Making errors is an integral part of language learning, because like any other human learning, language learning is a process that involves the making of errors and mistakes (Brown, 2000). Numerous educators and researchers (Brown, 2000; Littlewood, 1987) also believe that when learners make errors, the learning is taking place and in turn, learners can benefit from the form of feedback on those errors.
Many researchers and teachers agree that a distinction between mistakes and errors is very important (Brown, 2000; Corder, 1967).
A mistake is a product of the learner when a learner fails to use a known system correctly and is caused by a number of factors, such as over-enthusiasm, over-
generalization of rules, interfere from the mother tongue, etc. (Mumford & Darn, 2007) everyone can make mistakes, native speakers or language learners. A mistake is
unsystematic and can be self-corrected (Brown, 2000)
An error, on the other hand, is repetitive and systematic and reflects a learner’s competence. An error may be a product of the learner’s stage of language development,
or inappropriate teaching or learning (Mumford & Darn, 2007). Errors cannot be self- corrected and need to be dealt with by teaching or reteaching.
2.1.1 Types of Errors
An error can be categorized in a variety of ways.
2.1.1.1 Overt Errors and Covert Errors:
Corder (1971, as cited in Brown, 2000) suggests that we should identify whether an error is overt or covert. Overt erroneous sentences are sentences that are
grammatically incorrect whereas covert erroneous sentences are sentences that are grammatically correct, but are used inappropriate in the context of communication and then cause misunderstanding or uninterpretable.
For instance, the sentence “I student” is an overt erroneous sentence and the correct sentence must be “I’m a student”. But “I’m a student” is erroneous if a learner uses it to answer the question “Where are you from?”
Brown (2000) suggests a “simpler and more straightforward terms” for overt and covert errors are “sentence level” errors and “discourse level” errors.
2.1.1.2 Global Errors and Local Errors:
According to Burt & Kiparsky (as cited in Brown, 2000), an error can be viewed as global or local.
Global errors hinder communication and prevent the hearer from understanding the speaker’s message. Local errors, on the other hand, do not prevent the hearer from
understanding because they are only minor mistakes and the hearer can still guess the meaning.
“Well, it’s a hurry round there” is a global error because it is difficult or impossible to understand this sentence in many contexts whereas “a trouser” is a local error because it can be understood in many situations (Brown, 2000)
An error can also be classified at the levels of the language or linguistic type: an error can be a lexical error – vocabulary, a phonological error – pronunciation, a syntactic error – grammar, an interpretive error – misunderstanding of a speaker’s intention or meaning or a pragmatic error – failure to apply the rules of conversation.
However, Brown (2000) states that it is not always easy to identify errors at the levels of language; for instance, a phonological error can also be a lexical error or syntactic error.
Donald (2007) suggests that errors can also be categorized by the reason for its production:
- Pre-systematic: error as the result of random guess - Systematic: error produced while testing out hypotheses
- Post-systematic: a slip of tongue, a lapse, a mistake caused by carelessness, fatigue
2.1.2 Sources of Errors
Making errors is inevitable in the process of learning language. There are some causes for the making of errors in language learning.
2.1.2.1 Interlingual Transfer
Edge (1990) points out that Interlingual Transfer is the significant cause of errors for all learners. Especially at the beginning stages of learning, learners are easily
influenced by their first language. We can usually find these errors in pronunciation or vocabulary and grammar. When learners do not know how to say something in English, they tend to use words and structures from their language and try to fit it into foreign language (Edge, 1990, p. 7).
2.1.2.2 Intralingual Transfer
It is now believed that negative intralingual transfer or overgeneralization is a major source of errors in second language learning. Researchers (Taylor, 1975) found out that as learner’s progress in the second language, their previous experience and their existing subsumes begin to include structures within the target language itself. Some of examples of the errors caused by intralingual transfer are:
- past tense form of the verb following a modal - present tense –s on a verb following a modal - -ing on a verb following a modal, etc.
2.1.2.3 Context of Learning
According to Brown (2000), “in a classroom context, the teacher or textbook can lead the learners to make faulty hypotheses about the language” (p. 226). A misleading
explanation of teacher or an incorrect presentation of a structure or word in the textbook can lead to learners’ errors.
2.1.2.4 Communication Strategies
Learners can make errors when they use production strategies to reach a communicative goal. For instance, when a learner does not know how to say a word in English, he/she tries to explain it using his/her own language knowledge (this strategy is called “circumlocution”), but this may lead to an incorrect explanation.