1.

History-Introduction & theoretical framework /Historical Background

Sri Lankans are well aware that English language education started to decline in this country
with the introduction of the Sinhala Only Act (formally the Official Language Act No. 33 of
1956) was an act passed in the Parliament of Ceylon in 1956. The act replaced English as the
official language of Ceylon with Sinhala. Thus for the past 53 years English has not been an
official language of this country. However, it was made a link language under the 13th
amendment to the constitution in 1987; 31 long years after the Sinhala only" bill.
Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution [Certified on 14th November, 1987] ,an Act to Amend
the Constitution of The Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka enacted by the Parliament of
the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka .According to the Amendment of Article 18 of
the Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka English shall be the link
language.
As far as English language is concerned it is as firmly entrenched in the domains of power in Sri
Lanka as it was in 1948. The major reason for this can be understood with reference to the elites
patronage of English in the name of efficiency, modernization and so on.
In the 21st century, it is said that things have changed. Today is supposed to be the era of the
common man. We see the emergence of a new middle/working class Sri Lanka with equal
opportunities to rise to the top. But at the same time, we see that a new elite force is born who
want to preserve, and indeed strengthen, the hegemony of English.
Sri Lankans now have a situation where due to globalization and free market economics the use
of English language has become indispensable as a means of communication. The growing
demand for international schools in this country where the medium of instruction is English and
not the mother tongue is a direct result of globalization, urbanization and the emergence of a
fairly large middle class who live by global values. English has become the passport to wealth
and opportunity, an essential requirement for almost every profession and almost all university
studies. But above all, learning English language will help in the occupational qualifications of
our children, improving their future prospects and providing more opportunities for the future. It
means power in their hands.
Among the three languages spoken in Sri Lanka, English is the language of privilege and
empowerment. It is the language where most knowledge systems and professional skills are
documented and expressed. Indeed, when the marginalized pick up the language, it becomes a
crucial scaffolding to break through their condemnations of centuries determined by religion,
social prejudice and class.
English is also hugely important as an international language and plays an important part even in
countries where the UK has historically had little influence. It is learnt as the principal foreign
language in most schools in Western Europe. It is also an essential part of the curriculum in farflung places like Japan and South Korea, and is increasingly seen as desirable by millions of
speakers in China. Prior to World War II, most teaching of English as a foreign language used
British English as its model, and textbooks and other educational resources were produced here
in the UK for use overseas. This reflected the UK's cultural dominance and its perceived

ownership of the English Language. Since 1945, however, the increasing economic power of
the USA and its unrivalled influence in popular culture has meant that American English has
become the reference point for learners of English in places like Japan and even to a certain
extent in some European countries. British English remains the model in most Commonwealth
countries where English is learnt as a second language.

2.Error Analysis and Second Language Acquisition

Error Analysis is one of the major topics in the field of second language acquisition research.
Errors are an integral part of language learning. The learner of English as a second language is
unaware of the existence of the particular system or rule in English language. The learners
errors have long been interested for second and foreign language researchers. The basic task of
error analysis is to describe how learning occurs by examining the learners output and this
includes his/her correct and incorrect utterances. There are two major approaches to the study of
learners errors, namely contrastive analysis and error analysis. Error analysis cannot be studied
properly without touching upon the notion of contrastive analysis. Contrastive analysis and error
analysis have been commonly recognized as branches of Applied Linguistic Science. This paper
examines in detail the three most influential error theories: Contrastive analysis, Error analysis
and Interlanguage theory. Corder (1978) maintains that interlanguage can be seen as a
restructuring or a recreating continuum and, therefore; evaluates their role in second language
acquisition.

Previous researches done on error analysis.

1.Thesis on Error Analysis by Rebat Dhakal.( Nov 11, 2009 )
Ample practice should be done on generating relevant ideas and organizing those ideas in a
consequent way to produce a coherent piece of writing. Special attention should be paid while
teaching subject-verb agreement and constant practice should be provided in the classroom.
Explicit re-teaching of the likely areas where the errors in prepositions and articles due to
addition, omission and substitution are occurred is needed. The students should be made
familiar with the basic capitalization rules in a comprehensive way. Coherence should be taught
with the help of guided writing exercises. More practice exercises on each of the problematic
areas should be provided. The students should be encouraged to write free compositions and to
self correct and peer correct, and finally, the teacher should look over the samples selected from
their writings.

2.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
.Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan in
English. ENGLISH DEPARTMENTFACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTSSEMARANG
STATE UNIVERSITY
More easily understood explanation should be given to the students in order to make the students
more interested in learning English, especially the grammar. The grammar elements should be
explicitly taught with adequate exercises. The students should be given more exercises in
applying grammar not only by giving them the theory of grammar. The correct uses of the verb
(when to use past and present) forms should be explained to the students applying a method.The
communicative language teaching method should be applied especially when teaching English
grammar.More writing exercises should be given to the students in writing class.

3. Error Analysis for students of Applied Linguistics a project submitted by Sid Karim Eddine
Student Mentourie University
The errors should not be detected and described from a linguistic view, but also the
psychological reasons for their occurrences should be understood. The diagnoses and treatment
of errors must be done. Correction of errors is as important as identification and description of
them.

CHAPTER ONEINTRODUCTION
Introduction is the first and foremost part of any research report. It consists of general
background, literature review, objectives and significance of the study.
1.1

General Background
Language is a very important means of communication among human beings.One can
communicate his or her ideas, emotions, desires, beliefs or feelings toanother as they share the
common code that makes up the language. No doubt,there are many other means of
communication used by human beings e.g.gestures, nods, winks, short-hand, Morse code, Braille
alphabet, flags, sirens,maps, acting, miming, etc. But all these systems of communication
areextremely limited or they too, in turn, depend upon language. They are not soflexible,
comprehensive, perfect and extensive as language is. Language is soimportant a form of
communication between humans that it is difficult to think of a society without language.
Language is something that we never think of but use all the time. According to Sapir (1921),
Language is primarily humanand non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and
desires bymeans of a system of voluntarily produced symbols (as cited in Jindal & Syal,1999, p.
4). In the scheme of things, all humans are blessed with language andit is the specific property of
humans only.It is because of the use of language only that humans are called talkinganimals
(Homo loquens). It is through language that humans storeknowledge, transfer it to the next
generation and yoke the present, pastand the future together. (Jindal & Syal, 1999, p. 6)

2
There are various languages used in different speech communities, amongwhich English is the
most dominant language. It belongs to the West-Germanic sub-branch of Indo-European family
of language. It is the thirdlargest language by number of native speakers (approximately 375
million),after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. It is spoken by 199-1400 million peopleas their
second language and has got official status in 53 countries(http://www.wikipedia.org/). Because
English is so widely used, it has oftenbeen referred to as a 'world language', the 'lingua franca' of
the modern era.While English is not an official language in most countries, it is currently
thelanguage often taught as a second language around the world.In the context of Nepal, English
is taught as a compulsory subject up to theBachelor level. Beside global communication,
teaching of English in Nepalaims at enabling students to have access to the world body of
knowledge.Pedagogically, teaching English is targeted at developing all the four skills-listening,
speaking, reading and writing.
1.1.1 Writing Skill

Writing is one of the two most common channels of communication, the otherbeing speech. It is
an activity of rendering the spoken language into its graphicform. To quote Rivers (1968, p. 242),
Writing can be an act of putting downin conventional graphic form something which has been
spoken. In this sense,writing is nothing more than the correct association of conventional
graphicsymbols with sounds. But it is not merely the jotting down of the spokenlanguage in
black and white. It involves encoding of a message of some kind ortranslating our thoughts into
language in graphic form. According to White andArndt (1991), writing is far from a simple
matter of transcribing language intowritten symbols. It is a thinking process in its own. In its
advanced form,

3
writing refers to the expression of ideas in a consecutive way according to thegraphic
conventions of the language.Writing is a productive skill which needs proper handling of the
mechanicsinvolved in it like spelling and punctuation. It is a skill in which we produce
asequence of sentences arranged in a particular order and linked together incertain ways. It
involves manipulating, structuring and communicating theideas in an impressive way. It has been
remarked that writing is the mostdifficult of the language abilities to learn. It is obviously quite
true that writingis the least used of the four skills for the average second language
users.Therefore, students need to be assisted in getting started and in organizing theirideas while
writing.
1.1.1.1

Components of Writing
Writing is not merely an activity of encoding verbal thought in printedsymbols. It consists of a
number of other components too. They are givenbelow:

a.Mechanics
Mechanics refers to those aspects of writing such as spelling, punctuation,capitals, abbreviations
and numbers which are often dealt within therevision or editing stage of writing. Although
incorrect use of suchmechanics does not often hinder the understanding of a written message,
itcan adversely affect the readers judgement. However, at times, slightchange in the use of any
of the mechanics can bring drastic change in themeaning of the words or the entire sentence.
Therefore, the students shouldget special training in handling the mechanics of writing.

6
Sometimes, when we find an approach to a subject through brainstorming, freewriting unlocks a
wealth of ideas to pursue. Heaton (1988, p. 135) says, Thewriting skills are complex and
sometimes difficult to teach, requiring masterynot only of grammatical and rhetorical devices but
also of conceptual and judgmental elements. He further groups the many and varied skills
necessaryfor writing a good composition into five general components.-

language use: the ability to write correct and appropriatesentences;-

mechanical skills: the ability to use correctly those conventionspeculiar to the written language e.g. punctuation, spelling;-

treatment of content: the ability to think creatively and developthoughts, excluding all irrelevant
information;-

stylistic skills: the ability to manipulate sentences and paragraphs, anduse language effectively;-

judgement skills: the ability to write in appropriate manner for aparticular purpose with a
particular audience in mind, together with anability to select, organize and order relevant
information.A piece of writing should, in one hand, be so constructed that one sentenceleads on
naturally to the next and there should be a regular progression of thought. The logical sense
relation between lexical items or sentences in a textis simply referred to as coherence. On the
other hand, there are intra-textualrelations of a grammatical and lexical kind which knit the parts
of a texttogether to convey the meaning of the text as a whole. This is technically calledcohesion
in writing. Thus, writing a free composition is not merely the transferof ideas from mind to
paper. It is more a process of generating meaning andrefining ideas.

7
1.1.1.3
Errors in Free Writing

Errors are the systematic and regular mistakes committed by the secondlanguage learners at
competence level due to linguistic reason. Every secondlanguage learner commits errors at any
level or area of language. At the basiclevel, if the teacher makes corrections on the student's
writing, the page mayeven be covered with red blots. And this is where, some teachers think, the

realproblem begins. Nevertheless, this is not a problem actually but a part of solution. To commit
errors is often a first step towards learning the correctform since those errors indicate the sign of
successive learning in any course of instruction. The making of errors is a strategy employed by
children in learninga new thing (here, a second language). If they are made aware of such errors,
itserves as a feedback for the language learners. The study of errors is imperativefor the language
teachers too to know how much the learners have learned andconsequently what remains for
them to learn.Writing is found to be the most difficult of the four skills and which is not
aspontaneous activity either. Free writing at the lower secondary level is of themost fundamental
type where we cannot expect the writings that are absolutelyerror free. The learners may commit
errors in spelling, punctuation, grammar,and organization style. There are many specific areas
under each broad area of written discourse that the beginners may commit errors of different
types. Toexemplify, under grammatical errors they may commit errors in agreement,tense,
aspect, number, preposition, article, transformation and so on and soforth.

8
1.1.2 Agreement in English
A verb must agree with its subject in person and number. Most mistakes aremade because of
ones failure to catch singular subject with a singular verb, ora plural subject with a plural verb.

