part of the names of geographical features: Mississippi River, Atlantic Ocean, Deo Mountain. When river and the others occur as a part of a geographical name, they are capitalized. When they do not occur with a geographical name, they are not capitalized.
I have seen mountains in my time, but none to rival the Rocky Mountains.
Of all the rivers in the United States, there is none to rival the Mississippi River.
8) Compass Directions
east on this road. Do not capitalize directions when they serve as part of the name of a place or region.
An old song referred to the region just a little bit south of South Caroline.
9) Regional Names and Nicknames
The names and nicknames of geographic regions and political units are capitalized. As in compass directions used in regional names, all terms commonly used to name geographic regions and political units are capitalized. Not only are the proper names of countries and regions capitalized, but so are the nicknames used by the press, historians, and political commentators to designate such units.
Columbus set forth from the Old World to find what turned out to be the New World.
10)Streets, Buildings, Parks, and Companies
The names of all formally designated streets, buildings, parks, public places, companies, and other organizations are capitalized. specific expansion of the rule governing the capitalization of proper names: Columbia University, Seventh-Day Adventists, Asians, Poles, Department of Commerce.
When anything but the proper name of such a group is used, no capitals are required: college departments, fundamentalists, bureaucrats, government officials, charities. When a phrase is used that could serve as the name of an organization but does not, the phare is not capitalized. only official namea are capitalized.
We ought to organize a cheerleaders’ group. The Tenafly Cheerleaders’ Club is a popular group. 12)Deity and Sacred Writing
Nouns and pronouns referring to God and writing held to be sacred are capitalized.
The Koran is the holy book of the Nation of Islam. God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost were celebrated in a special Mass.
13)Events, Eras, Prizes, Documents
capitalized. this rule is still another extension of the general rule governing capitalization of proper names. Proper names of wars, battles, and so on merit capitalization just as much as the names of people or companies.
The end of the Spanish Civil War saw the death of democracy in that country.
A civil war is the saddest of wars.
The Noble Prize for Literature was won by Saul
The Secretary of State is generally the most important person in the administration of the country’s foreign affairs. (Title of High rank. Notice that unimportant words that are part of a title are not capitalized. Unimportant words are generally considered to be articles and prepositions and conjunctions of fewer than five letters.)
Academic Degrees
Capitalize all academic degrees and their abbreviations Many lawyers who hold the degree of Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) would prefer to receive the degree Doctor of Law (J.D), which is now common in most American law schools as the initial law degree.
Books, Plays, and Periodicals
Capitalize the first word and all important words in the title of a book, play, story, article, poem, musical work, journal, magazine, and newspaper. The only problem in this rule is definition of all important words. Important words are anything but short articles, prepositions, and conjunctions. Prepositions and conjunctions of five letters or more are considered important.
The House of Seven Gables (The is the first word; of has fewer than five letters.)
Much Ado About Nothing (About has five letters.)
c. Diction
difference usage in the sentence. For example, pal – pai. That is same when learning about homonyms, as stated by Katherine Ploeger in her book, “Homonyms are words that sound the same or almost the same but have different meanings. Some are possessives, other constructions, other something else.26
Some students made mistake in diction because of their lack of knowledge about this problem. They also generalized the meaning of words. For example, the using of where instead when in the sentence “When we member of scout”. They over generalized the meaning of word “where” and used it in wrong place. The students can know the right usage of diction only from learning by reading an exercise in writing. but have different meanings are listed in this table below.
