Sabtu, 08 Oktober 2016

Definition of Error Analysis, Discourse and Discourse Analysis



Definition of Error Analysis, Discourse and Discourse Analysis

Norrish(1987) “…error is a systematic deviation, when a learner has not learnt something and consistently gets it wrong”

Cunningworth(1987:87) Errors are systematic deviations from the norms of the language being learned.”

Norrish (1983:8) says that a mistake is an inconsistent deviation that is sometimes the learner ‘gets it right’ but sometimes wrong.

Richards et.al (1985:95) state that mistake, made by a learner when writing or speaking,  is caused by lack of attention, fatigue, carelessness, or other aspects of performance. Richards et.al (1985:96)Error analysis is the study of errors made by the second and foreign language learners.”

Brown (1980:166) defines error analysis as “…the process to observe, analyze, and classify the deviations of the rules of the second language and then to reveal the systems operated by learner.”

Crystal (1987:112) “…error analysis is a technique for identifying, classifying and systematically interpreting the unacceptable forms produced by someone learning a foreign language, using any of the principles and procedures provided by linguistics.”


Discourse analysis is concerned with "the use of language in a running discourse, continued over a number of sentences, and involving the interaction of speaker (or writer) and auditor (or reader) in a specific situational context, and within a framework of social and cultural conventions" (Abrams and Harpham, A Glossary of Literary Terms, 2005)

Discourse analysis is concerned with language use as a social phenomenon and therefore necessarily goes beyond one speaker or one newspaper article to find features which have a more generalized relevance. This is a potentially confusing point because the publication of research findings is generally presented through examples and the analyst may choose a single example or case to exemplify the features to be discussed, but those features are only of interest as a social, not individual, phenomenon."
(Stephanie Taylor, What is Discourse Analysis? Bloomsbury, 2013)

Discourse analysis is not only about method; it is also a perspective on the nature of language and its relationship to the central issues of the social sciences. More specifically, we see discourse analysis as a related collection of approaches to discourse, approaches that entail not only practices of data collection and analysis, but also a set of metatheoretical and theoretical assumptions and a body of research claims and studies."
(Linda Wood and Rolf Kroger, Doing Discourse Analysis. Sage, 2000)

Discourse studies, says Jan Renkema, refers to "the discipline devoted to the investigation of the relationship between form and function in verbal communication" (Introduction to Discourse Studies, 2004).

Dutch linguist Teun van Dijk, author of The Handbook of Discourse Analysis (1985) and the founder of several journals, is generally regarded as the "founding father" of contemporary discourse studies.


Richards et al., (1996:127), error analysis has been conducted to identify strategies which learners use in language learning, to track the causes of learner’s errors, obtain information on common difficulties in language learning or on how to prepare teaching materials.

Michaelides, (1990:30) states that the systematic analysis of student’s errors can be of great value to all those concerned, i.e., teachers, students and the researchers. For teachers it can offer clear and reliable picture of his students’ knowledge of the target language.

Willcott, (1972:73) conducted an error analysis to discover some of the problems that native speakers of Arabic had with the syntax of written English.  

Corder (ibid), argues that "what has come to be known as error analysis has to do with the investigation of the language of second language learners." One of the main aims of error analysis is to help teachers assess more accurately what remedial work would be necessary for English as a Second Language (ESL) students preparing for an English Language test, so as to help students avoid the most common errors.

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Cook (1989: 156) views discourse as "a stretch of language perceived to be meaningful unified and purposive", whereas Nunan (1993) asserts that discourse means "a stretch of language consisting of several sentences which are perceived as related in some way".

Kress (1985) defines discourse as "Systematically organized sets of statements which give expression to the meanings and values of and institution".

Parker (1992) views discourse as "interrelated set of texts, and the practice of their production, dissemination, and reception, that bring and option into being".

Discourse analysis is a broad and complex interdisciplinary field as Brown and Yule (1983) explain that the term has focused on different aspects for different disciplines.

Schiffrin (1994: 1), discourse analysis is "a rapidly growing and evolving field" and "widely recognized as one of the most vast, but also one of the least defined, areas in linguistics".

Slembrouck (2005:1) provides a broad definition that the term discourse analysis refers mainly to the linguistic analysis of naturally occurring connected speech or written discourse.

Structuralist (or formalist) viewed discourse as a particular unit of language. It is "language above the sentence or above the clause" (Stubbs, 1983: 1). In many structural approaches, discourse is viewed as a level of structure higher than the sentence or higher than another unit of text.

In accordance with McCarthy (1991), discourse analysis is a vast area within linguistics, encompassing as it does the analysis of spoken and written language over and above concerns such as the structure of the clause or sentence.

Discourse analysis is interested in ascertaining the constructive effects of discourse through the structure and systematic study of texts (Hardy,2001 in Phillips and Hardy,2002).





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