GRAMMATICAL ERROR ANALYSIS IN STUDENTS RECOUNT

TEXT (THE CASE OF THE EIGHT YEAR STUDENTS OF SMP N 1

GEMPOL IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR OF 2013-2014)

A PAPER

Submitted to the Department of English Education Faculty of Teaching and Educational

Sciences Unswagati Cirebon in Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements for Sarjana

Pendidikan (S1) Degree

Arranged By

ANNISA ANGGRAENI

108060187

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH EDUCATION

FACULTY OF TEACHING AND EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES

UNIVERSITY OF SWADAYA GUNUNG JATI CIREBON

2013

Abstract - The aim of the research is to describe of grammatical errors in writing recount text

are frequently made by the eight year students of SMP N 1 Gempol in The Academic Year

2013-2014. This reserach is conducted to answer the statement of the problem What kind of

grammatical errorrs are frequently made by the eight year students of SMP N 1 Gempol in

writting recount text? The limitation of the research which include in the following four

categories of problem areas, those are verb forms, preposition, noun pluralization and

pronoun. The result in can conclude that the students made 95 grammatical errors which were

classified into 93 errors in verb forms, 1 error in the use of preposition, 0 error in the use of

noun pluralization, 1 error in the use of pronoun. The writer concludes that grammatical error

are frequently made by the eight year students in SMP N 1 Gempol is error in the use verb

forms. 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.

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Nowadays, Mastering English is required in view of the fact that it becomes one of

the science and technology languages. Mjoreover, English is an international language

which is the most commonly used to communicate by the people among the different

countries. If know nothing about English, of course it will be very hard to prevent the

existence in modern world. In this research the writer want to know the students ability

in eight grade especially in grammatical. According to observations result that have been

done by the researcher got students' ability to communicate in English especially in eight

grade of SMP Negeri 1 Gempol. SMP NEGERI 1 GEMPOL was selected by the

researhcer as a sample because in this school many students still English for

communication there were who did not.

Language is a means of communication. By using a language people can

communicate with each other. Using a language is not as simply because there is a set of

rules that must be followed, which is called Grammar. Nevertheless, the ability to speak

a language should be developed in a social group. Actually grammar is used to mean the

structure of a language. Having a good grammar system of a language, learners will be

helpful in delivering their ideas, messages and feelings either to the listeners or readers.

Language without grammar would be disorganized and causes some communicative

problems, like grammatical errors in writing. In this paper, the writer do the research

because want to analyze grammatical error made by the learners. The result of this

analysis are expected to help teacher determine sequence of instructional material,

explanation and practice for the students to improve ability. Based on observations of the

writer in some schools concludes that the possible causes of grammatical errors in junior

high school of the eight year students are overgeneralization and interference. It is

suggested that the students still need more practices dealing with verb forms.

In order to use a language well, learners should learn the rules of a language or to

know how they work. They cannot avoid errors because errors mostly occur in learning

process. It happens because they use of different forms to deliver their ideas, feelings or

messages so they need considerable amount of time to be able to master the target

language well. Besides, by making errors, learners will build their new knowledge to use

the target language as Littlewood stated that making errors during studying the second

language can be considered as a means of building learners abilities because they can

learn something from making errors (Littlewood, 1992:58). 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.

Errors usually occur in the productive skills, speaking and writing, but to analyze

errors in productive skills in short time is not easy. It takes time, money, and requires a

high ability of an analysis. Therefore, the writer decided to analyze only the grammatical

errors in students writing. The writer chooses the students of grade Eight as the subject

of the research because they are expected to make writings which are correct in

grammar, so it is important to know whether the students make grammatical errors or not

and what kind of grammatical errors that students make. The writer hopes the result of

the research will be useful not only for the students of grade Eight, but also for the

lecturer.

The grammatical error that will be analyze are verb forms; preposition; noun

pluralization and pronoun.

Statement of the Problem

The research problem of the study are formulated in the following questions:

What kind of grammatical errors are frequently made by the eight year students of

SMP N 1 Gempol in writing recount text?

Aims of the Research

According to the problem statement above, the objectives of the research are

following:

To describe of grammatical errors in writing recount text are frequently made by the

eight year students of SMP N 1 Gempol.

