An analysis of english reported speech errors made by high school students in nam dan district = phân tích lỗi lời nói gián tiếp trong tiếng anh của học sinh THPT ở huyện nam đàn luận văn thạc sĩ giáo dục học

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
VINH UNIVERSITY

PHẠM THỊ THANH VÂN

AN ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH REPORTED SPEECH
ERRORS MADE BY HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN NAM
DAN DISTRICT
( Phân tích lỗi lời nói gián tiếp trong Tiếng Anh của học sinh THPT ở
huyện Nam Đàn )
MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION

Vinh, 2011
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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
VINH UNIVERSITY

PHẠM THỊ THANH VÂN

AN ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH REPORTED SPEECH
ERRORS MADE BY HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN NAM
DAN DISTRICT
( Phân tích lỗi lời nói gián tiếp trong Tiếng Anh của học sinh THPT ở
huyện Nam Đàn )

FIELD: THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH
LANGUAGE TEACHING
CODE: 60.14.10

MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION

SUPERVISOR: ASSOC. PROF. DR. NGO DINH PHUONG

Vinh, 2011

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Acknowledgement ……………………………………………………………………...I
Abstract ………………………………………………………………………………...II
List of Tables and Figures ……………………………………………………………III
List of Abbreviation ………………………………………………………..................V
TABLE OF CONTENTS ...………………………..…………………………………1
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION..............................................................................6
1.1. RATIONALE OF THE STUDY ...................................................................................6
1.2. AIMS OF THE STUDY..............................................................................................8
1.3. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY...............................................................................8
1.4. RESEARCH QUESTIONS OF THE STUDY.................................................................8
1.5. METHODS OF THE STUDY......................................................................................8
1.6. SCOPE OF THE STUDY............................................................................................9
1.7. DESIGN OF THE STUDY..........................................................................................9
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................10
2.1. OVERVIEW:...........................................................................................................11
2.2. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND:.............................................................................11
2.2.1. Reported Speech in English:.............................................................................11
2.2.1.1. Direct Speech ............................................................................................11
2.2.1.2. Reported Speech .......................................................................................11
2.2.2. Errors in Language Learning Process:..............................................................19
2.2.2.1. The Notion of Errors:.................................................................................19

2.2.2.2. Errors, Mistakes and Lapses:.....................................................................20
2.2.2.3. Error Classifications.....................................................................................22
There are also different ways of classifying errors based on each researcher’s
standard and norm...........................................................................................................22
2.2.3. Error Analysis:..................................................................................................28
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY...........................30
3.1. OVERVIEW.............................................................................................................30

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3.2. RESEARCH DESIGN...............................................................................................30
3.3. SUBJECT OF THE STUDY......................................................................................30
3.4. DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS......................................................................32
3.4.2.2. The Data Analysis Criteria for The Ts’ Questionnaire ...........................33
3.5. DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURE:.......................................................................33
3.6. DATA ANALYSIS:...................................................................................................34
3.7. RESEARCH PROCEDURES:....................................................................................34
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS....................................................35
4.1. FINDINGS AND DATA ANALYSIS...........................................................................35
4.1.1. OVERVIEW...............................................................................................35
4.1.2.1. Primary Results of Students’ Tests..........................................................35
4.1.2.2. Results and Data Analysis from Students’ Questionnaire.........................38
As seen the results above, this grammatical part is not easy for them to do and they
can not avoid the mistakes, they need helping by their teachers and expect to learn and
do exercises well as tests about reported speech. They hope their teachers apply lots of
useful activities as a quarter wants to be introduced reported speech though contexts,
given out clear forms about the ways of changing types of sentences. Moreover, 24.75%
wanted teachers to create opportunities to practise. When practicing lots, they will use
the learnt knowledge of this part and contact other forms of exercises (24.75%), in

addition, students are interested in being done exercises in groups or reference lots of
related documents, that means 12.25% or 12.75% referred............................................51
4.1.2.3. Results and Data Analysis from Teachers’ Questionnaire:........................52
A variety of the given suggestions to better teaching reported speech, as seen the 66
results of students’ questionnaire above, this grammatical part is not easy for students to
do and they can not avoid the mistakes. To reduce their students’ troubles, teachers
should give out many different forms of exercises with suggestions, handouts, they will
be got acquainted with diversity exercises and students wishes will, too. With the long
exercises, if teachers use handouts. It will have much more time to them practise. That is

