An analysis of errors made by vietnamese secondary school students in using english modal auxiliary verbs can, could, may, must and semi auxiliary verb have to

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VINH UNIVERSITY
FOREIGN LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT
========

L£ THÞ Qóy LéC

AN ANALYSIS OF ERRORS MADE BY Vietnamese
SECONDARY School STUDENTS In Using ENGLISH
MODAL AUXILARIARY VERBS
CAN, COULD, MAY, HAVE TO, AND MUST and semi –
auxiliary verb have to
(phÂn tích lỗi khi sử dụng các động từ khuyết thiếu:
can, could, may, must v bán trợ động từ ë häc sinh
THPT)

GRADUATION THESIS
FIELD: LINGUISTICS


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Vinh, 2006
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I could not have completed my graduation thesis without the
enthusiastic help and encouragement of my teachers, my family as well as my
friends.
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Ms. Vu
Thi Viet Huong, MA who gave me useful ideas and advice and helped me a lot
in collecting materials and completing the study.
I would also like to express my thanks to all teachers in the foreign

language department of Vinh University for their lectures on the area of
valuable knowle
dge which enlightened the arguments in the study.
I would like to express my special thanks to my friends who were
always beside me and help me overcome the difficulty during the time of doing
the thesis.
Finally, I wish to express my deep thanks to my parents and my younger
brother for their encouragement and support to my doing this thesis.
Vinh, summer, 2006
Le Thi Quy Loc


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SYMBOLS AND ABBREVIATIONS

L1: First language
L2: Second language
FL: Foreign language
TL: Thai Lao
E.g.: For example
WTO: World Trade Organization


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LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1: Result of section 1-test1
Table 2.2: Result of section 2- test 1
Table 2.3: Result of section 3- test 1

Table 2.4: Result of section 4-test 1
Table 2.5: Overall results


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements ............................................................................................i
Symbols and abbreviations.................................................................................ii
List of table.........................................................................................................iii
Table of content..................................................................................................iv

PART I: INTRODUCTION.....................................................................1
1.1.. Rationale for the study1..............................................................................1
1.2.. Aims and of the study................................................................................2
1.3.. Scope of the study.......................................................................................3
1.4.. Methods of the study...................................................................................3
1.5.. Overview of the study.................................................................................3

PART II: CONTENT............................................................................... 5
CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND......................................5
1.1. The concept of modality..............................................................................5
1.2. Modality in the light of semantics...............................................................6
1.2.1. Mood..................................................................................................6
1.2.2. Types of modality..............................................................................7
1.3. General introduction about modal auxiliaries in English............................9
1.3.1. The uses of Can and Could ...............................................................10
1.3.2. The uses of May.................................................................................12
1.3.3. The uses of Must................................................................................12

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1.3.4. The uses of Have to and Must...........................................................13
1.4 Modal auxiliaries in Vietnamese..................................................................16
1.5. Errors in language learning process.............................................................17
1.5.1. The notion of error.............................................................................17
1.5.2. Errors and mistakes...........................................................................18
1.5.3. Error analysis.....................................................................................19
1.5.4. Causes of errors.................................................................................20
1.5.4.1. Interlingual errors and mother tongue interference..................20
1.5.4.2. Intralingual errors and development errors...............................21
(1) Over-generalization.....................................................................22
(2) Ignorance of rule restrictions.......................................................23
(3) Incomplete application of rules..................................................23
(4) False concept hypothesized.........................................................24
CHAPTER2: THE STUDY...........................................................................25
2.1. Research questions .....................................................................................25
2.2. Research setting...........................................................................................25
2.3. Subjects........................................................................................................25
2.4. Data collection.............................................................................................26
2.5. Procedure.....................................................................................................26
2.6. Results of the study, findings and discussions............................................27
2.6.1. Errors in section 1-test1.....................................................................27
2.6.2. Errors in section 2-test1.....................................................................30
2.6.3. Errors in section 3-test1.....................................................................32
2.6.4. Errors in section 4-test 1....................................................................33