Scope of the Research

The scope of this research is the grammatical error analysis in students of the eight

year students of SMP N 1 GEMPOL, in the academic year of 2013-2014. In this

research, the writer analyze the grammatical error in students recount text.

Limitation of the Research

The study will be only limited to analyze the grammatical error in students recount

text. The writer limits errors which include in the following four categories of problem

areas. Those are: (1) Verb Forms, (2) Preposition, (3) Noun Pluralization and (4)

Pronoun.

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 text.

CHAPTER II

THEORITICAL REVIEW

In this chapter, the writer explains the theories that related with the study. It describes

the relevant literatures in order that underpin the issues of the research. This chapter reviews

about the definition of Errors and Mistakes, Error Analysis, Grammatical Error, and Writting

Recount Text.

Previous Research

Some researchers has conducted research which is related to this research. One of

researcher that conducted research on grammatical error analysis is Alam (2012). This

final project primarily dealt with grammatical error analysis. It described the

grammatical errors on narrative texts made by the eight graders at SMP LABORATORY

in the academic year of 2011/2012. The qualitative approach was used in which the data

were obtained from the students narrative text writing. These writings were then

analyzed to find the grammatical errors which finally divided into five groups. They

made errors in the use of tenses, articles, noun pluralization, pronouns, and conjunctions.

The result showed that the students made 729 grammatical errors which were classified

into 449 errors in producing tenses, 83 errors in the use of articles 75 errors in

pluralization, 69 errors in the use of pronoun, and 53 errors in the use of conjunction. It

can also be found that the possible causes of errors were overgeneralization and

interference. It was suggested that the students still needed more practices dealing with

those five errors since they were the basic knowledge needed for telling their past

experiences.

And another researcher who had conducted study in Error Analysis is Ristiyani

(2011). This research aims at giving description on the errors done by the eleventh year

students of SMA Negeri 1 Semin in 2011. The writer reveals the errors and their factor

contributing to the errors as the answer of the problem of this study namely what kinds

of grammatical errors of are found in the students writing of reporting a school of the

eleventh year students of SMA Negeri 1 Semin in 2011? The writer uses the students

work in narration paragraph as the source of data, the data collected are then analysed

with descriptive qualitative methods. After analyzing all of the data taken from the

twelfth year students of SMA Negeri 1 Semin in 2011, the writer found 37 sentences that

having grammatical errors. Some of them are 11 errors are omission error (2 omission of

preposition, 1 omission of preposition and omission tobe, 1 omission of noun and

omission of predicate (tobe), 1 omission of article and omission of verb, 1 omission of

pronoun, 3 omission of article, 1 omission of determiner, omission of tobe, omission of

pronoun and omission of article, 1 omission of article and omission of tobe). 8 errors are

information error (6 misformation of verb and 2 misformation of determiner). 4 errors

are omission and misformation (1 omission of verb and misformation of determiner, 2

omission of article and misformation of verb, and 1 omission of tobe and misformation

of verb).

Maelasari (2009) also studied in this field that conducted reserach on grammatical

error analysis. The population of this study was the second grade students of MTsN 1

Brebes. A simple random sampling procedure was used to choose the sample. The writer

chooses 40 students out of 360. A composition test type was used to gather the data. In

analyzing the data, the writer use error analysis methods in which there are five steps.

Firstly, the writer identifies the errors, secondly the writer classifies the errors. The next

step is calculating the errors and the last step is tabulating the result and drawing the

conclusion. The result of the analysis is that it was found that there are 120 errors on

prepositions. They are errors on prepositions of time (20 errors = 16.7 %), errors on

prepositions of place (22 errors = 18.3%), errors on prepositions after verbs (23 errors =

19.2%), errors on prepositions after adjective (25 errors = 20.8%), and errors on

prepositions after participial adjective (30 errors = 25%). The errors were due to

interlingual and first language interference.

The similarities of the previous research with this research are the previous research

and this research want to investigate the grammatical error in students recount text of

the eight year students, and kind of grammatical errors are faced by the eight year, used

qualitatif method and the previous study and this research use observation and

questionare as the instrument of the research.

The differences of the previous research with this research are one of the previous

study using a composition test type to collect the data while this research use

investigation and quisioner, the previous research used The Eleventh Year Students of

SMA Negeri 1, while this research use Eight grade in SMP N 1 Gempol.