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why 79.2% give out the opinion that making students lots of opportunities to practise.
The more they practise used reported speech exercises, the more they understand,
decrease the no necessary mistakes and remember its theory easily. However, one
indispensable requirement of 87.5% of teachers said when teaching this grammar need to
introduce it though contexts, give out clear forms about the ways of changing types of
sentences. After supplying the theory, teachers should guide and explain students which
signals and how to do exercises with it to gain high results, according to 62.5%
proposed. 83.3% recognized and suggested that if they let their students have students
work and correct in pairs and groups, they provided students with chances to be easy to
share and exchange their ideas with their friends, make them more self confident.
Moreover, after discussing in pairs and groups, they will get more new ideas from their
friends, require them to think deeply. Other suggestions are given with different ratings
like creating comfortable environment to motivate for students learning (29%) and
asking students to use extra materials at home to reference more (41.7%). With the
question, one teacher suggested some activities to add more that matching, using pictures
and asking students to make sentences. She thought that the activities help students
interest and motivate in learning reported speech...........................................................66

4.1.3. Summary of Findings.......................................................................................66
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION.................................................................................73
5.3. Implications to Improve Both Better Teaching and Learning Reported Speech in
English............................................................................................................................77
5.3.1. General Implications......................................................................................77
5.3.2. Suggested Techniques Helping Students Overcome Their Difficulties and
Improve Both Better Teaching and Learning Reported Speech in English....................78
5.4. LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY.......................83
REFERENCES .........................................................................................................84

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Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale of The Study
Nowadays, English has become an international communication language to
access to many fields of human life such as science, technology, trade, communication
and research as well. In recent years, there is a considerable increase in Vietnamese
learners’ need of learning English because they are aware of the importance of English to
globalization in the WTO integration period. To the persons who possess, understand
and make full use of English, it is considered as a multifunctional key to achieve success
in life. Like many other languages, English language’s complexity really makes many
Vietnamese students confused. Numerous errors are made during the process of learning
the English language because of the differences between two cultures in terms of ways of
thinking, literature and learning styles.
Principally, English teaching and learning process cannot be free from mistakes
or errors, misinterpretation, misapplication about something that has been learnt (Brown,
P.J. 1987: p.9). As Spada, N and Lightbown (2002, p.167) stated that: “Errors are natural
part of language learning. The errors reveal the patterns of learners’ developing
interlanguage systems- showing where they have over generalized a second language

rules or where they have inappropriately transferred the first language rule into the
second language.”
For second language learners in general and for second language students at high
schools in particular, or even the persons who acquired a high level of English
proficiency also make mistakes in their production of the second language. The errors
can be seen in different parts. For instance, in syntax, Vietnamese students made wrong
use of prepositions, articles as in the following sentences “He is working in the farm” or
“I like the my hat”. Another example is about wrong use of word order in the sentence
“She very likes a red dress” and so on.

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Errors and error analysis have drawn attention of methodologists and linguists for
a long time. However, in Vietnam, there are few researches done on the area of errors
and error analysis. There are some studies of error analysis conducted at Vinh University
such as “Identifying Common Errors in Written English of Students of English at the
Intermediate Level” by Pham Thi Thanh Nhan, “An Analysis of Errors made by Highschool Students in the Use of Subject- verb Agreement” by Cao Viet Ha, “Ellipsis in
English: An Analysis of Errors made by Secondary School Students” by Vo Thi Thuy
Linh, “An Analysis of Errors committed by High-school Students in Using English
Reflexive Verbs and Reflexive Pronouns” by Mai Ly Huynh, “An Investigation into
Errors in Using the Present Perfect tense by Secondary school Students” by Pham Thi
Huyen, etc.
In all those studies, however, little attention has been made to reported speech and
difficulties and challenges students face. In learning English grammar, especially
learning reported speech, Vietnamese students cannot avoid making mistakes and errors.
Despite the fact that they have been taught and understood the rules of grammar clearly,
they often make errors and some types of errors even become habitual. These errors can
be seen in both learning process at school and the results at the end of every semester.
Hence, it is very important to carry out an error analysis of reported speech made by high

school students to identify their errors and causes and to find out the solutions to help
improving the effects of teaching and learning English.
For the reasons mentioned above, the author would like to conduct a study
dealing with an analysis of errors committed by high school students in terms of using
reported speech, entitled “An Error Analysis of Reported Speech made by High-school
Students”

Hopefully, the study will benefit both teachers and students who want to
master and possess the English language.