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2.6.5. General tendencies.............................................................................35

2.6.6. Errors in translation test.....................................................................36
CHAPTER 3: IMPLICATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS..............................38
3.1. Research questions revisited........................................................................38
3.2. Implications for teaching English modal verbs Can, Could, May, Have to
and Must to Vietnamese secondary students......................................................39
3.2.1. Suggestions for presentation..............................................................39
3.2.2. Suggestions for practice.....................................................................42
3.2.3 Implications for production................................................................45

PART III: CONCLUSION……………………………………………
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References
Appendix1
Appendix 2

Part I: Introduction
1.1Rational of the study

Nowadays, English has become one of the most important international
languages. In Vietnam, there are more and more people speak English.
However, it is not easy for every one to use it correctly in daily life.
In communication, native speakers often do not only qualify their
commitment to assertion but also soften and hedge their judgments and orders
and strengthen the expressions of their feelings and opinions of their feelings
and opinions in order to reflect cooperation in conversations. These aspects of
language belong to what is referred to as modality.Accodding to Halliday


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(1985: 86) , modality is an expression of the speaker’s opinion towards the

content of what he is saying in terms of certainty, probability, possibility,
ect.Modality also means an expression of the factual conditions on the process
in terms of obligation, permission, and willingness ect.For example, the
sentence “He may come” can be either a possibility ( it is possible that he may
comes) or a permission ( he is allowed to come).Modality is obviously a
complicated matter in the English language. I myself have several times been
asked such a question by my students: “I wonder when exactly we use can and
when may. Can you explain?”
Modality has caused a lot of difficulty for Vietnamese students in
learning and using English .It is any wonder that modal verb _the small part of
modality _cause troubles for most of the learners of English .Learner usually
wonders whether he/she should say “you must help him " or "you have to help
him". "May I smoke in here "or "Can I smoke in here ".Modal verb presents
little difficulty for native speakers but they appear tobe troublesome and
confusing for the learners of English .Errors in the learning process are
inevitable.
Making error is a part of learning and finding error is a part of teaching, this
helps the process of learning quicker and effective, given the fact that description...
and analysis of students' errors play an important role in the improvement of the
teaching and learning. Error analysis has been an interesting area, which has attracted
the attention of an increasing number of researchers.
For all of the above reasons, in my thesis, we would like to make an
empirical study with a thorough analysis of the errors committed by
Vietnamese students of English in using English modal verbs can, could, may,
have to and must .
An analysis specializing in errors in using English modal verb will
bring about a number of benefits. First, it will tell a teacher of English how well
his or her students master the meaning and use of English modal verbs, where
they need help and what sort of help that need. Second, errors collected will

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serve, as good feedback for learners to make self-adjustment in this particular
area. In addition, the general benefit for second language acquisition
researchers is that errors can server as evidence to discover what strategies
learners apply in learning and acquiring the language.
1.2. AIMS OF THE STUDY

The study reported in this thesis aims to:
- Identify the errors in using modal verbs can, could, may, , must and
semi-auxiliary verb “have to” by Vietnamese learners at TL secondary school.
- Find the major causes and sources of their errors and
- Make some suggestions for teaching and learning: can, could, may,
have to, and must.
1.3. SCOPE OF THE STUDY

Within the limitation of a graduation thesis, I would like to deal with 4
modal verbs can, could, may, have to and must and semi- auxiliary verb “have
to” which usually happen in secondary school
The survey is carried out at Thai Lao secondary school, Hung Nguyen
district, Nghe An province.
1.4. METHOD OF THE STUDY

Data will be collected via performance of written tasks. It includes 5
tasks, including translations (from Vietnamese into English), gap- filling.
Descriptive method will be used to identify types of errors. The tasks will be
designed in the written form involving different language contexts to provoke
receptive and expressive errors in model verbs .These tasks will be done by a
sample of approximately 100 students from 2 classes randomly chosen at Thai

