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GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT MADE BY EIGHT-GRADE STUDENTS OF SMP NEGERI 11 MALANG
THESIS
By:
WASIS WISNU PRATAMA 201110100311192
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION UNIVERSITY OF MUHAMMADIYAH MALANG
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GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT MADE BY EIGHT-GRADE STUDENTS OF SMP NEGERI 11 MALANG
THESIS
This thesis is submitted to meet one of the requirements to achieve Sarjana Degree in English Education
By:
WASIS WISNU PRATAMA 201110100311192
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION UNIVERSITY OF MUHAMMADIYAH MALANG
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In the name of Allah, the most gracious and the most merciful, all praises
given to Allah SWT for the uncountable blessing given to me during my study in
English Department of UMM and especially in completing this thesis. Shalawat is
also sent to Muhammad SAW who had delivered the truth to human beings generally and specifically for Muslim.
First of all, I would like to present the greatest gratitude to both of my advisors,
Dr, Sudiran, M.Hum. and Santi Prastiyowati, M.pd for their great contribution,
meaningful guidance, correction, suggestion, and useful feedback that have inspired me
in composing this thesis.
My greatest appreciation also goes to my parents Sidik Prawito and Sri
Mulyani who always give me supports, love, and financial supports as always. Big
thanks also goes to my younger brother Harjuna Kris Rinaldi who always gives me
support and love.
I am also thankful to all my classmates of the English Departement 2011,
especially for Febry, Udin, Ichal, Ikbal, Iymank, Ulum, and Karyok who always
encourage me. For the last, I would like to say thanks to my Jenggo (AE 4714 LD),
my sweet transportation.
Malang, November 12, 2015
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
APPROVAL ... i
LEGALIZATION ... ii
ORIGINALITY DECLARATION ... iii
MOTTO AND DEDICATION ... iv
ABSTRACT ... v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS ... vii
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of Study ... 1
1.2 Statement of the Problem... 4
1.3 Purpose of the Study ... 4
1.4Scope and Limitation ... 5
1.5Significance of the Study ... 5
1.6 Definition of Key Terms ... 6
CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 2.1 Errors and Mistakes ... 7
2.1.1 Definition of Error ... 7
2.1.2 Definition of Mistake... 8
2.2Error Analysis ... 9
2.3Sources of Errors ... 10
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2.3.2 Intralingual Transfer ... 11
2.3.3 Context of Learning ... 12
2.3.4 Communication Strategies ... 12
2.4Types of Error ... 13
2.4.1 Omission ... 13
2.4.2 Addition ... 14
2.4.3 Misformation ... 15
2.4.4 Misordering ... 16
2.5Grammar ... 16
2.6 Definition of Writing ... 17
2.7 Process of Writing ... 18
2.4 Descriptive Text... 20
CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHOD 3.1 Research Design ... 22
3.2 Population and Sample ... 23
3.3 Research Instrument ... 23
3.4Data Collection ... 24
3.5 Data Analysis ... 24
CHAPTER IV: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Research Findings ... 26
4.1.1 Types of Errors ... 26
4.1.1.1 Omission ... 26
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4.1.1.3 Misformation ... 29
4.1.1.4 Misordering... 30
4.1.2 Frequency of Errors ... 31
4.2 Discussion ... 32
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS 5.1 Conclusion ... 35
5.2 Suggestions ... 35
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DAFTAR LAMPIRAN
1. Appendix 1 (Surat Keterangan)
2. Appendix 2 (Surat Keterangan)
3. Appendix 3 (Surat Keterangan)
4. Appendix 4 (Surat Keterangan) Tabel of Errors
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REFERENCES
Arikunto, S. 2002. Prosedur Penelitian Suatu Pendekatan Praktek. Jakarta: Rineka Cipta.
Artono, W. et al. 2008. English in Focus. Jakarta: Pusat Perbukuan Departement Pendidikan Nasional.
Ary, D et al. 2010. Introduction to Research in Education (8th Edition). Belmont: Nelson Education Ltd.
Brown, H.D. 2000. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. New York: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc.
Brown, H.D. 2007. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. New York: Pearson Education, Inc.
