ERROR vs MISTAKES

Error # Mistake
Error analysts distinguish between errors &
mistakes:
-Errors are systematic & mistakes, which are
not.
-Errors due to unknown system & mistakes
are slip.

In details, mistake :
1. Mistake takes place as a slip (of the
tongue).
2. Misuse of the known system.
3. The user knows how to correct the
mistake.
while error:
1. Error comes from two different systems.
2. Due to unknown / new system.
3. The user cannot correct the error.

PROMINENT ANALYSTS
S P Corder, Heidy Dulay, Marina Burt,
Jack C Richards, Rod Ellis, Carroll,
Stephen Krashen, Larry Selinker, etc.
PROPOSED 7 POINTS:

Errors are significant in three ways:

1. to the teacher: they show a students
progress
2. to the researcher: they show how a
language is acquired, what strategies the
learner uses.
3. to the learner: he can learn from these
errors.

When a learner has made an error,

4. the most efficient way to teach student the
correct form is not by simply giving
correction to him, but by letting him
discover it and test different hypotheses.
Many errors are due to
5. the learner uses structures from his native
language.

Corder claims:
6. Possession of ones native language is
facilitative.
7. Errors in this case are not inhibitory, but
rather evidence of ones learning strategies.

TYPOLOGY OF ERRORS
Error can be classified according to basic
type:

omissive,
additive,
Substitutive, or
related to word order.

They can be classified by how apparent /

obvious they are:
overt errors such as "I angry" are obvious
even out of context, whereas
covert errors are evident only in context.

Closely related to this, is the classification

according to DOMAIN & EXTENT:
domain, the breadth of context which the
analyst must examine, and
extent, the breadth of the utterance which
must be changed in order to fix the error.

Errors may also be classified according to the

level of language:
Phonological = how whore
Vocabulary/lexical = have lunch eat noon
Syntactic = pretty girl girl pretty
And so on

They may be assessed according to the

degree to which they interfere with
communication:
global errors make an utterance difficult to
understand, &
local errors do not cause difficulties.
In the above example, "I angry" would be a
local error, since the meaning is apparent.

Try to analyze this paragraph

Last holiday I go to Malang. I go the
Malang wit my father, mother, and brother
sister. I see zoo in Jatim Park 2. I pay very
expensive because I go in holiday. If not
holiday the price is only 75000 rupiah but
in holiday 90000 rupiah. I also go to
market near Jatim Park 2. I buy fruit and
vegetable for cook if I go home again.

 Last holiday I go to Malang. I go the

Malang wit my father, mother, and brother
sister. I see zoo in Jatim Park 2. I pay very
expensive because I go in holiday. If not
holiday the price is only 75000 rupiah but
in holiday 90000 rupiah. I also go to
market near Jatim Park 2. I buy fruit and
vegetable for cook if I go home again.

 Last weekend I went Malang. I went there

with my father, mother, brother and sister. I
visited the zoo in Jatim Park 2. I paid a
high price because I went there on holiday.
If it is not on holiday the price is only 75000
rupiah, but on holiday it is 90000 rupiah. I
also went to the market near Jatim Park 2.
I bought some fruit and vegetable to cook
when I arrived home again.

WHAT, WHO, AND HOW TO CORRECT

WHAT TO CORRECT
the teacher must determine the gravity of an
error before deciding whether he should
correct it or not.
"the error, must impede communication
before it is be considered an error to be
corrected".
If not = only "mistakes".

WHO TO CORRECT
Porte (1993), notes, that students know how
to identify an error in order to avoid it in the
future.
She agrees with Corder that it is more
efficient for learners to correct themselves
than be corrected by the teacher, and goes
on to suggest a four-step approach for selfcorrection.

HOW TO CORRECT
After writing an essay, students read it four
times, each time trying to answer the
questions included in each of the four
steps in 4 diff aspects & ask them:

To highlight the verbs and check the

tenses;
To concentrate on prepositions;
To concentrate on nouns (spelling,
agreement between subject and verb);
To correct potential personal mistakes.

Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis

The principle barriers of second language
learning is the interference of the L1
systems into L2 systems.
L1 system:
Saya sudah belajar Bahasa Inggris 9 tahun.
L2 system:
I already study language English 9 year.

All languages have their own systems:

- Word order systems: gadis cantik pretty
girl = DM MD
- Grammatical systems: SVO VSO
- Morphological systems: banyak bunga
many flowers
- Systems of Tenses: pergi go, going,
went, gone
- Etc.

INTERLANGUAGE
There is a "psychological structure latent in
the brain" which is activated when one
attempts to learn a second language.
Larry Selinker proposed (1972) that in a
given situation the utterances produced by
the learner are different from those native
speakers in attempting to convey the same
meaning.

This comparison reveals a separate

linguistic system.
This system can be observed when
studying the utterances of the learners who
attempt to produce a target language norm.
To study the psychological processes, one
should compare the interlanguage of the
learner with two things:

The Comparison between:

1. Utterances in the native language to
convey the same message made by the
learner, &
2. Utterances in the target language to
convey the same message made by the
native speaker of that language.

DEVELOPMENTAL PATTERNS
Ellis (1994) distinguished between:
"order" to refer to the pattern in which
different language features are acquired, &
"sequence" to denote the pattern by which
a specific language feature is acquired.

Order of acquisition:
a "silent period"
a period of language shock
in private speech (sometimes called "selftalk")
lexical chunks
formulaic speech
handful of routines
L2 morphosyntax
the semantics and grammar of L2
construct a true interlanguage.

Sequence of acquisition:

nouns pronouns "I" to refer

to all agents a single pronoun
feature, often person number and
eventually by gender.

Syntax are influenced by the learners' first

language, although others are not.

 Have you ever found any other order of

acquisition?
Have you ever found any other types of
error so far?
What type?
How did that happen?

 THANK YOU!