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1.2. Aims of The Study
The study is carried out to achieve the following objectives:
 To identify students’ errors in using reported speech in English.

 To find out the causes leading to errors made by students in using RP.
 To point out solutions to help students to avoid the errors, to suggest implications
for students and teachers during teaching and learning process.
1.3. Significance of The Study
The other side of errors can be taken to make teaching and learning better than
before. It can be said that every student makes progress through the mistakes or errors
they make. In English teaching and learning process, it is necessary to analyze the errors
in order to gain and reconstruct new language systems. The analysis will give teachers
description of language acquisition. Error analysis has also provided insights about the
second language acquisition process, which results in major changes in teaching
practices. As a result, error analysis on students’ work will be useful and contribute to
the process of language teaching and learning. This leads to a greater understanding of
the difficulties that students face and to the development of pedagogic strategies.

Therefore, this study is very significant for Vietnamese learners of English in general
and high-school students in particular during the process of learning English.
1.4. Research Questions of The Study
The study is to answer the following questions:
1. What types of errors may high school students make in using reported speech?
2. What might be the causes leading to the errors?
3. What recommendations could be made so as to avoid the errors in using reported
speech?
1.5. Methods of The Study
To carry out the study, the methods and methodology employed in this study are
quantitative and qualitative.

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A group of 400 students from grade 11 and 12 at three high schools at Nam Dan
district are involved in the survey and all teachers of English consisting of 24 at these
high schools.
In order to gain the most successful results, data will be collected through: firstly,
the errors collected in written tasks done by the students within 50 minutes are analyzed;
classified and counted to see how often they occur and look for their causes. From those,
suggesting some solutions. All data are analyzed and conducted under theoretical
knowledge of errors and error analysis from the data analysis of the study; secondly, the
survey questionnaires: one for students and one for teachers.
1.6. Scope of The Study
English grammar is a complex issue for both learners and researchers. Due to the
time limit and research condition, this study does not cover all problems or difficulties
students meet in learning English grammar. The study will focus on analyzing errors in
reported speech made by Vietnamese high-school students. Besides, the research has just
paid much attention to written language, which is collected from written tasks performed

by students at Nam Dan II High School.
1.7. Design of The Study
The research consists of five following chapters:
Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION
This chapter deals with background of the study, problems statement, aims,
benefit, research questions, methods, scope and the design of the study.
Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter will provide an in-depth review of the relevance literature related to
the issue under investigation. Particularly, a review of the uses of reported speech in
English will bring the theoretical framework for the identification of the errors that
students made. Besides that, basing on the ideas expressed in different works by different
theorists. Theories about the sources of errors will help explore what factors caused

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students’ commitment of errors in using the reported speech. Error analysis as the main
theoretical tool for analyzing data will also be reviewed.
Chapter 3: RESEARCH DESIGN and METHODOLOGY
This chapter will present methodology adopted to collect data for the research,
which consists of subject of the study, data collection instruments, data collection
procedure, data analysis, research procedures and reliability and validity involved in the
study.
Chapter 4: FINDINGS and DISCUSSIONS
This chapter will describe how errors are elicited from the tasks, deal with
primary results through students’ tasks, two questionnaires of students and teachers.
From that, the results are presented to classify errors and give their corresponding causes.
Chapter 5: CONCLUSION
This chapter will summarize what have been done in the research, suggest some
implications or recommendations for teaching and learning reported speech for teachers

and students at high schools in Nam Dan avoiding the unnecessary mistakes and use
reported speech more effectively. And provide some suggestions for further research and
give limitations of the study.
Followed by several appendices and references which may be the concern of the
readers.