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Lao secondary school, without using and reference books or dictionaries, and
under my supervision.
1.5. OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY

This thesis consists of three parts:
Part I: Introduction
In this part, the rationale of the study is presented .The aim; scope and
method of the study are then identified. An overview of the thesis is also
provided
Part II: Content
The content consists of three chapters:
- Chapter 1: Theoretical background
This chapter will provide in-depth review of the relevant literature
related to the issue under investigation. Specially, a review of modal verbs in
English will provide the theoretical framework for the identification of the
errors that student made. In addition, theories about the sources of errors will
help explore what factor caused students’ commitment of errors in using modal
verbs in English. Error analysis as the main theoretical tool for analyzing data
will also review.
- Chapter 2: The study
The methodology adopted to collect data for the research will be
presented in this chapter. It includes the description of research site,
participants, and data collection techniques and data analysis methods. Then,
the results and findings of the study will be presented and discussed.
- Chapter 3: Implications and suggestions


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This chapter will summarize major findings, suggest some solutions for
teaching and learning modal verbs can, could, may, have to and must and
suggest some types of exercises.
Part III: Conclusion
The final part of the thesis will conclude what has been discussed in the
content of the thesis, point out the limitations of the study and give some
suggestions for further research
The Appendices containing the Tests given to the students for data
collection, a suggested sample translation for Test 2 are presented at the end
following the References section.

Part II: Content
Chapter I: theoretical background
1.1.

THE CONCEPT OF MODALITY


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Modality has become an interest issue. Modality is the non-propositional
part of the sentence, which concerns its factual status. Modality helps speakers
to qualify their statements with respect to possibly or necessity
According to Halliday, modality is "an expression of the speaker’s
opinion" towards the content of what he is saying in term of possibility,
probability, certainly etc. (Halliday, 1985: 86).It also means an expression of
the factual conditions the process in terms of obligation, permission,
willingness etc.
Beside the definition of Halliday, there are many linguists who give out
their definition of modality.
Nguyen Hoa in "Understanding to Semantics"(2004): “modality is the

second component of the meaning of the sentence, apart from the
representational meaning."
Bybee (1985) defines modality in broad terms saying that modality is
what the speaker is doing with the whole proposition
Pamer (1986) offers the definition of modality as semantic information
associated with the speaker's attitude or opinion about what is said .In the point
of fact, modality concerns the factual status of the proposition
Jespensen' s view of modality is also very interesting .Jespensen sees 2
kinds of modality the first of which contains an element of will, and the second
contains no element of will .This distinction now corresponds to what we call
denotic and epistemic modality
Searle's speech act theory can provide a useful framework for the
discussion of modality.Assertives, for example, are described in terms of the
speaker belief or commitment to the truth of a proposition. Directives and
commissives are connected to denotic modality since both are about fitting the
world to the word.
The common thinking is to see the meaning of the sentence as containing
two parts: the propositional content and the non-propositional content, which


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expresses the speaker’s attitude and opinion toward the content of the
proposition. This basically is the distinction between proposition and modality.
Proposition is about what we say, and modality then is about what we want to
do with what we say_ thanking, marking a promise, marking a complaint.
(Palmer_1986)
There are many different definitions about modality. Carrying out this
study, I mainly based on the definition of Nguyen Hoa in "Understanding
English Semantics"(2004)
“ Modality is described as the expression of the speaker’ s attitude or

opinion towards the content of proposition"
1.2.

