Grammatical Error Analysis

GRAMMATICAL ERROR ANALYSIS in STUDENTS

RECOUNT TEXTS (The Case of the Twelfth Year Students of SMA N 1 Slawi, Tegal

in the Academic Year of 2006/2007)

a Final Project

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan in English

by

TONI HARYANTO

2201402050

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS

SEMARANG STATE UNIVERSITY

2007

iv

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am grateful to Allah the Almighty, the Most Merciful (the eternally

besought of all for blessing), who has led me to the completion of this final

project entitled Grammatical Error Analysis in Students Recount Texts

(The Case of the Twelfth Year Students of SMA N 1 Slawi, Tegal in the Academic

Year of 2006/2007.

My first respect and thank go to Dra. Hj. Dwi Rukmini, M.Pd., my first

advisor and Rudi Hartono, S.S., M.Pd., my second advisor for their invaluable

assistance, guidance and valuable suggestions during the writing of this final

project.

My next deeply grateful go to my beloved parents, Sanyoto, A. Md, Sri

Indah, Beni and Adhi for their love and patience in waiting for my graduation.

Great thanks also goes to Carol, my humble one, your understandings and

supports are essential. To my friends Adji, Heru and all of my friends in Beswan

Djarum 05/06 who have given their wonderful supports. Ganesha Squad, thanks

for your laughs, you really give me a nice second home.

v

ABSTRACT Haryanto, Toni. 2007. Grammatical Error Analysis in Students Recount Texts. The Case of the Twelfth Year Students of SMA N 1 Slawi in the Academic Year of 2006/2007. A Final Project.

Learning English becomes more and more important nowadays since we

know that English is one of the international languages which can be used to

communicate around the world. In Indonesia, English is learnt as a foreign

language. Learning a different language is sometimes difficult since the target

language has different elements compared to the native language. These

differences sometimes cause students to make errors when using it.

This final project primarily deals with grammatical error analysis. It

describes the grammatical errors on recount texts made by the twelfth year

students of SMA N 1 Slawi in the academic year of 2006/2007. I use the

qualitative approach of which the data were obtained from the students recount

text writing. These writings were then analyzed. The grammatical errors were

classified into seven groups. They were errors in producing verb group, errors in

subject-verb agreement, errors in the use of articles, errors in the use of

prepositions, errors in noun pluralization, errors in the use of pronouns, and errors

in the use of conjunctions.

From the result in chapter IV I can conclude that the students made 235

grammatical errors which were classified into 153 errors in producing verbal

groups, 3 errors in subject-verb agreement, 10 errors in the use of article30, errors

in the use of preposition, 12 errors in pluralization, 23 errors in the use of

pronoun, 4 errors in the use of conjunction.

From the result I can conclude that the possible causes of errors are

overgeneralization, and interference.

It is suggested that the students still need more practices dealing with verb

forms since they were the basic knowledge needed for telling their past

experiences.

vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................. iv

ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................... v

TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................... vi

LIST OF APPENDICES .................................................................................... viii

I INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................... 1

1.1 General Background of the Study ................................................................ 1

1.2 Reasons for Choosing the Topic .................................................................. 5

1.3 Statement of the Problem ............................................................................. 6

1.4 Objectives of the Study ................................................................................ 6

1.5 Significance of the Study ............................................................................. 6

1.6 Definition of Error ....................................................................................... 7

1.7 Outline of the Report .................................................................................... 7

II REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE ....................................... 8

2.1 Grammar ...................................................................................................... 8

2.2 Writing ......................................................................................................... 9

2.3 Recount Text ................................................................................................. 13

2.4 Errors and Mistakes ..................................................................................... 14

2.4.1 Errors ......................................................................................................... 15

2.4.2 Mistakes .................................................................................................... 16

2.5 Sources of Errors .......................................................................................... 16

2.6 Grammatical Errors ...................................................................................... 18

vii

2.7 Error Analysis .............................................................................................. 20

III RESEARCH METHODS ......................................................................... 22

3.1 Research Approach: Case Study .................................................................. 22

3.2 Research Procedure ...................................................................................... 23

3.3 Research Instrument ..................................................................................... 23

3.4 Data Collection ............................................................................................. 24

3.5 Participants of the Study .............................................................................. 24

3.6 Procedure of Investigations ......................................................................... 24

IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ................................................................ 28

4.1 Findings ........................................................................................................ 28

4.2 Discussion .................................................................................................... 31

V CONCLUSION AND PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS ..................... 46

5.1 Conclusion ................................................................................................... 46

5.2 Pedagogical Implications ............................................................................. 47

REFERENCES ................................................................................................... 49

APPENDICES ................................................................................................... 51

viii

LIST OF APPENDICES

Appendix 1 Research Approval Letter ............................................................................... 52

2 Students Recount Texts ................................................................................. 53

1

1

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 General Background of the Study

Language is a means of communication among individuals. It is a system

of sounds which is structured and is used to communicate peoples feelings,

intentions, purpose, etc to the others. It is a special characteristic of human or it

can also be regarded as one of human criteria, because only human beings speak a

language. Nevertheless, the ability to speak a language should be developed in a

social group.

Language is an arbitrary sound or sequence of speech sounds used in

particular area Carrol as quoted by Ramelan (1992: 10):

language is an arbitrary of speech sounds or sequence of speech sounds which is used in interpersonal communication by an aggregation of human beings, and which rather exhaustively catalogs things, and events in the human environment.

After knowing the language, in order to be able to communicate, people

should master the communicative competence. Johnson & Johnson (1999: 62-68)

stated that communicative competence is the knowledge which enables someone

to use a language effectively and their ability to actually use this knowledge for

communication.

Canale (1983) outlines four major components of communicative

competence: grammatical competence, including knowledge of vocabulary, rules

of words and sentence formation, linguistic semantics, pronunciation and spelling;

2

2

sociolinguistic competence, including rules of appropriateness of both meanings

(allowable messages) and grammatical forms in different sociolinguistic contexts;

discourse competence, the knowledge required to combine forms and meanings to

achieve unified spoken or written texts; and strategic competence, knowledge of

verbal and non-verbal communication strategies that may be called upon to

compensate for limitations in one or more of the other areas of communicative

competence.

Besides, people also have to know what so called language skills. These

skills ease them to communicate. They are the media of communicating. They

could be listening, speaking, writing, or reading.

One of the languages is English. It is one of the languages used in

communication almost all over the globe. It is used mainly in Britain and its

commonwealth all over the world. For instance: in Singapore English is used as

second language, in Australia it is used as first language. Therefore, it has become

one of the main languages of international communication, and even people who

are not speakers of English often know words such as television, hotel, and radio.

Since English has become one of the main languages of international

communication, it has a very important role in technological and scientific

advances.

When someone learns a foreign language, he often faces interference,

where he/ she applies his/her mother tongue or first language structure to structure

of the foreign language which is different from his/ her native language.

Indonesian students learn English as the first foreign language. Therefore, English

3

3

is a new language so that they get some difficulties and they also need much time

to learn.

Competence based curriculum 2004 claims:

...................when one learns a foreign language, he is involved in creating and interpreting various kinds of texts made form the foreign culture which are different from his own.

Thus, kinds of texts which are colored by various communicative

objectives, arrangement of parts of the text, and certain linguistics features should

be noticed by every language learners. It means that the learners can not only

create English sentences in isolation, but also arrange them to become texts that

are accepted by the native speakers.

Moreover, Ramelan (1992: 5) says that most of learning problems are

caused by different elements found between the two languages. Therefore, he will

be able to learn the elements of the target language which are similar to those with

his own more easily than those which are not found in his native language.

The structure differences between Indonesian and English could make

students make some grammatical errors. Brown (1980: 165) stated that an error is

noticeable grammar from the adult grammar of native speaker, reflecting the

interlanguage competence of the learners.