In many English sentences subject-verb number agreement is straightforwardand

noncontroversial. However, it is quite clear, that a number of unresolvedquestions remain. CelceMurcia and Larsen-Freeman (1999, p. 72-74) presentthe summary of conventional subject-verb
agreement rules, based on Frodesenand Eyring (1997, p. 34-51) which serves as a checklist of
rules that ESL/EFLstudents need to learn or review for TOEFL preparation or for a
formalacademic writing course.a.

Non-count noun subjects take singular verb:(The food/Johns advice) is good.b.

In most cases collective noun subjects take singular verbs, but if thegroup is viewed as individual
members, use a plural verb:The class is going on a field trip.The class have been arguing about
where to go.c.

Subject nouns that are derived from adjectives and describe people takeplural verbs:The rich are
in favor of a tax cut.d.

Some proper noun subjects that end in

-s
such as names of courses,diseases, places, as well as book and film titles and the word
news
, takesingular verbs:Wales is a beautiful region.Mathematics is a difficult subject.Measles often
has side effects.The news was very good.

19
We take only the systematic errors into account because the errors in the firstand the last stage
are not technically included under error due to the regularityof errors and correctable by the
learner himself, respectively.
1.1.8.3

Explanation of Errors
This step is concerned with determining the causes or sources of errors.According to Corder
(1973, p. 282), this stage of EA is distinct from the earlierstage in that whereas the earlier stage is
confined to linguistic activities, thisstage comes under the scope of psycholinguistics. Here we
are mainlyconcerned with investigating why and how the learner comes up with theparticular
erroneous expression- in other words- with finding out the factorscausing learning problems.

The errors on the basis of their sources can be classified broadly into two typesas follows:
a) Interlingual errors
Errors due to mother tongue interference in learning the target language are theerrors due to L
1

- interference. Such errors are termed as interlingual errors.Thus, such errors are the ones that
have resulted in from the transfer of rulesfrom the mother tongue. Many errors bear a strong
resemblance to thecharacteristic of the mother tongue, indeed many erroneous utterances read
likeword-for-word translations. This observation has lead to the widely acceptedtheory of
transfer, which states that a leaner of a second language transfers intohis performance in the
second language the habits of his mother tongue(Corder, 1973, p.266).Thus, interlingual errors
are those which are attributed to the native language.For example, a Nepali learner of English
may pronounce school as
/Isku:l/
instead of /skul:1/ and uses
skin shoes
instead of leather shoes due to L
1

20
interference. This is because there is no /sk/ cluster in Nepali and there isdistinction between
skin and leather in English lexical system but we haveonly one lexical item chhala to
represent the same semantic field.
b)

Intralingual errors
Not all errors resulting from the learning process are related to the nature of themother tongue.
Intralingual errors do not reflect the structures of mother tonguebut are faulty generalizations of
the rules of target language. Intralingual errorsare those errors which result from faulty or partial
learning of the targetlanguage, rather than from language transfer. They may be caused by
theinfluence of one target language item upon another. For example, a learner mayproduce * S
he is dances
based on the blend of the English structures she isdancing and she dances. There are various
explanations for intralingualerrors. Some of them are given below:
i. Overgeneralization
The learners, having found a rule that appears to work well in one ormore contexts, may apply it
in the contexts where it is not applicable. Asa result, they commit errors in language. Such errors
are the result of faulty generalization about the rules of L

2
. Thus, such errors arecommitted due to overgeneralization. For example,quickly boxesslowly
foxes*
fastly
*
oxes

ii. Analogical Creation

It is a particular kind of overgeneralization. Errors due to analogicalcreation are those errors
committed due to wrong analogy because notall analogical creations are errors.

21
The learner searches for patterns and regularity in learning a secondlanguage to reduce the
learning load by formulating rules. In case of analogical creation, the learner produces an
erroneous expressionanalogous to the correct one. For example,She told me the meaning.*She
explained me
the meaning.Thus, analogical creation refers to the overgeneralization of the learnersrules
without considering exceptions because his/her exposure to thelanguage is limited and he/she has
insufficient data from which he/shecan derive more complex rules.All of the students left. All the
students left.Some of the students left. *
Some the students
left.None of the students left. *
None the students
left.
iii) Hypercorrection
Sometimes, what a learner has learned correctly is corrected in a wrongway due to latter
learning, which in turn results into a deviant utterance.Thus, the wrong way of making correction
is called hypercorrection. Forexample, there is a probability of saying onty one for eleven due
toover emphasis given while teaching twenty one, thirty one etc., if thechild is presented with the
cardinal numbers 1 to 20 for the first time and20 to 100 after some interval of time. Similarly,
such erroneousexpressions are repeatedly found.* I
lives
in Kathmandu.* She

cans
dance well.

30
1.4 Significance of the Study
To understand others writing and to write something expressively, it isimperative to have the
knowledge of grammar, mechanics and organizationalaspects of writing. While reading or
writing, the significance of such elementscan never be ignored. Otherwise, we cannot
comprehend the message whilereading and convey the right information while writing. As a
corollary, whatought to be done remain undone. Therefore, the study of such aspects of writing
will be quite significant for all the people in general and the people whoare directly or indirectly
involved in English language teaching / learningactivities in particular. Furthermore, there is no
research work conducted on theerrors committed by lower secondary level students in free
writing in theDepartment of English Education, TU. So this research study will be aninvaluable
treasure for the Department and the English teachers in general aswell. The findings of this study
will be useful in teaching-learning activities.Therefore, it will have a great pragmatic value. It
will equally be valuable forthe further research works in this field.

31
CHAPTER TWOMETHODOLOGY
I adopted the following methodology to fulfil the aforementioned objectives.
2.1

Sources of Data

The study was based on both primary and secondary sources of data.
2.1.1

Primary Sources of Data

The students of grade eight who were studying in different English-mediumschools in Bhaktapur
district were the primary source of data.
2.1.2

Secondary Sources of Data

The secondary sources of this study were various books on grammar andwriting skills, different
journals, research works and other documents related tothis study, which have been mentioned in
References. More particularly, thefollowing books were consulted:Celce-Murcia & LarsenFreeman (1983); Narayanswami (1994);Strong & Lester (1996); and Turton (2007).
2.2

Population of the Study

The total population of this study consisted of the students of Grade Eightstudying in different
English medium schools of Bhaktapur district.
2.3

Sampling Procedure
Five English medium schools of Bhaktapur district were selected convenientlyand the sample
was selected using disproportionate stratified random samplingprocedure. In this study, the
sample consisted of 80 students who were studyingin the selected five schools. From each of the
five schools, 16 studentsconsisting of equal number of boys and girls were selected for
administering

32
the test. The following table shows the names of the selected schools and thesample
population.Table No. 1: Sample Population
S.No. School Boys Girls Total
1 Everest English School 8 8 162 Sunshine H.S. School 8 8 163 Little World English Sec. School
8 8 164 Rainbow English Sec. School 8 8 165 Birendra Sainik Awasiya Mahavidyalaya8 8 16Tot
al 40 40 80
2.4

Tools for Data Collection

The only tool for collecting data was a set of test items consisting of three testitems for free
writing, viz. paragraph writing (Write a short paragraph aboutyourself), letter writing (Write a

letter to your friend describing your school)and essay writing (Write an essay on The Person I
Like Most).
2.5

Process of Data Collection

At first, I prepared the test items to administer them on the sample that wasselected. I visited the
selected schools personally and sought permission fromthe authority to administer the test on the
students. After getting consent fromthe authority, I established a good rapport with the students
and sampled therequired number of population using disproportionate stratified randomsampling
procedure. In addition, I fixed the time for administering the testaccording to the convenience of
the school periods. Then I administered thetest on the selected students in the allocated time.
After that I counted thenumber of errors committed in the areas of agreement, preposition,
article,capitalization, cohesion and coherence.

33
2.6

Limitations of the Study

The present study had the following limitations:i.

The study was limited to the analysis of errors in free writing.ii.

The research was limited to the five English schools of Bhaktapur districtthat got selected.iii.

The sample size was limited to 80 students of grade eight, 16 from eachschool consisting of
equal number of students from both the sexes.iv.

The study was limited to the following grammatical areas , mechanics andorganizational aspects
of writing :- Agreement - Preposition - Article- Capitalization - Cohesion - coherence
a
. Errors in subject-verb agreement and object-verb agreement werelooked over while analyzing
the errors in agreement.
b.
Errors due to addition, omission and substitution were looked overwhile analyzing the errors in
preposition and article.
c.
Other category in the description of the errors in capitalization includedthose letters and words
other than sentence initials, pronoun I, andproper noun/adjective.
d.
Errors in cohesion were described under Halliday and Hasans fivelinguistic mechanisms
of cohesion (i.e. cohesive devices), viz. reference,substitution, ellipsis, conjunction and lexical
cohesion.
e.
Only three types of orders, viz. chronological, spatial (spacial) andlogical, were looked over
while describing the errors in maintainingcoherence.v. The only tool for collecting primary data
was a set of test items consistingof three test items for free writing, viz. paragraph writing, letter
writing andessay writing
CHAPTER THREEANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA
This part is the core of the study which deals with the presentation, analysisand interpretation of
the data. The errors committed by eighth graders inagreement, preposition, article, capitalization,
cohesion and coherence are dealtwith here. And the analysis and interpretation of the data has
been carried outusing descriptive and simple statistical tools like percentage. The collected
datahave been analyzed and described under the following sub-headings:-Errors in each item,School wise errors in total,-School wise errors in each item,-Errors in agreement,-Errors in
preposition,-Errors in article,-Errors in capitalization,-Errors in cohesion, and-Errors in
coherence.
3.1 Errors in Each Item

Table No. 2 Total Errors in Each Item

S. N o. I t e m
Errors inagreementErrors inprepositionErrors inarticleErrors incapitalizationErrors
incohesionErrors incoherenceTotal errorsNo. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No.
% No. %1. I 77 8.26 130 13.95 140 15.02 266 28.54 166 17.81 153 16.42
932 25.462. II 159 12.83 160 12.91 156 12.59 295 23.81
267 21.55 202 16.31 1239 33.843. III 377 25.30 149 10.00 191 12.82 249
16.71 282 18.93 242 16.24 1490 40.70Total 613 16.74 439 11.99 487 13.30 810
22.12 715 19.52 597 16.31 3661 100

40
Under the second item, they committed 29(14.36%), 38(18.81%), 26(12.87%),35(17.33%),
43(21.29%), and 31(15.34%) errors in agreement, preposition,article, capitalization, cohesion
and coherence, respectively. In this item, theycommitted the highest number of errors in cohesion
and the lowest number of errors in the use of articles.Similarly, under the third item, they
committed 47(19.10%), 33(13.42%),31(12.60%), 43(17.48%), 51(20.73%), and 41(16.97%)
errors in agreement,preposition, article, capitalization, cohesion and coherence, respectively.
Likethe second item, they committed the highest number of errors in cohesion andthe lowest
number of errors in the use of articles in this item too.In total, the students committed
90(14.83%), 95(15.65%), 85(14.00%),107(17.63%), 127(20.92%), and 103(16.97%) errors in
agreement, preposition,article, capitalization, cohesion and coherence, respectively. The data
showedthat they committed the highest number of errors in cohesion and the lowestnumber of
errors in the use of articles.
3.3.2 Errors Committed by the Students of BSAM
Table No. 6

Errors Committed by the Students of BSAM

S. N o.

I t e m
Errors inagreementErrors inprepositionErrors inarticleErrors incapitalizationErrors
incohesionErrors incoherenceTotalerrors
No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. %
1.
I
9 4.92 32 17.49 36 19.67 39 21.31 39 21.31 28 15.30 183 26.48
2.
II
12 4.88 40 16.26 29 11.79 72 29.27 50 20.32 43 17.48 246 35.60
3.
III
58 22.14 25 9.54 40 15.27 55 20.99 50 19.08 34 12.98 262 37.92
Total
79 11.43 97 14.04 105 15.20 166 24.02 139 20.11 105 15.20 691 100
The table given above presents the item wise errors in agreement, preposition,article,
capitalization, cohesion and coherence committed by the students of

41
BSAM. The students committed 183(26.48%) errors in the first item. Underthis item, they
committed 9(4.92%), 32(17.49%), 36(19.67%), 39(21.31%),39(21.31%), and 28(15.30%) errors
in agreement, preposition, article,capitalization, cohesion and coherence, respectively. In this
item, theycommitted the highest number of errors in capitalization and the lowest numberof
errors in agreement.Similarly, they committed 246(35.60%) errors in the second item. Under
thisitem, they committed 12(4.88%), 40(16.26%), 29(11.79%), 72(29.27%),50(20.32%), and

43(17.48%) errors in agreement, preposition, article,capitalization, cohesion and coherence,

respectively. In this item, theycommitted the highest number of errors in capitalization and the
lowest numberof errors in agreement.Likewise, they committed 262(37.92%) errors in the third
item. Under thisitem, they committed 58(22.14%), 25(9.54%), 40(15.27%),
55(20.99%),50(19.08%), and 34(12.98%) errors in agreement, preposition, article,capitalization,
cohesion and coherence, respectively. Unlike the first andsecond items, they committed the
highest number of errors in agreement andthe lowest number of errors in the use of preposition in
the third item.In total, the students committed 79(11.43%), 97(14.04%),
105(15.20%),166(24.02%), 139(20.11%), and 105(15.20%) errors in agreement,
preposition,article, capitalization, cohesion and coherence, respectively. The data showedthat
they committed the highest number of errors in capitalization and thelowest number of errors in
agreement.

