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ERROR ANALYSIS
Arrange by : Nanik Rahayu
NPM : 201212500412
Class : YC
English Education Program
Faculty of Language and Art
University of Indraprasta PGRI
2015

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INTRODUCTION
Background
Making errors is the most natural thing in the world and it is evidently
attached to the human being. Children leaming their first language, adult
native speakers, second language leaners; they all make errors which
have a different name according to the group committing the error.
Error analysis enables teachers to find out the sources of errors and take
pedagogical precautions towards them. Thus, the analysis of learner
language has become an essential need to overcome some questions and
propose solutions regarding different aspects.
Theoretical
A. About Errors
I. Definitions
 Error is a deviation from accepted rules of a language made by a
learner of a second language.
 The causes of errors
1. The learner's lack of knowledge of correct rules of the target
language
2. Language transfer. .
 Classification of errors
Errors made by learners of TL may be classified in different ways. If
we look at errors from the point of view of :
A. Appropriateness (=wajar) we find:
 Referential errors ; that is errors to refer to something someone.
E.g; a priest as a minister; a scottish kilt a skirt etc.
 Register errors; that is errors in using the correct ‘register’ : saying
boat instead of a ship;
 Social errors, that is : errors commited due to the wrong choice of
terms in connection with the social relations between the speaker
and hearer. For example, when a student greets his father with :
‘hello, old man”.

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 Textual errors, that is : errors commited because of the wrong
structure used. For example, when a hearer replies to the
question: ‘who is he talking to?” with : “rudy is”.
B. Errors which we can readily recognize are those which are expressive
(productive) errors, because those are part of the utterances of TL
learners. Therefore, an error analysis can be studied only on
productive errors which may include : phonological, morphological,
syntactic, cultural, and pragmatic errors.
C. Errors may also be viewed in other ways. Richards, for intance,
classifies errors into a) interlingual errors (interference) and b)
intralingual errors (=developmental errors).
 Over-generalization
E.g: he can sings, we are lack..., he come from,yesterday I eat
breakfast...etc.
 Ignorance of rules restrictions
Some of these errors may be cause by wrong analogy (He goed
home...instead of He went home): interference (not what-what
instead of it doesn’t matter), wrong learning of rules (he discusses
about something...instead of he discussed something)etc.
 False concepts hypothesized
“The lift is going down to the ground floor. Ted is getting out of the lift.
He is leaving the office building. Ted is standing at the entrance of the
office building. Heis looking up at the sky...”
As we know,this is an exercise in the use of the present
continuous tense, but many EFL teacher may not realized that this is
not a normal use of English. In normal English speech, we cannot
always control the tense forms. George (1972) in his book, common
Errors in Language Learning, has listed many such errors ,made by
EFL learners which recur all the time.
D. Errors may also be classified according to whether they cause a native
speaker either to misinterpret a written message or to consider the
message incomprehensible within the textual context of the error, OR
the do not cause any of theove. The former one is called global errors,
and the latter local errors.
For the purpose of more specific analysis, global and local errors
can be further classified into three linguistic sub-categories based on a)
structures of standard english (lexicon, syntax, and morphology).

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Thus, students written errors can be classified into six general
categories:
 Global lexical errors
Cattle instead of sheep
 Global morphological errors
I’m interesting, instead of i’m interested
 Global syntactix errors
I am lack of knowledge, instead of I lack knowledge
 Local lexical errors
Before he slept he turned-off the curtains, instead of’closed’
 Local morphological errors
He look at his sister...,instead of ‘look’
 Local syntactic errors
They enjoyed highly her cooking, instead of they highly enjoyed her
cooking
E. Finally, errors may be cassified according to whether they can be
eradicated relatively easily or whether they cannot. In the first instance
the errors are not troublesome, but in the latter instance the errors
may be called fossilized. Fossilized errors are those which are
ingrained and difficult to eradicate due to different factors, such as :
1. age of the learner, the older person is the more difficult it is for a
person to “unlearn” an error he has commited all his life:
2. stubborness of leaner, the less a person knows about a certain
subject the more stubborn he is to let go of a wrong concept he has
always believed in.
B. About Syntax
 Definitions
Syntax is the part of linguistics that studies sentence structure.
• word order:
I want these books.
*want these I books.
• agreement – subject and verb, determiner and noun, . . . often must
agree:

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He wants this book.
*He want this book.
I want these books.
*I want this books.
• How many complements, which prepositions and forms (cases):
I give Mary a book.
*I see Mary a book.
I see her.
*I see she.
• hierarchical structure – what modifies what
We need more (intelligent leaders). (more of intelligent leaders)
We need (more intelligent) leaders. (leaders that are more intelligent)
• etc.
Syntax is not about meaning! Sentences can have no sense and still be
grammatically correct:
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. – nonsense, but grammatically
correct
*Sleep ideas colorless furiously green. – grammatically incorrect
Syntax: From Greek syntaxis from syn (together) + taxis (arrangement).
Cf. symphony, synonym, synthesis; taxonomy, tactics
• NOUNS, VERBS, ADJECTIVES, AND ADVERBS.
• DETERMINERS, PRONOUNS, PREPOSITIONS, CONJUNCTIONS
 Nouns (N)
• usually has a determiner (except proper names like John) and can be
modified by an adjective:
Determiner (Adjective)
a cat, many kisses, few men, several sheep
a small cat, many exciting kisses, few clever men, several bored
sheep
 Verbs (V)

