DEVELOPMENTAL ERRORS AND CODE MIXING OF CHILDS

UTTERANCES IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

Submitted to fulfill the requirement for Final-Examination of Second Language Acquisition

by
Weni Ratnasari
0203514094

ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

GRADUATE PROGRAM
SEMARANG STATE UNIVERSITY
2015

Young children are natural language acquirers; they are self-motivated to pick up
language without conscious learning, unlike adolescents and adults. They have the ability to
imitate pronunciation and work out the rules for themselves. Any idea that learning to talk in
English is difficult does not occur to them. Although young children possess a rapid progress
in acquiring second language, they make many errors as well as mix the first and second
language (code mixing). This essay will describe about developmental errors and code
mixing which done by children in dealing with second language acquisition.
Developmental errors are mistakes that children commonly commit when first
learning a language. Developmental errors occur when children attempt to build up
hypothesis about the target language on the basis of limited experiences. Developmental
errors divided into three, they are overgeneralization, overextension, and underextension.
1. Overgeneralization is defined as the application of a principle of regular change to a word
that changes irregularly.
2. Overextension is an error in which a child uses a single word to label multiple different
things in a manner that is inconsistent with adult usage.
3. Underextension occurs when a child acquires a word for a particular thing and fails to
extend it to other objects in the same category, using the word in a highly restricted and
individualistic way.
In the studies of second language acquisition, code-mixing refers to a developmental
stage during which children mix elements of more than one language. Young children in
bilingual environments produce utterances that combine elements of both (or all) of their
developing languages. This code-mixing reflects limited vocabulary; very young children
may know a word in one language but not in another.
I want to share the case relates to this issue. I work in KUMON as tutor assistant.
Here, I have a very young student, her name is Adeline. She is about three years old. She
even can not write perfectly. She still learns how to trace and write the alphabet and simple
words, matching the pictures, and point the pictures while listening. KUMON emphasizes the
self-learning. Every students work in personal, doing her/his worksheet. The worksheet given
is based on the ability of the students (student is tested before entering English Course in
KUMON). Before doing the work sheet, each students have to write starting time, then when

they are done, they have to write finishing time. One day I reminded Adeline to write the
time.
I asked her, what time is it Adeline?
She answered three, two, five ( the clock showed 3:25 pm).
It surprised me how she tried to make new hyphothesis about the current time I asked
because she had no idea about it. She still learns numeral only from 1 to 10. Instead of saying
I dont know, Miss, she chose to answer it word by word. In this situation, she did
developmental errors; overextension precisely. She used a single word (three, two, five) to
label different things (three: twenty five)
Another case is about code mixing. Couple days ago, when she was almost done
doing her course work, I said, okay, youre done Adeline, clean up your table. She asked me
back for clarification,
done itu selesai ya Miss?
The day before Christmas, she asked me Di KUMON nanti ada christmas tree?
There is no christmas tree here, Adeline I answed her.
She replied Adeline punya Christmas tree di rumah, big, tapi lusak, dia bisa nyala kalo
dicolokin ke listik (tapi rusak, bisa nyala kalo dicolokin ke listrik)
From the following examples, Adeline did code mixing. She had lack of vocabulary
so she mixed English and Indonesian. She understood what I was saying but she could not
answer fully in English. When she was not sure about the meaning of words, she asked me
back for clarification. She just talked naturaly and innocently, without being afraid of making
mistakes. The only thing she concerned was to communicate.
After analyzing Adeline for several times, I come up with the conclusion that children
are great acquirer/learner of languages. They acquire a language in their own way. They soak
up the language and absorb it in ways that adult learners find much more difficult. Although
they go through periods of making errors and mixing up words, they use this to enhance, cope
with, and deepen their knowledge and understanding towards second language.