42
3.3.3 Errors Committed by the Students of Sunshine School
Table No. 7

Errors Committed by the Students of Sunshine School

S. N o.
I t e m
Errors inagreementErrors inprepositionErrors inarticleErrors incapitalizationErrors
incohesionErrors incoherenceTotalerrors
No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. %
1.
I
22 11.70 22 11.70 30 15.96 67 35.64 24 12.77 23 12.23 188 26.93
2.
II
36 17.14 14 6.67 31 14.76 59 28.09 40 19.05 30 14.29 210 30.09
3.
III
103 34.33 26 8.67 44 14.67 47 15.66 44 14.67 36 12 300 42.98
Total

161 23.07 62 8.88 105 15.04 173 24.78 108 15.47 89 12.76 698 100
The table given above presents the item wise errors in agreement, preposition,article,
capitalization, cohesion and coherence committed by the students of Sunshine School. The
students committed 188(26.93%) errors in the first item.Under this item, they committed
22(11.70%), 22(11.70%), 30(15.96%),67(35.64%), 24(12.77%), and 23(12.23%) errors in
agreement, preposition,article, capitalization, cohesion and coherence, respectively. In this item,
theycommitted the highest number of errors in capitalization and the lowest numberof errors in
agreement and preposition.Similarly, they committed 210(30.09%) errors in the second item.
Under thisitem, they committed 36(17.14%), 14(6.67%), 31(14.76%), 59(28.09%),40(19.05%),
and 30(14.29%) errors in agreement, preposition, article,capitalization, cohesion and coherence,
respectively. In this item, theycommitted the highest number of errors in capitalization and the
lowest numberof errors in prepositions.Likewise, they committed 300(42.98%) errors in the third
item. Under thisitem, they committed103 (34.33%), 26(8.67%), 44(14.67%),
47(15.66%),44(14.67%), and 36(12.00%) errors in agreement, preposition, article
capitalization, cohesion and coherence, respectively. The data showed that theycommitted the
highest number of errors in agreement and the lowest number of errors in the use of preposition
in the third item.In total, the students committed 161(23.07%), 62(8.88%),
105(15.04%),173(24.78%), 108(15.47%), and 89(12.76%) errors in agreement,
preposition,article, capitalization, cohesion and coherence, respectively. The data showedthat
they committed the highest number of errors in capitalization and thelowest number of errors in
the use of preposition.
3.3.4 Errors Committed by the Students of Rainbow School
Table No. 8

Errors Committed by the Students of Rainbow School

S. N o.
I t e m
Errors inagreementErrors inprepositionErrors inarticleErrors incapitalizationErrors
incohesionErrors incoherenceTotalerrors
No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. %
1.
I
10 5.21 30 15.62 32 16.67 56 29.17 34 17.71 30 15.62 192 23.88
2.
II

30 10.95 34 12.41 40 14.60 60 21.90 66 24.08 44 16.06 274 34.08

3.
III
90 26.63 29 8.58 35 10.36 46 13.61 69 20.41 69 20.41 338 42.04
Total
130 16.17 93 11.57 107 13.31 162 20.15 169 21.02 143 17.78 804 100
The table presents the item wise errors in agreement, preposition, article,capitalization, cohesion
and coherence committed by the students of RainbowSchool. The students committed
192(23.88%) errors in the first item. Underthis item, they
committed 10(5.21%), 30(15.62%), 32(16.67%), 56(29.17%),34(17.71%), and 30(15.62%)
errors in agreement, preposition, article,capitalization, cohesion and coherence, respectively. In
this item, theycommitted the highest number of errors in capitalization and the lowest numberof
errors in agreement

50
Some typical examples of erroneous sentences under this category were:1.

Last month, we went to

cyber and played a game.(omission;Abhishek, Everest)2.

We have
a
lots of facilities.(addition; Polistha, Everest)3.

He wants to become

Charter Account.(omission; Binaya, BSAM)4.

Im trying to be
a
obedient student.(substitution; Anup, BSAM)5.

I am

student of Sunshine.(omission; Alina, Sunshine)6.

I am
the
student of class eight.(substitution; Lisha, Sunshine)7.

I am
a
eldest daughter in my family.(substitution; Sapana, Rainbow)8.

I like one person who is

a
kind-hearted.(addition; Anish, Rainbow)9.

This is

very good school. (omission; Amin, Little World)10.

I want to be
the
great person.(substitution; Deepak, Little World)
3.4.4 Errors in Capitalization

Table No. 13

Errors in Capitalization
S. N o.
SchoolDescription of ErrorsTotal
ErrorsSentenceinitialPronoun I Propernoun/adjectiveOthercategoryNo. % No.%
No. % No. % No. %1. Everest 23 21.49 34 31.78 50 46.73 107 13.212. BSAM 9 5.42 1 0.6025 1
5.06 131 78.92 166 20.493. Sunshine 18 10.40 54 31.22 101 58.38 173 21.364. Rainbow
25 15.432 1.2466 40.74 69 42.59 162 20.005. LittleWorld31 15.351 0.5092 45.54
78 38.61 202 24.94Total 106 13.094 0.49271 33.46 429 52.96 810 100
The table presents the description of errors in capitalization. The studentscommitted
106(13.09%), 4(0.49%), 271(33.46%), and 429(52.96%) errors insentence initials, pronoun I,
proper noun/adjective and other category,

51
respectively. The students of Everest School committed 107(13.21%) errors incapitalization.
More particularly, 23(21.49%), 34(31.78%), and 50(46.73%)errors were committed in sentence
initials, proper noun/adjective and othercategory, respectively. Not a single error was recognized
in pronoun I.Similarly, the students of BSAM committed 166(20.49%) errors incapitalization.
Out of which, they committed 9(5.42%), 1(0.60%), 25(15.06%),and 131(78.92%) errors in
sentence initials, pronoun I, proper noun/adjectiveand other category, respectively. Likewise, the
students of Sunshine Schoolcommitted 173(21.36%) errors in capitalization. Particularly,
18(10.40%),54(31.22%), and 101(58.38%) errors were committed in sentence initials,proper
noun/adjective and other category, respectively. Not a single error wasrecognized in pronoun I.

In the same way, the students of Rainbow Schoolcommitted 162(20.00%) errors in capitalization.
Precisely, they committed25(15.43%), 2(1.24%), 66(40.74%), and 69(42.59%) errors in sentence
initials,pronoun I, proper noun/adjective and other category, respectively. And thestudents of
Little World committed 202(24.94%) errors in capitalization.Particularly, they committed
31(15.35%), 1(0.50%), 92(45.54%), and78(38.61%) errors in sentence initials, pronoun I, proper
noun/adjective andother category, respectively.Some typical examples of erroneous sentences
under this category were:1.

None is best for me but

n
abin sir.(Proper noun; Archana, Everest)2.

s
he did not take care of us.(Sentence initial; Shreejan, Everest)3.

And
i
used to become angry.(Pronoun I; Manisha, BSAM)4.

His wal
K
ing
S
tyle is very unique.(Other category; Barsha, BSAM)5.

h
e is a singer of my school.(Sentence initial; Kamal, Sunshine)6.

My
M

other is very nice and

G
reat.(Other category; Sneha, Sunshine)7.

My schools name is Rainbow

e
nglish
s
chool.(Proper noun;Sanju,Rainbow)

52
8.

With them
i
become happy.(Pronoun I; Sandhya, Rainbow)9.

My favourite fruits are

M
ango,
A
pple, etc.(Other category; Anita, LittleWorld)10.

h
e is good at reading and writing.(Sentence initial; Rajan, Little World)
3.4.5 Errors in Cohesion
Table No. 14

Errors in Cohesion
S. N o.
School
Cohesive Devices
TotalErrors
Reference
Substitution Ellipsis ConjunctionLexicalCohesionNo. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. %1.
Everest
28 22.05 13 10.24 15
11.81 33 25.98 38 29.92 127 17.762. BSAM 31 22.30 9 6.48 15 10.79 38 27.34 46 33.09 139 19.
443.
Sunshine
22 20.37 6 5.56 6 5.56 36 33.33 38 35.18 108 15.104.
Rainbow
36 21.30 11 6.51 7 4.14 56 33.14 59 34.91 169 23.645.
LittleWorld
36 20.93 8 4.65 9 5.23 50 29.07 69 40.12 172 24.06
Total
153 21.40 47 6.57 52 7.27 213 29.79 250 34.97 715 100
The table presents the description of errors in cohesion under different cohesivedevices. The
students committed 513(21.40%), 47(6.57), 52(7.27%),213(29.79%), and 250(34.97%) errors
under reference, substitution, ellipsis,conjunction and lexical cohesion, respectively. The students
of Everest Schoolcommitted 127(17.76%) errors in cohesion. Out of which,
28(22.05%),13(10.24%), 15(11.81%), 33(25.98%), and 38(29.92%) errors were committedunder
reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction and lexical cohesion,respectively. Similarly, the
students of BSAM committed 139(19.44%) incohesion. More particularly, 31(22.30%),
9(6.48%), 15(10.79%), 38(27.34%),and 46(33.09%) errors were committed under reference,
substitution, ellipsis,conjunction and lexical cohesion, respectively. Likewise the students
of Sunshine School committed 108(15.10%) in maintaining cohesion. Out of which, 22(20.37%),
6(5.56%), 6(5.56%), 36(33.33%), and 38(35.18%) errors

53
were committed under reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction and lexicalcohesion,
respectively. In the same way, the students of Rainbow Schoolcommitted 169(23.64%) in
cohesion. Precisely, 36(21.30%), 11(6.51%),7(4.14%), 56(33.14%), and 59(34.91%) errors were
committed underreference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction and lexical cohesion,
respectively.And finally, the students of Little World School committed 172(24.06%) errorsin
cohesion. Particularly, 36(20.93%), 8(4.65%), 9(5.23%), 50(29.07%), and69(40.12%) errors
were committed under reference, substitution, ellipsis,conjunction and lexical cohesion,
respectively.Some typical examples of erroneous sentences under this category were:1.

Everest always does

his
best to achieve success.( Reference; Aastha,Everest)2.

