CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter deals with some previous related research findings and some

pertinent idea.

A. Some Previous Related Research Findings

Sitti Khodijah (2006) in her research Errors analysis of the students’ text

result on student personal pronouns concluded that most of the students have not

understood about the form and the function of personal pronouns; the highest

frequency that they made is about 52.65%,so, the correct answer is less than 50%. It

means that the more concept of personal pronouns are given by the English teacher

the more difficulties are taken by the students, maybe it is caused by the change of

personal pronouns form, like subject pronoun to object pronoun and possessive

pronoun to possessive adjective and also every personal pronoun have different

position and function in sentences.

Arifah Febri Winarni (2011) on her research improving students’ ability in

using personal pronoun through contextual teaching learning, concluded that the

implementation of contextual teaching learning method in personal pronoun material

was successful and criteria of success was achieved, that 75% of students could pass

the minimum mastery criteria-kriteria ketuntasan minimal (KKM) that is 65.

Kartini (2001) in her research found that most of the students of SMA Tonra

Kabupaten Bone cannot write word perfectly, made some errors in writing English

through dictation.

10
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Learning a language implies learning its structure. One who has sufficient

knowledge of structure can be easily master the language. He will not find many

difficult in using the language grammatically in his communication since the

knowledge of grammatical structure enables us to know the sentence patterns

B. Some Pertinent Ideas

1. Errors

Learning second language or English language does not the same as learning

first language or mother tongue. Other language does not influence learning mother

tongue or first language but it is different for students who are learning English, the

process of learning is influenced by their mother tongue as their first language and it

causes an error and mistake in learning. It is very normal and unavoidable to happen

what mentioned during the learning process. Therefore, to achieve English

acquisition, the students must get through some errors first, and then they can learn

from their own errors.

Dullay (1982:69) defines errors as the flawed side of learner speech or

writing. They are those parts of conversation or composition that delicate from some

selected norm of mature language performance. Furthermore, Corder (1973: 257)

states, “errors are branches of the code, meaning they are against the grammatical

rules of the language and result in unacceptable utterance”. It means that there is

something wrong in norms of language performance. The making of errors is so

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unavoidable in language learning process. Besides, the making of errors is one part

of learning and no one can learn without making of errors.

An error is noticeable grammar from the adult grammar of native speaker,

reflecting the inter-language competence of the learners (Brown1980: 165)

L1/MT FL/SL (TL)

Inter-Language

MT: TL comparisons (Contrastive Analysis)

IL: TL comparisons (Error Analysis)
MT: IL comparisons (Transfer Analysis)

Points of comparison for successive FL learning paradigms (James, 1998: 3).

There are two ways to conceptualize ‘inter-language /IL’. First, it can refer to

the abstraction of learner language, the aggregate of forms, processes and strategies

that learners resort to in the course of tackling an additional language.

This concept is similar to de Saussure’s langue. Alternatively, ‘IL’ can be

used to refer to any one of a number of concretizations of the underlying system

(James, 1998: 7)

Errors are typically produced by people who do not yet fully command some

institutionalized language system (Corder, 1974: 29). The errors themselves are

competence errors. True errors are marker of the learners’ competence. Furthermore,

Richards (1974) proposes, “Errors are caused by deficiency in competence and a

shortcoming in the knowledge of language learners make errors when they have not

learnt something correctly”.

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From the linguists’ opinion above, it can be concluded that mistake refers to

the failures to use the language system correctly caused by some factors such as

carelessness, memory lapses, and physical condition. While error, refers to the failure

to use the system correctly caused by the lack of the learners’ competence.

2. Mistake

Mistake is different with error. A mistake refers to a performance error that is

either random or a slip of the tongue, in that it is failure to utilize a known system

correctly (Brown, 1980: 165).

A mistake refers to performance errors that are a random guess or a slip, in

that it is failure. Mistakes are caused by hesitation, slips of the tongue. The learner,

who makes mistakes, will sometime use one form and sometime the others. This

shows an inconsistency. For example:

a. If learners produce “he must go” and “he must to go”.

b. If the Indonesian learners pronounce the word error “intruction” not “instruction”.