Dulay, H. et al. 1982. Language Two.New York: Oxford University Press.
Ellis, R. 1994. The study of Second Language Acquisition. New York: Oxford University Press.
Erdogan, V.2005.Contribution of Error Analysis to Foreign Language
Teaching.(Online) http://turkofoni.org/files/contribution_of_error_
analysisto_foreign_language_teaching-vac_deerdo_an-mers_n_un_2005. pdf Retrieved on January 27, 2015.
Hancock, B. 1998. An Introduction to Qualitative Research. Notthingham: Trent Focus Group.
Harmenita et al. (2013) Teaching writing a descriptive text by using environmental
observation strategy. (Online)
http://ejournal.unp.ac.id/index.php/jelt/article/view/1167/988. Retrieved on Juli 23, 2015.
Harmer, J. 2001. The Practice of Language and Teaching. New York: Pearson Education Limited, Inc
Harmer, J. 2007. The Practice of Language and Teaching. New York: Pearson Education Limited, Inc.
Hasyim, S. 2002. Error Analysis in the Teaching of English.(Online) http://puslit.petra.ac.id.journals/letters. Retrieved on January 26, 2015.
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Jayanti, R. 2013. Grammatical Errors In Composing Descriptive Texts Made By English Department Students Of English For Specific Purposes (Esp) Program Class A University Of Muhammadiyah Malng Academic Year
2012-2013. Universitas Muhammadiyah Malang.
Linse, C. 2005. Practical English Language Teaching: Young Learners. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Oshima, A. et al. 2007. Introduction to Academic Writing.New York: Pearson Education.
Putri, F. Y. 2013. Students’ Errors In Using Simple Present Tense In Writing
Descriptive Texts. Journal. University of Malang.
Rahmawati, R.Y. 2012. Error Analysis on the Use of Simple Present Tense in Paper Assigment of Writing Subject Made by The Fourth Semester Students of English Departement at ATAIN Salatiga in the Academic Year of 2011/ 2012.(Online)
http://eprints.stainsalatiga.ac.id/368/1/ERROR%20ANALYSIS%20-%20STAIN% 20SALATIGA.pdf.Retrieved on January 15, 2015
1 CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents some topics related to background of study, statement
of problems, purpose of study, scope and limitation, significance of study and
definition of key terms.
1.1Background of Study
The world always changes everyday. English has become famous among
people from children to adult although English is just as a foreign language for
Indonesian. If people do not want to be left behind from the changes, one of the
ways is by mastering English.
Nowdays, Indonesian’s necessity in learning English has increased because
they want to follow the changes. They really want to know and learn about the
language. Indonesia’s government give a big intention in order to improve people’s
abilities in English. One of the ways is by teaching the language from the beginning
level of education. English has been taught from elementary to university.
In teaching English, there are four skills that should be mastered by students
such as reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Writing is considered as difficult
skill to be learnt. Writing requires students to pay attention not only in generating
and developing ideas into a good writing but also the language components;
structure, vocabulary, and spelling. Heaton (1989: 135) explains that the writing
skills are complex and sometimes difficult to teach, requiring mastery not only of
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Without understanding grammar, students will never be able to convey their
ideas in a good writing. Their writing will be disorganized and causes such
problems, like grammatical errors in writing. According to Harmer (2001: 12),
grammar is the description of the ways in which words can change their forms and
can be combined into sentences in that language. It can be sure that grammar is the
essential part as a writing guidance for students to compose their writing correctly
and to convey the meaning properly in particular written form.
Curriculum in Indonesia requires students to be able to write texts such as
descriptive text, narrative text, recount text, etc. Based on the curriculum 2013,
descriptive text is taught in eight year or eighth grade of junior high school. The
basic competence of the lesson is that students should be able to write short simple
descriptive text either verbal or written about person, animal and thing, event by
concerning on social function, text structure, and grammar contextually.
According to Artono et al (2008: 16), “A descriptive text is a text that
describes the featuresof someone, something, or a certain place”. Descriptive text
has generic structure that consists of introduction and description. Introduction is a
part of the text which introduces particular person or thing or place. In description,
the writer describes parts, qualities, characteristics of the object that he or she wants
to describe.