Existence some experts opinion, result from some previous research and this

summary will be reference to write this paper.

Errors

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

errors when using the target language. Here the writter 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).

Mistakes

Mistake is different from 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.

Error Analysis

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

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

Grammatical Error

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. According to Leech (1982: 3) grammar is defined as something

refers to the mechanism in accordance with the language of the work when it is used to

communicate with other people and Harmer (2001: 12) says that defines grammar as the

description of the ways in which words can change their forms and can be combined into

sentences in the 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 be understood 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 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.

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.

Writing 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, 2007:11). 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.

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.

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 the power of writing, which is to say,

regarded as a form of artificial memory, the development must be accompanied with a

deeper knowledge of the past and, therefore, with a greater ability to manage the present

and 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. Writing should be

done with the understanding from the past time in order to inform and express what had

happened. 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. Writing is more than just public

communication, it is also a way of thinking. Writing involves a range of writers

consciousness. 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.

Students need to know how language is used to structure the text and how the

language features are used in recount writing to achieve the purpose. Students also need

to develop an understanding of how different audiences and purposes of recount texts

determine the language choices they make. This language is influenced by:

Purpose what do I want my writing to do/achieve? e.g. accurately retell an incident

Audience for whom am I writing? e.g. my teacher, peers

Identity whom am I writing as? e.g. an authority/expert

Attitude how will I make my audience feel? e.g. informed, happy, sad

Recount texts have logically sequenced stages. Supporting students to order their

thoughts chronologically and develop circumstances will assist them to produce recount

texts. Oral language activities that build vocabulary and provide authentic purposes

enable students to develop the range of language skills for recounts. Scaffolding students

with a planned and logical sequence of activities through a teaching and learning cycle

that provides a gradual release of responsibility will support students to confidently

construct a recount. Assessment processes that provide explicit feedback and use

assessment as, for and of learning help students to understand the criteria for a successful

recount and to reflect on their work and improve their skills.

CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Approach : Descriptive Study

(Polit & Hungler 1999) stated that a descriptve study is This type of research

describes what exists and may help to uncover new facts and meaning. Aspects of a

situation as it naturally occurs. The purpose of descriptive research is to : observe,

describe, and document. This involves the collection of data that will provide an account

or description of individuals, groups or situations. Instruments we use to obtain data in

descriptive studies include :

Questionnaires

Interviews (closed questions)

Observation (checklists, etc.)

There is no experimental manipulation or indeed any random selection to groups, as

there is in experimental research.

Descriptive research is a type of research method that seeks to describe and interpret

objects in accordance with what it is (Best, 1982: 119). Descriptive research is also often

called noneksperimen, because in this study the researcher does not control and

manipulation of variables. With the descriptive method of research, enabling researchers

to conduct the relationship between variables, test hypotheses, develop generalizations,

and develop theories that have universal validity (west, 1982). In addition, research is

also descriptive studies where data collection to test the research question or hypothesis

and objec-related current events.

In this research the writer tries to do descrptive research as research approach to

describe systematically the facts and characteristics of the object and the subject.

Descriptive research method used by the writer for two reasons. First, from the empirical

observation that most of the reports come in the form of descriptive research. Second, the

descriptive method is very useful to get a variety of issues related to education and

human behavior. Besides two reasons above, the writer chooses descriptive research

because this research is very simple with easy to recognize without requiring complex

techniques statistics.

Research Procedure

Identification of the problem

Study Bibliography

The writer giving exercise about recount text

The writer give the task to write recoun text with the topic My Experience

Analyzed the result of the data

Describe the error made by the students

The writer summary of the work

Research Instrument

In this research, the writer wants to analyze some categories in grammatical error. The

categories which will be analyzed in the table below.

Data Collection

To collect the data, the writer applied classroom observation since 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. The writter came to the field, got the students

writing a recount, collected their works, and analyzed them. In this way, the writer tried

to get the data as objective as possible.

Subject of The Research

In this subject of the research, there are two components such as Population and

Sample.