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1. can combine with an auxiliary: Aux
will go, have seen, should run, must leave, is swimming
2. can be modified by an adverb: Adverb or Adverb usually sleep, r
ead carefully
 Adjectives (A, Adj)
1. Can modify a noun: Determiner N
a tall man, a cool day, a wonderful trip
2. Can be modified by an adverb:
Adverb very clever, extremely
clever, unusually hot
 Adverbs (Adv)
• can modify verbs (hence ad-verbs), adjectives & often other adverbs.
1. V or V
stop abruptly, usually eat
2. Adj
amazingly cheap, very bad (very cannot modify a verb), quite nice
3. Adv
very quickly, quite soon
 Determiners (D, Det)
articles (a, the), quantifiers (many, any, all, several ), possesives(my,
your, his, her )
come before nouns: (Adj) N
 Auxiliary verbs (Aux)
will, may, must, shall, would, can, have
1
.
Is followed by a
verb: V
It will rain. You must be
quiet.
2
.
Is negated
directly: Not
He cannot swim. She would not come.
*He doesn’t can swim. *She doesn’t would come.
Be, have and do are sometimes normal verbs and sometimes auxiliary
verbs. (I don’t have it. vs. I have not seen it.)

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 Pronouns (Pron)
Words that stand for a noun or a whole noun phrase.
I, you, he, she, it, we, they, me, him, her, us, them
Note: It makes sense to classify possessives (traditionally called
possessive pronouns) as determiners. Syntactically, pronouns and
possessives behave differently – pronouns act as nouns, but possessives
modify nouns:
pronoun: I run. – *My run.
possessive: John likes my house. – *John likes I house.
 Prepositions (P)
in, on, about, with, at, to, of, under
Prepositions stand before noun phrases (see later, simply NP = Det (Adj)
N) Semantics: usually express spacial, temporary, etc. relations.
Sample :
on the table, with nice colors, about mammals
 Conjunctions (Conj)
and, or, but, . . .
Conjunctions connect two words or phrases on the same level

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CHAPTER II
ANALYSIS
SAMPLE PARAGRAF
Unindra for my Life
Unindra is the university where I am Studying(1)now(2).I chose this
university because iam very interested(3) toin(4) taketaking(5) education
coursesprogram(6). Now I am a student in the English Education
coursesprogram(7). This is almost 3 years ihave (8) attended a lecture at
Unindra every Saturday. And nowrecently(9),I’ve entered the final 5th
semester. Soon I will be entering 6th semester, I must more focus to set
my target graduation on time.
I amwas(10) required to become an educatora (11) teacher(12) and
to distribute knowledge I had acquired over the years.I also wanted(13) to
(14) make my parent proud of me,so I think that the lectures became very
important to me. Becoming a teacher is my future. For the future, Unindra
for my life.
Explanation :
1. Subs of Present Continous
2. Incorrect use of adverb. “where I am studying (meaning 'currently'
or 'now, these days') Present continuous
3. Subs of Present for past
4. Incorrect use of preposition
5. Subs of Present of Past Continuous
6. Global Lexical errors
7. Global Lexical errors
8. Additional of “be”  Subs of present for Present Perfect
9. Incorrect use of adverb
10. Subs of Present for Past
11. Additional article
12. Global Lexical errors
13. Subs of Present for Past
14. Additional of preposition

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Table of General Error
Paragraf Incorrect sentence Sum of errors
1 5 9
2 2 5
Total 7 14
Table of Specific Error
 Verb Phrase
No. Recognition Reconstruction
1 … where I am study … … where I am studying …
2 … I am very interest… … I am very interested.
3
…I am very interested in
take…
… I am very interested in taking..
4 …almost 3 years I attended…
… almost 3 years I have
attended…
5 …I am required … … I was required …
6 …I also want … … I also wanted …

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 Noun Phrase
No. Recognition Reconstruction
1 … I am very interested to… … I am very interested in…
2
… I was required to become an
educator…
… I was required to become a
teacher…...
3 … I also wanted make … … I also wanted to make.
 Miscellaneous
No. Recognition Reconstruction
1 … I am studying now… … I am studying…
2
… I am very interested in
taking education course…
… I am very interested in taking
education program.
3
… student in the english
education courses…
… student in the english
education courses program.
4 … and now, I have entered… … and recently, I have entered…
5
… I was required to become an
educator…
… I was required to become a
teacher…...

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Accumulative Error
Occurance of error
Type of error
Error
distribution in
each writing
Total
1 2 N %
Syntax
1. Verb phrase 6 42,9
 Incorrect use of verb 3 1
 Addition of verb 1 1
1. Noun Phrase 3 21,4
*Addition of the article
1 2
3. Miscellaneous 5 35,7
 Omitting adverb 1
 Word Choice 3 1

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Conclusion
In conclusion, this journal demonstrates numerous error that Learner
encounter. It implies that inadequate knowledge of English features, e.g.,
structure, lexicon, verb phrase, noun phrase, is a common problem facing
many learner. Their lack knowledge’s approaches to preparing, using and
improving skill can also result in low communication ability. Thus, learner
should enrich their understanding of the target language as well as identify
and employ suitable learning methods to improve their academic
performances. Furthermore, it is hoped that learning strategies will be
included in the curriculum of the English Department so that teachers can
help their students design effective plans for acquiring advanced speaking
and writing skill.
To be good at anything, we have to practice. Either with friends or joint
English communities is a good way to practice, they can correct error and
model proper pronunciation, spelling, intonation and Writing.

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Reference :
 Richards, J. C. 1974. Error Analysis: Perspectives on Second
Language Acquisition. London: Longman
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Error_%28linguistics%29
 Raymond Murphy 1998. English Grammar in use, Cambridge
University ,Cambridge