These errors occur because of many things. Richards (1974: 124)

distinguishes three sources of competence errors:

(1) Interference errors occur as a result of the use of element from one language

while speaking another. An example might be when a German learner of L2

4

4

English says, I go not because the equivalent sentence in German is Ich

gehe nicht.

(2) Intralingual errorsreflect the general characteristics of rule learning such as

faulty generalization, incomplete application of rules and failure to learn

conditions under which rules apply.

(3) Developmental errors occur when the learner attempts to build up hypotheses

about the target language on the basis of limited experience.

Indonesian does not have tenses like English. It could be seen in the table

below:

Indonesian sentences English sentences

1. Kami sedang belajar sekarang.

2. Kami belajar kemarin.

3. Kami akan belajar besok.

1. We are studying now.

2. We studied yesterday.

3. We are going to study

tomorrow.

From the description above, it is clear that the way Indonesian sentences

formed is different from the English way.

In the competence based curriculum 2004, recount is being taught in tenth

year, so the twelfth year students have mastered how to write a good recount

composition in English. They have had the basic of making a good composition in

English. Therefore, it is interesting to observe the grammatical errors in writing

made by the twelfth year students of Senior High School.

5

5

1.2 Reasons for Choosing the Topic

People tend to acquire spoken language easier than the writing language.

This is because people first know the spoken before they know the written one

and a human child always speaks a language first before he is accustomed to the

writing system of his language.

The explanation above does not imply that writing or written language is

less important than the spoken one. The more cultivated and more technologically

advanced a man is the more he involved in a written form of a language. It means

that writing also plays an important role in a modern society.

Writing language is getting more and more essential today. It should be

mastered in order to be literate. But, Indonesian students of senior high school

commonly have only little enthusiasm for their writing tasks. Every time they

have writing tasks, they feel it is difficult to do. But, they should have strong

foundation for their writing skill before entering a higher level of education. So, it

is crucial for them to master this skill.

In composing a good writing, we should notice some aspects. Grammar is

one important aspect that should be mastered in order to make a well structured

writing. But, writing in different language is not always as easy as writing in our

own language since there are some different rules in the writing systems and these

differences sometimes make us make errors. That is why; I choose to analyze the

grammatical errors in writing.

This study primarily deals with the students English grammar mastery,

specifically in writing. Therefore, the main reasons for choosing this topic are the

6

6

differences between Indonesian and English, and the students difficulties in

writing a good English composition.

1.3 Statement of the Problem

The problems to solve are:

(1) What kind of grammatical errors are faced by the twelfth year students of

SMA N 1 Slawi in writing recount?

(2) What are the possible causes of those errors?

1.4 Objectives of the Study

The objectives of the study are:

(1) to describe of grammatical errors in writing made by the students, and

(2) to describe the possible causes of the errors. Because, identifying the possible

causes of the errors made by the students may help the teachers as well as the

students to improve in the teaching-learning process.

1.5 Significance of the Study

The significance of this study can be classified into two parts, for the

teachers and the students. For the teacher by reading the result of this study they

can find new methods to anticipate the making of the errors and to improve their

teaching ability. For the students, by reading the result of this study they can

improve their ability in writing especially in writing recount.

7

7

1.6 Definition of Error

From the result of this study, it can be concluded that error is the failure to

use the grammatical system correctly made by the students which is caused by the

lack of students competence.

1.7 Outline of the Report

This final project consists of five chapters. The first chapter describes the

general background of the study, reasons for choosing topic, statement of the

problem, objectives of the study, significance of the study and the outline of the

study.

The second chapter is the review of the related literature consists of the

definition of grammar, writing, recount, errors and mistake, error analysis, and the

sources of errors.

The third chapter tells about the method of investigation consists of

research design, participants of the study, role of the researcher, types of the data,

procedure of collecting data, and the procedure of analyzing the data.

The next chapter discusses the grammatical errors in writing made by the

students, the error analysis, and the possible causes of errors.

The last chapter concludes what the grammatical errors are made by the

students, the possible causes of errors and the suggestions that are explained based

on the errors made.

8

CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE

In this chapter I will explain what grammar is, writing, recount text and its

lexicogrammatical features, the differences of errors and mistakes, sources of

errors, grammatical errors, and what error analysis is.

2.1 Grammar

The word grammar has several meanings and there is no universally

accepted definition. Different experts define the term grammar differently. There

is no fixed definition of grammar.

Leech (1982: 3) defined grammar as something in reference to the

mechanism according to which language works when it is used to communicate

with other people.

Harmer (2001: 12) defines grammar as the description of the ways in

which words can change their forms and can be combined into sentences in that

language.

Gerot & Wignell (1994: 2) state that grammar is a theory of a language, of

how language is put together and how it works.

Having known the definition of grammar, it is not hard for us to

understand why grammar is useful and important. Without knowing the grammar

of a language, one can not be said to have learned the language. Besides, it seems

9

9

impossible to learn a language without learning the grammar because it tells him

how to use the language.

People learn how to construct a good message based on the rules they have

known and try to convey the message to the others. These rules are termed as

grammar.

The mechanism of grammar cannot be seen concretely, because it is rather

abstractly represented in the human mind, but we know it is there because it

works. One way of describing this mechanism is by means of a set of rules which

allow us to put words together in certain ways which do not allow others. The

meaning of a message conveyed by language has to be converted into words put

together according to grammatical rules and these words are then conveyed by

sounds.

2.2 Writing

There is no particular definition about writing stated by an author or a

linguist. L. Strauss in J. Hartley, et al (1962: 66) stated that writing might, that is

to say, be regarded as a form of artificial memory, whose development should be

accompanied by a deeper knowledge of the past and, therefore, by a greater ability

to organize the present and the future.

In fact, there are some acts of writing which can be used as the basis for

conceiving the meaning of writing. Those acts of writing are in line with the

development of learning to write through which a student should pass.

10

10

Writing involves more than just producing words and sentences. To be

able to produce a piece of writing, we should be able to write a connected series of

words and sentences which are grammatically and logically linked, so that the

purpose we have in our mind will suit the intended readers. In this way, it is meant

that the style of language used in a piece of writing designed for layman and

people living in the village, for example should be different from the one designed

for educated people such as students, teachers, doctors, professors, etc. Therefore,

in presenting a piece of discourse we should consider the correctness of form, the

appropriateness of style, and the unity of topic (Harmer, 2004: 2).

Whereas discourse, as explained by Candlin (1997: viii) is a means of

talking and writing about and acting upon worlds, a means which both constructs

and is constructed by asset of social practices within these worlds, and in so doing

both reproduces and constructs afresh particular social-discursive practices,

constrained or encouraged by more macro movements in the overarching social

formation. Whether style is feature of literary composition which belongs to form

and expression rather than to the substance of the thought or matter expressed and

also a manner of discourse or tone of speaking, adopted in addressing others or in

ordinary conversation.

Writing should be done with the understanding from the past time in order

to inform and express what had happened. It should be well-organized in order to

be understandable for the readers (Harmer, 2004: 3).

11

11

Just like speaking, writing is a way of communicating a message with an

intended audience. It is a means of expressing thoughts, ideas, and feelings. By

writing we may flow out a burden occupying our mind offer our ideas and

concepts to others, and share our knowledge and experiences.

However, different from writing, much of our speaking is spontaneous,

noncomplex, and linked to the particular situation at hand. Speech is ephemeral. It

lasts not longer than the moment of speaking. It is gone as soon as it is uttered. In

some cases, especially in informal situations, a speaker pays a little attention to

the conventions of speaking such as the composition of talk, the organization,

development, and the articulation. However, it does not reduce the

comprehensibility of the nuances delivered by the speaker to the audience.

Writing is more than just public communication; it is also a way of

thinking. Writing involves a range of writers consciousness. When we sit down,

holding a pen and facing a piece of paper ready to write, apparently we are

engaging in more than just one act of consciousness, such as the contents of

thoughts, the style of thoughts, the organization of thoughts, the purpose of

thought, and so on. These acts lead us to create a good and careful thinking which

is strongly needed when we want to produce a good writing.