C. Concept of Errors

According to Richards (1974: 124), “the sources of errors in studying a

language might be derived from the interference of the learners’ mother tongue and

the general characteristics of the rule learning”. The errors that are caused by the

general characteristics of the rule learning are also called the intra-language errors.

And the errors caused by the interference of the learners’ mother tongue are called the

inter-language errors.
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Richards (1974: 124), then, distinguishes three sources of competence errors:

(1) Interference errors occur as a result of the use of element from one language
while speaking another. An example might be when a German learner of L2
English says, “I go not” because the equivalent sentence in German is “Ichgehe
nicht”.(2) Intra-lingual errors’ reflect the general characteristics of rule learning
such as faulty generalization, incomplete application of rules and failure to learn
conditions under which rules apply. (3) Developmental errors occur when the
learner attempts to build up hypotheses about the target language on the basis of
limited experience.

Richards (1971) also classifies intra-lingual errors into four categories:

a. Overgeneralization

It occurs when the learner creates a deviant structure on the basis of other

structures in the target language. It generally involves the creation of one deviant

structure in place of two target language structures (for example, ‘He can sings’

where English allows ‘He can sing’ and ‘ He sings’)

b. Ignorance of the rule restrictions

It involves the application of rules to contexts where they do not apply.

An example is ‘He made me to rest’ through extension of the pattern found with the

majority of verbs that take infinitival complements (for example, ‘He asked

/wanted/invited me to go’).

(5) Incomplete application of rules

It is typically related to analogy. It involves a failure to fully develop a

structure. Thus learners of L2 English have been observed to use declarative word

order in questions (for example, ‘you like to sing?’) in place of interrogative word

order (for example, ‘do you like to sing?’). This type of Intra-lingual error
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corresponds to what is often referred to as an error of transitional competence

(Richards, 1971).

(6) False concepts hypothesized

The last category of intra-language error that is sometimes called semantic

error may be derived from faulty comprehension in the target language.

D. Grammatical Errors

Levenston in James (1998: 255) proposes, “Students’ erroneous output –

their composition errors in particular – are not one remove, but two removes from the

NS’s version”. We are not only correcting the errors into what learners want to say

but also correcting the errors into what the native speakers would have said or write.

He thus challenges Corder’s claim that the data of EA are ‘two sentences: the

idiosyncratic sentence [produced by the learner] and a well-formed sentence [that

which the native would have produced]’. These two sentences would then be

compared. This is not the case, however. The data of EA comprise not two but three

sentences: (i) what learner said; (ii) what they were attempting to say; and (iii) what

the NSs would have said (or written) (James, 1998: 255).

Moreover, Fotos (1993:80) did an experiment involving noticing. She

hypothesized that noticing would be induced to different degrees by two sorts of

teaching: teacher-formed formal instruction, and doing grammar tasks in groups. So

she gave two matched groups of learner’s grammar-noticing opportunities under

these two conditions in order to find out which way is the more effective. This is why
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analyzing learner’s grammatical errors in learning other language would be

interesting.

Learning other language becomes difficult since the target language has

different system from the native language. This difference sometimes makes the

learners (in this case – the students) make errors especially in applying the grammar.

These errors will be analyzed further in Chapter IV.

E. Error Analysis

1. Introduction

The knowledge we have of the physical world is obtained by doing experiments

and making measurements. It is important to understand how to express such data and

how to analyze and draw meaningful conclusions from it.

In doing this it is crucial to understand that all measurements of physical quantities

are subject to uncertainties. It is never possible to measure anything exactly. It is

good, of course, to make the error as small as possible but it is always there. And in

order to draw valid conclusions the error must be indicated and dealt with properly.

Take the measurement of a person's height as an example. Assuming that her height

has been determined to be 5' 8", how accurate is our result?

Well, the height of a person depends on how straight she stands, whether she just got

up (most people are slightly taller when getting up from a long rest in horizontal
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position), whether she has her shoes on, and how long her hair is and how it is made

up. These inaccuracies could all be called errors of definition. A quantity such as

height is not exactly defined without specifying many other circumstances.

Even if you could precisely specify the "circumstances," your result would still have

an error associated with it. The scale you are using is of limited accuracy; when you

read the scale, you may have to estimate a fraction between the marks on the scale,

etc.