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

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2.1. Overview:
This chapter has presented some theoretical background knowledge related to the
topic of the study. It consists of previous study and has discussed some definition and
function concerning to reported speech (type of reported speech, errors, kinds of errors
and the theory of errors classifications).
2.2. Theoretical Background:
2.2.1. Reported Speech in English:
Reported speech, traditionally called indirect speech, but also referred to by linguists
and grammarians as hypotactic locutions, refers to the use of a noun clause to report a
person’s words, thoughts, beliefs, etc. To better understand reported speech, it is helpful
to first look at direct speech, which can also be used to report a person’s words, thoughts,
and beliefs.
2.2.1.1. Direct Speech
Direct speech is used mainly in writing to report a person’s words exactly. It is
found in conversations in books, in plays, and in quotations, and is often used in
situations where accuracy is important, such as in areas relating to law and public media.
The following examples highlight the form of direct speech.
E.g. She said, "I am teaching English to you now."
Or "I am teaching English to you now," she said.

The distinguishing features are the use of quotation marks to tell the reader that the
words are the original words spoken by the speaker, and the reference to the speaker,
which can be made before or after the quote, with the comma placed accordingly.
2.2.1.2. Reported Speech
In contrast to direct speech, reported speech is used mainly in conversation and is
concerned more with communicating the exact meaning than the exact words. As such,
the reported message may vary depending on the point of view of the speaker and the
vocabulary selected:
E.g. He said/told us he would have finished that paper the next day.

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Shifting from Direct to Reported Speech:
When shifting from direct to reported speech, grammatical changes may need to be
made to the original text in order to account for the fact that “words spoken or thought in
one place by one person [are or] may be reported in another place at a different time, and
perhaps by a different person.”
In other words, indirect speech is reported speech to narrate direct speech in a
different form, including a change of tense, adverbs of place, time (as appropriate),
change pronouns, possessives, demonstratives (the rule) and even change the structure of
the sentences comparing with direct speech to suit the situation. However, the meaning
of sentences directly remain. The changes include:
a. Tense change:
When reporting speech the tense usually changes. This is because when we use
reported speech, we are usually talking about a time in the past (because obviously the
person who spoke originally spoke in the past). The verbs therefore usually have to be in
the past too.
As a rule when you report something someone has said you go back a tense: (the
tense on the left changes to the tense on the right):

Direct speech
Present simple




Indirect speech
Past simple

Present continuous



Past continuous

Present perfect simple



Past perfect simple

Present perfect continuous



Past perfect continuous

Past simple



Past perfect

Past continuous



Past perfect continuous

Past perfect



Past perfect

Past perfect continuous



Past perfect continuous

Eg:
- She said, "I am at home."

 She said she was at home.

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- She said, "I'm listening to music."

 She said she was listening to music.

- She said, "I have never been to Dalat”  She said she had never been to Dalat.
- She said, "I went to the cinema last night."
 She said she had gone to the cinema the night before.
- She said, "I was driving to her home."
 She said she had been driving to her home.
Modal verb forms also sometimes change:
Direct speech



Indirect speech

will



would

can



could

must
shall




had to
should

may
 might
Eg: - She said, "I will learn English online tomorrow."
 She said she would learn English online the next day.
Note - There is no change to; could, would, should, might and ought to.
Eg: - "I might buy this house", he said.
 He said he might buy that house.
You can use the present tense in reported speech if you want to say that something is
still true i.e. my name has always been and will always be Mary:
Eg: - "My name is Mary", she said.
 She said her name was Mary.
Or she said her name is Mary.
You can also use the present tense if you are talking about a future event.
Eg: "Next week's lesson is on reported speech ", she said.
 She said next week's lesson is on reported speech.
The tense does not need to be changed when the present, future, and present perfect
reporting verbs are used (because there is normally no important change in time.

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b. Time change:
If the reported sentence contains an expression of time, you must change it to fit in
with the time of reporting.