Writing as one of the four language skills, in real world contexts, is not a

solitary enterprise, it is a social act. It is not an activity in its own right but one

which serves the other skills. So, writing has a relation with grammar, reading,

listening, and speaking.

12

12

Most students find foreign language writing is difficult; they will rarely

need to write in adult life, so they will decrease the amount of writing. Rivers as

quoted by Swarbick (1994: 142) describes five stages of development which

students need to go through in acquiring competence in writing, i.e.: copying,

reproduction, recombination, guided writing, and free writing.

We should also consider the writing process. It is influenced by the

content and the medium of the writing. The processes are planning, drafting,

editing, and final draft (Harmer, 2004: 4-6). They are the steps if we want to

compose a good writing.

Before writing, we should plan what we are going to write about and the

purposes of the writing. After that, we can start to write. We may produce a

number of writing (draft) and editing in order to get the good writing that is the

final draft.

Writing involves some activities before, when we write, and after writing.

The activities before we write include exploring ideas which could be building

vocabulary, interviewing someone, discussion, etc; and organizing ideas which

could be ordering information in a paragraph, writing topic sentences, limiting

information, using a time sequence, making an idea map, categorizing and making

outline, summarizing ideas, writing titles, etc. When we write we should develop

cohesion and style which includes connecting ideas, adding details, selecting the

correct verb tense, selecting the correct tense, and writing the first draft.

13

13

This is not the end of writing. After we write the first draft we should edit

and revise it. It could be the content, form, organization, cohesion and style, and

grammar. In order to produce a good writing we should write more than just one

draft. A good writing could be the fourth or fifth draft or even more.

2.3 Recount Text

Recount is a reconstruction of something happened in the past. It is the

unfolding sequence of events over time and the purpose is to tell what happened.

Recounts begin with by telling the reader who was involved, what

happened where this event took place and when it happened. The sequence of

event is then described in some sort of order, for instance a time order (Seaton,

2007).

The generic structure of a recount consists of three parts; they are the

setting or orientation, events, and conclusion. The setting or orientation is the

background information answering who, when, where and why. It is also where

you give an outline of what you are writing about. Events are where you write

about the things that happened and are identified and described in chronological

order. And the conclusion expresses a personal opinion regarding the events

described. In other words this is where you bring your writing to a close by;

saying how things went, saying what you felt about the things that happened

and/or mentioning something which will or may happen later.

14

14

A recount has a title, which summarizes the text. Since recount tells about

past experiences, it uses past tenses; such as simple past, past perfect, past

continuous, past perfect continuous tenses.

A recount describes events, so plenty of use is made of verbs (action

words), and of adverbs (describe or add more detail to verbs). And since it

describes events in a chronological order, to describe the events words which link

events in time can be used, such as next, later, when, then, after, before, first.

The lexicogrammatical features of recount are focus on specific

participants, use of past tense, use of material processes, circumstances of time

and place, and focus on temporal sequence.

According to the 2004 Competence Based Curriculum, recount is being

taught in the tenth year. The basic competence is the students can use various

kinds of language, i.e.: either written or verbal in smooth and accurate

transactional and monologue texts especially on the form of recount, narrative,

procedure, report and news item.

2.4 Errors and Mistakes

The different system of language could make learners to make errors and

mistakes. In order to analyze learners errors in learning a foreign language, it is

too crucial to make a distinction between mistake and errors.

15

15

2.4.1 Errors

As stated above, the different system of language could make us to make

errors when using the target language. Here I will try to define what an error is.

An error is noticeable grammar from the adult grammar of native speaker,

reflecting the interlanguage competence of the learners. (Brown, 1980: 165).

Points of comparison for successive FL learning paradigms (James, 1998: 3).

There are two ways to conceptualize interlanguage /IL. First, it can refer

to the abstraction of learner language, the aggregate of forms, processes and

strategies that learners resort to in the course of tackling an additional language.

This concept is similar to de Saussures langue. Alternatively, IL can be used to

refer to anay one of a number of concretizations (cf. de Saussures parole) of the

underlying system (James, 1998: 7)

Errors are typically produced by people who do not yet fully command

some institutionalized language system (Corder, 1974: 29).

The errors themselves are competence errors. According to Corder, true

errors are marker of the learners competence (Richards, 1974). Errors are caused

L1/MT FL/SL (TL)

Interlanguage (IL)

MT:TL comparisons (Contrastive Analysis) IL:TL comparisons (Error Analysis) MT:IL comparisons (Transfer Analysis)

16

16

by deficiency in competence and a shortcoming in the knowledge of language

learners make errors when they have not learnt something correctly.

From the linguists opinion above, I would conclude that mistake refers to

the failures to use the language system correctly caused by some factors such as

carelessness, memory lapses, and physical condition. While error, refers to the

failure to use the system correctly caused by the lack of the learners competence.

2.4.2 Mistakes

Mistake is different with error. A mistake refers to a performance error

that is either random or a slip of the tongue, in that it is failure to utilize a known

system correctly (Brown, 1980: 165).

A mistake refers to performance errors that are a random guess or a slip, in

that it is failure.

Mistakes are caused by hesitation, slips of the tongue. The learner, who

makes mistakes, will sometime use one form and sometime the others. This shows

an inconsistency. For example:

a. If learners produce he must go and he must to go.

b. If the Indonesian learners pronounce the word error intruction not

instruction.

2.5 Sources of Errors

According to Richards (1974: 124), the sources of errors in studying a

language might be derived from the interference of the learners mother tongue

17

17

and the general characteristics of the rule learning. The errors that are caused by

the general characteristics of the rule learning are also called the intralanguage

errors. And the errors caused by the interference of the learners mother tongue

are called the interlanguage errors.

Richards (1974: 124) distinguishes three sources of competence errors:

(1) Interference errors occur as a result of the use of element from one language

while speaking another. An example might be when a German learner of L2

English says, I go not because the equivalent sentence in German is Ich

gehe nicht.

(2) Intralingual errorsreflect the general characteristics of rule learning such as

faulty generalization, incomplete application of rules and failure to learn

conditions under which rules apply.

(3) Developmental errors occur when the learner attempts to build up hypotheses

about the target language on the basis of limited experience.

Richards (1971) also classifies intralingual errors into four categories:

(1) Overgeneralization

It occurs when the learner creates a deviant structure on the basis of

other structures in the target language. It generally involves the creation of one

deviant structure in place of two target language structures (for example, He

can sings where English allows He can sing and He sings).

18

18

(2) Ignorance of the rule restrictions

It involves the application of rules to contexts where they do not apply.

An example is He made me to rest through extension of the pattern found

with the majority of verbs that take infinitival complements (for example, He

asked /wanted/invited me to go).

(3) Incomplete application of rules

It is typically related to analogy. It involves a failure to fully develop a

structure. Thus learners of L2 English have been observed to use declarative

word order in questions (for example, You like to sing?) in place of

interrogative word order (for example, Do you like to sing?). This type of

intralingual error corresponds to what is often referred to as an error of

transitional competence (Richards, 1971).

(4) False concepts hypothesized

The last category of intralanguage error, that is sometimes called

semantic error, may be derived from faulty comprehension in the target

language.

2.6 Grammatical Errors

Levenston in James (1998: 255) proposes that students erroneous output

their composition errors in particular are not one remove, but two removes from

the NSs version. We are not only correcting the errors into what learners want to

19

19

say but also correcting the errors into what the native speakers would have said or

write.

He thus challenges Corders claim that the data of EA are two sentences:

the idiosyncratic sentence [produced by the learner] and a well-formed sentence

[that which the native would have produced]. These two sentences would then be

compared. This is not the case, however. The data of EA comprise not two but

three sentences: (i) what learner said; (ii) what they were attempting to say; and

(iii) what the NSs would have said (or written) (James, 1998: 255).

