Proceeding Internasional Seminar

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International Seminar Proceeding: Language, Translation and Language Teaching.

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ERROR ANALYSIS

ON STUDENTS’

ESSAY

David Berthony Manalu Universitas HKBP Nommensen

ABSTRACT

This paper is about a research on the error analysis of writing essay. It deals with the grammar errors analysis of the undergraduate students’ writing. The theoretical framework used in this research refers to the error analysis theories i.e., Lunsford, 2001; James, 1998; Brown, 1980; Richards, 1974; and Corder, 1971. This research is categorized to a case study with a qualitative design. The subjects were the written English essay of undergraduate students at Teacher Training Faculty of HKBP Nommensen University Pematangsiantar (FKIP-UHN PS). The object of the study was the grammar errors committed by the undergraduate students in writing English essay. The technique of the data collection used in this research was documentary method. The technique of the data analysis used in this research referred to the content analysis. The findings show that the undergraduate students commit grammar errors in writing English essay. The descriptions of their errors are: omission, overinclusion, misselection, misordering, and blends. The causes of grammar errors are overgeneralization, ignorance of rule restriction, incomplete application of rules, and false concepts hypothesized.

Key Words: error, omission, overinclusion, misselection, misordering, blends,

I. INTRODUCTION

Errors occur for many reasons. The first main cause is interference from Mother Tongue (MT). A student supposes that the Target Language (TL) and his Native Language (NL) are similar so he makes errors. This kind of overgeneralization is the main sources of errors. The next cause is an incomplete knowledge of the target language. The complexity of the target language is the third common cause. Some certain aspects of English such as the “s” in the third person singular present tense are difficult. Also, spelling is another problematic area for nonnative speakers of English.

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The researcher is interested to investigate the description and causes of errors committed by the undergraduate students at Teacher Training Faculty of HKBP Nommensen University Pematangsiantar (FKIP UHN PS), and how to cope with the errors in order to improve the quality of the undergraduate students’ writing, particularly in academic writing.

II. THE REVIEW OF LITERATURE 2.1 Definition of Error

Error is a short word, however, it is found everywhere, it means in the structure, the pronunciation, and the entire language. Corder, in his 1967 seminal paper, made a distinction between a mistake and an error. Whereas a mistake is a random performance slip caused by fatigue, excitement, etc., and therefore can be readily self-corrected, an error is a systematic deviation made by the learners who have not yet mastered the rules of the second language (L2). A learner cannot self-correct an error because it is a product reflective of his/her current stage of L2 development, or underlying competence (Corder, 1967, ed, Richards, 1974:24).

Similarly, James defines errors as being an instance of language that is unintentionally deviant and is not self-corrigible by its author. But a mistake is either intentionally deviant or unintentionally deviant and self-corrigible (1998:78). What he meant by corrigible is a property of an instance of language. So the corrigibility of a sentence is an indication of its ungrammaticality. Moreover, its corrigibility is up to the grammar to decide.

In conclusion, an error is not something to be prevented. It is normal in learning process. Rather than being seen as something to be prevented, then, errors were signs that learners were actively engaged in hypothesis testing would ultimately result in the acquisition of TL Rules (Freeman and Long, 1991:59). Since error cannot be self-corrected by the learner him/herself, it takes teaching and learning process to the most important side.

2.2 Levels of Error

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Table of Levels of Error (James, 1998:130)

Substance

Composing spoken text (Misspeaking)  Lexicon

 Grammar syntax, the former handling word structure, the latter handling structures “larger” than the word (James, 1998:154).

2.3.1 Morphological Errors

Morphology error is a failure to comply with the norm in supplying any part of any instance of the word classes (Noun, Verb, Adjective, Adverb, and Preposition).

Some examples of morphology errors are below:

- *six book √six books

- aboli*shment aboli√tion

- *bringed √brought

- *colorfuller scene √colorful scene - *was drinken √was drinking

2.3.2 Syntactical Errors

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ISBN: 978-981-09-1355-7

4 - *You would be most likely get first prize.

