ABSTRACT

In a second and foreign language setting, all language learners inevitably produce
errors when they write or speak the second or foreign language. Therefore,
systematic analysis of the errors is very important and can provide useful insight
into the processes of the second or foreign language acquisition. Error analysis is
one of the best tools for describing and explaining errors made by speakers of other
languages. A test was administered to a group of ten Form 3 students enrolled in
SMK Khir Johari. This study aims to classify errors made by the students in their
composition. The research shows errors committed in the use of tenses, copula be,
auxiliary verb, article, determiner, sentence structure, choice of word and spelling.
1. IINTRODUCTION
Second language acquisition, second language learning or L2 acquisition is
the process by which people are learning the second language. Second language
acquisition (often abbreviated to SLA) also refers to the scientific discipline devoted
to studying that process.
In Malaysia, The second language is English despite of the multiracial
community we have. Even though some races such as Chinese, Indian and Malay
would have learnt other languages other than their mother tongue but as long as
the language is not their mother tongue then, it will be called as their second
language. For example, Chinese would have different dialects as their mother
tongue like Mandarin, Hokkien and Cantonese but they may also learn other
languages such as Malay and English. These languages are called second language.
Many scholars in the field of EA have stressed the significance of second
language learners' errors. Corder (1967), for instance, in his influential article,
remarks that "they are significant in three different ways. First, to the teacher, in
that they show how far towards the goal the learner has progressed. Second, they
provide to the researcher evidence of how a language is acquired, what strategies
the learner is employing in his learning of a language. Thirdly, they are indisputable
to the learner himself because we can regard the making of errors as a device the
learner uses in order to learn". The present paper mostly illustrates fundamental
background studies done in the field of Error Analysis. There is the hope that the
paper helps TESL teachers and educators to become familiar with the most frequent
errors committed by TESL learners leading them to make more objective decisions
about how to go about adopting appropriate teaching strategies to help TESL
students learn better.

2. METHODOLOGY
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the common errors in English writing made
by the Form 3 students of SMK Khir Johari.
In order to get the raw data and information to find out the answer for the question
above, we had conduct a survey at SMK Khir Johari which located at Tanjung Malim
and approximately 5 km away from University Pendidikan Sultan Idris.
2.1 Subjects
All the subjects taken in this experiment are the Form 3 student of SMK Khir Johari.
They were picked randomly and were not biased in term of gender and races. There
are 10 subjects which is 7 female and 3 male. In term of race, there were 8 Malay, 1
Chinese and 1 Indian.
2.2 Instruments
The study requires the subject to write a short essay about their birthday present.
The composition was done during their examination because the student cannot use
dictionaries or other prohibited learning tools while writing since it might affect the
result taken later.
There are a lot data to be handled manually by hand so we use the computer or
more specifically laptops to arrange our data accordingly. Computer software like
Microsoft Word 2007 is used to exhibit our findings more proper and clearer.
2.3 Research procedure
First, the data were sorted out manually as we check the errors by ourselves.
Secondly, the data were the recognized and classified to their own respective
classes. Next, we tallied the frequencies of those mistakes. Finally, we will analyze
the possible reasons of those negatives feedbacks.
3. LITERATURE REVIEW
Gass and Selinker (1994) argued that errors as red flags that provide evidence of
learners knowledge of the second language.
Richard and Sampson (1974, p. 15) mentioned that at the level of pragmatic
classroom experience, error analysis will continue to provide one means by which
the teacher accesses learning and teaching and determines priorities for future
effort.
Richards (1971) mentioned: ignorance of rule restrictions, incomplete application of
rules, false concepts hypothesized, developmental errors and over generalization

4. THE STUDY
SMK Khir Johari has been chosen as our target school to conduct the research of
error analysis. It is located in Tanjung Malim, Perak. We have selected Form 3
students as our samples for this research. We took 10 essays which they have
answered during their last exam. The type of essays is short writing. The essays
were chosen randomly. The most common mistakes that student made are
grammar, sentence structure, choice of word and spelling.
5. FINDINGS
ERROR ANALYSIS ACCORDING TO GENDER
MALE

FEMAL
E

TENSES

COPULA BE

AUXILLARY VERB
MALE=5

ARTICLE/DETERMI
FEMALE=5
NER

SENTENCE
STRUCTURE

12

10

CHOICE OF WORD

SPELLING

ERROR/GENDER
GRAMMAR:

14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0

MALE
FEMALE

ERROR ANALYSIS ACCORDING TO RACES

MALA
Y

CHINE
SE

INDIA
N

TENSES

COPULA BE

AUXILLARY VERB

ARTICLE/DETERM
INER

SENTENCE
STRUCTURE

CHOICE OF
WORD

SPELLING

ERROR/RACES
GRAMMAR:

MALAY=8
CHINESE=1
INDIAN=1
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0

MALAY
CHINESE
INDIAN

6. DISCUSSION
Based on the result of the analysis, four most common errors that made by the
subjects are grammar, sentence structure, choice of word and spelling. The highest
number of error is in terms of grammar aspect and tenses which is 25. This shows
that the subjects are not really proficient in grammar.
7. CONCLUSION
By analyzing and studying the data collected from the 10 short writing, we would
like to conclude that there are several factors which contribute to the errors made
by these students for their second language learning.
a. L1 interference.
b. Cannot applied the rule of grammar
c. Overgeneralization
In addition, the study of error analysis can be a useful resource to help teachers in
improving their teaching methods.
8. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We would like to express our gratitude sincerely to our dear lecturer, Dr.
Mazura @ Mastura binti Muhammad who have guided us in completing this task. We
would like to thank to the school that had been a great help in completing this task
which is SMK Khir Johari. Lastly, the gratitude is given to our family, friends and
society who support us from the very beginning till the end.
9. REFERENCES
http://ojs.academypublisher.com/index.php/tpls/article/view/tpls020815831589
http://www.slideshare.net/MelissaFerrer/learner-errors-and-error-analysis