MODALITY IN THE LIGHT OF SEMANTICS

1.2.1. Mood
According to John Lyons in "linguistic semantics"(1995) mood is by
definition the category which results from grammaticalization of modality
(epistemic, denotic, or of whatever kind)
Mood is one of a set of distinctive forms that are used to sign modality
.the term "mood" is used by some authors in the same sense modality is. Others
distinguish the two, by using mood to refer to the contrastive grammatical
expression of different modalities and reserving modality to refer the meanings
so expressed.
The grammatical category of mood deals only with the syntactic structure
of structure and not necessarily with what the speaker is doing .In English, a
process may be presented by the speaker as a fact, expressed by an indicative
sentence. A request or command is expressed by an imperative sentence .a nonfact or improbability is indicated by a subjunctive sentence
1.2.2. Types of modality
There are two types of modality: Epistemic and Denotic


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A/ Epistemic
Palmer suggests that epistemic modality should involve any modal
system that indicates the degree of commitments by the speaker to what he or
she says the extent to which the truth of a proposition is possible
Epistemic comes from a Greek word meaning "understanding "or
"knowledge "(Lyons 1995: 254) refer to the types of modality that indicates the
degree of commitment by the speaker to what he says

If I say, for example, “John may go home.” I am telling you that I am
uncertain about the truth of the proposition John is going home. Other
examples of epistemic modality are must in “John must be home. Look there is
his car.” and can’t in “John can’t be home yet. His flight doesn’t arrive until 9
o’clock”
Another example:
a. She must be in love with him
b. She may be in love with him
In example (a), we can see a very strong commitment by the speaker to the
truth of what he or she is saying. The speaker is quite sure that it is the case that she is
in love with someone else on the other hand in (b), this is a week commitment.
B/Denotic
Denotic modality is modality that expresses the speaker's degree of
requirement of desire for or commitment to the realization of the proposition
expressed by the utterance
Denotic contains an element of will, as such, it is concerned with action rather
than with belief, knowledge or truth, etc ... denotic can be characterized as
necessity-based or obligation-based


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When saying, “John may go home now”, it gives John permission to
leave, or when I advise, “Elena should go home. She looks tired.” I am using
denotic modality
As far as the grammaticalization and lexicalization of modality in some
natural language is concerned, epistemic modality is possibility-based, whereas
denotic modality is necessity-based.
According to Quirk, modality markers can be realised by what we call
modal adverbs such as: probably, certainly, obviously, wisely, personally,
seriously, frankly, confidentially, etc.

For example: Seriously, do you love her?
Personally, I don’t like chess.
Modality can be realised by a number of modal auxiliaries including
can, could, may, might, will, would, shall, should, must, ought, need,
For example: I can speak English.
You should do exercise every morning.
According to Palmer (1986), English modality may be realised by some
modal lexical verbs with a complement clause. These verbs, mostly with the
fist person subject are used to indicate the attitudes and opinions of the speaker:
For example: I think she is one of the smartest persons in the world.
I ask you to get the job done as soon as possible.
Certain modal adjectives in English can also be employed in the same way:
For example: It is likely that she will come.
I am sure that he will stay at home.
In some cases, the speaker may avoid repetition of using the same modal
adverb or modal adjective by using modal noun such as certainly, probability,
possibility, chance …


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For example: There are chances that he will come to drink along here.
In my study, we only concentrate on modal auxiliaries, which usually
happen in the secondary school: can, could, may, have to and must.
1.3. MODAL AUXILIARIES IN ENGLISH
What are "modal auxiliary verbs"?
Modal in English is expressed by either or both of the 2 forms: verbal
and non-verbal. The verbal form can be a modal auxiliaries or a lexical verb
expressing modality. In this thesis we only discuss the Modal auxiliaries, which
include can, could, may have to and must.
Modal verbs are verbs, which 'help' other verbs to express a meaning: it is

important to realize that "modal verbs" have no meaning by themselves. A
modal verb such as would has several varying functions; it can be used, for
example, to help verbs express ideas about the past, the present and the future.
It is therefore wrong to simply believe that "would is the past of will": it is
many other things.
A few basic grammatical rules applying to modal verbs
•

Modal verbs are NEVER used with other auxiliary verbs such as do,
does, did etc. The negative is formed simply by adding "not" after the
verb; questions are formed by inversion of the verb and subject.