Moreover Fotos (1993) did an experiment involving noticing. She

hypothesized that noticing would be induced to different degrees by two sorts of

teaching: teacher-formed formal instruction, and doing grammar tasks in groups.

So she gave two matched groups of learners grammar-noticing opportunities

under these two conditions in order to find out which way is the more effective

(James, 1998: 257).

This is why analyzing learners grammatical errors in learning other

language would be interesting.

Learning other language becomes difficult since the target language has

different system from the native language. This difference sometimes makes the

learners (in this case the students) make errors especially in applying the

grammar. These errors will be analyzed further in Chapter IV.

20

20

2.7 Error Analysis

James in James (1998: 4) stated that in the 1950s and 1960s the favoured

paradigm for studying FL/ SL learning and organizing its teaching was

Contrastive Analysis. The procedure involved first describing comparable features

of MT and TL (e.g. tenses, cooking verbs, consonant clusters, the language of

apologizing), and then comparing the forms and resultant meanings across the two

languages in order to spot the mismatches that would predictably (with more than

chance probability of being right) give right to interference and error.

According to Johnson & Johnson (1999: 110), Contrastive analysis is a

comparing two linguistics systems, the learners L1 and the target L2 with a view

to determining structural similarities and differences. Because of it, making error

in learning language is often happens.

According to James (1998: 1), error analysis is the process of determining

the incidence, nature, causes and consequences of unsuccessful language.

As Lado (1977), one of the prime movers of contrastive analysis, makes

clear, The teacher who has made a comparison of the foreign language with the

native language of the students will know better what the real problems are and

can provide the easy way for the teaching and learning process.

As a learner, making errors in language process is very common. It

involves the making of mistakes and errors. Errors help the learners to establish

the closer and closer approximations to the system of the target language. Brown

(1980: 163) stated, .by gradual process of trial and error and hypothesis

21

21

testing, the learner slowly and tediously succeeds in establishing closer and closer

approximation to the system used by native speakers of the language.

The students get problems in learning English because there are many

differences between Indonesian and English in terms of grammar, vocabulary, etc.

As Lado (1977) said, errors made indication of the difficulties the learner

had with certain aspects of language. The study of learners errors has been a

primary focus of foreign language research. It is called Error Analysis.

As Ubol (1988: 8) said, Error analysis is a systematic description and

explanation of errors made by learners or users in their oral or written production

on the TL. It means that error analysis is concerned with the explanation of the

occurrence error and the production of their oral or written expression differs from

that of native speaker or TL norm. The error analysis movement is characterized

as an attempt to account for learners error that could not be explained or

predicted by contrastive analysis. Error analysis has made a significant

contribution to the theoretical consciousness- raising applied linguistics and

language practitioners. Error analysis provided a methodological for investigating

the learner language.

According to Corder as cited by Richards (1974) noted that errors could

be significant in three ways: they provided the teacher with information about

how much the learner had learnt, they provided the researcher with of evidence of

how language was learnt, they served as devices by which the learner discovered

the rules of the TL.

22

CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODS

In this research, two steps of data investigation were applied, namely;

collecting the data and analyzing the students writing.

3.1 Research Approach : Case Study

Yin in Nunan (1992: 76) stated that a case study is an empirical enquiry

that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context; when

the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident; and in

which multiple sources of evidence are used.

In addition, Merriam in Nunan (1992: 77) stated that the qualitative case

study can be defined as an intensive, holistic description and analysis of a single

entity, phenomenon, or social unit. Case studies are particularistic, descriptive,

and heuristic and rely heavily on inductive reasoning in handling multiple data

resources.

Adelman et al. in Nunan (1992: 74) said a case study should not be

adequated with observational studies as this world rule out historical case study,

that case studies are not simply pre-experimental, and that case study is not a term

for a standard methodological package.

Adelman et al. in Nunan (1992: 74-75) also stated that although case

studies have often been used to sensitive researchers to significant variables

subsequently manipulated or controlled in an experimental design, that is not their

only role. The understandings generated by case study are significant in their own

23

23

right. It is tempting to argue that the accumulation of case studies allows theory-

building via tentative hypotheses culled from the accumulation of single instances.

But the generalizations produced in case study are no less legitimate when about

the instance, rather than the class from which the instance is drawn (i.e.

generalizing about the case, rather than from it).

In this study, I tried to do a case study. So, the result of this study can not

be used to represent students from other schools mastery of recount writing. It is

only relevant to the twelfth year students of SMA N 1 Slawi in the academic year

of 2006/2007 and their mastery of recount writing.

3.2 Research Procedure

In conducting this research I came to the field, explained what is recount

to refresh the students understanding about recount itself, got them writing a

recount, analyzed and described the errors made by the students.

3.3 Research Instrument

The instrument of this research is the free recount writing made by the

students which I applied as the data to be analyzed and described the errors made

by the students.

24

24

3.4 Data Collection

To collect the data, I applied classroom observation since I tried to analyze

the students errors and the concern of this final project is to find out the

grammatical errors done by students in writing recount texts. I came to the field,

got the students writing a recount, collected their works, and analyzed them. In

this way, I tried to get the data as objective as possible.

3.5 Participants of the Study

The participants of the study are the immersion class of twelfth grade

students of SMA N 1 Slawi in the academic year of 2006/ 2007 which consists of

two classes; they are XII IA5 and XII IA6. Each of them consists of 19 students.

Thus, the total number of the participants is 38 students. And I choose ten of them

randomly. I chose them to be the subject of his research because they have already

learnt the English grammar and they also use more English in the classroom

teaching-learning process than the non-immersion class students.

3.6 Procedure of Investigations

In analyzing the data, I use error analysis method. Corder as quoted by

Ellis (1994: 48) suggests the following steps to conduct an error analysis research:

No Steps Explanations

1. Collection of samples

of learner language

Deciding what samples of learner

language to use for the analysis

and how to collect these samples

25

25

2. Identification of errors Identifying the errors by

underlying the errors the learner

made

3. Classification of errors Grouping the errors that have been

found and stating the classes of the

errors

4. Explanation of errors Explaining the errors by

establishing the source of the

errors and calculating how often

the errors appear

5. Evaluation of errors Evaluating the errors step involves

tabelizing the errors and drawing

conclusion

Referring to the steps of error analysis method above, the data will be

analyzed as follows:

(1) Identification of errors

In this step, I studied the acquired data and tried to find out the

grammatical errors by underlying the errors. I tried to analyze the data as

objective as possible.

(1) Classification of errors

Once the errors have been identified, I classified them into 7

categories, they are:

a. errors in using verb forms

b. errors in agreement between subject and verb

c. errors in the use of article

26

26

d. errors in the use of preposition

e. errors in noun pluralization

f. errors in the use of pronoun

g. errors in the use of conjunction

(2) Calculation of the errors

In this step, I calculated the errors in order to know how frequent these

errors have been made by the students of immersion class in the twelfth

grade of SMA N 1 Slawi. In calculating the frequency of these each error, I

employed the following formula:

P = %1001 XN

n in which,

P : percentage of each error

N1 : total of the given error

N : total of the whole errors

By calculating the frequency of each error, I can identify the most

frequent error and the least frequent error made by the students.

(3) Tabelizing the result

Once the errors are calculated and arranged, I tabelized the result of the

analysis. This table is meant to ease the identification of the percentage of

each error. Therefore, the result of the analysis of the grammatical errors in

recount writing made by the students of immersion class in the twelfth grade

of SMA N 1 Slawi is presented in the form of a table.

27

27

(4) Drawing a conclusion

The last step would be drawing a conclusion based on the analysis. In

this step, I have to make a valid conclusion in the form of a brief description

of the errors.

28

CHAPTER IV

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

After conducting the research, the result and its discussion will be

presented in this chapter.

4.1 Findings

As previously stated in chapter I, this study means to explain the

grammatical errors in recount writing made by the students of immersion class in

twelfth year of SMA N 1 Slawi. After collecting and analyzing the data, I found

that there were a lot of grammatical errors. The errors are classified based on the

traditional English grammar. There were 7 classifications of the errors.