Table 2: Homonym Problems
knowledge) Quiet (not noisy) Whether (if)
No (negative) Quite (very mess) Weather (clouds, sunshine)
Quit (to stop)
d. Omission
Omission errors are characterized by the absence of an item that must appear in a well-formed utterance. Although any morpheme or word in a sentence is a potential candidate for omission, some types of morphemes are omitted more than others. Content morphemes carry the bulk of the referential meaning of a sentence: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs.27 For example, in the sentence:
“Mary president new company”. It should be:
“Mary is the president of the new company”.
e. Preposition
A preposition shows the relation of its object to another word in the sentence.28
A preposition is a connecting word that typically indicates time, place, or movement. A preposition connects its object (a noun, pronoun, or noun substitute) with some other word in a sentence. Together the preposition, its object, and any words modifying the object form a preposition phrase-for example, on a sunny morning.29
The use of preposition:
1) To talk about the place where someone or something is. Prepositions are followed by a noun group. Which is called the object of the preposition, such as, above, among, at, behind, below, beneath, beside between, in, inside, near,
27
Dulay, Language Two …, p. 154.
28
Barry, Business English ..., p. 213.
29
on, opposite, outside, over, round, through, under, underneath.
2) To talk about the direction that someone or something is moving in, or the place that someone or something is moving towards. The preposition are across, along, back to, down, into, onto, out of, past, round, through, to, towards, up.
3) Many prepositions can be used both for place and direction. They are across, over.
4) We can use adverbs and adverb phrase for place and direction. They are abroad, away, downstairs, downwards, here, indoors, outdoors, there, underground, upstairs, anywhere, everywhere, nowhere, somewhere.
5) Many words can be used as prepositions and as adverbs, with no difference in meaning. Remember that prepositions have noun groups as object, but adverbs do not, such as down the stairs, underneath the bed.
6) Use ‘at’ when you are thinking of a place as a point in space.(at the bus stop).
7) Use ‘at’ with words such as ‘back’, ‘botton’, ‘end’, ‘front’, and ‘top’, to talk about the different parts of place.
8) Use ‘in’ when you are talking about a place as an area. Use ‘in’ with: a country or geographical region, a city, town, or village, a building when you are talking about people or things inside it.
9) Use ‘on’ when you are talking about place as a surface. You can also use ‘on top of’.
10)Use ‘by’ to talk about the type of vehicle or transport you use to travel somewhere.
f. Pronoun
Pronouns make up a small class of words of very high frequency. Pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun. The pronouns that are actual substitutes may refer not only to a preceding noun-its antecedent-but to a large part of a discourse that precedes.30
In addition, many pronouns have the ability to serve either of two functions—they may stand alone in noun function, or they may act as adjectives (determiners) that precede descriptive adjectives.
30
According to Marcella Frank, there are seven types of pronouns they are:
1) Personal Pronouns
Personal pronouns refer to:
a) The speaker, called the first person Singular – I (spelled with a capital letter)
Plural- we (includes the speaker and one or more others) b) The speaker, called the first person
Singular –he (for males), she (for females), it (for things; also for live beings whose sex is unknown or unimportant to the speaker)
Plural-they (for all live beings and for all things) 2) Interrogative Pronouns
Interrogative pronouns introduce direct or indirect questions. There are three interrogative pronouns-who (for person), what (for things), and which (for a choice involving either persons or things). The three interrogative pronouns have generalizing forms: whoever, whatever, and whichever.
3) Relative Pronoun
Relative pronouns refer to noun antecedents which immediately precede them. They introduce adjective clauses in which they serve as subjects or objects- The man who
answered the phone was rude. (Who is the subject of the verb answered in the adjective clause who answer the phone). The most common relative pronouns are who (for persons), that (for persons or things), which (for things). As sometimes also serves as a relative pronoun-She likes the same things as (= that) her husband does.
4) Demonstrative Pronouns
Demonstrative pronouns point out someone or something. The most common demonstrative pronouns are this (plural these) and that (plural those). This generally refer to what is near at hand, that to what is farther away. This distinction in space is related to the distinction between the adverbs here and there-This table (over here) is prettier than that one (over there).
increase in salary. This pleased her very much. Occasionally a demonstrative pronoun points to a part of a discourse that follows-I must tell you this. I can no longer afford to go out to expensive restaurants for dinner. That or those may be more emphatic alternatives for the. 5) Reflective pronoun
The reflexive pronoun is a combination of –self with one of the personal pronouns or with the impersonal pronoun one. The reflexive pronoun generally refer to an animate being, usually a person. The most common use of the reflexive pronoun is an object that “reflects back” to the subject; in other words, it has the same identity as the subject. Thus, in the sentence The child hurt himself, child and himself are identical.