√You would be likely to get first prize.

√You would most likely get fist prize

c. Sentence errors

- They believe [they can become leaders in their field1] and [a good secure2]. The two conjuncts are not equals: in fact the first is a clause and the second an NP. What they have in common is that both are objects of the verb believe.

- (a) Gandhi, who led the independence movement in India, was a politician. (b) Gandhi, who was a politician, led the independence movement in India. They contain the same information, but it is differently packaged and differently valued in each. In (a) Gandhi’s being a politician is what matters, and that he led the independence movement is an extra, an aside. In (b) just the converse weighting of information is achieved. So which is right? It depends on the context, and on what point the writer is attempting to make. If the next sentence is about Gandhi as a politician, for example He had learnt politics from the British, then (a) is the right formulation. If, on the other hand, the next sentence is about the independence movement, for example The movement had become powerful ten years earlier, then (b) is right.

d. Intersentence errors (Cohesion)

- Jim insists that there is a beast. Jack being controlled by *this fear. There is no obvious referent of “this fear”.

- Simon is also a Christ like figure. We see *it in the way he gave his food to Piggy.

Simon is also a Christ like figure. We see √this in the way he gave his food to Piggy.

- *By the same token if you are too old I am too old also. √If you are too old, by the same token I am too old also.

2.4 Error Description

Errors can be described through their taxonomies. Thus, James (1998:102) terms error description with error taxonomies. He suggests five taxonomies in describing errors: (1). ommission, (2). overinclusion, (3). misselection, (4). misordering, and (4). blends.

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5 2.5 Sources of Errors

By identifying the sources of error, the writer begins to know how learner’s cognitive and affective self relates to the linguistic system and also to formulate the process of learning his first foreign language. There are two sources of errors, they are mother-tongue influences (Interlingual) and target language causes (Intralingual).

Richards (1974: 35) exposed interlingual errors as errors which are caused by interference from the native language to the target language they learn. In short, the learning problem is caused by the structure of L1. For instance, in Indonesian nouns do not pluralize after a numeral; one says in Indonesian the equivalent of dua dolar and not dua dollars, then he could this interference into writing two dollars become *two dollar.

Intralingual errors are caused by interference of the target language. Richards (1974:174) explained that intralingual or developmental errors reflect the learner’s competence at particular stage and illustrate some of the general characteristics of language acquisition. This error can be divided into four terms, they are: overgeneralization, ignorance of rule restriction, incomplete application of rules, and false concepts hypothesized (semantic error). For instance: I would

enjoy *to learn (√learning) about America, caused ignorance of the fact that the verb enjoy selects a gerundial complement.

III. RESEARCH METHOD

A descriptive qualitative design was used in this research. A qualitative research refers to the meanings, concepts, definitions, characteristics, metaphors, symbols, and description of things (Berg, 1989:2). With reference to the research being done, some of those procedures are involved, as what are to be observed were the description, the causes and the solution of the students’ errors in writing essay. This research can be classified into a documentary analysis study. The document used in this research was the students’ writing. The subjects of this research were the written English essay of undergraduate students at Teacher Training Faculty of HKBP Nommensen University Pematangsiantar (FKIP-UHN PS). The object of this research was the grammar errors committed by the undergraduate students in writing English essay. The data were collected from the Writing III (Essay Writing) final examination of odd semester (seventh semester) which was held on January, 25th 2012. They were tested to write an essay about the differences of two related objects (free topic). The steps of data analysis of this research are presented below:

1. Identifying the grammar errors. They can be morphology errors or syntax errors.

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3. Analyzing the causes of those errors. They can be overgeneralization, ignorance of rule restriction, incomplete application of rules, and false concepts hypothesized

4. These three steps of analysis are done until the grammar errors are repeatedly or redundantly committed in their writing essay.

