OVERGENERALIZATION:

AN ERROR IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

By:
Pande Agus Adiwijaya
NIM: 1029011060

Abstract
Overgeneralization as a process that occurs as the second language learner acts
within the target language, generalizing a particular rule or item in the second language --
irrespective of the native language -- beyond legitimate bounds. According to Rod Ellis
(1985), overgeneralization is one of errors made by the second language learners in
attempting to acquire his second language. He proposed that this error happen within
learners’ interlanguage. Overgeneralization occurs at a number of levels, such as: thus at the
phonetic level, thus at the grammatical level, thus at the lexical level, and thus at the level of
discourse, lexical items and expressions may be used in inappropriate social contexts.

Key words: error, overgeneralization, interlanguage

A. Introduction
Bilingual education has been widespread in this world. It can not be separated from
the existence of English as the world language. English has become the language of world
and is used as a means of communication all over the world in many fields of life, such as
economy, politics, cross cultural interaction, and etc. It assists people to learn English as
second language. In the process of acquiring English as second language, actually, there two
different processes, those are natural and artificial process. The natural process happens when
people acquire their second language in a natural way, which means they acquire in a real
communication setting. For example, the African immigrants acquire English because they
use English in their new environment which uses English as the communication. Artificial
process means that people acquire English because they learn English in a particular setting
and their environment do not use English as the real communication. For example,
Indonesian learns English in school.
In the process of acquiring second language, people usually face obstacles which
should be tackled. These obstacles usually occur because of differences between their native
language and the target language (second language). These obstacles can be in the

Overgeneralization: an Error in SLA 1

phonological, lexical or grammatical level. These errors assist people to have errors in their
process of acquiring language. There are some errors faced by the learners such as,
overgeneralization and fossilization.
Here, the writer discusses about one of the errors, which is overgeneralization. This
error is commonly found in the process of acquiring second language. There will be some
examples of overgeneralization done by students of STKIP-AH Singaraja in the academic
year 2010/2011.

B. Discussion
2.1 Language acquisition
Language acquisition is the process of learning a native or a second language. The
acquisition of native languages is studied primarily by developmental psychologists and
psycholinguists. Although how children learn to speak is not perfectly understood, most
explanations involve both the observation that children copy what they hear and the inference
that human beings have a natural aptitude for understanding grammar. While children usually
learn the sounds and vocabulary of their native language through imitation, grammar is
seldom taught to them explicitly; that they nonetheless rapidly acquire the ability to speak
grammatically supports the theory advanced by Noam Chomsky  and other proponents of
transformational grammar. According to this view, children are able to learn the "superficial"
grammar of a particular language because all intelligible languages are founded on a "deep
structure" of grammatical rules that are universal and that correspond to an innate capacity of
the human brain.
Stages in the acquisition of a native language can be measured by the increasing
complexity and originality of a child's utterances. Children at first may overgeneralize
grammatical rules and say, for example, goed (meaning went), a form they are unlikely to
have heard, suggesting that they have intuited or deduced complex grammatical rules (here,
how to conjugate regular verbs) and failed only to learn exceptions that cannot be predicted
from a knowledge of the grammar alone. The acquisition of second or foreign languages is
studied primarily by applied linguists. People learning a second language pass through some
of the same stages, including overgeneralization, as do children learning their native
language. However, people rarely become as fluent in a second language as in their native
tongue. Some linguists see the earliest years of childhood as a critical period, after which the
brain loses much of its facility for assimilating new languages. Most traditional methods for
learning a second language involve some systematic approach to the analysis and
Overgeneralization: an Error in SLA 2
comprehension of grammar as well as to the memorization of vocabulary. The cognitive
approach, increasingly favored by experts in language acquisition, emphasizes
extemporaneous conversation, immersion, and other techniques intended to simulate the
environment in which most people acquire their native language as children.