Population

According to McMillan and Schumacher in Research in Education (2001) A

population is a group of elements or cases, whether individuals, objects, or events, that

No. Category of Error

1. Using Verb Form

2. The use of Preposition

3. Noun Pluralization

4. The use of Pronoun

conform to spesific criteria and to which we intend to generalize the results of the

research (p. 169)

The population of the study is the students at the Eighth Grade of SMP Negeri 1

Gempol Kabupaten Cirebon. The class consist of about 30 students. So, the total of

population are 30 students.

The population was chosen by the writer because the each eigth grade students of

SMP Negeri 1 Gempol have the ability to writting recount text. So, the students can

know that they have grammatical error in processing writting recount text.

Sample

McMillan & Schumacher (2001: p.169) states that :

The sample can be selected from a larger group of persons, identified as the

population, or it can simply refer to the group of subjects from whoms data are collected

(even though the subjects are not selected from the population).

While there are several probability sampling procedures and non probability

sampling, but the writer will choose only one procedure. It is Purposeful Sampling

(sometimes called purposive sampling).

McMillan & Schumacher (2001: p.175) In purposeful sampling, the researher

selects particular elements from the population that will be representative or informative

about the topic of interest. On the basis of the researchers knowledge of the population,

a judgement is made about which subjects should be selected to provide the best

information to address the purpose of the research.

Why the writer prefered purposive sample because the writer wants to investigate the

grammatical error in students recount text of the eight grade students of SMP Negeri 1

Gempol.

Based on theory above, the writer takes one class that consist of 30 students as

population. The writer just takes only 10 students as sample.

Procedure of Investigations

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

data and analyzing the students writing recount text. In analyzing the data, the writer 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

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 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) Collection of samples of learner language

The writer take one class that consist of 30 students as population but just takes only

10 students to investigate the grammatical error in students recount text of the eight

grade students of SMP N 1 Gempol.

(2) Identification of errors

In this step, the writer studies the acquired data and tries to find out the grammatical

errors by underlying the errors. The writer tries to analyze the data as objective as

possible.

(3) Classification of errors

Once the errors have been identified, the writer classifies them into 4 categories, they

are:

a.errors in using verb forms

e.g. : The greeks builded a wooden horse that the Trojans taked into the city. (The

verbs build and take have irregular past-tense forms)

b.errors in the use of preposition

e.g. : He has been working since 2 hours

c.errors in noun pluralization

e.g. : My mother has many flower in the garden.

d.errors in the use of pronoun

e.g. : Every student should post their questions by Friday.

(4) Explanation of errors

After collecting and analyzing the dat, the writer explain the source of the errors and

calculating the result of the analysis.

(5) Evaluation

The writer tabelized result of error and would be drawing a conclusion based on the

analysis. In this step, the writer have to make a valid conclusion in the form of a brief

description of the errors.

CHAPTER IV

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Findings

Ninety five (95) grammatical errors of various kinds were found, they were classified

as follows:

a. Errors in using verb forms = 93

b. Errors in the use of preposition = 1

c. Errors in noun pluralization = 0

d. Errors in the use of pronoun = 1

The result of the analysis can be tabelized as follows :

No Type of error Total of error

1. Errors in using verb forms 93

2. Errors in the use of

preposition 1

3. Errors in noun pluralization 0

4. Errors in the use of pronoun 1

Total 95

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

discussed as follows:

Errors in using verb form

Errors in using verb form are the most frequent ones made by the students. In using

verb form, there are some rules to be obeyed, such as: the form of the sentence

whether it is in the regular or irregular verb, and the tense of the sentence. These rules

are complex so that students often make errors in this area. Some of the errors are

illustrated as follows:

a. * We get together then shook hands to ask for apologizing.

b. * I feel it was fun

c. * I have many impressive experiences during the vacation.

The students made errors in producing verb 2 in past form. They failed to recognize

changed verb 1 to verb 2 in regular and irregular verbs. They should be in the form of

verb 2 from irregular verbs.

The sentences should have been:

a. We got together then shook hands to ask for apologizing.

b. I felt it was fun

c. I had many impressive experiences during the vacation.

In case of regular and irregular verbs Nelson stated that some irregular verbs have

regular verbs variants, which may be used for both the past form and the ed form in the

following examples, both the regular dreamed and the irregular dreamt are used as the

past form.

Regular : She dreamed she was on a hill overlooking alexandria.