6) Reciprocal Pronoun
Reciprocal pronoun has the same identity as the subject. The reciprocal pronoun indicates that the individual members of a plural subject mutually react one on the other. The reciprocal pronouns are each other and one another.
7) Indefinite Pronoun
Such pronouns refer to indefinite (usually unknown) persons
or things, or to indefinite quantities.
Indefinite person or things are all singular in form and are used without noun antecedents. For example: somebody, someone, and something.
Indefinite quantities, such as all, another, any, both, each, either, few, least, lest, little, a lot, etc.
g. Punctuation
Punctuation is the practice or system of inserting various marks in written test in order to aids interpretation.31
Punctuation is mainly confined to the four following general uses:
1) Punctuation marks the ends of main sentence patterns-of sentences or of independent clauses in sentences. The period, question mark, and exclamation mark, with different meanings, indicate the ends of complete sentences. The semicolon, and sometimes the colon or dash or comma, indicates secondary breaks, breaks between independent clauses within the sentence.
31
2) Punctuation tends to preserve the flow from subject to verb to complement by setting apart any elements which interrupt the thought of the pattern-non-restrictive modifiers, parenthetical expressions, and the like. Usually the comma is used for such purposes, although semicolon, dashes, and parentheses sometimes mark sharper separations.
3) Punctuation separates co-ordinate elements not sufficiently separated by punctuation words. Usually commas are sufficient for such separation, but sometimes a semicolon is used.
4) Punctuation has a number of conventional uses-to clarify statistical material, to mark bibliographical materials, to identify quotations, and so on. Most of these uses have been established by custom and are mechanical habits or traditions to be learned.
Marks of punctuation
.
The period marks the ends of sentences not to be distinguished as questions or exclamations. It has also a few conventional uses, mainly to mark abbreviations.? The question mark (interrogation point) is used at the end of a direct question-not an indirect one.
! The exclamation mark is used at the end of a complete or incomplete sentence to indicate strong emotion or feeling.
: The colon has mainly conventional uses, especially to introduce formal lists; it sometimes separates independent clauses.
; The semicolon mainly separates independent clauses, although it sometimes separates items in series.
, The comma is the most common punctuation mark in English, with a wide variety of uses.
- The dash, made with two hyphens on the typewriter, sometimes marks sharp breaks between clauses and sometimes sets off parenthetical material more sharply than a comma would.
“ “ Quotation marks enclose direct quotations, words reproduced as spoken or written.
( ) Parentheses have mainly conventional uses, but they also sometimes mark material to be sharply set apart within the sentence.
have brackets, brackets should be inserted by hand in typed material or made with the diagonal and underlining bars. … The ellipsis, three periods, marks an omission, usually from quoted matter.32
Most of the students misused the punctuation, e.g., “When I saw you for the first time. I was very surprised” he/she used a period instead of comma. In this punctuation case, the students made errors because they do not pay attention to the punctuation in writing, whereas punctuation is important to make the meaning clear. They did not realize that written English is different from spoken language. Gestures, tones, and stressing can make the meaning clear in spoken language but only punctuation can make the meaning clear in written English.
This error is sometimes the result from immediate communication strategy when the learner tried to express a meaning, which their competence contained no appropriate items or rules at all. Overgeneralization and transfer may also become the result of an immediate communication strategy. Indonesian word order and English word order is different. For example,” Smart you are” it should be “You are smart”.
h. Singular and Plural
According to Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar, “Singular is a word or form that denotes or refers to a single person or thing. Singular contrasts mainly with plural in the description of nouns, pronouns, and verb form.