2.2 Interlanguage
An interlanguage is an emerging linguistic system that has been developed by a
learner of a second language (or L2) who has not become fully proficient yet but is
approximating the target language: preserving some features of their first language (or L1), or
overgeneralizing target language rules in speaking or writing the target language and creating
innovations. An interlanguage is idiosyncratically based on the learners' experiences with the
L2. It can fossilize, or cease developing, in any of its developmental stages. The
interlanguage rules are claimed to be shaped by several factors, including: L1 transfer,
transfer of training, strategies of L2 learning (e.g. simplification), strategies of L2
communication (or communication strategies like circumlocution), and overgeneralization of
the target language patterns.
Interlanguage is based on the theory that there is a "psychological structure latent in
the brain" which is activated when one attempts to learn a second language. Larry Selinker
proposed the theory of interlanguage (1972), noting that in a given situation the utterances
produced by the learner are different from those native speakers would produce had they
attempted to convey the same meaning. This comparison reveals a separate linguistic system.
This system can be observed when studying the utterances of the learner who attempts to
produce meaning in using the target language; it is not seen when that same learner does
form-focused tasks, such as oral drills in a classroom. Interlanguage can be observed to be
variable across different contexts; for example, it may be more accurate, complex and fluent
in one discourse domain than in another (Tarone, 1979; Selinker & Douglas, 1985).
To study the psychological processes involved one should compare the interlanguage
utterances of the learner with two things:
1. Utterances in the native language to convey the same message produced by the
learner
2. Utterances in the target language to convey the same message, produced by a native
speaker of that language.
  According to Selinker, there are five central processes are responsible for this
Interlanguage. They are: 
Overgeneralization: an Error in SLA 3
(1) Language transfer
(2) Transfer of training
(3) Strategies of second language learning
(4) Strategies of second language communication
(5) Overgeneralization.
One strategy which probably works at the conscious level may be the learners’
attempt to reduce the target language to a simpler system. For example, if the learner has
adopted the strategy that all verbs are either transitive or intransitive. He may produce
Interlanguage forms such as ‘I am feeling thirsty’ or ‘Don’t worry. I am hearing him’
(Selinker 1972).
Hence the second language learners are almost in the same position as the first
language learners but for the fact that they already have one language in their possession.
Since our concepts and ideas are largely structured by our first language. The learners’ first
language has a lot of influence over them. Hence they could be said to view the second
language through their first language and arrive at a system, which is midway between their
first and second language. This intermediary system is given the name ’Interlanguage’ by
Selinker. But, other terminologies have also been used by various others to identify this
system. Different factors have been considered as the most important aspect of this system
and accordingly the names have been assigned. William Nemser calls it ‘Approximative
system’. This term emphasizes the transitional and dynamic nature of the system.
JackRichards thinks it is the ‘Transitional competence’ while Dulay and Burt say that the
learners’ system reveal their ‘Creative construction hypothesis’. Pit Corder calls it the
‘Idiosyncratic dialect’ of the learners.

2.3 Error in Interlanguage

Various definitions of error have been presented by expert. Basically those definitions
contain the same meaning while the difference lies only on the ways they formulate them.
That is way the writer only puts forward two definitions of error in this research. These two
definitions are adequate to reveal the errors showing up in the written texts. The two
definitions are (1) error is a systematic deviation, when a learner has not learnt something and
consistently gets it wrong’ (Norrish, 1987:7) and (2) errors are systematic deviations from the
norms of the language being learned (Cunningworth, 1987:87). It seems that the phrase
‘systematic deviation’ in these definitions is a key word which can be interpreted as the
deviation which happens repeatedly.
Overgeneralization: an Error in SLA 4
 Further, it is necessary to differentiate between error and mistake. A mistake is also a
deviation of the norms of the language but is not systematic. It means that the use of the
norms of the language in sentences is sometimes true and sometimes wrong. 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 is made by a learner when
writing or speaking which is cunsed of lack of attention, fatigue, carelessness, or other
aspects of performance. From these two definitions, it can be concluded that a mistake is
made by a learner because he does not apply the rule (s) that he actually knows, in other
words, a mistake is a non systematic deviation from the norms of the language.
Brown (1980:173-181) classifies sources of error into, 1) interlingual transfer, that is
the negative influence of the mother tongue of learner, 2) intralingual transfer, that is the
negative transfer of items within the target language. In order words, the incorrect
generalization of rules within the target language; 3) context of learning, which overlaps both
types of transfer, for example, the classroom with its teacher and its materials in the case of
school learning or the social situation in the case of untutored second language learning. In a
classroom context the teacher or the textbook can lead the learner to make wrong
generalization about the language; 4) communication strategies. It is obvious that
communication strategy is the conscious employment of verbal mechanisms for
communicating an idea when linguistic forms are not available to the learner for some
reasons.
Another expert who discusses the sources of error is Richards in Schummann and
Stenson (1978 : 32) in his article “Error Analysis and Second language Strategies” . He
classifies sources of errors into (1) interference that is an error resulting from the transfer of
grammatical and/or stylistic elements from the source language to the target language; (2)
overgeneralization, that is an error caused by extension of target language rules to areas
where they do not apply; (3) performance error, that is unsystematic error that occurs as the
result of such thing as memory lapses, fatigue, confusion, or strong emotion; (4) markers of
transitional competence, that is an error that results from a natural and perhaps inevitable
development sequence in the second language learning process (by analogy with first
language acquisition); (5) strategy of communication and assimilation that is an error
resulting from the attempt to communicate in the target language without having completely
acquired the grammatical form necessary to do so; and (6) teacher-induced error, that is an
error resulting from pedagogical procedures contained in the text or employed by the teacher.

