14th March 2012

Group 1
Dany Muhammad Athory Ramdlany (0906137) Gita Hilmi Prakoso (0905967) Lutfia Putrinurani (0902343) Nur Yanuary Koswara (0902383) Riza Purnama (0906889)

6A English Education

Title o Learner Language : Cross-Linguistic Influences on Lexical Misselection of Verbs in English Learners Written Compositions by Nicholas Delleman.

Research Background o The use of verbs and collocation often cause frustration and anxiety on learners. o The anxiety often cause reduce achievement. o Written work is a particular weakness for Japanese learners. o Due to these facts, the study on semantic errors caused by transfer or interference is considered important.

Research Question o Is L1 transfer more prominent in lower level learners written work than it is in that of higher level learners in regard to verb misselection of verbs?

Literature Review o The Analysis of Error Classification of error (James, 1998:3)

Slips. Errors in performance which are easily and quickly self-corrected by the producer without having then pointed out. Mistakes. These can be self-corrected in pointed out. There are two classification of mistakes: First-order mistakes (M1), which can be self-corrected if an indication is given that there is a deviance. Second-order mistakes (M2), which can be corrected if the exact location is made clear to the producers of the sentence. Errors. Errors are deviances caused by a lack of competence, are systematic (Corder 1967). Errors are a noticeable deviation from the adult grammar of a native speaker (Brown 1994:205)Errors are not self-correctable but the teacher may think that the learner is familiar with the form (Edge 1989) There are two classification of errors: Overt Errors, deviances as convert as they are grammatical, but not representation of the context being expressed.Convert Errors, ungrammatical mistake.

Attempts.

The significance of the analysis of errors (Corder 1967) Errors tell the teacher how the learner is progressing towards his or her language goal. Errors provide the learner with an opportunity to test their hypotheses. Errors provide the researcher with evidence of strategies or procedures the learner employs in learning language.

o Interlanguage James (1998: 2) stated that there are three codes or languages Mother tongue (L1): as (usually) the language which a person acquires in early childhood because it is spoken in the family and/or it is the language of the country where he or she is living (Richards and Schmidt, 2002: 350) Target language (TL): any language learned after one has learnt ones native language (Richards and Schmidt, 2002: 472)

Interlanguage (IL): a separate linguistic system which a learner possesses which is identical to neither to the L1 of the learner, nor the norms of the TL the learner is in the process of learning (Selinker, 1972: 35). IL as an approximative system which is the deviant linguistic system actually employed by the learner attempting to utilize the target language

Rutherford (1987: 7-8) argues that a language learner will also bring two kinds of knowledge Knowledge how: which will enable learners to adapt the new language into forms, serve the initial desire for rudimentary communication Knowledge that: an unconscious foreknowledge or innate inkling of what shapes the organization of the target language

o Errors Due to Transfer There are two types of transfer Positive transfer (Ellis, 1994) and Oddin (1989): to refer to those aspects of the L1 that facilitate L2 learning (Ellis, 1994: 302) Negative transfer: used to describe learner errors cause by transfer of L1 forms

Cause of transfer errors (Lott, 1983) Overextension of analogy: this occurs when there is a similarity between a form in the learners L1 and the target language, however the two forms have different meanings Transfer of structure: this is preference of the learner to transfer aspects of the L1 rather than use those of the TL Interlingual/ Intralingual errors: these occur when two or more forms in the TL correspond to only one form in the TL

o Markedness The third cause of transfer above, relates closely to the theory of markedness, which categories forms depending on how specialized a certain language forms tend to be. Marked forms, for example, are special in relation to unmarked forms, which are more basic (Ellis, 1994: 319)

o Conclusion of Literature Review Errors are a result of a lack of competence Japanese learners will have some knowledge of English and language learning strategies when learning commences Interlanguage may be formed by both L1 and TL As learning continues, the reliance on L1 will reduce Transfer errors may be a result of three possible transfer processes Markedness of certain TL lexical forms may make transfer unsuccessful

Methodology

Data Collection o Participant The subject of this study are the students from a culture center in Japan. They are divided into two groups, the first group consists of five students from PreIntermediate class and the second group consists of five students from an Intermediate class. All of them have the same experience in learning English. o Setting Japan o Instrument This study uses written composition methodology rater than a translation exercise. It is because data collection from a translation exercise may influence their use of L1, as it is uppermost in the students mind. o Stages of the data collection The students were asked to present their written work in a ten-minute oral, with a question and answer session one day after completing the written work. One week later, the students were asked to check their own work. The study concerned verbs which were not in terms of morphology but in terms of the meaning of the verbs.

There were five judges (three Japanese intermediate-English speakers and two British intermediate-Japanese speakers) who were emplyed to determine to what extent they believed the errorsto be errors realted to the transfer of the learners native langauge.

They were given the error questionaires and asked to grade the errors on a scale of one to five. Aone would indicate that in his or her opinion no transfer had taken place. A five would indicate that tranfer had taken place in regard to the semantic errors of verbs in the sentences.

The accumulated grade totals are on a scale of 5 (no transfer) to 25 (full transfer)

Data Analysis o Based on this study, errors are classified by some categorization. There are composition, slips, mistakes (first order) and mistakes (second order). o Higher group were able to correct their deviances more readily than the lower group. o Types of errors found: The misselection of the verb in the collocation have a party. It was caused by by a similar collocation in Japanese pa-ti-o suru (do a party). The use of the Japanese word nai that could be used to negate most verbs, but in the context in which it is used in the Japanese above indicated that nai represented a negation of the verb have, thus suggesting that transfer has occurred. The possibility that the correct lexical item had not been known and she had replied on Japanese verb desu (the base form of de shita) to compensate for a lack of competence. Markedness that causes difficulty in verb selection. o Conclusion of the Result The misselection was caused merely by chance, or by a lack of competence in differentiating between the verbs, rather than transfer, making what Lott (1983)describes as an interlingual/intralingual error.

Conclusion

o Conclusion L1 transfer as the source of certain errors seems difficult to dispute. Corpus in the research is considered not ample enough to provide conclusive evidence to prove whether errors in higher levels are influenced more by transfer than those in lower levels. o Teaching Implication Teachers, especially in multilingual classes, have to be aware of students native language. Teachers have to consider all the lexical possibilities between relatively unmarked L1 forms and TL forms that are more marked. They have to present the various TL forms not only what they collocate with, but also with what they do not collocate. Teachers should monitor and assess all errors to predict as far as possible, what aspects of the students interlanguages may need work.