Two hundred and thirty five (235) grammatical errors of various kinds

were found; they were classified as follows:

a. Errors in using verb groups = 153

b. Errors in subject-verb agreements = 3

c. Errors in the use of articles = 10

d. Errors in the use of prepositions = 30

e. Errors in pluralization = 12

f. Errors in the use of pronouns = 23

g. Errors in the use of conjunctions = 4

As stated in the previous chapter that in calculating the frequency of each

error, I employed the following formula:

P = Nn1 x 100 %

29

in which :

P : percentage of each error

n1 : total of a given error

N : total of the whole errors The frequency calculation of each error can be described as follows:

(1) Errors in using verb groups

The errors in this area is 153, the total errors is 235. So, the frequency of this

error is:

P = Nn1 x 100 %

= 235153 x 100 %

= 65 %

(2) Errors in subject-verb agreements

The total errors in this area is 3. So, its frequency is:

P = Nn1 x 100 %

= 2353 x 100 %

= 1.3 %

(3) Errors in the use of articles

The occurrence of this error is 10. So, its frequency is:

P = Nn1 x 100 %

30

= 23510 x 100 %

= 4.3 %

(4) Errors in the use of prepositions

The errors in the use of preposition are 30. So, its frequency is:

P = Nn1 x 100 %

= 23530 x 100 %

= 12.8 %

(5) Errors in pluralization

This error occurs 12 times. So, its frequency would be:

P = Nn1 x 100 %

= 23512 x 100 %

= 5.1 %

(6) Errors in the use of pronouns

The total of this error is 23. So, its frequency is:

P = Nn1 x 100 %

= 23523 x 100 %

= 9.8 %

31

(7) Errors in the use of conjunctions

The total of the last error is 4. So, its frequency is:

P = Nn1 x 100 %

= 2354 x 100 %

= 1.7 %

The result of the analysis can be tabelized as follows:

No Type of error Total of error Percentage

1. Errors in using verb groups 153 65.0 %

2. Errors in subject-verb agreements 3 1.3 %

3. Errors in the use of articles 10 4.3 %

4. Errors in the use of prepositions 30 12.8 %

5. Errors in pluralization 12 5.1 %

6. Errors in the use of pronouns 23 9.8 %

7. Errors in the use of conjunctions 4 1.7 %

Total 235 100 %

4.2 Discussion

The errors done will be written with asterisks (*) and underlined. They

will be discussed as follows:

1. Errors in using verb groups

Errors in using verb groups are the most frequent ones made by the

students. In using verb groups, there are some rules to be obeyed, such as: the

32

form of the sentence whether it is in the active or passive form, and the tense of

the sentence. These rules are complex so that the students often make errors in this

area. Some of the errors are illustrated as follows:

(1) a. *I went to saw it with my aunt and my brother at night.

b.* I stayed there to joined the First Centered Training Olympiad Central

Java Province 2006 (Pemusatan Pelatihan tahap 1 Olimpiade Propinsi

Jawa Tengah).

c. *On Tuesday, we visited Bali museum to saw Balinese culture.

d.* We ought to stood in line, because there were many patients.

e. *We went to my aunts home to had a rest.

Here the students made errors in producing verb 1 or infinitive. They

failed to recognize where to put the infinitives. In sentences a, b, c, and e the

students failed to figure out the non-finite verbs. They should be in the form of

infinitives (to + the simple form of the verb) whether in sentence d, the non-

finite verb should be in the form of the simple form of the verb because modals

are followed by the simple form of the verb. Although the tense used in writing

recount is in past form, but there are still infinitives should be used.

The sentences should have been:

(2) a. I went to see it with my aunt and my brother at night.

b. I stayed there to join The FirstPhase of The Centered Training

Olympiad Central Java Province 2006 (Pemusatan Pelatihan tahap 1

Olimpiade Propinsi Jawa Tengah).

c. On Tuesday, we visited Bali museum to see Balinese culture.

33

d. We ought to stand in line, because there were many patients.

e. We went to my aunts home to have a rest.

Besides the infinitive forms, verb groups could also be in the form of

linking verbs (to be). Frank (1972: 48) stated that linking verbs are verbs of

incomplete predication; it merely announces that the real predicate follows. The

complement is usually an adjective or a noun.

(3) a. *That the good and happy month.

b. *I very amazed that Yogyakarta is beautiful.

c. *It still very natural.

d. *We so tired, and we decided to go home earlier than the plan.

e. *It usually called Metikan in my village.

In five sentences above, the students failed to put the linking verbs. In

sentences a, b, and e, for instance, the student failed to recognize the passive form

of the verb. As we know in passive form there should be to be+verb3. Whether in

sentences c, and d; they failed to put the linking verbs before a noun and an

adjective.


(4) a. That was a good and happy month.

b. I was very amazed by the beauty of Yogyakarta.

c. It was still very natural.

d. We were so tired, and we decided to go home earlier than the plan.

e. It was called Metikan in my village.

34

Still in relation to linking verbs, the students also failed to recognize the

correct form of to be used in their sentences. The errors are as follows:

(5) a. *Because my grandfathers house has located near the Mintaraga

mountain.

b. *It has a small house but clean.

c. *The house is the biggest house that I have ever stayed.

d. *I know that there are no my aunt and my brother beside me.

e. *I were at Jogjakarta just 2 days because I still had many important

activities in Slawi.

Since recount functions to tell our past experiences, normally we use past

tense. Here the students also failed to recognize the past form of to be should be

used.


(6) a. Because my grandfathers house was located near the Mintaraga

mountain.

b. It was a small house but clean.

c. The house was the biggest house that I had ever stayed.

d. I knew that my aunt and my brother were not beside me.

e. I was in Jogjakarta just for two days only because I still had many

important activities in Slawi.

As I stated above, in writing recount we usually use past tense since it is

tells about past experiences. In the sentences below, the students failed to put the

verbs in the past form (verb2). The errors are as follows:

35

(7) a. *The doctor examined my ears and say that my membrane tympani

(hear tool to catch the sound) have broken and wounded.

b. *I have an unforgettable experience and it happened when I was in

elementary school.

c. *In the twenty third day, it means the last day we studied together, was

hold a farewell party.

d. *On the way, the rain falled.

e. *I only know there were many bats in every room in the second floor

because the floor had been used for nothing.

f. *It looks beautiful.

In sentences a, b, c, e, and f the students failed to recognize the past form

of the verbs. They still used the simple form of the verbs. This is incorrect since in

telling their past experiences they should use the past form of the verbs (verb2). In

sentence d, the student also failed to recognize the past form of the verb. Instead

of using the past form, she added the verb with ed. This is wrong since the verb

is the irregular one. She can not add ed. She just generalized that the past forms

of the verbs are always added by ed.


(8) a. The doctor examined my ears and said that my tymphani membrane

(hearing tools to catch the sound) had broken and wounded.

b. I had an unforgettable experience and it happened when I was in the

elementary school.

36

c. On the twenty third day, it meant the last day we studied together, was

hold a farewell party.

d. On the way, it rained.

e. I only knew there were many bats in every room in the second floor

because the floor had been used for nothing.

f. It looked beautiful.

Still related to verb groups, there is gerund (-ing form of the verbs). It

explains that the process of something has been done. And it also functions as

noun. The students made errors in this area. They are as follows:

(9) a. *Then we continued study about leadership with Mr. Sapto Sri Nugroho

until 11.00 p.m.

b. *It was a big build with many stores.

c. *After two hours traveled in Sragen, I got conclusion that Sragen was a

unique city.

d. *After spent time in Kuta beach, we did not forget to buy something for

my family at home.

e. *When New Order Regime fell, New Ceper sugar factory was closed,

so everyone had to move to another sugar factory official house,

include my family.