I
leave
in central part of Nepal.(Lexical cohesion; Sushan, Everest)3.

He left the school and

so I

. (Ellipsis; Prajwol,BSAM)4.

I am
doing
a description of my school. (Lexical; Melina, BSAM)5.

Rodrick is a type of person

that
is very simple and good mannered.(Reference; Bibek, Sunshine)6.

Who could be my best friend but Rupak

could be
. (Substitution; Niroj,Sunshine)7.

My
mommy always cares us. (Reference; Pramila, Rainbow)8.

I hope

you get this ,youll become happy.( Conjunction; Sandhya,Rainbow)9.

He was not good.

And
he passed the exam.(Conjunction; Amin, LittleWorld)10.

I
stay
in Bhaktapur. (Lexical cohesion; Aaistha, Little world)

54
3.4.6 Errors in Coherence
Table No. 15

Errors in Coherence
S. N o.
SchoolErrors in maintaining
Total ErrorsChronological order Spatial order Logical orderNo. % No. % No. % No. %
1.
Everest
6 5.83 6 5.83 91 88.34 103 17.25
2.
BSAM 16 15.24 9 8.57 80 76.19 105 17.59
3.
Sunshine
8 8.99 7 7.86 74 83.15 89 14.91
4.
Rainbow
16 11.19 8 5.59 119 83.22 143 23.95
5.
Little World 19 12.10 12 7.64 126 80.26 157 26.30Total 65 10.89 42 7.03 490 82.08 597 100
The table presents the description of errors in coherence. The studentscommitted 65(10.89%),
42(7.03%) and 490(82.08%) errors in maintainingchronological order, spatial order and logical
order, respectively. The studentsof Everest School committed 103(17.25%) errors in coherence in
total.Particularly, 6(5.83%), 6(5.83%) and 91(88.34%) errors were committed inmaintaining
chronological order, spatial order and logical order, respectively.Similarly, the students of BSAM
committed 105(17.59%) errors in coherencein total. Out of which, 16(15.24%), 9(8.57%) and
80(76.19%) errors werecommitted in maintaining chronological order, spatial order and logical
order,respectively. Likewise the students of Sunshine School committed 89(14.91%)errors in
coherence in total. Precisely, 8(8.99%), 7(7.86%) and 74(83.15%)errors were committed in
maintaining chronological order, spatial order andlogical order, respectively. In the same way, the

students of Rainbow Schoolcommitted 143(23.95%) errors in coherence in total. More

particularly,16(11.19%), 8(5.59%) and 119(83.22%) errors were committed in
maintainingchronological order, spatial order and logical order, respectively. And finally,the
students of Little World School committed 157(26.30%) errors incoherence in total. Out of
which, 19(12.10%), 12(7.64%) and 126(80.26%)

55
errors were committed in maintaining chronological order, spatial order andlogical order,
respectively.Some typical examples of erroneous sentences under this category were:1.

Im a boy reading in class eight.

My name is Sumin. Im 12 years old
. Iread quite well. My school is Everest English School. (Logical order;Sumin, Everest)2.

This school has four blocks. We are reading in block A.

ThePrincipals name is Bhaktaraj Bhandari. The Vice-principal looks after block C
.(Spatial/Logical orders; Purnima, Everest)3.

I used to read at BSAM in class eight

.(Chronologicalorder;Sajani,BSAM)4.

I have my own rights and duties in this world. I am known as SulochanaKhadka.

(Logical order; Sulochana, BSAM)5.

I get up at six oclock and read up to eight oclock.

I have my breakfast at seven.
(Chronological order; Sony, Sunshine)6.

It lies in Dudhpati. It is near the bus stop. It is situated in Bhaktapur.

(Spatial order; Kalyan, Sunshine)7.

Hi, Anuj! How are you?

I am spending my days happily
. Are you fine?(Logical order; Sameer, Rainbow)8.

I am a male sex. I read in class eight in Little World School.( Logicalorder; Sanjay, Rainbow)9.

In every classroom, there are some posters and a blackboard. There is acanteen. And twelve sets
of desk-benches are there in the class. (Spatial;Priya, Little World)10.

There is one room for accountant, and one for the Principal. Theteachers are very nice here.
There are two classroom blocks. (Spatialorder; Ritu, Little World)
CHAPTER FOURFINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
4.1 Findings
The researcher carried out a rigorous analysis of the errors in agreement,preposition, article,
capitalization, cohesion and coherence in free writing tomeet his objectives and to make his
study precise. From the recognition,analysis and interpretation of the errors committed by the
eighth graders inwriting free composition, the researcher came up with the following findings:1.

The students committed 3661 errors in total. They committed932(25.46%) errors in the first
item, i.e. in paragraph writing,1239(33.84%) errors in the second item, i.e. in letter writing,
and1490(40.70%) errors in the third item, i.e. in essay writing. Hence theycommitted the highest
number of errors in writing an essay and thelowest number of errors in writing a paragraph
which seems natural.2.

The students committed 613(16.75%), 439(11.99%), 487(13.30%),810(22.12%), 715(19.53%),

and 597(16.31%) errors in agreement,preposition, article, capitalization, cohesion and coherence,
respectively.They committed the highest number of errors in capitalization and thelowest number
of errors in the use of preposition. Thus, capitalizationwas found to be most problematic for the
students.3.

The students committed 477(77.81%) and 136(22.19%) errors insubject-verb agreement and
object-verb agreement, respectively. Thussubject-verb agreement was found to be more
problematic for them.

57
4.

Regarding the use of preposition, the students committed 104(23.69%),203(46.24%) and

132(30.07%) errors due to addition, omission andsubstitution, respectively. It showed that they
committed the highestnumber of errors due to omission and the lowest number of errors due
toaddition.5.

Regarding the use of article, the students committed 107(21.98%),282(57.90%) and 98(20.12%)
errors due to addition, omission andsubstitution, respectively. It showed that they committed the
highestnumber of errors due to omission and the lowest number of errors due tosubstitution.6.

In case of capitalization, the students committed 106(13.09%),4(0.49%), 271(33.46%), and

429(52.96%) errors in sentence initials,pronoun I, proper noun/adjective and other category,
respectively. Theycommitted the highest number of errors in other category and the
lowestnumber of errors in writing pronoun I.7.

While maintaining cohesion, the students committed 153(21.40%),47(6.57), 52(7.27%),

213(29.79%), and 250(34.97%) errors underreference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction and
lexical cohesion,respectively. It showed that they committed the highest number of errorsunder
lexical cohesion and the lowest number of errors undersubstitution.8.

To take the case of coherence, the students committed 65(10.89%),42(7.03%) and 490(82.08%)
errors in maintaining chronological order,spatial order and logical order, respectively. They

committed the highestnumber of errors while maintaining logical order and the lowest numberof
errors while maintaining spatial order
4.2 Recommendations
On the basis of the findings of the study, the following recommendations havebeen made for
pedagogical implications.1.

The students should be provided with the format, structures, model, andbrainstorming exercise
while teaching paragraph, letter, essay and suchother free writing skill developing tasks. Ample
practice should be doneon generating relevant ideas and organizing those ideas in a
consequentway to produce a coherent piece of writing.2.

The concept of singular, plural and non-count nouns and the forms of verbs that agree with those
nouns/noun phrases should be explicitlytaught to the students. So, subject-verb agreement should
be taught byrelating the form of verb to the number of subject (may it be gerund orto-infinitive)
and object-verb agreement by relating the form of verb tothe number of object. Special attention
should be paid while teachingsubject-verb agreement and constant practice should be provided in
theclassroom.3.

Sufficient exposure should be provided regarding the use of prepositionsand articles. The
students should be exposed to enough examples thatcontain the rules of prepositions and articles.
Explicit reteaching of thelikely areas where the errors in prepositions and articles due to
addition,omission and substitution are occurred is needed.4.

Special attention should be paid while teaching capitalization. Theinformation on

UPPER CASE
and
lower case
should be provided. Andexplicit teaching of the most likely areas of errors in
capitalizationshould be carried out. They should be made familiar with the basiccapitalization
rules in a comprehensive way.5.

The students should be provided with ample exercises on reference(pronoun), elliptical

sentences, conjunctions, etc. to maintain cohesion

59
in a piece of writing. It is better to teach pronoun in combination withmasculine, feminine, and
neuter gender rather than teaching in isolation.6.

Coherence should be taught with the help of guided writing exercises.Such exercises like
ordering the sentences of a story, description of aplace, narration of some events should be given
to practice coherence.7.

More practice exercises on each of the problematic areas should beprovided.8.

The students should be encouraged to write free compositions and toself correct and peer correct,
and finally, the teacher should look overthe samples selected from their writings. And he/she
should reteach theareas of grammar, mechanics, and/or organization style where they
havecommitted the most errors. This leads to continuous reduction of thenumber of errors they
commit in each of the areas.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am grateful to Allah the Almighty, the Most Merciful (the eternallybesought of all for blessing),
who has led me to the completion of this finalproject entitled
Grammatical Error Analysis in Students Recount Texts(The Case of the Twelfth Year Students
of SMA N 1 Slawi, Tegal in the AcademicYear of 2006/2007.
My first respect and thank go to Dra. Hj. Dwi Rukmini, M.Pd., my firstadvisor and Rudi
Hartono, S.S., M.Pd., my second advisor for their invaluableassistance, guidance and valuable
suggestions during the writing of this finalproject.My next deeply grateful go to my beloved
parents, Sanyoto, A. Md, SriIndah, Beni and Adhi for their love and patience in waiting for my
graduation.Great thanks also goes to Carol, my humble one, your understandings andsupports are
essential. To my friends Adji, Heru and all of my friends in BeswanDjarum 05/06 who have
given their wonderful supports. Ganesha Squad, thanksfor 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 weknow that English is one
of the international languages which can be used tocommunicate around the world. In Indonesia,
English is learnt as a foreignlanguage. Learning a different language is sometimes difficult since
the targetlanguage has different elements compared to the native language. Thesedifferences
sometimes cause students to make errors when using it.This final project primarily deals with
grammatical error analysis. Itdescribes the grammatical errors on recount texts made by the
twelfth yearstudents of SMA N 1 Slawi in the academic year of 2006/2007. I use thequalitative
approach of which the data were obtained from the students recounttext writing. These writings
were then analyzed. The grammatical errors wereclassified into seven groups. They were errors
in producing verb group, errors insubject-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 errorsin
the use of conjunctions.From the result in chapter IV I can conclude that the students made
235grammatical errors which were classified into 153 errors in producing verbalgroups, 3 errors
in subject-verb agreement, 10 errors in the use of article30, errorsin 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 areovergeneralization, and
interference.It is suggested that the students still need more practices dealing with verbforms
since they were the basic knowledge needed for telling their pastexperiences

vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................. ivABSTRACT .....
.................................................................................................. vTABLE OF CONTENTS .............
...................................................................... viLIST
OF APPENDICES .................................................................................... viii
I INTRODUCTION
.........................................................................................
11.1 General Background of the Study ................................................................ 11.2 Reasons for
Choosing the Topic .................................................................. 51.3 Statement of the Problem ......
....................................................................... 61.4 Objectives of the Study .....................................
........................................... 61.5 Significance of the Study ..............................................................