• Modal verbs NEVER change form: you can never add an "-s" or "-ed".
• Modal verbs are NEVER followed by to, with the exception of ought to.
What sort of meanings do modals give to other verbs?
The meanings are usually connected with ideas of doubt, certainty,
possibility, probability, obligation and permission (or lack of these). You will
see that they are not used to talk about things that definitely exist, or events that
definitely happened. These meanings are sometimes divided into two groups:


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1.3.1 The uses of Can & Could
• Talking about ability
Can you speak mandarin? (present)
She could play the piano when she was five (past)
• Making requests
Can you give me a ring at about 10?
Could you speak up a bit please? (Slightly more formal, polite)
• Asking permission

Can I ask you a question?
Could I ask you a personal question?
• Requests, orders and suggestions
We can use can and could to ask or tell people to do things. Could
is more polite, more formal, or less definite, and is used for
making suggestions
Can you put the children to bed?
Could you lend me five pounds until tomorrow?
•

Reported speech: Could is used as the past of can.
He asked me if I could pick him up after work.

•

General possibility
You can drive when you are 17.
Women couldn't vote until just after the First World War.


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•

Choice and opportunities
If you want some help with your writing, you can come to classes,
or you can get some help.
We could go to Stratford tomorrow, but the forecast’s not brilliant.
(less definite)

•

Future probability

Could (NOT can) is sometimes used in the same way as might or may, often
indicating something less definite.
When I leave university I might travel around a bit, I might
do an MA or I suppose I could even get a job.
•

Present possibility
I think you could be right you know. (NOT can)
That can't be the right answer, it just doesn't make sense.

1.3.2. The uses of May
•

Talking about the present or future with uncertain
I may go shopping tonight, I haven't decided yet...

They can also sometimes be used for talking about permission, but
usually only in formal situations. Instead of saying May I open a window? We
would say is it all right/OK if I open a window? or Can I open a window? For
example. We might, however, see:
Students may not borrow equipment without written
permission.
Talking about things that can happen in certain situation
Each nurse may be responsible for up to twenty patients.
• With a similar meaning to although
•

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The experiment may have been a success, but there is still a
lot of work to be done. (= Although it was a success, there is
still ...)
• May in wishes and hopes
May is used in formal expressions of wishes and hopes.
Let us pray that peace may soon return to our to our troubled land
1.3.3. The uses of Must
•

Necessity and obligation. Must is often to indicate ‘ personal’
obligation; what you think you yourself or other people/things must
do. If the obligation comes from outside (e.g. a rule or law), then have
to is often (but not always) preferred

I really must get some exercise. You mustn’t look – promise?
If you own a car, you have to pay an annual road tax
•

Strong advice and invitations
I think you really must make more of an effort.
You must go and see the film - it's brilliant.

•

Saying you think something is certain
This must be the place - there's a white car parked outside.

1.3.4. The uses of Must and have to

• Concluding that something is certain
Both have to and must can be used to express the conclusion that
something is certain. Must is unusual in British English
This must be the worst job in the world
(Or this has to be the worst job in the world)
Negative conclusion are not usually expressed with must not
That can’t be his mother – she is not old enough.


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(Not in British English that mustn’t be his mother.)
Does not have to is used to say that something is not necessarily true
A dog’s been killing our chickens. It does not have to be a dog- it could
be a fox.
• Necessity and obligation
Must and have to can both be used in British English to talk about
necessity. In American English, have to is more common, especially in speech
Plants must/ have to get enough light and water if they are to grow
properly
Both verbs can be used in British English to talk about obligation. (In
American English, have to is the normal form) British English often makes a
distinction as follow. Must is personal. We use must when we give out personal
fellings.Have to is impersonal. We use have to for facts, law, regulations... not
for our personal feelings
You really must go to church next Sunday- you haven’t been for ages
Catholics have to go to church on Sunday. (their religion tells them to)
Mustn’t and don’t have to are completely different. Do not have to means
lack of necessity. Mustn’t means prohibition
Tomorrow is a holiday. We don’t have to go to class. ( It is not necessary
for us to go to class tomorrow because it is a holiday)

You must not look in the closet. You birthday present is hidden there.
(Do not look in the closet. I forbid it. Looking in the closet is prohibited.)