In sentences a, c, d, the students failed to recognize the ing form of the

verbs. Instead of using the ing form they used the simple form of the verbs. They

failed to recognize that in order to explain a process, they should use the ing

form of the verbs. In sentences b and e, the students they also failed to recognize

37

the ing form of the verbs. Here they failed to recognize that in order to form a

noun derived from a verb they should use gerunds (the ing form of the verbs).


(10) a. Then we continued studying about leadership with Mr. Sapto Sri

Nugroho until 11.00 p.m.

b. It was a big building with many stores.

c. After two hours traveling in Sragen, I concluded that Sragen was a

unique city.

d. After spending time in Kuta beach, we did not forget to buy something

for our family at home.

e. When the New Order Regime collapsed, New Ceper sugar factory was

closed, so everyone had to move to another sugar factory official

house, including my family.

As I stated above, in using verb forms we should consider the form of the

sentence whether it is in the active or passive form. The students made errors in

this area. They failed to recognize the formula of forming passive sentences that is

to be + Verb 3. The errors are as follows:

(11) a. *People still stayed in tents, because their house had been rebuilt.

b. *At last, my plan with her was succed.

In sentence a, the student failed to recognize the tense should be used.

Instead of using past perfect tense, she should use the past continuous tense since

the process of rebuilding the houses was still happening when she saw it. In

sentence b, the student failed to recognize the correct form of the verb and how to

38

spell the correct form of the verb. But, here I just analyzed students failure in

recognizing the correct form of the verb.


(12) a. People still stayed in tents, because their house was being rebuilt.

b. At last, my plan with her succeeded.

2. Errors in subject-verb agreement

Agreement between subject and verb is influenced by the subject form

whether it is singular or plural. To construct a correct sentence structurally, the

verb must agree with the subject. Fail to recognize this means we are failed to

construct correct sentences structurally. Thus, the students must be able to identify

the subject whether it is singular or plural. Having no competence in identifying

the subject will make students fail to produce the correct form of the verb. It

means that the students have made errors in making the agreement between

subject and verb.

As I stated above, in writing a recount we should use past tense since it

tells about past experiences. In past tense there is an agreement between subject

and verb in this case to be. For third person singular subject we should use was,

and for the other forms of subject we should use were.

The students made some errors in this area. They are as follows:

(13) a. *We were very confused because the walls were glass walls and the house

were dark.

b. *We ought to stand in line because there was many patients in there.

39

c. *On the way to the river, the sight was very beautiful. So did in the river.

In sentences a and b, the students failed to make the agreement between

subject and verb. Instead of using was for third person singular subject they use

were and vice versa. In sentence c the student also failed to make agreement

between subject and verb. Here she failed in relating the idea from the previous

sentence.


(14) a. We were very confused because the walls were glass and the house was

dark.

b. We ought to stand in line because there were many patients there.

c. On the way to the river, the sight was very beautiful. So was in the river.

3. Errors in the use of articles

The use of articles is also determined by the noun whether it is countable

or uncountable and whether it is singular or plural. There are two kinds of article;

they are definite article (the) and indefinite articles (a/ an). We use definite article

(the) if the noun has been mentioned before or if the noun has been familiar. The

developed historically from a word meaning this and still retains some of the

basic meanings of the pointing demonstrative. The serves to particularize a noun.

It helps to distinguish the known from the unknown. It may narrow down a class,

or it may even limit the class to one.

While, we use indefinite article (a/ an) if the noun has not been mentioned

before. The use of indefinite article also takes into account whether the noun is

40

countable or not and whether it is singular or plural. If the noun is countable,

singular and has not been mentioned before, the indefinite article must be used.

Thus, to be able to use an article properly, the students have to be sensitive

in differentiating the use of definite article, indefinite article and even using no

article at all. If they are not able to differentiate them, they will make errors as

follows:

(15) a. *On Saturday, I visited Pangandaran beach. The condition of society was

still same.

b. *Beside that, we could see many of the big trees in there.

c. *It was the one and only house with two floors and the biggest official

house on Pangkah sugar factory.

d. *There was a invited guest, so I could came late.

e. *In twenty third day, it means the last day we studied together, hold a

farewell.

In sentences a, c, d, and e the students failed to use the definite article

(the). Here they omit the definite article. In sentences a and c above they failed in

recognizing the repeated subject whether in sentences b, d and e, they failed to

recognize something familiar.


(16) a. On Saturday, I visited Pangandaran beach. The condition of society was

still the same.

b. Besides, we could see many big trees there.

41

c. It was the one and the only house with two floors and the biggest official

house in Pangkah sugar factory.

d. There was an invited guest, so I could came late.

e. On the twenty third day, it means the last day we studied together, the

committee held a farewell party.

4. Errors in the use of prepositions

Prepositions are always followed by nouns (or pronouns). They are

connective words that show the relationship between the nouns following them

and one of the basic sentence elements: subject, verb, object, or complement.

They usually indicate relationships, such as position, place, direction, time,

manner, agent, possession, and condition, between their objects and other parts of

the sentence (Wishon and Burks, 1980: 288). A preposition may be composed of

one, two, or three parts. For instance:

a. one part: of, on, in, at, for, from

b. two parts: because of, according to, etc

c. three parts: in front of, on top of, as far as, etc

In using a preposition, one should be aware because there is no certain rule

for this. One has to determine which preposition should be used based on its

context.

Some of the errors made by the students in this area are as follows:

(17) a. *It was very crowded by tourism of many countries.

b. *It was the one and only house with two floors and the biggest official

house on Pangkah sugar factory.

42

c. *I didnt realize if my aunt and my brother had crossed it, because I was

interested with the magic show that I saw it in crowded of people.

d. *I were at Jogjakarta just 2 days because I still had many important

activities at Slawi.

e. *At last Saturday, after I followed an English course, my mother asked me

to take her to the bank by motorcycle.

f. *They laughed me and of course, I cried again.

g.*It was very big and has a big swimming pool with many of plants at its

surrounding.


(18) a. It was very crowded by tourists from many countries.

b. It was the one and the only house with two floors and the biggest official

house in Pangkah sugar factory.

c. I didnt realize if my aunt and my brother had crossed it, because I was

interested in the magic show that I saw in crowded of people.

d. I was at Jogjakarta just for 2 days because I still had many important

activities in Slawi.

e. Last Saturday, after I followed an English course, my mother asked me to

take her to the bank by motorcycle.

f. They laughed at me and of course, I cried again.

g. It was very big and had a big swimming pool with many plants on its

surrounding.

43

5. Errors in pluralization

Pluralization is a process of adding morpheme (s/es) to pluralize nouns.

There are many exceptional nouns that do not use adding -s/es to construct their

plural forms. For instance:

Singular Plural

mouse mice

person people

deer deer

fish fish

The function of pluralization is to show that the noun is more than one.

The students errors in this area are as follows:

(19) a. *It was a beautiful beach, with a big wave and many of hill around it.

b. *It was a big bookstore with 4 floor.

c. *We saw many plane in there.

d. *People still stayed in tent, because their house had been rebuilt.

e.* The next day we went to the garden and took some mangos.

f. *The mangos were so sweet.

In six sentences above, the students failed to recognize the plural form of

the object of the sentences. The sentences should have been:

(20) a. It was a beautiful beach, with big waves and many hills around it.

b. It was a big bookstore with 4 floors.

c. We saw many planes there.

44

d. People still stayed in tents, because their houses were being rebuilt.

e. The next day we went to the garden and took some mangoes.

f. The mangoes were so sweet.

6. Errors in the use of pronouns

Pronoun is used to substitute nouns. It has many types; they are personal,

reflexive, indefinite, relative, interrogative, demonstrative, and expletive

pronouns.

The students made errors in this area. They are as follows:

(21) a. *She wanted to have a vacation in Tegal in grandmothers house.

b. *After acquainted, we took the photos with theirs.

c. *When I wanted to climb, I was so nervous.

d. *Those day, I was bored, and I was very tired.

In sentence a and b the student failed to recognize the possessive pronoun.