............... 61.6 Definition of Error ....................................................................................... 71.7 O

utline of the Report .................................................................................... 7
II REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE
.......................................
82.1 Grammar ...................................................................................................... 82.2 Writing .......
.................................................................................................. 92.3 Recount
Text................................................................................................. 132.4 Errors and
Mistakes ..................................................................................... 142.4.1
Errors ......................................................................................................... 152.4.2
Mistakes .................................................................................................... 162.5 Sources of
Errors .......................................................................................... 162.6 Grammatical
Errors ...................................................................................... 18

vii2.7 Error Analysis .............................................................................................. 20

III RESEARCH METHODS
......................................................................... 223.1 Research Approach: Case
Study .................................................................. 223.2 Research
Procedure ...................................................................................... 233.3 Research
Instrument ..................................................................................... 233.4 Data
Collection ............................................................................................. 243.5 Participants of the
Study .............................................................................. 243.6 Procedure of
Investigations ......................................................................... 24
IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
................................................................ 284.1
Findings ........................................................................................................ 284.2
Discussion .................................................................................................... 31
V CONCLUSION AND PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS
..................... 465.1
Conclusion ................................................................................................... 465.2 Pedagogical
Implications ............................................................................. 47REFERENCES ..........................
......................................................................... 49APPENDICES ....................................................
............................................... 51

viii
LIST OF APPENDICESAppendix

1 Research Approval Letter ............................................................................... 522 Students Rec

ount Texts ................................................................................. 53

55
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 oneand a human child always speaks a
language first before he is accustomed to thewriting system of his language.The explanation
above does not imply that writing or written language isless important than the spoken one. The
more cultivated and more technologicallyadvanced a man is the more he involved in a written
form of a language. It meansthat writing also plays an important role in a modern society.Writing
language is getting more and more essential today. It should bemastered in order to be literate.
But, Indonesian students of senior high schoolcommonly have only little enthusiasm for their
writing tasks. Every time theyhave writing tasks, they feel it is difficult to do. But, they should
have strongfoundation for their writing skill before entering a higher level of education. So, itis
crucial for them to master this skill.In composing a good writing, we should notice some aspects.

Grammar isone important aspect that should be mastered in order to make a well
structuredwriting. But, writing in different language is not always as easy as writing in ourown
language since there are some different rules in the writing systems and thesedifferences
sometimes make us make errors. That is why; I choose to analyze thegrammatical 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

66differences between Indonesian and English, and the students difficulties inwriting 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 possiblecauses of the errors
made by the students may help the teachers as well as thestudents to improve in the teachinglearning process.
1.5

Significance of the Study

The significance of this study can be classified into two parts, for theteachers and the students.
For the teacher by reading the result of this study theycan find new methods to anticipate the
making of the errors and to improve theirteaching ability. For the students, by reading the result
of this study they canimprove their ability in writing especially in writing recount.

77
1.6

Definition of Error
From the result of this study, it can be concluded that error is the failure touse the grammatical
system correctly made by the students which is caused by thelack of students competence.
1.7

Outline of the Report

This final project consists of five chapters. The first chapter describes thegeneral background of
the study, reasons for choosing topic, statement of theproblem, objectives of the study,
significance of the study and the outline of thestudy.The second chapter is the review of the
related literature consists of thedefinition of grammar, writing, recount, errors and mistake, error
analysis, and thesources 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 thestudents, the error analysis, and
the possible causes of errors.The last chapter concludes what the grammatical errors are made by
thestudents, the possible causes of errors and the suggestions that are explained basedon the
errors made

8
CHAPTER IIREVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE
In this chapter I will explain what grammar is, writing, recount text and itslexicogrammatical
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 universallyaccepted definition.
Different experts define the term grammar differently. Thereis no fixed definition of
grammar.Leech (1982: 3) defined grammar as something in reference to themechanism
according to which language works when it is used to communicatewith other people.Harmer
(2001: 12) defines grammar as the description of the ways inwhich words can change their forms
and can be combined into sentences in thatlanguage.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 tounderstand why grammar is useful and
important. Without knowing the grammarof a language, one can not be said to have learned the
language. Besides, it seems

99impossible to learn a language without learning the grammar because it tells himhow to use
the language.People learn how to construct a good message based on the rules they haveknown
and try to convey the message to the others. These rules are termed asgrammar.The mechanism
of grammar cannot be seen concretely, because it is ratherabstractly represented in the human
mind, but we know it is there because itworks. One way of describing this mechanism is by
means of a set of rules whichallow us to put words together in certain ways which do not allow
others. Themeaning of a message conveyed by language has to be converted into words
puttogether according to grammatical rules and these words are then conveyed bysounds.
2.2 Writing
There is no particular definition about writing stated by an author or alinguist. L. Strauss in J.
Hartley, et al (1962: 66) stated that writing might, that isto say, be regarded as a form of
artificial memory, whose development should beaccompanied by a deeper knowledge of the past
and, therefore, by a greater abilityto organize the present and the future.In fact, there are some
acts of writing which can be used as the basis forconceiving the meaning of writing. Those acts
of writing are in line with thedevelopment of learning to write through which a student should
pass.

1010Writing involves more than just producing words and sentences. To beable 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 thepurpose we have in our mind will suit the intended
readers. In this way, it is meantthat the style of language used in a piece of writing designed for
layman andpeople living in the village, for example should be different from the one designedfor
educated people such as students, teachers, doctors, professors, etc. Therefore,in presenting a
piece of discourse we should consider the correctness of form, theappropriateness 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 constructsand is
constructed by asset of social practices within these worlds, and in so doingboth reproduces and
constructs afresh particular social-discursive practices,constrained or encouraged by more macro
movements in the overarching socialformation. Whether style is feature of literary composition
which belongs to formand expression rather than to the substance of the thought or matter
expressed andalso a manner of discourse or tone of speaking, adopted in addressing others or
inordinary conversation.Writing should be done with the understanding from the past time in
orderto inform and express what had happened. It should be well-organized in order tobe
understandable for the readers (Harmer, 2004: 3).

2121testing, the learner slowly and tediously succeeds in establishing closer and
closerapproximation to the system used by native speakers of the language.The students get
problems in learning English because there are manydifferences between Indonesian and English
in terms of grammar, vocabulary, etc.As Lado (1977) said, errors made indication of the
difficulties the learnerhad with certain aspects of language. The study of learners errors has
been aprimary focus of foreign language research. It is called Error Analysis.As Ubol (1988: 8)
said, Error analysis is a systematic description andexplanation of errors made by learners or
users in their oral or written productionon the TL. It means that error analysis is concerned with
the explanation of theoccurrence error and the production of their oral or written expression
differs fromthat of native speaker or TL norm. The error analysis movement is characterizedas an
attempt to account for learners error that could not be explained orpredicted by contrastive
analysis. Error analysis has made a significantcontribution to the theoretical consciousnessraising applied linguistics andlanguage practitioners. Error analysis provided a methodological
for investigatingthe learner language.According to Corder as cited by Richards (1974) noted that
errors couldbe significant in three ways: they provided the teacher with information abouthow
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 discoveredthe rules of the TL.

22
CHAPTER IIIRESEARCH 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 enquirythat investigates a
contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context; whenthe boundaries between
phenomenon and context are not clearly evident; and inwhich multiple sources of evidence are
used.In addition, Merriam in Nunan (1992: 77) stated that the qualitative casestudy can be
defined as an intensive, holistic description and analysis of a singleentity, phenomenon, or social
unit. Case studies are particularistic, descriptive,and heuristic and rely heavily on inductive
reasoning in handling multiple dataresources.Adelman et al. in Nunan (1992: 74) said a case
study should not beadequated 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 termfor a standard methodological package.Adelman et al. in Nunan (1992: 74-75) also
stated that although casestudies have often been used to sensitive researchers to significant
variablessubsequently manipulated or controlled in an experimental design, that is not their only
role. The understandings generated by case study are significant in their own

2323right. 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 aboutthe 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 isonly 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 recountto refresh the students
understanding about recount itself, got them writing arecount, 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 thestudents which I applied as
the data to be analyzed and described the errors made by the students

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. Thecomplement 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. Insentences a, b, and e, for
instance, the student failed to recognize the passive formof the verb. As we know in passive form
there should be
to be+verb3
. Whether insentences c, and d; they failed to put the linking verbs before a noun and
anadjective.The sentences should have been:(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.

34Still in relation to linking verbs, the students also failed to recognize thecorrect form of
to be
used in their sentences. The errors are as follows:(5)

a. *
Because my grandfathers house has located near the Mintaragamountain.

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 pasttense. Here the students
also failed to recognize the past form of
to be
should beused.The sentences should have been:(6)

a.
Because my grandfathers house was located near the Mintaragamountain.

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 manyimportant activities in Slawi.
As I stated above, in writing recount we usually use past tense since it istells about past
experiences. In the sentences below, the students failed to put theverbs 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 inelementary school.c. *In
the twenty third day, it means the last day we studied together, washold 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 formof the verbs. They still
used the simple form of the verbs. This is incorrect since intelling their past experiences they
should use the past form of the verbs (verb2). Insentence d, the student also failed to recognize
the past form of the verb. Insteadof using the past form, she added the verb with
ed
. This is wrong since the verbis the irregular one. She can not add
ed
. She just generalized that the past formsof the verbs are always added by
ed
.The sentences should have been:(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 theelementary school.

38spell the correct form of the verb. But, here I just analyzed students failure inrecognizing the
correct form of the verb.The sentences should have been:(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 formwhether it is singular or
plural. To construct a correct sentence structurally, theverb must agree with the subject. Fail to
recognize this means we are failed toconstruct correct sentences structurally. Thus, the students
must be able to identifythe subject whether it is singular or plural. Having no competence in
identifyingthe subject will make students fail to produce the correct form of the verb. Itmeans
that the students have made errors in making the agreement betweensubject and verb.As I stated

above, in writing a recount we should use past tense since ittells about past experiences. In past
tense there is an agreement between subjectand 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 housewere 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 betweensubject 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 agreementbetween subject and verb.
Here she failed in relating the idea from the previoussentence.The sentences should have been:
(14) a.
We were
very
confused because the walls were glass and the house wasdark.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 countableor 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 thebasic 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 mentionedbefore. The use of indefinite article also takes into account whether the noun
is

40countable 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 sensitivein differentiating the use of definite article, indefinite
article and even using noarticle at all. If they are not able to differentiate them, they will make
errors asfollows:(15) a. *
On Saturday, I visited Pangandaran beach. The condition of society wasstill 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 officialhouse 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 inrecognizing the repeated subject whether

in sentences b, d and e, they failed torecognize something familiar.The sentences should have
been:(16) a.
On Saturday, I visited Pangandaran beach. The condition of society wasstill the same.b. Besides,
we could see many big trees 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 expletivepronouns.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 insentence d, the students failed to
recognize the correct form of demonstrativepronoun.The sentences should have been:(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, butalso phrases and
clauses. The rules in using them are the same with their rules inIndonesian. 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 torecognize 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 whatwe do in
making past verb form to what we do with conjunctions.The sentences should have been:(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 VCONCLUSION AND PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS

After conducting the research, doing the analysis, and presenting theresults, the conclusion and
suggestion or pedagogical implications of this studywill be presented in this last chapter.

.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 useof article, 30 or 12.8 % errors in the use of
preposition, 12 or 5.1 % errors inpluralization, 23 or 9.8 % errors in the use of pronoun, and 4 or
1.7 % errors inthe use of conjunction.
(2) According to the findings, it can be concluded that the students have notmastered the use of
verb groups. We can see it from the number of the errorsmade. Although they had been taught
about it before, they were still confusedwhich one to use when making a grammatical sentence.
It could be because inbahasa Indonesia we do not have the verb conjugations. We do not have
timesignaling in expressing ideas. They are unfamiliar to this form and becauseEnglish is still
foreign for them. And those are the possible causes of theirerrors.