Based on the researcher’s experience when he underwent a teaching
internship in junior high school, there were a number of students found some
problems in writing descriptive text. They often got problems in generating their
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in composing descriptive text. While, in term of grammar, the students could not
apply the correct rules of grammar. It led students to commit errors in their writing.
Based on the previous study, Putri (2013), found that there were some
general errors that eight-grade of acceleration class students of SMPN 3 Malang
faced in learning simple present tense in writing descriptive text such as omission
errors, addition errors, misordering errors, misformation errors. The omission errors
were found as the highest of occurrence, which was about 47,05%. They were
omission of verb inflections (marker of –s/-es) and kind of error with omission
of auxiliary verbs (be). The errors with the second highest frequency of occurrence
in this study were errors of misformation. The percentage was about 45,88 %. Next,
the researcher also found some addition errors with the percentage of 4,70%. The
last was error of misordering which came up about 2,35 % of all errors.
Another researcher, Rahmawati (2012), found that there were some general
errors that fourth semester students of English Departement at STAIN Salatiga
faced in learning simple present tense such as omission errors, addition errors,
misordering errors, misinformation errors. In omission errors, there were five errors
that were found such as ommision of subject, omission of to be in the simple
present, omission of s or es in the verb form, omission of preposition, and omission
of s or es in the plural form. While in addition errors, there were four errors such as
a addition of s or es in the singular form, addition of possessive marker s, addition
of to be in the simple present tense, and addition of preposition. Based on her
research, it was found that omission became the errors that often made by the
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Facing the condition above, writing in English is not easy for students. They
may commit errors in their writing. According to Hasyim (2002: 42), errors in
foreign language teaching especially in English are the cases which are difficult
enough to avoid. If this phenomenon happens continuously, the students will fail in
learning the language. By understanding their errors, teacher will know the
problems that they face and try to analyze their weaknesses.
Based on the background of study abovementioned, the researcher is
interested in analysing the grammatical errors in writing descriptive text. This
research is conducted in the eight-grade students of SMP Negeri 11 Malang.
1.2Statement Problems
Based on the background of the study, the researcher would like to
formulate the problems as follows:
1. What types of grammatical errors in writing descriptive text made by
eighth-grade students of SMP Negeri 11 Malang?
2. How is the frequency of grammatical errors in writing descriptive text made
by eighth-grade students of SMP Negeri 11 Malang?
1.3 Purpose of Study
Based on the statement problems, the purposes of study are stated as
follows:
1. To find out the types of grammatical errors in writing descriptive text made
by eighth-grade students of SMP Negeri 11 Malang.
2. To find out the frequency ofgrammatical errors in writing descriptive text
5 1.4 Scope and Limitation
In order to give a clear description of this study, it is necessary to make the
limitation. This study is concerned on analysing grammatical errors in writing
descriptive text made by eighth-grade students of SMP Negeri 11 Malang. The
grammatical rules in writing descriptive textare analyzed by using Surface
Taxonomy analysis. Those errors are taken from students’ writing.
1.5 Significance of Study
It is hoped that this study will give some benefits as follows:
1. Theoritical Benefit
Theoretically,the result of this study will develop teachers’
understanding about the theory of error analysis especially in teaching
writing texts.
2. Practical Benefit
Practically, the result of this study may become a very important
reference for students and teachers as follows:
a. Teachers
It can be used as references to improve the teaching learning process for
the teachers by analyzing students’ errors in writing.
b. Students
It can be used as references to improve students’ understanding in
writing subject especially in writing descriptive text.
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1. Error is a deviation of grammatical rules in writing which happens because
of the result from the learner’s lack of knowledge of correct rules in writing.
In this study, error refers to a deviation of grammatical rules which happens
when the eighth-grade students of SMP Negeri 11 Malang write descriptive
text.
2. Writing is process of generating, arranging and developing ideas into written
form. In this study, writing refers to descriptive text made by eighth-grade
students of SMP Negeri 11 Malang.
3. Descriptive text is a kind of English text which has a function to describe