Irregular : I cant remember what I dreamt last night. (Nelson, 2001:45)

Still related to verb forms, 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:

a. * I spent 3 days visited house to another house.

b. * It was very annoyed.

c. * I was watched television

The sentences should have been:

a. I spent 3 days visiting house to another house.

b. It was very annoying.

c. I was watching television.

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 the sentences below, the students failed to put changed ed in irregular verbs. The

errors are as follows:

a. * It taked around 3 hours to arrive at Pasir Putih

b. * Everybody comed back from different place they worked or has a new family.

c. * I buyed some Bali T-shirt and souvenirs.

The students failed to recognize the past form of the verb. Instead of using the past

form, the students added the verb with ed. This is wrong since the verb is the irregular

one. The students can not add ed. The students generalized that the past forms of the

verb are always added by ed.

The sentences should have been:

a. It took around 3 hours to arrive at Pasir Putih

b. Everybody came back from different place they worked or has a new family.

c. I bought some Bali T-shirt and souvenirs.

As the writer stated above, in writing recount we usually use past tense. In the

sentences below, the students failed to changed the verbs of has do or does in the past

form (verb2). The errors are as follows:

a. *I dont check my homework before.

b. * I do my homework until 2:00 a.m. the next morning.

The students 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) whether do is

the simple form of the verbs so should changed be did.

The sentences should have been:

a. *I didnt check my homework before.

b. * I did my homework until 2:00 a.m. the next morning.

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

the tense of the sentence. The student made errors in this area. The sentence as follow:

a. * We also went to Penyu Island to saw many unique animals.

Student made error in producing verb 1 or infinitive, failed to recognize where to put

the infinitives. The student failed to figure out the non-finite verb, should be in the form

of infinitives (to + the simple form of the verb).

The sentences should have been:

a. We also went to Penyu Island to see many unique animals.

Errors in the use of preposition

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.

In this case the student made 1 error in the use of preposition, as follow:

a. * We look .... the beautiful scenery there.

Student made error in preposition, the student didnt put preposition after verb in

sentence, she should be use preposition at after looked because verb looked is

followed by the preposition at.

The sentences should have been:

a. We looked at the beautiful scenery there.

Errors in noun 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. The

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

show that the noun is considered as one unit. In this analyze the students didnt make

errors in this area.

Errors in the use of pronoun

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

indefinite, relative, interrogative, demonstrative, and expletive pronouns.

The student made 1 error in this area. This error as follow:

a. *After eating, my mom, dad, and me went to uncle and aunts house.

There is one student who made error in the use of pronoun. The student failed to

recognize nominative case as predicate nominative in personal pronoun, because I as a

predicate nominative. Even, "me" has been widely used and accepted as the standard

expression.

The sentence should have been:

a. After eating, my mom, dad, and I went to uncle and aunts house.

Discussion

After explain categories of error, the writer would discuss about the dificulty and

advantages to analyze grammatical error in students recount text of the eight grade

students of SMP N 1 Gempol. The writer found that grammatical errors are undoubtedly

hard to avoid for junior high school students, they are not quite get the lesson about

grammar well. They attend to confuse to use it appropriately. therefore, there is a

tendency that the methods the teacher use is not effective. According to Corder, true

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

deficiency in competence and a shortcoming in the knowledge of language learners make

errors when they have not learn something correctly. From the linguists opinion above,

the writer 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.

The writer concludes that important to analyze error because by learning the errors,

there are many advantages such as (a) to fully grasp and understand the nature of errors,

and (b) instead of just being able to recognize errors, the learners are now able to explain

the rules and correct the errors ( Mei Lin Ho, 2003 : 1).

Littlewood stated that making errors during studying the second language can be

considered as a means of building learners abilities because they can learn something

from making errors. (Littlewood, 1992:168)

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

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

Conclusion

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

94 errors which consists of 86 or 91 % errors in using verb forms, 0 or 0 % errors

in the use of preposition, 7 or 7,4 % errors in noun pluralization, 1 or 1,6 % errors

in the use of pronoun.

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

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

made. Although the students 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. The students are unfamiliar to this form

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

their errors. The students overgeneralized the singular or pluralizing of nouns.

They just used the is or are without changed that there are past 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.

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

dealing with English grammar systems.

Suggestion

Based on the findings, the writer would like to offer some suggerstion to be

considered in teaching to improve the students ability.

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.