4747The students were still confused in making the agreement between subject andverb. It
could be because in bahasa Indonesia there is no agreement betweensubject and verb.The
students were still confused in differentiating whether to use the definiteor indefinite articles. It
could be because in Indonesian language grammarthere is no definite article used.The students
still confused in deciding preposition which preposition shouldbe 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 nounspluralization.The students still confused
in deciding which pronoun should be used tosubstitute nouns, whether it is personal, relative,
possessive, or demonstrativepronouns.The students applied rules in forming past time verb to
conjunctions.From the explanations above, I can conclude that the students still confused
indealing with English grammar systems.
5.2 Pedagogical Implications
Based on the findings, I would like to offer some pedagogical implicationsto be considered in
teaching to improve the students writing ability.

4747The students were still confused in making the agreement between subject andverb. It
could be because in bahasa Indonesia there is no agreement betweensubject and verb.The
students were still confused in differentiating whether to use the definiteor indefinite articles. It
could be because in Indonesian language grammarthere is no definite article used.The students
still confused in deciding preposition which preposition shouldbe 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 nounspluralization.The students still confused
in deciding which pronoun should be used tosubstitute nouns, whether it is personal, relative,
possessive, or demonstrativepronouns.The students applied rules in forming past time verb to
conjunctions.From the explanations above, I can conclude that the students still confused
indealing with English grammar systems.
5.2 Pedagogical Implications
Based on the findings, I would like to offer some pedagogical implicationsto be considered in
teaching to improve the students writing ability.

4848(1)

In teaching English related to its grammar, the teacher should give more easilyunderstood
explanation in order to make the students more interested inlearning 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 bygiving the theory
of grammar. Because, based on the results the students seemnot quite understand how to
differentiate when to use either past or presentform of the verbs.(4)

Teacher could apply a method where he/ she explains the correct uses of theverb (when to use
past and present) forms, gives examples of the usage, andtests the students understanding which
will assure the teacher that the studentsreally understand it. Otherwise, the students will face
difficulties indifferentiating the uses of past and present forms of verbs whenever they
learnEnglish and because this is the very basic step to learn English.(5)

The teacher could also apply the communicative language teaching methodespecially 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.

Contribution of Error Analysis to Foreign Language Teaching

Abstract:
It is inevitable that learners make mistakes in the process of foreign language learning.However,
what is questioned by language teachers is why students go on making the samemistake even
when such mistakes have been repeatedly pointed out to them. Yet not allmistakes are the same;
sometimes they seem to be deeply ingrained, but at other timesstudents correct themselves with
ease. Thus, researchers and teachers of foreign languagecame to realize that the mistakes a
person made in the process of constructing a new system of language is needed to be analyzed
carefully, for they possibly held in them some of the keysto the understanding of second
language acquisition. In this respect, the aim of this study is to point out the significance of
learners errors for they provide evidence of how language islearned and what strategies or
procedures the learners are employing in the discovery of language.
Introduction:

For years, there have been many studies on the process of first language acquisition andSecond
language learning. Findings about first language acquisition have been adapted toforeign
language learning and it has been concluded that the process works in a similar
way.That children learning their native tongue make plenty
of mistakes is a natural part of language acquisition process. As they get feedback from adults,
they learn how to producegrammatically and semantically acceptable sentences in their native
language. What a foreignlanguage learner does in operating on the target language is not
different from that of a childacquiring his first language. It is inevitable that all learners make
mistakes and commit errors.However, that process can be impeded through realizing the errors
and operating on themaccording to the feedbacks given.
The steps that learners follow get the researchers andlanguage Teachers realize that if the
mistakes and errors of language learners in constructingthe new language system are analyzed
carefully, the process of language acquisition shall beunderstood. The analysis of errors thus has
become a field of linguistics in that sense. Thefield of language teaching benefit from the
findings of linguistics in many cases includingerror analysis. As indicated above, what a linguist
looking for in understanding the languagelearning process contribute a lot to the questions
of language teachers. Many of the teacherscomplain that their students are unable to use The
linguistic forms that they are taught. Lengo(1995) states this situation is due to the Teachers
false impression that output should be anauthentic representation of input. This belief ignores
the function of intake- that knowledge of language the students Internalize. Intake may be
different from the teachers syllabus being subject to be internalized. Error analysis enables
teachers to find out the sources of errors
andtake Pedagogical precautions towards them. Thus, the analysis of learner language has becom
e an essential need to overcome some questions and propose solutions regardingdifferent aspects.
This study concerns the error analysis and its contribution to Englishlanguage teaching at both
linguistic and methodological levels.
A Historical Background to the Field of Error Analysis:
Until late sixties, the prominent theory regarding the issue of second language learning was
behaviouristic, which suggested that the learning was largely a question of acquiring a
setof new language habits. Therefore, errors were considered as being the result of the persistenc
e of existing mother tongue habits in the new language. Consequently, this idea made
the researchers of applied linguistics devote their studies largely to the comparison of the native
and the target language in order to make predictions and explanations about errors. However,
errors that were not explained in this way were underestimated. As a result,
allerrors whatever their origins were dealt with the same technique of further drilling andexercise
.Error analysis, a branch of applied linguistics, emerged in the sixties to demonstrate that
learner errors were not only because of the learners native language but also they reflected

some universal learning strategies, as a reaction to contrastive analysis theory, whichconsidered

language transfer as the basic process of second language learning as what behaviouristic theory

suggested. Error analysis, on the other hand, deals with the learners performance in terms of the
cognitive processes they make use of in recognizing or coding theinput they receive from the
target language. Therefore, a primary focus of error analysis is onthe evidence that learners
errors provide with an understanding of the underlying process of second language acquisition.
At this point, Keshavars (1997) suggests that the field of error analysis can be divided into two
branches: (i) theoretical, and (ii) applied. Theoretical analysisof errors, as mentioned before,
primarily concerns the process and strategies of
languagelearning and its similarities with first language acquisition. In other words, it tries toinve
stigate what is going on in the minds of language learners. Secondly, it tries to decode
thestrategies of learners such as overgeneralization and simplification, and thirdly, to go
toconclusion that regards the universals of language learning process whether there is aninternal
syllabus for learning a second language.Applied error analysis, on the other hand, concerns
organizing remedial courses, and
devisingappropriate materials and teaching strategies based on the findings of theoretical error an
alysis.
Identification of Errors:
Identifying an error goes beyond explaining what an error is. However, as linguists payattention
to the distinction between an error and a mistake, it is necessary to go over thedefinition of the
two different phenomena. According to
Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
(1992) a learner makes a mistake when writing or speaking becauseof lack of attention, fatigue,
carelessness, or some other aspects of performance. Mistakes can be self-corrected when
attention is called. Whereas, an error is the use of linguistic item in away that a fluent or native
speaker of the language regards it as showing faulty or incompletelearning. In other words, it
occurs because the learner does not know what is correct, and thusit cannot be self-corrected. To
distinguish between an error and mistake, Ellis (1997) suggeststwo ways. The first one is to
check the consistency of learners performance. If he sometimesuses the correct form and
sometimes the wrong one, it is a mistake. However, if he alwaysuses it incorrectly, it is then an
error. The second way is to ask learner to try to correct
hisown deviant utterance. Where he is unable to, the deviations are errors; where he issuccessful,
they are mistakes.
6Description of Errors:
A number of different categories for describing errors have been identified. Firstly,Corder (1973)
classifies the errors in terms of the difference between the learners utteranceand
the reconstructed version. In this way, errors fall into four categories:
omission
of somerequired element;
addition

of some unnecessary or incorrect element

;
selection
of an incorrectelement; and
misordering
of the elements. Nevertheless, Corder himself adds that thisclassification is not enough to
describe errors. That is why he includes the linguistics level of the errors under the sub-areas of
morphology, syntax, and lexicon (Corder, 1973). Ellis (1997)maintains that classifying errors in
these ways can help us to diagnose learners learning problems at any stage of their development
and to plot how changes in error patterns occur over time. This categorization can be
exemplified as follows:
Omission
:
Morphological omission: A strange thing happen to me yesterday.Syntactical omission: Must say
also the names?
Addition
:
In morphology: The book
s
is here.In syntax: The LondonIn lexicon:

I stayed there during five years ago

Selection
:
In morphology: My friend is old
est

than me.In syntax: I want that he comes here.

Ordering
:
In pronunciation: fignisicant for significant; *prulal for pluralIn morphology: get upping for
getting upIn syntax: He is a dear to me friend.In lexicon: key car for car keyAn error may
vary in magnitude. It can include a phoneme, a morpheme, a word, asentence or even a
paragraph. Due to this fact, errors may also be viewed as being either
global
or
local
.
Global errors hinder communication. They prevent the message from beingcomprehended as in
the example below:* I like bus but my mother said so not that we must be late for school.On the
other hand, local errors do not prevent the message from being understood because there is
usually a minor violation of one segment of a sentence that allows thehearer to guess the
intended meaning as follows:* If I hear from her, I would let you know.The final group is the two
related dimensions of error,
domain
and
extent
.
Domain is the rank of linguistic unit from phoneme to discourse that must be taken as context in
order for theerror to be understood, and extent is the rank of linguistic unit that would have to be
deleted,replaced, supplied or reordered in order to repair the sentence. This suggestion
by Lennon(cited in Brown, 2000) is parallel with Corders other categorization of
overtly
and
covertly
(1973). Overt errors are unquestionably ungrammatical at the sentence level and covert errorsare
grammatically well- formed at the sentence level but are not interpretable within thecontext of
communication. For example, Im fine, thanks. Is a correct sentence but if it isgiven as an
answer to the question of How old are you? it is covertly error.

Sources of Errors:
As there are many descriptions for different kinds of errors, it is inevitable to movefurther and
ask for the sources of errors. It has been indicated in the first part of the study thaterrors were
assumed as being the only result of interference of the first language habits to thelearning of
second language. However, with the field of error analysis, it has been understoodthat the nature
of errors implicates the existence of other reasons for errors to occur. Then, thesources of
errors can be categorized within two domains: (i) interlingual transfer, and (ii)intralingual
transfer.utyt
Interlingual Transfer :
Interlingual transfer is a significant source for language learners.
Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
(1992) defines interlingual errors as being
theresult of language transfer, which is caused by the learners first language.
However, thisshould not be confused with behaviouristic approach of language
transfer. Error analysis doesnot regard them as the persistence of old habits, but rather
as signs that the learner isinternalizing and investigating the system of the new language.
Interlingual errors may occur at different levels such as transfer of phonological,
morphological, grammatical and lexica-semantic elements of the native language into
the target language. These different levels can be explained with some possible errors
of Turkish students.
At phonological level, the soundsthat do not occur in Turkish cause the students to
mispronounce some sounds. They attempt to pronounce
th

of thank you ast of

tea; or

th

of they as d of dean. Or else, sinceTurkish does not let two

consonants together at the beginning of a word, learners tend to placea vowel between

them as in the example of *sitation, instead of station.