IV. DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDING 4.1 Sample of Data (Student’s Writing)

“THE TEACHER AND THE STUDENT”

The teacher is who teaching the student. She/he always teaching their student with use metode because it’s can to easy the teacher to transfer the lesson to student’s. The teacher always give a motivation to students because with motivation the students can get the spirit to study. How to be a good teacher or professional teacher. The teacher must has an experience to teaching. Such as teaching English, the teacher who to teaching English must has vocabulary and has more knowledge.

The teacher must be to make the student’s to be a good person, because experience is a good teacher. With experiences we can study more knowledge. The student is who get a knowledge from teacher. The student must study hard to get a good mark. The student must be optimist. When the student has a problem from the lesson, they can discuss with the teacher. The differences of the teacher and the student is the teacher is who teaching of student than the student is who get knowledge from the teacher.

The teacher always standby if any student has a problem from the lesson who the teacher teaching. And then the teacher explain and explain until the student understand.

4.1.1 Analysis on the Error’s Description 1. *The teacher is who teaching the student.

The learner commits omission and misselection error. It is omission because there is no object in the sentence. It is misselection because the chosen verb “teaching” is used in the wrong form. The correct sentence is:

√The teacher is a person who teaches the student.

2. *She/he always teaching their student with use method because it’s can to easy the teacher to transfer the lesson to students.

The learner commits misselection and overinclusion error. The words “teaching”, “their”, “with use” and “easy” are misselection. While overinclusion can be found in the word “it’s can”. The word “is” is an item that should not appear since there is auxiliary verb “can”. The correct sentence is:

√She/he always teaches her/his student by using method because it can ease the teacher to transfer the lesson to students.

3. *The teacher always give a motivation to students because with motivation the students can get the spirit to study.

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√The teacher always gives a motivation to students because with motivation the students can get the spirit to study.

4. *The teacher must has an experience to teaching.

The learner commits misselection error by using verb “has” since there is auxiliary verb “must”. Every sentence that uses auxiliary verb needs base form of a verb. The preposition “to” is also a misselection error. The correct sentence is:

√The teacher must have an experience about teaching.

5. *The teacher who to teaching English must has vocabulary and has more knowledge.

The learner commits misselection errors by using verb “teaching” and “has” in the sentence. There is overinclusion by using preposition “to” between “who” and teaching”. Then also misordering is committed by the learner in using determiner “more”. The correct sentence is:

√The teacher who teaches English must have more vocabularies and knowledge.

6. *The teacher must be to make the students to be a good person.

The learner commits omission and misselection. He omits the words “able” between “must be” and “to”. It is misselection to the verb “make” instead of “motivate”. The correct sentence is:

√The teacher must be able to motivate the students to be a good person. 7. *The student is who get a knowledge from teacher.

The learner commits omission and misselection error. It is omission because there is no object in the sentence. It is misselection because the chosen verb “get” is used in the wrong form since the subject of the sentence is a third singular person. The correct sentence is:

√The student is a person who gets knowledge from teacher.

4.1.2 Analysis on the Error’s Causes

1. *The teacher is who teaching the student.

The cause of error in this sentence is incomplete application of rules. The learner fails to apply the grammar rules completely.

2. *She/he always teaching their student with use method because it’s can to easy the teacher to transfer the lesson to students.

The cause of error in this sentence is over-generalization. The learner creates deviant form in the target language in place of two regular structures.

3. *The teacher always give a motivation to students because with motivation the students can get the spirit to study.

4. *The teacher must has an experience to teaching.

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The cause of error in this sentence is incomplete application of rules. The learner fails to apply the grammar rules completely.

6. *The teacher must be made the students to be a good person.

The cause of error in this sentence is false concepts hypothesized. There is faulty comprehension of distinction in the target language. It gives different meaning to the sentence since its form is passive voice.

7. *The student is who get a knowledge from teacher.

