Error Analysis

ERROR ANALYSIS AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE IN SECOND LANGUAGE TEACHING

FAKHRUR ROZI

English Education Department

UNIVERSITAS ISLAM NEGERI JAKARTA

November 12, 2010

ERROR ANALYSIS AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE IN SECOND LANGUAGE TEACHING

TRADITIONAL APRROACH TO ERROR TO A NEW APRROACH

            Language teacher have been concerned to the mistakes and errors that the students make in the process of learning in a second language. When teacher find error made by the students they always correct it automatically, hoping that they never repeat the same error in the future.

            It may safely be said that correcting errors used to be attempt to deal with practical need of classroom teacher who wanted to reduce their student’s errors. According to B.F skinner theory of language learning, applied linguist and ESL teacher try to identify areas of difficulties for the second language learner by systematically comparing a description of the learners’ Native Language with the Target Language. They believed in CA pedagogically in that error in the second language learning could be avoid if they were to make a thorough comparison of these two language.

            Wardaugh (1970:129) predicted that the second language teacher are not satisfied with the work of CA anymore, because they have come to know that the contrast between the system of the learner NL and TL is not the only factor involved in second language learning and teaching.

New Trend of Error Analysis

            During the new decade, linguists have suggested a new way of looking at error made by second language learner. For example Corder (1967:27) maintains that errors are evidence of the learner’s strategies of acquiring the language rather than sign of inhibition from native language habit. He also argues that a systematic study of error is important in order to discover the learner’' “Built syllabus” and strategies of language learning.

Error VS Mistake

            Corder has made a clear distinction between error and mistake. According to Corder error refer to error competence which are systematic and represent transitional stages in the development of grammatical rules or the final stages of the learner’s knowledge. Mistakes refer to error of performance, which are occasional and haphazard and are related to such factors as fatigue, memory lapses, psychological condition such as strong emotion.

            In the paper on “Error Analysis And Second Language Strategies” (1971:12), Richards define EA as “dealing with the differences between the way people learning a language speak, and the way adult native speakers of the language use the language,” emphasizing that the language of “adult native language” is the standard language of the language’s learners. He also suggests that “second language error are not, by nature, different from those made by children learning English as mother tongue.”

A NEW APPROACH TO ERROR ANALYSIS

            Recently researchers have paid little or no attention to studies of error alone. Instead it has been suggested the entire linguist system should be unvestigeted. This linguist system has been proposed by L.Seinker (1972),W.Nemser (1971), and S.P Corder (1971). Their focuses are on the learner himself as generator of the grammar of his sentences in the new language. They are using such different terms as “interlanguage” “approximative system” and idiosyncratic dialect” to describe the evolving system as the learner.

            The interlanguage hypothesis has been applied to the learning of a second language by the adult, but Selinker (1975) currently extends the hypothesis to child-language acquisition settings.

PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS OF A NEW APPROACH TO ERROR ANALYSIS

            A major influence that the new approach has given to language teaching is radical change in the attitude toward the learner’s performance.

            In conclusion, the differences between CA ada EA are that the major focus of CA is performance aspect of learner language but in EA not focus on learner’s performance.