At morphologicallevel, Turkish students tend to omit the plural suffix at the end of
the word as Turkish doesnot put it in adjectival phrases indicating numbers as in the
following examples

* Three book
Intralingual Transfer and Developmental Errors:
Interferences from the students own language is not the only reason for committingerrors. As
Ellis (1997) states, some errors seem to be universal, reflecting learners attempts tomake the
task of learning and using the target language simpler. Use of past tense suffix -edfor all verbs
is an example of simplification and over generalization. These errors are commonin the speech of
second language learners, irrespective of their mother tongue. Intralingualerrors result
from faulty or partial learning of the target language rather than languagetransfer. They may be
caused by the influence of one target language item upon another. For example, learners attempt
to use two tense markers at the same time in one sentence sincethey have not mastered the
language yet. When they say: He is comes here, it is because thesingularity of the third person
requires is in present continuous, and -s at the end of a verbin simple present tense. In short,
intralingual errors occur as a result of learners attempt to build up concepts and hypotheses
about the target language from their limited experience withit. Learners may commit errors due
to this reason in many ways as in the following examples:* He made me
to
smile.* I want
learning
English.* The meat smells fresh
ly.
Pedagogical Implications of Error Analysis:
The studies regarding errors are carried out in order to (i) identify strategies whichlearners use in
language teaching, (ii) identify the causes of learner errors, and (iii)
obtaininformation on common difficulties in language learning as an aid to teaching or indevelop
ment of teaching materials (Richards et al.1992). In fact, the first two are also usefulfor the third
aim, which includes the teaching-learning process. Thus, it can be inferred thatlanguage teaching
cannot stand away from the findings of error analysis. Students
errorshave always been of interest and significance to teachers, syllabus designers and testdevelo
pers. This may lead educators to devise appropriate materials and effective

teachingtechniques, and constructing tests suitable for different levels and needs of learners.
Hence,the implication of error analysis to language teaching can be viewed from the aspect
of language teachers and syllabus designers.
Implications for Foreign Language Teachers:
Teachers can benefit from the findings of error analysis in many ways. Errors tell theteacher how
far towards the goal the learner has progressed and what remains for him to learn(Corder, 1987).
Following the students progress, the teacher is able to carry on his studies inaccordance with
what the learner needs to know and what part of the teaching strategy tochance or reconstruct.
Errors are a means of feedback for the teacher reflecting how effectivehe is in his teaching style
and what changes he has to make to get higher performance fromhis
students. Furthermore, errors indicate the teacher the points that needs further
attention.Additionally, errors show the way to be treated when their sources are identified
correctly.
Implications for Syllabus Designers:
Syllabus design of an English teaching course is a very important component of teachinglearning process. There are many factors to be considered to decide on what to teachto what level
and age group. At this point, errors are significant data for syllabus designers asthey show what
items are important to be included or which items needs to be recycled in thesyllabus.
Keshavarz (1997) maintains that an error-based analysis can give reliable
resultsupon which remedial materials can be constructed. In other words, analysis of secondlang
uage learners errors can help identify learners linguistic difficulties and needs at a particular
stage of language learning. It is essential for a syllabus to provide with the needs for learning
appropriately and errors are important evidence for that. Corder (1973) reminds of
deSassures words that language is a self-contained system, in which each part issystematically
related to another part. Then learning of some new item requires the learning of all items that are
already studied. Eventually, this requires the necessity for a cyclical syllabusin language
learning.
Error Correction and Error Analysis:
At the beginning of the study, the question why students make mistakes or commiterrors was
held. Now, some other questions rise: How should teachers correct students?What kind of
feedback should they give? Does each error need to be treated? Error analysishas an important
role in finding the answers to these questions. In general, the teachers job isto point out when
something has gone wrong and see whether the student can correct himself,then, to find out if
what the student say or write is just a mistake, or it is global or local.However, the technique of
correction is not simply presenting the data repeatedly and goingthrough the same set of drills
and exercises to produce the state of over learning. On thecontrary, it requires that the teacher
understand the source of the errors so that he can provideappropriate remedy, which will resolve
the learners problems and allow him to discover therelevant rules. Thus, the source of the error
is an important clue for the teacher to decide onthe sort of treatment. Harmer (1998) suggests
three steps to be followed by the teacher whenerrors occur. The teacher first listens to the

students, then identifies the problem, and puts itright in the most efficient way. Corder (1973)
states that knowledge of being wrong is only astarting point. Skill in correction seems to lie in
determining the necessary data to present tothe learner and what statements, descriptive or
comparative, to make about it. Since noteacher has time to deal with all the errors of the students,
a hierarchy should be establishedfor the correction of errors according to nature and significance
of errors. In such a hierarchy, priority should be given to errors which may affect communication
and causemisunderstanding. If a teacher knows about all these items, he can direct himself
accordingly.For example, Brown (2000) suggests that local errors as in the following example
usuallyneed not be corrected as the message is clear and correction might interrupt a learner in
theflow of productive communication: * I gave
she
a present. On the other hand, global errorsneed to be treated in some way since the message is
not comprehended clearly:* Daddy my car happy tomorrow buy.Errors in pluralization, use of
articles, tenses, etc. are less important than errors regardingword order, the choice of placement
and appropriate connectors in terms of thecomprehensibility of the sentence. Therefore, it is
implied that priority in error correctionshould be given to global errors in order to develop the
students communication skills. Theknowledge of error analysis enables the teacher to monitor
the students errors in this frameand take precautions where needed. Different kinds of tasks may
require a different treatment.The reaction of the teacher towards errors and the type of feedback
to be given is usuallydetermined by the position of the error in the objective of the task. Oral
works are at crucial point in terms of corrections and feedback time. For oral works, it is usually
recommendedthat students making mistakes during a fluent speech should not be interrupted, but
bereminded of the mistakes and talk about the reasons. The type of the feedback- form or content
should be decided on according to the goal of the study. If the goal is to make thestudents
practice a certain grammar point, it may be necessary to give a form feedback. Or else, if a
pronunciation item is being practiced, the teacher should correct the related mistakeswithout
interrupting the speaker (Ur, 1996). For correcting written works, it is accepted thatthe teacher
should not correct the students mistakes directly but instead, should put markswrong with that
sentence, word, or punctuation. There are symbols to show the kind of mistake that teachers use.
For example, it is better to write sp for spelling mistake

near thewrong word, to write rw for the sentences need to be written once again, etc.
than writingthe correct form. Thus, students are able to correct themselves looking for
the source of their mistakes.The existence of errors has been subject to all language-teaching
theories as they represent an important aspect of second language learning. There are different
opinions by different language teaching approaches regarding error correction (Ur, 1996). Below
is what they suggest for the correction of errors:
Audio-lingualism
: There is little need for correction
at first sight. Latter one is not

useful for learning.

Cognitive-code learning
: Mistakes should be corrected whenever they occur to prevent them occurring again.
Interlanguage
: Mistakesare important part of learning. Correcting them is a way of
bringing the learnersinterlanguage closer to the target language.
Communicative approach
: Not all mistakes needto be corrected. Focus should be on
message rather than mistakes.
Monitor theory
: Correction does not contribute to language learning.
What Corder points out below summarizes the view of error correction in language
teaching (1973):
Languagelearning is not parrot learning; we do not learn or practice examples.
They are the datafrom which we induce the system of the language. Skill in
correction of errors lies in thedirection of exploiting the incorrect forms produced by
the learner in a controlled fashion.
Conclusion:
This study has been devoted to introduce what error analysis is and what sort of relationship it
has with language teaching, and what contribution it provides for language teaching studies. The
aims of the studies regarding error analysis can be summarized as follows: Error analysis
identifies the strategies that language learners use. It looks for the answer of the question why
do learners make errors? It determines the common difficulties in learning and helps teachers to
develop materials for remedial
teaching.In short, error analysis has twofold aims including theoretical and practical aspects.The
oretical objectives contribute to the linguistics studies and the most obvious practical use of
the error analysis is to the teacher. Errors provide feedback about the effectiveness of his
teaching techniques and show him what part of the syllabus he has been following needs further
attention. They enable him to decide on whether to move on to the next item or not.Studying the
learner language in terms of the errors is something that teachers have always done for very
practical reasons. Through the results of tests and examinations, the errors that learners make are
a major element in the feedback system of the teaching-learning process. For this reason, it is
important that the teacher should be able to not only detect and describe the errors from a
linguistic view, but also understand the psychological reasons for their occurrences. Therefore,

the diagnoses and treatment of errors is one of the fundamental skills of the teacher. Correction
of errors is as important as identification and description of them. In fact, the last two are
preliminary for error treatment.The sources and the sorts of the errors are determiners for the sort
of feedback. In conclusion,the inevitable existence of errors has led researchers to study on them
and find out the naturalsteps for language learning. Findings of error analysis function as
facilitator in languageteaching in many ways only if the teacher is aware of them and able
to make use of them inthe teaching process appropriately.

GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN THE COMPOSITIONS OF THE SECOND YEARSTUDENTS

OF THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT OF FKIP-UKI JAKARTA
Parlindungan PardedeUniversitas Kristen Indonesia
Abstract
This study was carried out to analyze grammatical errors committed by the fourth-semester
students of the English Department of FKIP-UKI Jakarta in their composition. Toachieve the
objective, 25 paragraphs written by 25 students attending the class of Writing Iin the 2005/2006
Academic Year were taken as the corpus of the study. These paragraphswere thoroughly
examined to identify any morphological and syntactical errors made in
them. Using Politzer and Ramirezs Linguistic Category Taxonomy, each error was then
analyzed to determine its type and cause.The results of the analysis revealed 306 grammatical
errors identified in 114 sentences.Based on the data analysis and calculation, it was found that
the greatest number of all errortypes was Noun Phrase (NP) errors. The amount of this type of
errors was 148 (48 %). Thesecond major type of error was those included in Verb Phrase (VP)
errors (76 items or 25%). It was then followed by Word Order (WO) errors (22 items or 7 %) in
the third placeand Verb-and-Verb Construction (VVC) errors (14 or 5 %) in the fourth.
Successively, thesefour major types of errors were followed by Past Participle Incorrect (PPI)
errors (12 or 4%); Some Transformation (ST) errors (12 or 4 %), Possessive Case Incorrect (PCI)
errors (6or 2 %); Simple Past Tense Incorrect (SPTI) errors (5 or 2 %); Indefinite Article
Incorrect(IAI) errors (4 or 1 %); Comparative Adjective/Adverb Incorrect (CAI) errors (4 or 1
%);and Third Person Singular Verb Incorrect (TPSV) errors (3 or 1 %). The errors were causedby
two factors, i.e. inference from Indonesian and intralingual transfer within English.
These findings indicated that the students competence to write grammatically correct
sentences in English was quite low. Therefore, lecturers of writing need to focus activities in
writing classes to improve students skill

in writing grammatical sentences.Key Words:

grammar, writing, errors, error-analysis, error taxonomy.
A. INTRODUCTIONBackground of the Problems
Entering the global era, the use of English as the major means of internationalcommunication
grows rapidly. Wikipedia (2008) notes that although English is not anofficial language in most
countries, it is currently the language most often taught as a second

2or foreign language around the world. In the European Union, English is the language
mostoften studied as a foreign language (by 89% of schoolchildren), followed by French
(32%),German (18%), and Spanish (8%). Among non-English speaking countries, a
largepercentage of the population claimed to be able to converse in English in the
Netherlands(87%), Sweden (85%), Denmark (83%), Luxembourg (66%), Finland (60%),
Slovenia(56%), Austria (53%), Belgium (52%), and Germany (51%). Norway and Iceland also
havea large majority of competent English-speakers, and 100% of the younger generations in
theaforementioned countries are competent in English. It is also, by international treaty,
theofficial language for aerial and maritime communications, as well as one of the
officiallanguages of the European Union, the United Nations, and most international
athleticorganizations, including the International Olympic Committee. In addition,
Books,magazines, and newspapers written in English are available in many countries around
theworld. English is also the most commonly used language in the sciences. In 1997, theScience
Citation Index reported that 95% of its articles were written in English, even thoughonly half of
them came from authors in English-speaking countries.Due to its increasing use as the first
global language, English proficiency is not only anadvantage but also a must for someone to
apply fo
r a job. Ones failure to master it willmake him unable to compete in the global era. Thats why
English courses mushroom and
the kinds of coursematerial offered become more varied in order to meet peoples diverse
needs. English for Daily Communication, English for Secretary, and English for Businessare
some of the common courses offered nowadays. Moreover, the course-levels offeredhave been
widely diversified. Young children, teenagers, adults, and senior citizens can nowattend classes
designed for their own age.