Uncount nouns are sometimes described as singular because they take singular verbs. But this is misleading, since singular count nouns and uncount nouns do not share all the same determiners (e.g. a/one roll but some/much bread). Invariable nouns of plural meaning
32
lacking an –s but taking a plural verb (e.g. police) are sometimes described as singular nouns. The term ‘singular noun’ is also sometimes applied to a noun which, in a particular meaning, can be used with a/an (e.g. What a pity!).33
While plural is a word or form denoting more than one. Contrasted with singular. In English, plural applies to certain nouns, pronouns, and determiners, and to verbs. In general, count nouns have distinct plural forms, which in regular nouns end in –s or –es. Nouns with irregular plurals include some of Old English origin (feet, children, etc., and zero plurals such as sheep, deer) and some foreign plurals (crises, errata, etc.).
A few nouns are plural only. Many end in –s (e.g. premises). But some plural-only words are unmarked (e.g. cattle, people). 34
The plurals of most English nouns, however, conform to a standard pattern; that is, most of them form their plurals by the addition of s or es. If you keep the following principles in mind and consult your dictionary whenever doubt arises, you will have no difficulty in controlling plural forms. If the dictionary entry for a noun shows no plural, it is formed simply by the addition of s or es.
1) English nouns that end in s, x, z, ch, or sh are made plural by the addition of es.
business businesses bush bushes tax taxes watch watches quiz quizzes
All other proper nouns (those not ending in s, x, z, ch, or sh) are made plural by the addition of s.
Martin The martins
Sperry the Sperrys Ford the Fords
2) Most common nouns are made plural by the addition of s. automobile automobiles
33
Chalker, Weiner, The Oxford..., p. 363.
34
employee employees
3) Common nouns that end in y fall into two classifications: if a noun ends in y preceded by a vowel, the plural is formed by the addition of s. if it ends in y preceded by a consonant, the plural is formed by changing the y to i and adding es. Plurals of nouns ending in quy are formed in this same manner. 4) The plurals of personal names accompanied by titles may be
correctly expressed in more that one ay. The modern tendency in business writing is to avoid the use of plural titles, such as Messrs, because they are very formal in nature. 5) Most nouns that end in f, fe, or ff are made plural by the
addition of s. in some nouns, however, the f or fe is changed to v and es is added.
6) The principle that governs nouns ending in o is divided into four parts: if a noun ends with o preceded by a vowel, the plural is formed by the addition of s. If a musical term ends in o, the plural is formed by the addition of s. if a noun ends
7) Some nouns are made plural by a vowel change (man men). 8) A few nouns take en as a plural ending. (child children). 9) Some nouns are the same in the singular and the plural.
(sheep sheep)
10)A few nouns that end in s are singular in meaning and require singular
11)verbs when used as subjects of sentence. (news mathematics) 12)Plural nouns such as scissors, thanks, goods, etc. may be
either singular or plural in meaning, but they are used only with plural verbs. They have no corresponding singular forms.
13)Compound nouns consist of a combination of two or more words that are written in one of these ways: in solid forms as one word, as a hyphenated word, or as separate words. 14)The plural of a letter, a numeral, a symbol, or a word referred
to as a word is formed by the addition of an apostropedhe and s.
15)The plural of an abbreviation is generally formed by the addition of s to the singular form.
16)Some abbreviations have the same form for both the singular and the plural.
17)The plural of an abbreviation made up of separate letters is formed by the addition of an apostrophe and s.
19)Many nouns that are foreign in origin are commonly used in formal, scientific, and technical matter. Some of these nouns have only their foreign plurals; other have been given an additional (English) plural. 35
i. Spelling
Spelling ability is not necessary an index to intelligence or education, but certainly the person who spells inaccurately works under a handicap. He is likely to be considered uneducated by anyone who catches him in errors, and he is likely to be limited in his writing, as he relies on simple but sometimes colorless words in order to be safe in his spelling. Some people are sufficiently eye-minded that they learn to spell unconsciously. By the time they have seen a word spelled correctly several times, they know it. Others have to work on spelling, not because they are slow or stupid but because their minds happen not to work in the way that records spelling automatically. But fortunately almost any intelligent person can learn to spell reasonably well if he will work at it. A “bad” speller is usually only a person who does not spell without learning, who has never been properly taught, or who has never tried hard enough to learn.