Overgeneralization: an Error in SLA 5

 In another article “A Non-Contrastive Approach to Error Analysis”, Richards (1971:
19-22) classifies causes of error into 1) overgeneralization, 2) incomplete application of rules,
3) false concepts hypothesized, and 4) ignorance of rule restriction.

2.4 Overgeneralization
Generalization is crucially important and pervading strategy in human learning. To
generalize means to infer or drive a law, rule, or conclusion, usually from the observation of
particular instances. Meaningful learning is, in fact, generalizing: items are subsumed
(generalized) under high-order categories for meaningful retention. The learning of concepts
in early childhood is a process of generalizing.
In second language acquisition it has been common to refer to overgeneralization as a
process that occurs as the second language learner acts within the target language,
generalizing a particular rule or item in the second language -- irrespective of the native
language -- beyond legitimate bounds. According to Rod Ellis (1985), overgeneralization is
one of errors made by the second language learners in attempting to acquire his second
language. He proposed that this error happen within learners’ interlanguage.
Overgeneralization occurs at a number of levels, such as:
 Thus at the phonetic level, for example, learners of English, after having learnt to master
the English 'r', may take to placing it at the end of words, whereas in RP it is not
pronounced.
 Thus at the grammatical level, a learner in the early stages may use nothing but the
present tense. Later, there may be extensive, non-native use of 'be - ing' forms of the verb.
 Thus at the lexical level - learners tend to use base terms and to stretch them - thus a
'goose' might be referred to as a 'chicken', or a teaspoon may be a 'little spoon'.
 Thus at the level of discourse, lexical items and expressions may be used in inappropriate
social contexts. Someone learning French as an L2, and who has been staying with a
friendly family with teenagers may find themselves using the 'tu' form to strangers,
members of the CRS and so on.

Some examples of overgeneralization:

1. ‘teapot is pronounced as / Ө Ipot/’
He overgeneralizes the spelling of ‘Ө’ sound in every word which is started by ‘t’. He
might be think that all syllable ‘t’ should be pronounced as ‘Ө’. It can be seen as the
overgeneralization in the level of phonology.
Overgeneralization: an Error in SLA 6
 2. ‘he was went to my boarding house’
Here we can see that the learner overgeneralizes the use of to be “was”. The student
thinks that the past tense sentence should be added by to be “was”. It can be seen as
the overgeneralization in grammatical level.
3. ‘I have a son of dog’
Here we can see that the learner overgeneralize the use of word ‘son’. He should use
the word ‘puppy’ rather than ‘son of dog’ eventhough it was actually a son of dog. It
can be seen as the overgeneralization in lexical level.
4. ‘I gonna pass the exam’
He might be thinks that the use of ‘gonna’ is the formal way in shortening the phrase
“going to”. Instead, this term is only used in the informal situation, specifically in
American English. It can be seen as the overgeneralization in the discourse level.

C. Conclusion
Overgeneralization as a process that occurs as the second language learner acts within
the target language, generalizing a particular rule or item in the second language --
irrespective of the native language -- beyond legitimate bounds. According to Rod Ellis
(1985), overgeneralization is one of errors made by the second language learners in
attempting to acquire his second language. He proposed that this error happen within
learners’ interlanguage.
Some examples of overgeneralization which were taken from the observastion in
STKIP-AH Singaraja in the academic year 2010/2011.
1. ‘teapot is pronounced as / Ө Ipot/’
He overgeneralizes the spelling of ‘Ө’ sound in every word which is started by ‘t’. He
might be think that all syllable ‘t’ should be pronounced as ‘Ө’. It can be seen as the
overgeneralization in the level of phonology.
2. ‘he was went to my boarding house’
Here we can see that the learner overgeneralizes the use of to be “was”. The student
thinks that the past tense sentence should be added by to be “was”. It can be seen as
the overgeneralization in grammatical level.
3. ‘I have a son of dog’

Overgeneralization: an Error in SLA 7

 Here we can see that the learner overgeneralize the use of word ‘son’. He should use
the word ‘puppy’ rather than ‘son of dog’ even though it was actually a son of dog. It
can be seen as the overgeneralization in lexical level.
4. ‘I gonna pass the exam’
He might be thinks that the use of ‘gonna’ is the formal way in shortening the phrase
“going to”. Instead, this term is only used in the informal situation, specifically in
American English. It can be seen as the overgeneralization in the discourse level.

Overgeneralization: an Error in SLA 8

 REFERENCES

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Press

Fang, XIE & Xue-mei, JIANG.2007. Error Analysis and The EFL Classroom Teaching. Can
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interlanguage

http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/language+acquisition

Larsen-Freeman, Diane.1991.Second Language Acquisition Research: 

Staking Out the Territory. Can be accessed in
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MacWhinney, Brian.2004. A Multiple Process Solution to the Logical Problem of Language

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