For example, we need to change words like here and yesterday if they have different
meanings at the time and place of reporting.
Eg: "Today's lesson is on presentations."
 She said yesterday's lesson was on presentations.
Expressions of time if reported on a different day
Indirect speech
Direct speech
1 This ( evening)
That (evening)
2 These (days)
Those (days)
3 hence
thence
4 here
there
5 come here*
go there*
6 now
then
7 ( a week) ago
( a week) before
8 today
that day
9 tonight
that night
10 yesterday
the day before / the previous day
11 last night
the night before / the previous night
12 the day before yesterday two days before

13 tomorrow
the next day/ following day / the day after
14 next (week)
the following (week)/ the (week) after/ the (week) later
15 the day after tomorrow
two days after
Note: (*) It does not say COME THERE (go there) or GO HERE (go here) that said
COME HERE and GO THERE.
In addition if you report something that someone said in a different place to where
you heard it you must change the place (here) to the place (there).
For example: "How long have you worked here?"
 She asked me how long I'd worked there.
c. Pronouns and possessives change:

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The changes required in pronouns, possessive adjectives and demonstratives are as
follows:
Direct speech
Subjective
Pronoun

To Indirect speech

I
You
We
Me
You

Us
My
Your
Our
Mine
Yours
Ours
Myself
Yourself

He, she
I, they
They
Objective
Him, her
Pronoun
Me, them
Them
Possessive
His, her
adjective
My, their
Their
Possessive
His, hers
Pronoun
Mine, theirs
theirs
Reflexive
Himself, herself

Pronoun
Myself, themselves
themselves
Ourselves
Apart from the general rule about the changes in pronouns and possessives above,
learners need to pay more attention to the other changes related to the relative position of
the person who reports utterances or sayings as follows:
Eg: "Tom, you should listen to me." Jane said.
+ Jane self-reports her words:
 I told Tom that he should listen to me.
+ Other person reports Jane’s saying:
 Jane told Tom that he should listen to her
+ Others report to Tom:
 Jane told you that he should listen to her.
+ Tom reports Jane’s words:
 Jane told me that I should listen to her.

d. Reporting Verbs:
Said, told and asked are the most common verbs used in indirect speech.

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- We use asked to report questions:For example: I asked Hoa how long she had been living there.
- We use told with an object.
For example: Anna told me she was not hungry then.
! Note - Here me is the object.
- We usually use said without an object.
For example: Mr. John said he was going to teach online.
- If said is used with an object we must include to.

For example: Mr. John said to me that he had finished his project.
! Note - We usually use told.
For example: Mr. John told me that he had finished his project.
- There are many other verbs we can use apart from said, told and asked.
=> These include:
accused, admitted, advised, alleged, agreed, apologized, begged, boasted, complained,
denied, explained, implied, invited, offered, ordered, promised, replied, suggested and
thought.
Using them properly can make what you say much more interesting and informative
For example: He asked me to come to the party:
He invited me to the party.
He begged me to come to the party.
He ordered me to come to the party.
He advised me to come to the party.
He suggested I should come to the party.
e. Questions in reported speech:
When reporting questions, the changes already mentioned in regard to statements
apply. In addition to these, there are also several other areas to consider. Firstly, the word
order changes to that of a statement, namely subject-verb, and so accordingly reported
questions are usually not punctuated with a question mark. Secondly, the auxiliary verb

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do is dropped. Finally, yes/no questions start with if or whether; wh-word questions such
as why, when, and where, however, do not:
Note: If the verb introduced in the past and the quotation in question in the present or the past
simple form of the verb often changes as follows:

e1. Questions with Wh-question:

Direct speech: Sa + Va + ((prep) + Oa + “WH- + Vspecial + Sb+ V0 / V-ing / V3/ed….?”
→ Indirect speech: Sa + Va’ + (Oa ) + WH- + Sb+ Vspecial (back tense if Va’ in past) + V0 / V-ing /
V3/ed…….
Note: If the verb introduced in the past and the question in the bracket in the present or
the past simple form of the verb often changes as follows:
With the present/ past form in brackets:
Direct speech: Sa + Va + ((prep) + Oa + “WH- + do/ does/did + Sb+ V0 ……. ?”
→ Indirect speech: Sa + Va’ + (Oa ) + WH- + Sb+ V2/ed + /Had + V3/ed ……. ?
E.g.
1. He said “Why do you tell me about that, Lan?”
→ He asked Lan why she told him about that.
2. “When will you go?” she said to us.
→ She asked us when we would go.
3. “What did you do at school yesterday, Nam?” said his mother.
→ Nam’s mother asked him what he had done at school the day before.
e2. YES / NO questions:
Direct speech: Sa + Va + ((prep) + Oa + (that)) “Vspecial + Sb+ V0 / V-ing / V3/ed….?”
→ Indirect speech: Sa + Va’ + (Oa ) + If / (Whether) + Sb+ Vspecial (back a tense if Va’ in past) +
V0 / V-ing / V3/ed……. + (Or Not).
Note: If the verb introduced in the past and the question in quotation in the present or
the past simple form of the verb often changes as follows:
With the simple present/ past in bracket:
Direct speech: Sa + Va + ((prep) + Oa + (that)) “do/does/did + Sb+ V0 ……. ?”