In spelling, as in almost every else, there is no substitute for a good background. The more a student reads, and the better writing he reads, the better he is likely to spell. Any diagnosis is likely to turn up problems like the following.
1) Habitual misspelling: the student is misspelling the same few words over and over.
2) Carelessness: hesitating during composition to spell every word correctly may impede writing, but there is no excuse for leaving misspelling uncorrected after the writing is done. An uncertain speller should scrutinize every word before he lets any written work out of his hands.36
35
Barry, Business English..., p. 63-67.
36
While Willis states that spelling is how to write a word correctly, spelling error can because by lack of knowledge and the influence of their native language. For instance; hight, wildt, forbitten, coupel, etc. some students made many errors in this case. It caused by the students’ lack of knowledge and the influence of their native language. Spelling problems can be over come only through practice and if the students need more practice, they should arrange practice session with a friend.37
j. Verb Tense
Tense is a firm taken by a verb to indicate the time at which the action or state is viewed as occurring.38 They made mistakes because they did not understand well the grammar; it is also caused by intra-lingual transfer overgeneralization.
k. Word Form
Word form is any variant of a lexeme. Used as a way of avoiding ambiguity of word. e. g. see, sees, seeing, etc.39
Overgeneralization and transfer can be the cause of error in word form. Indonesian word form is different from English word form. They often over-generalize the form of words. For example, “to responded” it should be “to respond”; “I were cooking fried rice” it should be “I was cooking fried rice.”
37 Hullon Willis,
Structure, Style, and Usage and Guide to Expository Writing, (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1964), p. 257.
38
Chalker, Weiner, The Oxford..., p. 395.
39
l. Word Order
According to Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary “Word order is arrangement of words in a phrase, clause, or sentence. 40
This error is sometimes the result from immediate communication strategy when the learner tried to express a meaning, which their competence contained no appropriate items o rules at all. Overgeneralization and transfer may also become the result of an immediate communication strategy. Indonesian word order and English word order is different. For example, ‘Smart you are” it should be “You are smart.”
m. Wordiness
According to Buscemi et.al., “Wordiness comes from using more words than you need to get your message across. Sometimes students become wordy simply to provide the number of words required by the assignment”.41 In line with Langan, he states that “Using more words than necessary to express a meaning”.42
For example:
Not : She is the best swimmer of the three Rumanians swimmers. But : She is the best of the three Rumanians swimmers.
B. Writing
1. The Definition of Writing
Sometimes people write something. They convey their ideas through writing. Learning to write does not come naturally in the same way as learning to speak. It involves many complex skills, knowledge and
40
Merriam-Webster’s…, p. 1442.
41
Santi V. Buschemi, et.al., The Basic a Rhetoric and Handbook, (Boston: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2000), third edition, p. 373.
42
concepts. Before learning to write a writer must understand the definition of writing.
In this part the writer quotes some definitions of writing. According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, writing is to make letters or other symbols (ideograph) on a surface.43 It means that writing is an activity to arrange a group of letters or symbols, which have a meaning on a medium.
Writing is an integral part of human life. Someone almost writes something everyday. He/she maybe writes a lesson, a letter or story, etc, learning to write does not come naturally in the same way as learning to speak. It involves many complex skills, knowledge and concepts. One of important aspects of learning to write is growing an awareness of self to practice writing. Meanwhile understanding the definition of writing is a must.
In other word, Ann Brown gave the definition of writing from sociological view; it is a medium of interaction among people to make relationship and to exchange information among each other in any distances. She said, “Writing is important in our lives and as a communicative act that transmit information and link people together”.44
The various definition of writing according to experts above can be identified by the key words of each definition and it can be concluded in a sentence. So the writing is a process of the mental physical act in expressing thoughts and feeling of thinking in forming letters and words into sentences correctly to shape experiences, to communicate and to link people together on a surface.