In sentence c, the student failed to recognize the personal pronoun. And in

sentence d, the students failed to recognize the correct form of demonstrative

pronoun.


(22) a. She wanted to have vacation in Tegal in her grandmothers house.

b. After being acquainted, we took photos with them.

c. When I wanted to climb it, I was so nervous.

d. That day, I was bored, and very tired.

45

7. Errors in the use of conjunctions

Conjunctions are used to connect words. They connect not only words, but

also phrases and clauses. The rules in using them are the same with their rules in

Indonesian. Despite the same rules, the students still make errors in this area.

The errors are as follows:

(23) a. *But caused I thought it just took a moment, so I said OK.

b.* Next when we throughed the traffic light, the red blazed.

c. *Besides that, most of them live in one place or never moved to another

city.

In the three sentences above, the students seem confused in failed to

recognize the correct form of the conjunctions. They just added them with ed,

just like what we do when we form the past form of verbs. They generalized what

we do in making past verb form to what we do with conjunctions.


(24) a. But, because I thought it just took a moment, I said OK.

b. Next, when we passed the traffic light, the red blazed.

c. Besides, most of them live in one place or never moved to another city.

The conclusion of the analysis will be presented in the next chapter.

46

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION AND PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS

After conducting the research, doing the analysis, and presenting the

results, the conclusion and suggestion or pedagogical implications of this study

will be presented in this last chapter.

5.1 Conclusion

(1) Based on the finding of the analysis, it shows that the students made a total of

235 errors which consists of 153 or 65 % errors in using verb forms, 3 or 1.3

% errors in agreement between subject and verb, 10 or 4.3 % errors in the use

of article, 30 or 12.8 % errors in the use of preposition, 12 or 5.1 % errors in

pluralization, 23 or 9.8 % errors in the use of pronoun, and 4 or 1.7 % errors in

the use of conjunction.

(2) According to the findings, it can be concluded that the students have not

mastered the use of verb groups. We can see it from the number of the errors

made. Although they had been taught about it before, they were still confused

which one to use when making a grammatical sentence. It could be because in

bahasa Indonesia we do not have the verb conjugations. We do not have time

signaling in expressing ideas. They are unfamiliar to this form and because

English is still foreign for them. And those are the possible causes of their

errors.

47

47

The students were still confused in making the agreement between subject and

verb. It could be because in bahasa Indonesia there is no agreement between

subject and verb.

The students were still confused in differentiating whether to use the definite

or indefinite articles. It could be because in Indonesian language grammar

there is no definite article used.

The students still confused in deciding preposition which preposition should

be used, whether to use in, on, or at.

The students overgeneralized the pluralizing of nouns. They just added the -s/

-es without considering that there are some irregular forms of nouns

pluralization.

The students still confused in deciding which pronoun should be used to

substitute nouns, whether it is personal, relative, possessive, or demonstrative

pronouns.

The students applied rules in forming past time verb to conjunctions.

From the explanations above, I can conclude that the students still confused in

dealing with English grammar systems.

5.2 Pedagogical Implications

Based on the findings, I would like to offer some pedagogical implications

to be considered in teaching to improve the students writing ability.

48

48

(1) In teaching English related to its grammar, the teacher should give more easily

understood explanation in order to make the students more interested in

learning English, especially the grammar.

(2) The teacher teaches the grammar elements explicitly with adequate exercises.

(3) The teacher should give more exercises in applying grammar not only by

giving the theory of grammar. Because, based on the results the students seem

not quite understand how to differentiate when to use either past or present

form of the verbs.

(4) Teacher could apply a method where he/ she explains the correct uses of the

verb (when to use past and present) forms, gives examples of the usage, and

tests the students understanding which will assure the teacher that the students

really understand it. Otherwise, the students will face difficulties in

differentiating the uses of past and present forms of verbs whenever they learn

English and because this is the very basic step to learn English.

(5) The teacher could also apply the communicative language teaching method

especially when he/she teaches English grammar.

(6) In writing class, the teacher should give more writing exercises to the students.

So that, they will be familiar to English writing forms.

49

REFERENCES

Arikunto, S. 2002. Prosedur Penelitian. Jakarta: Rineka Cipta. Brown, J. D. 1980. Principles in Language Learning and Teaching. New

Jersey: Prentice Hall. Canale, M. 1983. From communicative competence to language pedagogy,

in Sarangi, S & Coulthard, M. 2000. Discourse and Social Life. Essex: Longman

Candlin. 1997. Discourse as a topic and social practice: An introduction, in

Sarangi, S & Coulthard, M. 2000. Discourse and Social Life. Essex: Longman

Corder, S.P. 1974. Error Analysis. In J. Allen and S. P. Corder (eds.), The

Edinburgh Course in Applied Linguistic. Vol.3. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Departemen Pendidikan Nasional. 2004. Kurikulum 2004 Standar Kompetensi

Mata Pelajaran Bahasa Inggris. Jakarta: Depdiknas. Ellis, R. 1994. Language Two. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Frank, M. 1972. Modern English. A Practical Reference Guide. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Gerot, L and P. Wignell. 1994. Making Sense of Functional Grammar.

Sydney: Antipodean Educational Enterprises (E) Hammond, J., A. Burns, H. Joyce. 1992. English for Social Purposes. A

Handbook for Teachers of Adult Literacy. Sydney National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research Macquarie University.

Harmer, J. 2001. The Practice of English Language Teaching. London:

Longman Group Limited. Hartley, J. and R. Male. 1962. Reading and writing. Alternate Edition. The

United States of America: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Inc. ________ . 2004. How to Teach Writing. Essex: Longman Group, Ltd.

James, C. 1998. Errors in Language Learning and Use: Exploring error Analysis. London and New York: Longman.

50

50

Johnson, K and H. Johnson. 1999. Encyclopedic Dictionary of Applied Linguistics. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. Ltd.

Lado, R. 1977. Language Testing. The Construction and Use of Foreign

Language Test. Hongkong: Longman Group Limited. Larsen-Freeman, D. 2000. Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching.

Oxford: Oxford University Press. Leech, G., Margaret Deuchar and Robert Hoogenraad. 1982. English

Grammar for Today. London: Macmillan Education Ltd. Nunan, D. 1992. Research Methods in Language Learning. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press. Ramelan. 1992. Introduction to Linguistic Analysis. Semarang: IKIP

Semarang Press. Richard, J. C. 1971. Error Analysis. England: Longman Group Ltd. . 1974. Error Analysis. England: Longman Group Ltd. Saleh, M. 2001. Pengantar Praktik Penelitian Pengajaran Bahasa.

Semarang: IKIP Semarang Press. Seaton, A. 2007. The Recount Genre in

http://www.andrewseaton.com.au/grecount.htm, retrieved in 25th March 2007, 11.00 a.m.

Swarbrick, A. 1994. Teaching Modern Language. London: Longman. Ubol, C. 1988. An Error Analysis of English Compositions by Singapore

Students. Singapore: Seamen Regional Language Center. Wishon, George E. and Julia M. Burks. 1980. Lets Write English Revised

Edition. New York: Litton Educational Publishing International.

53

APPENDIX 2: Students Recount Texts

Khanan Rifaul Kasbi (XII IA5/ 09)

Dear diary,

On 4th July 2003, my school held a vacation to Dunia Fantasi. There were

many attracting games such as bumper car, jet coaster, glass house, etc. before we

entered it, we were given tickets by the committee.

Firstly, we entered glass house. My friends and I tried to reach the outway.

We were confused because the walls were glass walls and the house were dark.

Afterwards, my friend could reach the outway after a quarter. However I was

astrayed and separated from them. Then, I tried harder and finally I could reach it.

When I went out from it, I met a young foreign tourist. She was very young but

taller than me.

Secondly, we went to bumper car zone. We ought to stand in a queue. It

was my first time riding the car. I was entrapped in the corner. Next, I learned and

tried until I could. Immediatly, after it clashed my friends car. I clashed from

many way. Unfortunately, I lost my money there and I couldnt find it.