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→ Indirect speech: Sa + Va’ + (Oa ) + If / (Whether) + Sb+ V2/ed /Had + V3/ed ……. +
(Or Not).
E.g.

1. They said, “Are you tired, Tom?”
→ They asked Tom if he was tired.
→ They asked Tom whether he was tired (or not).
2. “Did you want to need help from me, Linda?”, said John.
→ John asked Linda if she had wanted to need help from him.
3. Jim said to me, “Do you see this thief today?”
→ Jim asked me if I saw that thief that day.
→ Jim asked me whether I saw that thief that day (or not).
f. Special situations of reported speech:
f1. Shall/ would in an offer or an invitation
Eg: - "Shall I bring you some coffee?" he asked.
 He offered to bring me some coffee.
- "Shall we meet at the museum?" he asked.
 He suggested meeting at the museum.
f2. Will/would in a request:
E.g: - Will you help me, please?
 He asked me to help him.
f3. Commands in reported speech
E.g: - Do not talk in the class!
 He told me/the students not to talk in the class.
f4. Exclamations in reported speech
E.g: - What a lovely hat!
Based on emotions, we can use different ways of reporting the sentence as follows:
She exclaimed that the hat was lovely.
She exclaimed that the hat was a lovely once.

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She exclaimed with admiration at the sight of the hat.

f5. Complex forms in reported speech
Reported speech consists of many complex forms such as statements, commands,
questions, exclamations.
E.g: - She said, "can you play the chess?” and I said “no”
 She asked me if could play the chess and I said that I could not.
g. Use of 'That' in reported speech:
In reported speech, the word that is commonly used.
For example: He told me that he has just won in that game.
However, that is optional.
For example: He
told me he has just won in that game.
! Note - That is never used in questions, instead we often use if.
For example: He asked me if I would phone him later.
2.2.2. Errors in Language Learning Process:
2.2.2.1. The Notion of Errors:
In English learning process, students sometimes make errors and it is errors that can
play an important role because committing and analyzing errors will help learners realize
and try to avoid them better. Up to now, there are a variety of definitions of errors made
by many grammarians and linguists.
According to Corder, S.P. (1974), an error is referred to as a linguistic form that is
either superficially deviant or inappropriate in terms of the target language.
In “Errors in Language Teaching and Use” (1980), Carl James defined errors as
“being an instance of language that is intentionally deviant and not self-corrigible by its
authors.”
Leon, P. (1991, p.182) has defined error as “a linguistic form…which, in the same
context…would in all likelihood not be produced by the learners’ native speaker
counterparts”.

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Hendrickson in methodology in TESOL (1987) stated an error is “an utterance form
or structure that is a particular language teacher seems unacceptable because of its
inappropriate use or its absence in real life discourse”.
According to “Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics”
by Richard et al, (1974), error is considered as “the uses of a linguistic item (e.g. a word,
a grammatical item, a speech act, etc.) in a way in which a fluent or native speaker of
language regards as showing faulty or incomplete learning”.
Corder, (1974, p.122) uses the term “erroneous” to mean either superficially deviant
or inappropriate in terms of the target language grammar. Dulay et al (1982, p.138) sees
error as “the flawed side of leaner speech and writing. They are those parts of
conversation or composition that deviate from some selected norm”. The extract from
Halliday et al (1964, p.119) is taken as starting point for my study:
An error in English can be described with complete accuracy by reference
solely to the description of English, without taking any account of the students’
native language or even knowing what it is. Each error is stated as a specific deviation
from a described English feature.