43
A. S. Hornby, Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987), p. 996.
44
2. The Writing Sentence
The word sentence in a number of handbooks will probably find a different definition in each one. According to the Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar, sentence is the largest unit of language structure treated in traditional grammar; usually having a subject and predicate, and (when written) beginning with a capital letter and ending with full stop.45
While Donald Hall and Sven Birkerts in their book Writing Well state that sentence is a group of words with a period, an exclamation point, or a question mark at the end. A sentence is also a verbal structure that reflects something about the world. It puts words in relation in order to map our understanding of the sensible structure of things.46
In addition Enno Klammer explains that sentence is an independent unit of expression. Moreover she explains that sentence is a group of words containing a subject and a predicate and expressing a complete thought.47
3. The Types of Sentence
According to Bob Brannan, there are four types of sentences they are simple sentence, compound sentence, complex sentence, and compound-complex sentence. 48
a. Simple Sentence
A simple sentence contains one main clause with no subordinate clauses. It may be short and truly ‘simple’, as in uncomplicated, or it may have several phrases that lengthen it and add complexity. Here are several examples:
Aaron likes ice cream.
45
Chalker, Weiner, The Oxford..., p. 358.
46
Donald Hall, Sven Birkerts, Writing Well. 9th Ed, (Washington D. C: Addison Wesley Longman, 1998), p. 126.
47
Enno Klammer, Paragraph Sense: A Basic Rhetoric, (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc, 1978), p. 2.
48
Aaron and his younger sister like ice cream. b. Compound Sentence
A compound sentence merely adds one or more main clause to a simple sentence. A sentence has two sets (or more) of subjects and verbs that are usually divided with a coordinating conjunction like and or but and a comma-or a semicolon if the conjunction is omitted. Compound sentence may be uncomplicated or may contain a great deal of information, but it may not contain a subordinate clause. Here are several examples:
Aaron likes ice cream, so he eats a lot of it.
Aaron and his younger sister like ice cream, so they eat a lot of it.
c. Complex Sentence
Complex sentence is not necessarily any more “complex,” as in complicated, than simple or compound sentences, but it does certain another kind of clause-the subordinate or dependent clause. A complex sentence, then consist of one main clause and one or more subordinate clauses along with whatever other phrases the sentence accumulates. Here are several examples:
Aaron likes ice cream because it tastes sweet.
Aaron and his younger sister like ice cream because it tastes sweet.
d. Compound-Complex Sentence
The compound-complex sentence is just a combination of the two preceding sentence types. It consists of two or more main clauses with one or more subordinate clauses along with accompanying phrases. Here are several examples:
Aaron likes ice cream because it tastes sweet, so he eats a lot of it.
Aaron likes ice cream that is full of chocolate chips, so he eats a lot of it.
While John Langan in his book Sentence Skill also divides the sentence into four types as simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex.49 Each is explained below.
a. Simple Sentence
A simple sentence has a single subject-verb combination. A simple sentence may have more than one subject or more than one verb. For example:
The game ended early. Lola and Tony drove home.
The children smiled and waved at us.
49
b. Compound Sentence
A compound sentence, or “double,” sentence is made up of two (or more) simple sentences. The two complete statements in a compound sentence are usually connected by a comma plus a joining word (and, but, for, or, nor, so, yet). For example:
The rain increased, so the officials canceled the game. Martha wanted to go shopping, but Fred refused to drive her.
c. Complex Sentence
A complex sentence is made up of a simple sentence (a complete statement) and a statement that begins with a dependent words such as, after, as, because, etc. For example:
Because I forgot the time, I missed the final exam. d. Compound-Complex Sentence
A compound-complex sentence s made up of two (or more) simple sentences and one (or more) dependent statements. For example:
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
C. Error
When the students write in English, they can make a lot of errors. It seems impossible if the learners or students have never been made some errors in their language learning process, because do some errors is human and natural.
