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Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Error in English Grammar

A.    Language Error

Yielding a failure is natural. People who want to learn are creatures who realize the flaws in themselves. To get the correctness, people have to dare in making a failure. Failure is received as a means to make better in the future. “you can’t learn without goofing”. Hence, people say that yielding failure is fair in learning a second language, even the case in this discussion is the language system between L1 and L2 is different. Hence, from this reason, the presence of error analysis is needed for handling this matter.

In order to be able to analyzing the students’ error properly, it is urgent for us to distinguish the two terms between error and mistake in Second Language Acquisition (SLA). Therefore, those differentiations are significant to avoid the vague: 


1.      Error

Error is the use of linguistic item in a way that a fluent or native speaker of the language regards it as showing faulty or incomplete learning. In other words, it occurs because the learner does not know what is correct, and thus it cannot be self-corrected. Error arises because the learner of second language (L2) does not realize the faulty that he/ she made, so that he/ she can not revise it as soon as possible. Consequently, Error always still comes up every time the language learner practices it in the form of writing or speech. It happened since the learner of L2 does not master the rule of language system of the L2.
Error takes place when the deviation as a result of “lack of knowledge”. L2 learners make error because they do not understand the system or rule of the target language toughly.  They can not correct it since it is a product reflection of their current stage of second language development or underlying competence. Error can be identified as a deviation from the norms of the target language. L2 learners are not alone in making errors. Children who learn their first language (L1) also make errors. The scenario of this case can be illustrated in this example: the English learners of Indonesian can speak Saya ke sekolah tadi pagi in their mother tongue, but in English which is learned as the target language, they can not say *I to school this morning because if it happened, the native speaker of the target language can not understand the meaning of their utterance. It is an ambiguous utterance. This utterance needs a verb to make clear the message that will be conveyed; so that, it should be revised into I went to school this morning that indicated a past activity. This case of error happened because the learners of L2 do not understand or master the English’s system.
From those descriptions above, it can be concluded that error is a failure refers to the student’s competence. Error may arise because the learner of L2 does not recognize or understand the language system or the language rule appropriately. The distinctive feature related to the error is that the learner is not able to self-correct.

2.      Mistake

A mistake refers to a performance error that is either a random guess or a slip, in that it is a failure to harness a known system properly. In both native and second language situations, it can not be avoided that entire people make mistakes. Native speakers normally can recognize and correct such lapses or mistakes, which are not the outcome of the weakness in competence but the outcome of some sort of temporary breakdown or imperfection in the process of producing speech. In addition, these hesitations slip of the tongue, random ungrammaticalities, and other performance lapses in native speaker production also happen in second language speech. Moreover, a mistake can be self-corrected when the learners pay attention deeply on it.
Mistake is made by a learner when writing or speaking and which is caused by a lack of attention, fatigue carelessness or some other aspects of performance. He also conveys that mistakes can be self-corrected when attention is called.
The term of mistake is as a learner’s performance relates to the inadvertence. It is a learner’s unawareness in applying the language system that they have known before. A mistake occurs when factors such as, fatigue and inattention or unawareness influence the learner. In addition, the learners recognize their own mistake, so that they can revise it correctly.
Moreover, we can say that mistake may occur in the students’ writing or speech when the factors such as, lack of attention, fatigue, carelessness, unawareness or other aspects of performance affects the learner in learning the target language. A mistake can be easily self-corrected by them if they pay attention on it seriously because they have known the language system before.
To simplify the term between error and mistake, I suggest two ways. The first one is to check the consistency of learner’s performance. If he/she sometimes uses the correct form and sometimes the wrong one, it is a mistake. However, if he/she always uses it incorrectly, it is then an error. The second way is to ask the learner to try the correct his/her own deviant utterance. Where he/she is unable to, the deviations are errors; where he/she is successful, they are mistakes. Hence, the study core of the research solely focuses on the term of error, not a mistake because mistake is inconsistent, it occurs temporally. 

B. Error Classification

One of the error classification is based on thr surface strategy taxonomy that focuses on the change of surface structure. In this case, the learner may omit necessary item or add unnecessary item, he/ she may miss form items or disorder them. The explanation related to the surface strategy taxonomies’ categories is discussed below

1.      Omission

The absence of an item that must appear in a well-formed utterance or sentence characterizes the terminology of the omission in the surface strategy taxonomy.
For example:
a.         *I _ studying English right now instead of I am studying English right now.
b.         * _  is a book instead of It is a book.
c.         *She__sleeping instead of She is sleeping.

2.      Addition

Addition is characterized by the presence of an item that must not appear in a well-formed utterance or sentence. Addition errors usually happen in the current stages of second language acquisition or when the learner has acquired some rules of the target language. There are three types of addition errors: double marking, regularization, and simple addition.
a.       Double Marking
In this case, the failure to delete certain items which are not required in some linguistic construction characterizes the double marking in addition errors.
For example:
1)      *We didn’t went there instead of we didn’t go there
2)      *He doesn’t knows your name instead of he doesn’t know your name
b.      Regularization
A rule typically applies to a class of linguistic items, such as the class of main verbs or the class of nouns. However, in most languages, some members of a class are exceptions to the rule.
For example:
1)         The verb come does not change into *comed in the past tense but it should be went
2)         The noun child does not change into *childs but it should be stay the same that indicates the form of plural
c.      Simple Addition
Simple addition is a kind of addition error which is different from both previous addition errors. Simple addition is the grab bag sub category of addition. If an addition error is neither a double marking nor regularization, it is called a simple addition.
For example:
The birds doesn’t live in the water instead of The birds don’t live in the water

3.      Misformation

Misformation is characterized by the incorrect morpheme or the incorrect structure.
As in the case of addition error, misfornation error has also some subcategories:
a.      Regularization
In this case, the regularization is a kind of regular form that is used due to the learner can not yield the exceptional form.
For example:
1)      *hisself instead of himself
2)      *falled instead of fell
b.   Archi-forms
      The selection of one number of a class of forms to represent other in the class is a common feature of archi-forms errors. In this case, the selecting just one of the English demonstrative adjectives: this, that, these, and those are like in this phrase below:
      That house                   *That houses
c.   Alternating Forms
      In this category, alternating forms are the substitution at form happens internally in learner’s competence. It is said that as the learner’s vocabulary and grammar develop, the use of archi-forms often gives way to the apparently fairy free alternation in various members of class with each other.
      For example:
      The random use of pronoun “she and “he since the learner’s first language does not have different form for male and female third singular person.

 4.   Misordering

Misordering is characterized by the incorrect placement of a morpheme or group of morphemes in an utterance or sentence.
For example:
a.           *What it is? instead of what is it?
b.           *I do not know who is he instead of I do not know who he is
c.           *What daddy is doing instead of What is daddy doing?


Error in English Grammar Rating: 4.5 Diposkan Oleh: Eko Wahyudi

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