3
In order to increase Indonesian students mastery of English, since 1994 English has
been made a compulsory subject at any level of schools. In the practice of the teaching,students
are taught the four language skills

listening, speaking, reading

and

writing

andthe language system

sound structure and vocabulary. By mastering these elements,students are expected to be able to
integrate them in communication acts.My several years observation on the English proficiency of
the freshmen of the EnglishDepartment of FKIP-UKI revealed that among the four language
skills, writing seems themost difficult to master for students. When they were asked to converse
in English or to readEnglish texts, they could perform them (though in a great variety level of
proficiency). Butwhen they were assigned to express their idea in writing, the majority became at
a lost. This
phenomenon indicated that the secondary school graduates standards of achievement in
English composition were low. According to Tongue (1997: 3) the low achievement wasdue to
the fact that the structures and vocabulary occasionally taught to the secondary schoolstudents do
not, as a rule, belong to the same language registers and styles as those found inthe prose for
exciting narrative, elegant or humorous description, or reasoned discussion.Another possible
reason for the low achievement in writing was possibly the fact thatwriting is a very complex
process due to the many skills involved and the many activities tobe carried out. The skills
involved in writing cover the application of correct grammaticalrules, choosing exact diction,
using proper punctuations, and organizing ideas intoappropriate sentences, paragraphs and
passage. The activities to be performed in writing are:brainstorming and researching to generate
ideas, outlining the ideas, drafting, reviewing,editing and final writing.

5
Problems Limitation
Due to the fact that grammatical errors seems to be very dominant in students
composition, the problem of this study was limited to the analysis on the grammatical
errorscommitted by the fourth-semester students of the English Department of FKIP-UKI
Jakartain their composition.
Problems Formulation
Based on the discussion in the sections of background, problems identification,problems
limitation above, the problems of this study were formulated as follow:1.

What types of grammatical errors were committed by the fourth-semester students of theEnglish
Department of FKIP-UKI Jakarta in their composition?2.

What caused the appearance of these grammatical errors?

Objectives of the Study
This study was carried out to gain information about types and causes of grammaticalerrors
committed by the fourth-semester students of the English Department of FKIP-UKIJakarta in
their composition.
Significance of the Study
The findings of this study could be used as a feedback for readers, especially teachersand
students involved in the teaching of English composition the English Department of FKIP-UKI
Jakarta and other teacher preparation colleges as well.

6
B. THEORETICAL BASIS AND CONCEPTUAL FRAME WORKLanguage Errors
Language errors can be defined as any deviation from the rules of language use which
reflects imperfect mastery of the language. Brians (2007) defines it as deviations from the
standard use of English as judged by sophisticated users such as professional writers,editors,
teachers, and
literate executives and personnel officers. In parallel with this, Dulay,
et.al. (1982: 138) language errors as parts of conversation or composition that deviate fromsome
selected norm of mature language performance.Either a native speaker or a language learner can
commit mistakes. The onlydifference between them is that the native speaker does it due to
fatigue, inattention, stress,or tiredness, while the language learner does it because of imperfect
mastery of thelanguage. In relation to that, the native speaker can correct the mistake he made if
he weregiven chance to do so, whereas the language learner is unable to do the same for he has
not
mastered the rules of using the language. That is why the term error is also defined as the
systematic d
eviations due to the learners still developing knowledge of the second languagerule system
(Dulay et.al., 1982: 138)

Errors Analysis
Language learning, like any other human learning, such as learning to swim, to ridebike, or to
play tennis, is fundamentally a process that involves the making of mistakes.When one jumps
into the water to learn to swim, he initially finds it difficult to use his armsand legs to keep
floating. But through continuous learning and practice he will discover thebest combination of
movements to keep himself afloat and propelling through the water. Justlike learning to swim, in
the initial stages of language learning a person makes a lot of

7mistakes since he has very limited linguistic system within which the language operates. Butthe
mistakes gradually diminish as he gets feedback from his environment and learns frommaking
the mistakes he has made.Based on the discussion above, it is obvious that the occurrence of
errors in a second orforeign language learning is not only
natural but also positive. Language learners errors can
be used as a means of knowing how language is learnt or acquired. Based on suchknowledge,
afterwards, language teaching methodology can be developed. Corder (1981:1011) emphasizes: A learners errors are significant in [that] they provide evidence of
how language is learnt or acquired, what strategies or procedures the learner is employing in
the discovery of the language. In addition, Corder (1973: 265) states that studying students
errors also has immediate practical applications for foreign language teachers because
theseerrors provide natural and immediate feedback to improve their teaching.
To provide maximum benefits, students errors should be initially analyzed in order to
see what kind of errors are committed the most and why students produce them. To analyzeerrors
properly, someone must understand the nature and procedure of error analysis. Ellis
(1988: 10) proposes that error analysis involves the collection of samples of classroom
learner-language, the classification of errors according to the different levels of
languagedescription, the explanation of errors by reference to various learning process and the
evaluation of errors for the purposes of assessment or remediation.
Methodology of Errors Analysis
Errors Analysis is a work procedure with certain steps or stages to fulfill. These stepsare what we
call as methodology of error analysis. According to Ellis (1985, 51-52), thereare five steps to be
taken in an error analysis. First, selecting a corpus of language, including

the activities of deciding the size of the sample, the data to be sampled, and the homogeneityof
the sample. Second, identifying the errors in the corpus by searching any parts of theexpressions
in the corpus that deviate from the language rules. Third, categorizing the errorsby classifying
them into groups formed based on proper criteria. Fourth, explaining theerrors using the
psycholinguistic cause of the errors. Fifth, evaluating the errors whichinvolve an assessment of
the seriousness of each error in order to take accurate decisions forreducing and even preventing
the same errors repeated in the future.Observing the working-procedures above, it can be
concluded that the final purpose of error analysis is to get feedback to form a starting point for
handling language teachingremedy. The remedy, in turn, can prevent or reduce errors possibly
being committed bylearners.

Source of Errors
Language errors are naturally committed by someone in a bilingual situation due tofour major
factors (Brown, 1980: 173-178). The first source of error is the fact that thebeginning stages of
learning a second language are characterized by interlingual transferfrom the native language, or
inference, or using first language system in second language
communication which is different from the system of the second language. For instance, its
quite common to hear English learners say /s

p
/ for ship,
the bag of Tom

instead of Toms
bag. All these errors are attributable to negative interlingual transfer.The second source of error is
intralingual transfer, or, the negative transfer of items within the target language, or, in other way,
the incorrect generalization of ruleswithin the target language itself is a major factor of errors in
second language learning.This source of error shows that the learner of target language is
attempting to build up theories or hypotheses about the target language from his limited
experience of it in theclassroom or textbook. This kind of transfer can be found in such
utterances as
Does Jack can do it?, She writed a letter,
and
I don't know where is he.
The third major source of error is the context of learning. Context refers, forexample, to the
classroom with its teacher its materials in the case of school learning, orthe social situation in the
case of untutored second language learning. In a classroomcontext the teacher or the textbook
can lead the learner to make faulty hypotheses aboutthe language, what Richards (1974: 179)
called "false concepts" and what Corder (1981:131) termed "induced errors". Students often
make errors because of poor teaching in thetarget language; for example,
look at
and
look out
are presented contiguously by theirteacher.The fourth major source of error can be found in
different communicationstrategies used by the learner to get a message across to a hearer.

Learners obviously useproduction strategies in order to enhance getting their messages across. It
is possible, forexample, a Second Language (ESL) learner say, "He works hard for the well done
of hisfamily". While the utterance showed a nice little humor, it had an incorrectapproximation
of the word
welfare.

Error Taxonomies
In order to make the process of error analysis proceed systematically, all stepssuch as collecting
error samples, identifying, classifying, explaining, and evaluatingerrors, should be conducted
carefully. Among those four steps, the stage of theclassification of errors is often the most
complicated step, because its execution should

20(14.a.) * Because they can communicate easily with many people, they are proficient
inEnglish (9/9).
In sentence (12.a.), the use of verb get is definitely wrong because the sentence is a
simple p
erfect tense. The correct verb to put in the sentence is got or gotten. The ST error in sentence
(13.a.) is the omission of auxiliary verb does necessary to form a question in
simple present tense. In sentence (14.a.), the ST error is the misplacement of subordinate
conjunction because. In the sentence, the first clause states the result while the second
expresses the cause. Thus, the conjunction should have been put before the second clause.The
followings are the reconstructed versions of these three sentences.(12.b.) They have
got
a lot of experience and money.(13.b.) How
does
English help them?(14.b.) They can communicate easily with many people
because
they are proficient inEnglish.Successively, these six major types of errors were followed by
Possessive CaseIncorrect (PCI) error (6 items or 2 %); Simple Past Tense Incorrect (SPTI) errors
(5 items or2 %); Indefinite Article Incorrect (IAI) errors (4 items or 1 %);
ComparativeAdjective/Adverb Incorrect (CAI) errors (4 items or 1 %); and Third Person

Singular VerbIncorrect (TPSV) errors (3 items or 1 %). Since their numbers were not very
significant, itseems not crucial to discuss them in details.
The Causes of Errors
The errors committed by students in their compositions were obviously caused by twomajor
factors, i.e. the inference from Indonesian and intralingual transfer within English.

21The inference from Indonesian took place because the students transferred Indonesian
rulesinto English. The intralingual transfer was committed because the students were apt to
buildup rules of English based on their limited knowledge and experience of that target language.
E. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONSConclusions
Based the analysis and interpretations made in the former sections, the followingconclusion were
drawn.1.

The subjects competence to write grammatically correct sentences was quite low
because, on average, each paragraph they wrote contained 46% erroneous sentence, andeach
erroneous sentence contained 2.68 (or almost 3) errors.2.

All the errors were caused by two factors, i.e. inference from Indonesian and intralingualtransfer
within English.
Suggestions
Based the findings, analysis, interpretations, and conclusions presented earlier, somesuggestions
can be recommended to teachers and further study as follow:1.

To enable students to write more accurately, they need more practice on producinggrammatical
sentences, especially in the aspects of noun phrases, verb phrases, wordorder, verb-to-verb
construction, past participle, and transformation. Consequently,teachers must provide a lot of
intensive contextualized practices to students in order thaterrors related to those aspects will not
recur.

222.

Teacher should focus on major error types rather than trying to correct every singleerror. The
error to concentrate on should be those that are most frequently occurred in
the students composition.
3.

Due to the limitation of the number of corpus and the linguistic items dealt with in thisstudy, the
findings might not applicable to larger populations of students. Thus, to obtaina more accurate
and representative result, further studies with a larger number of corpusand more various
linguistic items are highly recommended.

78
they would like to convey when they do not have the relevant secondlanguage
in hands. Besides, as students fail to express themselvesconcisely, there is a tendency for them to
express in a lengthy andcomplexly grammaticalized way. Thus, students are at a risk to
produce both collocation/expression errors and grammatical errors simultaneously.
6.2. Limitations of the study
On account of the researcher's limited time, resources and capacity,she could not investigate
further into error correction, a closely relatedaspect to errors identification, at the Faculty of
English Language Teacher Education, HULIS. If further study had been carried out in the
field of error correction, the study would be more in-depth and valuable.Therefore, any studies
on this field would be highly appreciated.Besides, although the researcher developed an error
checklist toremain the consistency and objectivity throughout the research procedure,the job of
error identification implemented by the researcher is, to someextent, subjective. Hence,
the reliability of the research could be counter-affected. In addition to this, the work
of identifying the causes to students'written errors is mainly based on the researcher's personal

stance with theaid of theoretical background presented previously. Thus, the justificationof
causes of common written errors in chapter 5 is not highly satisfactory.Moreover, the same error
may result from different sources of causes. Theresearcher only counts on the most prevailing
degree of frequency todetermine whether a certain cause is responsible for a specific category
of errors. It is not to mention the fact that the researcher identifies the causesof errors separately
from error conductors and she bears no backgroundunderstanding of their personal
characteristics. This may lead tosubjectivity or a fallacy of the results under discussion.

79