Summary the meaning of CAN, COULD, MAY, HAVE TO and MUST
auxiliary

uses
(1)ability/possibility

Present/future
I can sing

Past
He could read
when he was 4
years old


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You can use my car
tomorrow
Can I borrow your
(3)informal polite request
pen?
(2)informal permission

(4)impossibility(negative
That can’t be true!
only)
could

(1) past ability
(2)polite request
(3)suggestion
(affirmative only)
(4)less
certainty

than

Could I borrow your
pen?
-I need help in maths
You could talk to you
teacher
50% -where’s John?
He could be at home

(5)impossibility
(negative only)
may

must

You
could
have talked to
you teacher
He could have
been at home

That couldn’t
have
been
true!

(1) polite request(only May I borrow your
with I and we)
pen?
You may leave the
(2)formal permission
room.
Where’s John?
He may have
(3)less
than
50% He may be at the
been at the
certainty
library
library.
(1)strong necessity
(2) prohibition(negative)
(3) 95% certainty

Have to

That couldn’t be true!

That
can’t

have
been
true!
I could run fast
when I was a
child

(1) necessity

I must go to class
today
You must not open that
door
Mary isn’t in class. She
must be sick(present
only)
I have to go to class
today

(I had to go to
class yesterday

Mary
must
have been sick
yesterday.
I had to go to
class yesterday

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(2)lack
necessity(negative)

I didn’t have
of I don’t have to go to
to go to class
class today
yesterday

(Betty Schrampfer Azar 2001: 199 - 200)
1.4. Modal auxiliaries in Vietnamese

Modal auxiliaries are complicated problems in both English and
Vietnamese. However, unlike English Modal auxiliaries, it is difficult to define
Modal auxiliaries in Vietnamese.
The position of Vietnamese Modal auxiliaries is different from English
ones
- Vietnamese Modal auxiliaries do not occur in imperative sentence
For example: HÃy phải cầm quyển sách lên ; §õng cã thĨ can thiƯp vµo.
- Modal auxiliaries can be distinguished from other Modal auxiliaries as
follows. Modal auxiliaries can hardly occur in ellipsis: Tôi không phải (I
mustn't) whereas other verbs can :T«i kh«ng thÝch (I don’t like )
Meaning of Vietnamese modal auxiliaries are very complicated and
abundant .One Vietnamese modal auxiliaries can have many meanings in
English. For example Modal verb "ph¶i '' in Vietnam may be close in meaning
to must, should, ought to , in English . and modal" cã thÓ " close to can, may,
could, might.
According to Diep Quang Ban (2005: 39) modal auxiliaries express
necessity, possibility, willingness, inclination, and also "endurance".

Nguyen Van Hao (1988: 205) states that modal auxiliaries in Vietnamese
are used to indicate volition, necessity, possibility, to carry out a certain activity
or to receive a certain action. Basically, he divides them into two types:
First ,those expressing volition such as có thể (can ) ,không thể (cannot) ,
dám (dare ), toan (intend ), định (intend), phải (must), cần (need), nên (should),