A lot of definitions of errors have been given due to various standards. From those,
the writer may suggest another definition “errors are what the second language learners
produce, which are unacceptable, unnatural and faulty to native speaker in the particular
context”.
2.2.2.2. Errors, Mistakes and Lapses:
It can be said that errors, mistakes and lapses are near synonyms. However, they have
distinctive features different from each other.
The distinction between errors, mistakes is not really easy for readers to identify and
realize. Some linguists have tried to point out the distinction between them.
According to Carl James, (1980) “A mistake may be defined as slip of tongue or of
handwriting, and an error is committed because of the writer/speaker’s semantic and
structure intentions. If the learner is inclined and able to correct a fault in his or her

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output, it is assumed that the form he or she selected was unintended fault or a mistake.
On the other hand, the learner cannot correct, it is assumed that the form the learners use
was the intended one, which is an error”.
Corder, S.P. (1967) argued that mistakes are of no significance to the learning
language process; thus they do not reflect a defect in our knowledge but are traceable to
performance failure. The learner is normally immediately conscious of the mistakes and
can self-correct them to some extent. Both native speakers and learners may make
mistakes. In contrast, errors that only learners of a second language commit are
significant to the process of language learning. They do not reflect knowledge and
cannot self-correct.
James adds that language learners cannot correct their errors until they have
additional knowledge on the topic. These errors occur during the course that learners
attend because they haven’t acquired enough knowledge. Once they acquire additional
knowledge, they will be able to correct their errors and the more errors the learners
correct the more conscious of language they will be.
Corder, S.P. (1981) differentiates errors from mistakes in the way that errors are
systematic in nature being “errors of competence” which occur in the continuum of the
learning process. They are result of the learners’ transitional competence. On the
contrary, mistakes are “errors of performance” which are not systemic.
Richard et al, in “Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics” (1992)
also showed that a learner makes a mistake when writing or speaking because of lack of
attention, fatigue, carelessness or some other aspects of performance. Meanwhile, an
error is the use of linguistic item in a way that a fluent or native speaker of the use of the
language regards it as showing faulty or incomplete learning.
Ellis, R. (1985) noted that “errors reflect gaps between learners’ knowledge. They
occur because the learner does not know what is correct. Mistakes reflect occasional

lapses in performance. They occur because in a particular instance, the learner is unable
to perform what he or she knows”.

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Norrish, J. (1983) said that there is another wrong use which is neither a mistake nor
an error and can happen to everyone, which is treated as a lapse. A lapse is involved in
the lack of concentrations, shortness of memory, fatigue, etc.
In short, it can be said that errors are linked to failure in competence, mistakes are
associated with failure in performance and lapses are related to performance with
occasional effects.
2.2.2.3. Error Classifications
There are also different ways of classifying errors based on each researcher’s
standard and norm.
1. Duley, Burt and Krashen (1982) proposed the surface structure taxonomy based on
“the way surface structures are altered” (1982, p.150). Errors can occur because of
change in surface structure in specific and systematic ways. There are four ways in
which learners “modify” target forms: omission, addition, misformation and misordering
errors.
 Omission: Learners in the early stages of learning tend to omit function words
rather than content words. More advanced learners tend to be conscious of their
ignorance of content words and rather than omit one, they need compensatory strategies
to express their idea (Kasper and Lellerman, 1997).
 Addition: This type of errors is “the result of all-too-faithful use of certain rules”
(1982, p.156). Duley, Burt and Krashen suggest subtypes. First, regularization involves
overlooking exceptions and spreading rules to domains where they do not apply, for
instance producing the incorrect “buyed” for “bought”. Second is double marking as
“failure to delete certain items which are required in some linguistic constructions but
not in others”. An illustration for this is “He doesn’t knows me”.

 Misformation: Duley, Burt and Krashen define misformation as the use of the
wrong form of a structure or morpheme.
For example: I* meet her yesterday
He hurt* himself.

