TYPES OF ERROR

By : Desi Amalia
Risfa Damayanti
Marissa Rahayu
 TYPES OF ERROR
In the introduction to EA by Carl James, there is a four-way
classification of types of error :

● slips, which can be corrected by the learner himself/herself;

● mistakes, which can be corrected by the learner if the deviance is
pointed out;
● errors, which cannot be corrected by the learner himself/herself
without further learning;
● solecisms, which involve the infringement of prescriptive rules of
correctness, e.g. split infinitives.
• According to James (1998:77) an error arises “only when there
was no intention to commit one”. Errors are typically produced
by learners who do not yet fully command some institutionalized
language system; they arise due to the imperfect competence
in the target language.

• Whereas, according to Fauziati (2009: 139) the mistakes are

deviations due to performance factors such as memory
limitation, fatigue and emotional strain. They are typically
irregular and can be readily corrected by the learners
themselves when their attention is drawn to them.
Corder distinguishes three types of errors according to their systematicity:

• Pre-systematic errors occur when the learner is unaware of the existence

of a particular rule in the target language.
• Systematic errors occur when the learner has discovered a rule but it is
the wrong one.
• Post-systematic errors occur when the learner knows the correct target
language rule but uses it inconsistently (i.e. makes a mistake).
 ACCORDING TO BROWN, THERE
ARE 3 SOURCES OF ERROR:

Interlingual Error

Intralingual Error

Context of Learning
 INTERLINGUAL ERROR
Interlingual, Corder (1981) states that these kinds of error occur when the learner’s
habits (patterns, systems or rules) interfere or prevent him or her, to some extent, from
acquiring the patterns and rules of the second language.

According to Allen and Corder (1974), Interlingual errors are caused by 3 tpes of error.
• 1) Transfer Error: error caused by interference from mother tongue. A student who has
not known the rules of target language will use the same rules as he obtained in his
native language.
• 2) Mother tongue Interference: errors are produced in the learners’ attempt to
discover the structure of the target language rather than transferring models of their
first language.
• 3) Literal Translation: errors happen because a student translates his first language
sentence or idiomatic expression in to the target language word by word.
 INTRALINGUAL ERROR

Richard (1974: 6) states, intralingual interference refers to

items produced by learner, which reflect not the structure of
mother tongue, but generalization based on partial
exposure of the target language. Such errors are a result of
overgeneralisation from what has already been learnt.
Examples are regularised forms of nouns and verbs, e.g.
sheeps and payed (for sheep and paid).
Continue…

James (1980: 185-187) goes into more details. He refers to intralingual errors as
learning-strategy based errors and lists types of them:

Incomplete rule
False analogy Misanalysis
application

Exploiting
Hypercorrection Over-laboration
redundancy
 CONTEXT OF LEARNING
Also called false concepts by Richards (1971) including:

a) Misleading explanation from the teacher,

b) faulty presentation of a structure in a textbook,
c) improperly contextualized pattern,
d) confused vocabulary items because of contiguous presentation,
e) inappropriately formal forms of language – bookish language.
THANK YOU ;;)