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muèn (want) etc. Second, those receiving actions such as bÞ (usually be +past
participle with adversative meaning ), đợc (usually be +past participle with
beneficial meaning ), chịu đựng (bear, stand ),etc.
In conclusion, like modal auxiliaries in English, their equivalents in
Vietnamese are used to express 2 types of modality .First they express the
speaker's opinion on the content of his statement. This may be a certainty on
possibility. Second, modal auxiliaries express a variety of factual conditions of
the proposition. These may be in terms of permission, obligation and the like.
1.5. Errors analysis
1.5.1. The notion of error
According to Jame.M.Hendrickson, in methodology in TESOL (1987)
“error is a word derived from Latin- meaning “to wander, roam, or stray”,
depend on its use for a particular purpose or object". For the purpose of a
discussion on error correction in foreign language teaching, this writer defines"
an error as an utterance, form, or structure that a particular language teacher
seems unacceptable because of in inappropriate use or its absence in real life
discourse"
In the “Dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistic (1992)”,
Jack C.Michards, John Platt and Heidi Pllat define:
“In the speech or writing of a second foreign language learner, error is
the use of linguistic item (E.g.: a word, a grammatical item, a speech act, ect.)
in a way which a fluent or native speaker of language regards as showing faulty

or incomplete learning"
We know that native speakers may use a variety of dialects in their
country. The sentence: “who is your name" is regarded as an error against the
British English but as a good form in Mario English. Therefore deciding
whether a linguistic form is an error depends on what norm or standard should
be taken into account.


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However, we see that, there are many ill-formed sentences, which are
considered erroneous in a formal language situation but are still understand able
to hearers in a situation where communication is advocated.
In Vietnam, where English is taught and learnt as a foreign language,
the selected here must be the prescriptive English standard usage. Any deviated
forms or structures that cannot meet the demand of English model of usage are
considered erroneous, ungrammatical or unacceptable. This viewpoint will also
lay a foundation for this thesis.
1.5.2. Errors and mistakes
Ellis (1985: 68) claims that the distinction between errors and mistakes is
unobservable in practice. Distinction was drawn between two terms “error"
and” mistake" although it was impossible to indicate and sharp differentiation.
Chomsky (1965) initiated his distinction by suggesting that errors fall
into 2 different types: one originating from verbal performance factor and the
other from inadequate language competence. Later in 1967, the error, mistake
distinction was introduced into modern debate by Coder .He made use of
Chomsky's distinction by associating the term "mistakes" with failures in
performance and "errors" with failures in competence. He attributed mistakes to
psychological factors such as fatigue, lack of attention or lapses of memory and
errors to the learner's internalizing the language during the second language
learning process. Mistakes can be self-corrected, but errors cannot be selfcorrected until further input has been provided and converted into intake by the

learner
Ellis (1997) shared the same view: Error reflects gaps in a learner's
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.
In conclusion, we would sum up definition about errors and mistakes as
follow.


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Errors are wrong forms that pupils cannot correct even if their
wrongness is tobe pointed out. Errors are caused by lack of sufficient
knowledge, so to help students to be able to correct their errors, more time of
adding knowledge is required.
Mistakes are wrong forms that pupil can correct when their wrongness is
tobe pointed out. Mistakes are caused by lack of attention, fatigue, carelessness,
or some more other aspects of performance, so we can help student to correct
their Mistakes by reminding.
Errors are mistakes caused by the incomplete understanding of language
competence. Meanwhile mistakes are caused by the inappropriate use of
language in the term of social acceptability or language performance.
1.5.3. Error analysis.
Error analysis is the study and analysis of the errors made by second or
foreign language learners. One of the functions of errors analysis is to identify
the causes of the learners’ errors, which is very useful for the teaching and
learning of language in general and English in particular.
In “Errors in language learning and use", Carl James defined: “Error
analysis is the process of determining the incidence, nature, cause, and
consequences of unsuccessful language"
There are 5 steps of error analysis:

- Identification of errors
- Description of errors
- Explanation of errors
- Evaluation of errors
- Correct of errors
Error analysis is carried out to serve three different purposes. Firstly, to
identify strategies which learner use in language learning. Secondly, to identify
causes of learners' errors. Finally, to obtain information on common difficulties
in language learning, as an aid to teaching or in the preparation of teaching
materials.