Later, we went to the other attracting games. Lastly, we stayed in Dunia

Fantasi canteen and bought some souvenirs.

However, I enjoyed it.

54

Nur Indah Septriani (XII IA5/ 10)

GOING TO THE HOSPITAL TO SEE A DOCTOR

Last month, in the fasting month, I got sick. I got fever, I had got

recovered, but after that I got hearshore. So I ought to saw a doctor. At November

9th 2006 at 08.00 a.m, I went to hospital in Dukuhringin hospital, Slawi.

I and my mother went to the hospital by public transportation. After

arrived, we registered, we ought to stood in line, because there was many patients

in there. After registered, we waited for a doctor in THT specialist policlinic.

While waited for a doctor we looked hospital environment. The hospital

environment very clean and fresh because there are many plants, but some

building had been repaired.

The doctor came at 10.00 a.m., I waited for turn me. When I was called by

an assistant the doctor, I entered the policlinic room directly. The doctor examined

my hear and say that my membrane tymphani (hear tool to catch the sound)

have broken and wounded from this part out liquid. There is relation between my

fever that I was suffered before it. For this cases doctor usually call otitis media

case.

After the doctor examined me, he gave me the prescription. We ought to

took the medicine in the hospital drugstore. We ought to stood in line again until

01.00 p.m.

Those day, I was bored, and I was very tired. And I hope I could get

recover soon.

55

Rizky Nurul Amalia (XII IA5/ 13)

Last week I spent the night at my beloved school, SMA N 1 Slawi with the

members of ROHIS (Rohani Islam). It was called as pembekalan. We studied

about Islam all night.

There was a invited guest, so I could came late. I came at 07.00 p.m. after

they had gotten prayer in the mosque. Next, we went to class to have dinner

together, but I was late because I awaited for other invited guest. Then we

continued study about leadership with Mr. Sapto Sri Nugroho until 11.00 p.m.

Because we were very sleepy, we went to class to sleep on mat on tile floor.

In the schedule, we had to wake up at 02.00 a.m. to tahajud prayer in the

mosque with overcast light and continued with reflection in the main room

without light. It was the best activity for which I waited, but because of my sleepy

I didnt concentrate with it so I was regret.

Next we prayer together still with overcast light at 4.05 a.m. After that we

waited for breakfast. The last activity was informal discussion. And we went to

home at 08.30 a.m.

This is a very long night will full of advantages. I enjoyed it.

56

Syaikhul Muthi (XII IA5/ 16)

UNFORGETTABLE EXPERIENCE

I have an unforgettable experience and it happened when I was in

elementary school.

At the school holiday, my friends and I wanted to visit to uncles house in

Dukuh Salam, Slawi. Because the distance is not so far, we went there on foot.

We spent our school holiday here, by playing in Gung River and so on.

After we arrived at Dukuh Salam, my friend didnt know the location of

his uncles house, so we decided to return to our house.

Having break for a moment, we went home. On the way, we saw a dog. I

was afraid if the dog chased us. Suddenly, the dog chased us, because there were

two students of junior high school disturbed it. We ran quickly.

Aw.!!! Cried one of my friend. Unfortunately, the dog clawed him.

Suddenly, at the same time the owner called it. So he only got a little injured on

his hip. Im sorry to hear that. Moreover, having arrived at home, my friends

mother hit the wound. Ohh., Im sure it was sick.

Until now, I still remember it, because this experience is my funniest and

most dangerous story.

57

Yani Sanwati (XII IA5/ 17)

STAYED IN SEMARANG

In May 2006, I stayed in Semarang for 24 days. I stayed at LPMP Srondol,

Semarang. It is a big building that used by government to improve and support the

activity in education sector. I stayed there to joined in First Centered Training

Olympiad Central Java Province 2006 (Pemusatan Latihan Tahap1 Olimpiade

Propinsi Jawa Tengah).

I joined in astronomic class gathered with thirty students from some

regencies in Central Java province. We studied together. In first week, we got

physic material as the basic of astronomic. Then in second week we got the real

material for astronomic. We got the lesson by presentation from one of us. We

studied from 07.30 a.m. until 09.30 p.m.

In twenty third day, it means the last day we studied together hold a

farewell. All of class (there are seven class, that is Mathematic class, Physic class,

Chemistry class, Biology class, Computer class, Astronomic class, and Economic

class) showed their performance. Such as singing, reading poems or playing

guitar.

This was sweet memories and sure I wouldnt forget it.

58

Brian Shendy (XII IA6/ 06)

HAVING ANOTHER TICKET

Last year, I saw my brother off in the railway station in Tegal. He went

back to Salatiga after his holiday at home. My brother is now studying at the

Satya Wacana University.

It was almost 7 p.m. when our motorcycle was stopped at A.R. Hakim

street.

The train would leave at 7 p.m, my brother said. He got upset for

missing the train. I did not say a word for I have no solution to give. We didnt

say one another up to the railway station.

Getting off the motorcycle, we become hopeless. The train was moving.

Oh my God,

Lets meet the chief of the station, he may help us, I suggested. Okay,

lets go, my brother answered.

We met the official and reported that we came late for the 7 oclock train.

We explained it was because of the traffic jam. For our surprise, the official let

my brother take the next train. He gave him a note for the conductor.

Then he got the train and say goodbay to me. After the train leaving, I got the

motorcycle and went home alone.

59

Maulana Khakim (XII IA6/ 12)

A HOLIDAY THAT MAKE ME HAPPY

In the second semester holiday, at X class, my friends and I spent to

Yogyakarta and Magelang for three days, from Wednesday to Friday.

On Wednesday, we went to Yogyakarta. We stayed at Dirgahayu Hotel

which is not far from Malioboro.

On Thursday, we visited the templates in Prambanan. There are three big

templates, the Brahma, Syiwa, and Wisnu templates. They are really amazing. We

visited only Brahma and Syiwa templates, because Wisnu template is being

renovated. I am very happy looked this templates.

On Friday morning we went to Jogja Kraton. We spent about two hours

there. We were lucky because we were led by a smart and friendly guide. Then we

continued our journey to Borobudur. In the evening we left for Tegal by wisata

bus.

We were very happy in that holiday.

60

Resti Ariesta F. (XII IA6/ 15)

WHAT A PITY I AM

I have unforgetable experience when I was in elementary school, in 1997.

At that time, there was a Metikan. It usually called in my village. Metikan was

the celebration of sugar factory in rolling sugar-cane, where so many people sold

something, such as: clothes, shoes, toys, book, etc.

I went to saw with my aunt and my brother at night. We walked around

over the street. Suddenly, my aunt interested in buying clothes in a cross road. I

didnt realize if my aunt and my brother had crossed it, because I was very

interested with the magic show that I saw it in crowded of people.

I stayed alone was there. I lost them. I was very surprised when I knew

that there are no my aunt and my brother beside me. I cried loudly and all of

people there looked at me. I was afraid and confused what would I did then. Many

people approached and asked to me what did happened. I cried louder. I couldnt

answered because I didnt knew them.

Fortunately, my aunt and my brother came after hearing my crying. They

carried out me and they tried to made me calm. My aunt told it to my family at

home. They laughed me and of course, I cried again.

I was very ashamed and I would to remember it forever.

61

Tika W. (XII IA 6/ 17)

ME, THE LUCKIEST GIRL ON THE WORLD

Most usually told about doll, Play Station, or another games when I ask

their period as a kid. They played indoor games because they live on a communal

housing or perumahan. Besides that, most of them live in one place or never

moved to another city. Thats why I always feel so lucky because of my beautiful

past. I didnt only play indoor games but also outdoor games. I played with

nature. I also explore Central Java from west to east, from north to south before

my twelve.

I was born on Jatibarang (Brebes), in one of Sugar Factory official house.

At the time, the serial number of my house was seventeen, but because of a belief

it was changed became eighteen. Some peopl

Documents

Grammatical Error Analysis