James in James (1998: 4) stated,

In the 1950s and 1960s the favored paradigm for studying FL/ SL learning and
organizing its teaching was Contrastive Analysis. The procedure involved first
describing comparable features of MT and TL (e.g. tenses, cooking verbs,
consonant clusters, the language of apologizing), and then comparing the forms
and resultant meanings across the two languages in order to spot the mismatches
that would predictably (with more than chance probability of being right) give
right to interference and errors.

According to Johnson & Johnson (1999: 110), “Contrastive analysis is a

comparing two linguistics systems, the learners L1 and the target L2 with a view to

determining structural similarities and differences”. Because of it, making error in

learning language is often happens.

James (1998: 1) stated error analysis as “the process of determining the

incidence, nature, causes and consequences of unsuccessful language”. It is supported

by Lado (1977) who said that “in contrastive analysis the teacher who has made a

comparison of the foreign language with the native language of the students will
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know better what the real problems are and can provide the easy way for the teaching

and learning process.”

As a learner, making errors in language process is very common. It involves

the making of mistakes and errors. Errors help the learners to establish the closer and

closer approximations to the system of the target language. Brown (1980: 163) stated,

“by gradual process of trial and error and hypothesis testing, the learner slowly and

tediously succeeds in establishing closer and closer approximation to the system used

by native speakers of the language.”

The students get problems in learning English because there are many

differences between Indonesian and English in terms of grammar, vocabulary, etc.

As Lado (in Umar Munir, 2011) said, “errors made indication of the difficulties the

learner had with certain aspects of language.” The study of learners’ errors has been a

primary focus of foreign language research. It is called Error Analysis.

Corder as cited by Richards (1974:50) noted that:

Errors could be significant in three ways: they provided the teacher with
information about how much the learner had learnt, they provided the researcher
with of evidence of how language was learnt, they served as devices by which
the learner discovered the rules of the TL.

2. The Idea of Error

The concept of error needs to be well understood. What is and what is not

meant by "error"?
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A measurement may be made of a quantity which has an accepted value which can be

looked up in a handbook (e.g.. the density of brass). The difference between the

measurement and the accepted value is not what is meant by error. Such accepted

values are not "right" answers. They are just measurements made by other people

which have errors associated with them as well.

Nor does error mean "blunder." Reading a scale backwards, misunderstanding what

you are doing or elbowing your lab partner's measuring apparatus are blunders which

can be caught and should simply be disregarded.

Obviously, it cannot be determined exactly how far off a measurement is; if this could

be done, it would be possible to just give a more accurate, corrected value.

Error, then, has to do with uncertainty in measurements that nothing can be done

about. If a measurement is repeated, the values obtained will differ and none of the

results can be preferred over the others. Although it is not possible to do anything

about such error, it can be characterized. For instance, the repeated measurements

may cluster tightly together or they may spread widely. This pattern can be analyzed

systematically.

3. Classification of Error

Generally, errors can be divided into two broad and rough but useful classes:

systematic and random.

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Systematic errors are errors which tend to shift all measurements in a systematic way

so their mean value is displaced. This may be due to such things as incorrect

calibration of equipment, consistently improper use of equipment or failure to

properly account for some effect. In a sense, a systematic error is rather like a blunder

and large systematic errors can and must be eliminated in a good experiment. But

small systematic errors will always be present. For instance, no instrument can ever

be calibrated perfectly.

Other sources of systematic errors are external effects which can change the results of

the experiment, but for which the corrections are not well known. In science, the

reasons why several independent confirmations of experimental results are often

required (especially using different techniques) is because different apparatus at

different places may be affected by different systematic effects. Aside from making

mistakes (such as thinking one is using the x10 scale, and actually using the x100

scale), the reason why experiments sometimes yield results which may be far outside

the quoted errors is because of systematic effects which were not accounted for.

Random errors are errors which fluctuate from one measurement to the next. They

yield results distributed about some mean value. They can occur for a variety of

reasons.
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 They may occur due to lack of sensitivity. For a sufficiently a small change an

instrument may not be able to respond to it or to indicate it or the observer

may not be able to discern it.

 They may occur due to noise. There may be extraneous disturbances which

cannot be taken into account.

 They may be due to imprecise definition.

 They may also occur due to statistical processes such as the roll of dice.