The cause of error in this sentence is incomplete application of rules. The learner fails to apply the grammar rules completely

4.2 Research Finding

After analyzing the data, the researcher finds:

1) There are omission error, overinclusion error, misselection error, misordering error, and blend error in their writing. The Errors’ description can be summarized in this table below:

Error Description Area of Error

Omission  Suffix “s/es” for third singular verb and “ed” for verb past.

 Preposition

Overinclusion Auxiliary Verbs (be, have, do, modals) Misselection Verb

 Preposition

 Noun

Misordering Noun Phrase (Adj-N)

 Compound sentence

Blends Words choice

2) Generally, the cause of errors in their writing is interlingual error. Specifically, those errors are caused by overgeneralization, ignorance of rule restriction, incomplete application of rules and false concepts hypothesized. These causes are summarized in this table below:

Cause of

Error Sentences Explanation

Overgenerali zation

*The teacher must has an experience to teaching.

Overgeneralization covers instances where the learner creates a deviant structure on the basis of his experience of other structures in the target language. The use of verb “has” is overgeneralization since the sentence uses modal “must”. Verbs of third singular person have to be changed into their basic form when there is a modal. The correct sentence is:

√The teacher must have an experience about teaching.

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International Seminar Proceeding: Language,

existing structures. The noun “difficulty” is used instead of adjective “difficult”. Besides pronoun (it) is needed in this sentence to be the subject. The correct sentence is:

√Because, nowadays it is difficult to get job.

Incomplete relative clause completely. The correct sentence is: error. The learner has faulty comprehension to differentiate noun “food” and verb “eat”.

a) Intervention Feedback. Informing the learners that there is an error, and leaving them to discover it and repair it themselves.

b) Correction Proper. Providing treatment or information that leads to the revision and correction of the specific instance of error (the error token) without aiming to prevent the same error from recurring later. In addition to indicating that the present attempt is wrong, the teacher can specify how and where, suggest an alternative, and give a hint.

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errors happen because there are influences of the rules of their mother tongue on those of the target language.

5.2 Suggestion

This research suggests that English grammar lecturers deliver the materials clearly and accurately. This will affect their ability in writing later. They should encourage students to see grammar used more realistically and in more interesting ways. The topics covered in the exercises can be used as a starting point for a lesson, as a subject for discussion, and as a means of helping to build students' vocabulary in useful areas. There is opportunity for individual study, group work and homework, plus testing, in the different sections of the handbook used. The learning achievement does not thoroughly depend on teachers’ responsibility. The learners are suggested to apply the learning foundation: learning to know grammar and learning to do grammar. The researcher suggests the English learners to have good references about English Grammar. The other researchers are also suggested to a replicated research by using error analysis in different field such as spelling, pronunciation, lexicon, semantics, and discourse errors.

REFERENCES

1) Brown, H. Douglas. 1980. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. London: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

2) Corder, S.P. 1971. Idiosyncratic Dialects and Error Analysis. In J. C. Richards (Ed.), Error Analysis: Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition. London: Longman Group Ltd

3) Freeman, Diane Larsen & Michael H. Long. An Introduction to Second Language Acquisition Research. New York: Longman.Inc.

4) James, Carl. 1998. Errors in Language Learning and Use: Exploring Error Analysis. London: Longman Ltd.

5) Kleinmann, Howard. 1977. Avoidance Behavior in Adult Second Language Acquisition. Language Learning, 27:93-107

6) Nemser, W. 1971. Approximative Systems of Foreign Language Learners. International Review of Applied Linguistics Vol 9, No.2:115-123.

7) Richards, J.C. 1974. Error Analysis: Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition. London: Longman Group Ltd

8) Richards, J.C. 1984. Error Analysis. London: Longman Group Ltd

9) Schachter, J. 1974. An Error in Error Analysis. Language Learning Vol. 24 No.2: 205-214.