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 Misordering: The learners can select the right forms to use in the right context,
but they arrange them in the wrong order, for instance, adverbials, interrogatives and
adjectives, yielding errors.
For instance: *Tell me when did you buy it.
*The houses blue
Misordering is often the result of learners’ relying on carrying out “word for word
translations of native language surface structure” (1982, p.162) when producing written
or spoken utterances in the target language.
2. James, C. (1998) classified errors into five patterns as follows:
 Omission
 Over inclusion: E.g. having
 Misselection (use wrong words not wrong forms). E.g: miself (myself).
 Misordering
 Blends: Blending arises when two alternative grammatical forms are combined to
produce an ungrammatical blend.).
3. Richard, J.C. (1974) classified errors into two categories according to their causes
as follows:
 Interlingual Errors: These errors are caused by mother tongue interference.
 Intralingual & Developmental Errors: These kinds of error occur during the
learning process of the second language at a stage when they haven’t really acquired the
knowledge. Moreover, the errors are also caused by the difficulty or the problem of
language itself. For as Dulay and Burt (1974) say almost 90% of errors are intralingual

errors.
4. James, C. (1998) states that there are four causes of errors:
 Interlingual errors (Mother-tongue influence). These kinds of errors are
influenced by the native languages which interfere with target language learning. Lado,
R. (1957, p.2) defined that “individual tends to transfer the form, meanings and
distribution of forms and meanings of their native language and culture to the foreign

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and culture”. Learners translate word by word idiomatic expressions, vocabulary and
even the grammatical rules of the learners’ first language into the second language. In
contrastive analysis, it is believed that the type of errors made by the learners of the
target language can be predicted and their causes can be determined. In order to prevent
and eliminate these errors, Richards, J.C. (1974) has given the following figures:
Between 3-25 percent of all errors are errors of mother tongue influence and 75 percent
of errors are ‘non-contrastive’ errors.
 Intralingual errors: These errors are caused by the target language (TL) itself. The
learners tend to build up hypothesis about the second language from their limited
experience of it. The learners who ignore a TL form on any level and any class can do
either of two things: either they can set the needed item in learning, engaging their
learning strategies, or they can try to fill the gap by resorting to communication
strategies. Learning strategies are used for code breaking while communication strategies
are encoding and decoding strategies. Both types of strategies can be the source of error.
Errors caused by learning strategies include:
 False analogy: Learners assume that the new item B behaves like A: they know
that “boy” (A) has its plural “boys” and assume that “child” (B) behaves likewise, so
pluralizes to “*Childs.”
 Misanalysis: Learners form a wrong hypothesis. An example of this strategy
occurs in: they are carnivorous plants and *its (their) name comes from. The false

concept in operation here is that its is the s pluralized form of it. A false concept is the
result of the learners misanalyzing the TL.
 Incomplete rule application: This is the converse of overgeneralization or one
might call it under generalization as the learners do not use all the rules. They change or
decrease the complicated rules to simpler rules as they aim at simplification rather than
attempt to get the whole complex structure. Incomplete application of rules is the result
of the fact that the learners may primarily attend to effective communication without the
need for mastering the rules. An example is seen in the deviant order of subject and verb

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‘be’ in: Nobody knew where* was Tommy (Tommy was). The learners have applied
only two components of the interrogative formation rule: they have selected and fronted
a wh-element (rule components 1 and 2), but have omitted to invert the subject and verb.
 Exploiting redundancy: This error occurs by carrying considerable redundancy.
This is shown throughout the system in the form of unnecessary morphology and double
signaling.
 Overlooking co-occurrence restrictions: This error is caused by overlooking the
exceptional rules. It happens when the learners fails to observe the restrictions. An
example of this is I would enjoy *to study (studying) about America caused by ignorance
of the fact that the verb enjoy should be followed by a gerund complement.

 Hypercorrection (monitor overuse): This results from the learners’ over cautious
and strict observance of the rules. One might say that the learners’ deliberate suppression
of a potential L1 transfer, for fear of being wrong, is another form of hypercorrection: an
example of this is the seventeen year*s old boy school.
 Overgeneralization or system-simplification: . Jacobovist, L.A. (1969, p.55)
defined overgeneralization as the use of previously available strategies in new situations.
Some of these strategies for some reasons will be misleading and inapplicable. This error

is caused by the misuse of words or grammatical rules. The error occurs when students
use the same structure for new items based on what they have learnt. An example is the
generalization of the relative pronoun that as in:
Anna, *that had a great sense of unconventional morality…
The learners use that to the exclusion of who which can not be used here.

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