Random errors displace measurements in an arbitrary direction whereas systematic

errors displace measurements in a single direction. Some systematic error can be

substantially eliminated (or properly taken into account). Random errors are

unavoidable and must be lived with.

Many times you will find results quoted with two errors. The first error quoted is

usually the random error, and the second is called the systematic error. If only one

error is quoted, then the errors from all sources are added together. (In quadrature as

described in the section on propagation of errors.)

F. Concept of Personal pronoun

The traditional definition of pronoun is as a word that takes the places of a

noun. Modern grammarians who regard position and function as the decisive factors

in classifying a part of speech often consider pronoun as a subclass of noun (Frank,

1992: 22).
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Pronouns have various types, as they can be seen below:

a. Personal pronouns : I, we, you, they, he, she, it

b. Relative pronouns : Who, that, and which

c. Interrogative : Who, which and what

d. Demonstrative: This, that, these, those.

e. Indefinite pronoun : Somebody, someone, and something

f. Reflexive (intensive) pronoun: myself, yourselves ourselves etc.

g. Reciprocal pronoun : each, other, and another

Personal pronouns is part of pronouns that are words that replace a noun or

noun phrase, but they commonly refer to person and thing, as Martha said; Personal

Pronouns are the ones we usually think of when the word pronoun comes to mind, we

generally label them on the basis of person and members. There are four case forms

of personal pronoun to indicate different sentence function: Subjective case, objective

case, the possessive case, and reflexive case. Personal pronouns change their form for

person (First, second and third), for case (subject, object, possessive), number

(singular, plural) and gender (masculine, feminine, neuter), except for reflexive

pronoun making the same kind of changes.

Form of Personal Pronoun

SUBJECT OBJECT POSSESIVE POSSESSIVE REFLEXIVE

ADJECTIVE PRONOUN PRONOUN

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I Me My Mine Myself

You You Your Yours Yourself

He Him His His Himself

She Her Her Hers Herself

It It Its Itself

We Us Our Ours Ourselves

They them Their Theirs Themselves

G. Type of personal pronoun

1. Subject pronoun

According to Teresa, A pronoun in the subject group (I, she, he, we, they).

Used in ways as the subject of a verb

He is my brother (He is the subject of the verb is)

We girls gave a party (we is the subject of the verb gave)

She plays as well as he (it means .she plays as well as he does

she is the subject of the verb does)

2. Object pronoun

Object pronoun appears after verbs or after preposition with a certain type of

verb preposition combination, a pronoun object appears between the verb and

preposition, example call him up. Object pronoun or non-subject group (me, him, her,

us, them, you) can be used in four ways:

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(1). As direct object of verb:

e. g : They invited me (me is the direct object of verb invited)

(2). As indirect object of verb

e. g: They gave her a book (her is the indirect object of the verb gave. It

comes before a direct object).

(3). As object of preposition

e. g : They taught it to him (him is the object of preposition)

(4). As subject of infinitive

e. g : They asked her to move (her is the subject of infinitive).

3. Possessive Adjective

Possessive adjectives are followed immediately by a noun, they do not stand

alone, but refer to the possessor and not to the thing possessive. My, your, his, her,

its, our and there are determines, while in grammars and dictionary called .possessive

adjective..

e. g; This is my hat (my is the possessive adjective of the possessor hat). The

possessive its is used only with a noun following and do not take apostrophe. It’s

(with an apostrophe) means it is or it has in the present perfect.

4. Possessive Pronoun

Possessive pronouns are not followed immediately by a noun, they stand-

alone. It also shows possession the same as in possessive adjective. Mine, yours, his,

hers, ours, theirs are called pronoun and there is no pronoun its.
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e. g : This book is mine (mine is the possessive pronoun, that shows

possession).

5. Reflexive Pronoun

A reflexive pronoun is combination of self with one of the personal pronoun

or with the impersonal pronoun one, generally refers to an animate being usually a

person. The most common use of the reflexive pronoun is as an object that reflects

back to the subject; it is used:

(1). As the direct object of the verb

e.g : you must not blame yourself for that mistake. (The subject you and the

object yourself have the same identity).

(2). As the indirect object of the verb

e.g : I bought myself a beautiful (or I bought a beautiful watch for myself).