4. The Definition of Error
There are many definitions of errors. According to Geographical Webster, Revised Home and Office Dictionary of the English Language, “Error is a mistake made in writing or other wise, a wondering or deviation from the truth,50 it means that error can be found in the writing covering a phoneme, a word, a phrase, a clause, a sentence, a paragraph, a discourse. While in Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary Eleventh Edition, “Error is an act involving an unintentional deviation from truth or accuracy”.51
Dullay stated, “Errors are the flawed side of learner speech or writing.”52 It means that there is something wrong in norms of language performance. As the writer said before, that making errors are unavoidable in learning process. Besides making errors are parts of learning and no one can learn language without his/her first making errors.
50
Geographical WebsterRevised Home and Office Dictionary of the English Language
(Chicago), p. 384.
51
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary Eleventh Edition (Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, Inc, 2003), p. 425.
52
Littlewood stated, “Errors are signs of learning failure and, as such, not to be willingly tolerated.53 Error cannot always be easily identified. First of all, the notion of ‘error’ presupposes a norm, and norms, in their turn, are dependent on, amongst other things, the medium (spoken or written language), the social context (formal or informal), and the relation between speaker and hearer (symmetrical or asymmetrical). Furthermore, it is quite possible for something which seems an error in isolation to be perfectly acceptable in context, and vice versa.54
Error and mistakes are not the same. But most of the people still misunderstand about definition of both. To be more clarified between error and mistakes, Hubbard et.al., said “Errors caused by lack of knowledge about the target language (English) or by incorrect hypothesis about it; and unfortunate mistakes caused by temporary lapses of memory, confusion, slips of the tongue and so on”.55
A mistake refers to a performance error that is either a random guess or a “slip,” in that it is a failure to utilize a known system correctly. It is the result of some sort of breakdown or imperfection in the process of producing speech. These hesitations, slips of the tongue, random ungrammaticalities, and other performance lapses in native-speaker production also occur in second language speech, and when attention is called to it, mistake can be self corrected.56 Such mistakes must be carefully distinguished from errors of a second language learner, idiosyncrasies in the interlanguage of the learner that are direct manifestations of a system within which a learner is operating at the time.
53
William T. Littlewood, Foreign and Second language Learning, (Cambridge: Cambridge Univrsity Press, 1988), p. 22.
54
Theo van Els, et. al., Applied Linguistic and the Learning and Teaching of Foreign Languages (London: Edward Arnold, 1991), p. 47.
55
Peter Hubbard et. al., A Training Course for TEFL, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1983), p. 134.
56
An error is a noticeable deviation from the adult grammar of a native speaker, reflecting the interlanguage competence of the learner.57
Julian Edge, in Harmer (2001), suggested that mistake can be divided into two broad categories: ‘slip’ and ‘attempts’. Slips are mistakes which students can correct themselves once the mistake has been pointed out to them, while attempts are mistakes committed when a student tries to say something but does not yet know the correct way of saying it.58
For this paper the writer adopt the definition of genuine errors that caused by lack of knowledge about English or by lack of incorrect hypothesis about English. So, if the student can not correct himself when he was challenged, it means he made an error, but he made mistake if he can correct himself when he was challenged because a mistake is caused by temporary lapses of memory, confusion, slips of the tongue and so on.
5. The Error Analysis
It is impossible that learners never make some errors in language learning process. According to Peter Hubbard et.al., “The behaviorists regarded language learning as the acquisition of skills, comparable to the process of learning to do something practical, like driving a car. The complex skill was broken down into a series of habits, which ere drilled until they became automatic and unthinking. The habits were taught is a series of small steps, so as to avoid errors.” In other words, to achieve the English acquisition, the students must get through some errors first, and then automatically they can learn from their own errors.
The teacher will also need to know which part of the subject matter that most students do some errors and most students do not. Finding out the learners’ errors then analyzing it is called Error Analysis.
57
Muhammad Farkhan, An Introduction to Linguistics, (Jakarta: UIN Jakarta Press, 2006), p. 149.
58
