A STUDY ON THE MASTERY OF PREPOSITION OF PLACE AT, IN AND ON AMONG THE FIRST SEMESTER STUDENTS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM OF SANATA DHARMA
UNIVERSITY
A THESIS
Presented as a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By
Puguh Alfath Tegar Student Number: 011214147
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2009
i
A STUDY ON THE MASTERY OF PREPOSITION OF PLACE AT, IN AND ON AMONG THE FIRST SEMESTER STUDENTS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM OF SANATA DHARMA
UNIVERSITY
A THESIS
Presented as a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By
Puguh Alfath Tegar Student Number: 011214147
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
ii
iv
vi ABSTRACT
Tegar, Puguh Alfath. 2009. A Study on the Mastery of Preposition of Place at, in, and on Among the First Semester Students of English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University. Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma University.
It is impossible for the learner to avoid errors due to their attempt to learn English. One of difficulties may be faced by the learner in studying English is its grammar. And one of the grammar elements which are considered complicated is prepositions of place at, in and on. They are complicated because each of them has its own rules underlying it forms.
This study was aimed to find out: (1) the learners’ achievement in using prepositions of place at, in and on, (2) the learners’ difficulties in mastering the prepositions of place at, in and on and (3) the possible causes of their difficulties in their attempt to master the prepositions of place at, in and on.
As the instrument of the study, a test was administered to collect the needed data. This was a survey study of which the subject was the first semester students of English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University. Random sampling technique was used as the representative sample.
According to the academic Regulation of Sanata Dharma University, the writer discovered that the first semester students’ mastery on the prepositions of place at, in and on was sufficient. Their average achievement score was 28.68, which fell slightly above the minimum passing score for the category of sufficient (28-35). He found out that the students’ difficulty in mastering the prepositions of place at, in and on was on the application of preposition of place at. The students only achieved 46.83 % of correct answers in the test.
The writer also found out the possible sources of error during their attempt to master prepositions of place at, in and on. Those factors were interference from the first language (Bahasa Indonesia), overgeneralization, false concept hypothesis and context of learning.
Based on the conclusions and implications above three recommendations were proposed. The first was to the lecturer of the English Language Education Study programme. They were recommended to add the meeting hour of the lecture so that the lecturer can give more explanation and exercises on the subject. They were also recommended to add the textbook to broaden the knowledge over the prepositions of place at, in and on. The second was to the students. They were recommended to be more active in using their time to study in order to improve their mastery. The last was concerned with the need for other and further research on the tenses and construction with future meaning.
vii ABSTRAK
Tegar, Puguh Alfath. 2009. A Study on the Mastery of Preposition of Place at, in, and on Among the First Semester Students of English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University. Yogyakarta: Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Membuat kesalahan adalah hal yang tiydak bias dihindari oleh para mahasiswa dalam usahanya untuk belajar Bahasa Inggris. Salah satu hal yang menimbulkan kesulitan adalah tata bahasanya. Salah satu elemen tata bahasa yang dianggap sulit adalah kata ganti tempat di, di dalam dan pada. Mereka di anggap sulit karena masing-masing mempunyai pola (aturan) sendiri dalam bentuk dan pemakaiannya.
Studi ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui (1) punguasaan kata ganti tempat di,
di dalam dan pada pada mahasiswa semester satu Program Studi Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Sanata Dharma, (2) mengetahui kesulitan yang mereka hadapi dalam penguasaan kata ganti tempat di, di dalam dan pada dan (3) mengetahui kemungkinan penyebab kesulitan yang mereka hadapi.
Test diadakan untuk mengumpulkan data dan sekaligus menjadi instrument dalam studi ini. Penelitian ini adalah penelitian survey dimana populasinya adalah mahasiswa semester satu Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Sanata Dharma. Metode random sampling digunakan untuk memilih sample.
Berdasarkan Peraturan Akademik Universitas Sanata Dharma, penulis menemukan bahwa subyek dari studi ini dianggap telah cukup menguasai kata ganti tempat di, di dalam dan pada. Skor rata-rata yang mereka capai adalah 28.68 yang berada sedikit di atas batas bawah untuk kategori cukup (26-33). Penulis juga menemukan bahwa subyek dalam studi ini menemui kesulitan dalam menguasai kata ganti tempat di (at). Mereka hanya mencapai 46.83% pada keseluruhan test.
Penulis juga menemukan kemungkinan-kemungkinan yang menyebabkan mereka mengalami kesulitan dalam menguasai kata ganti tempat di, di dalam dan
pada. Kemungkinan-kemungkinan tersebut adalah: interference from the first language (Bahasa Indonesia), overgeneralization, false concept hypothesis dan
context of learning.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I would like to express my greatest gratitude to God Almighty for Thy love and guidance during my life especially the hard times in doing this
thesis. He makes my life so beautiful and meaningful. He always gives me the wonderful surprises and blessings.
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my major sponsor, Ag. Hardi Prasetyo, S.Pd., M.A., for his guidance, encouragement, understanding, and advice from the beginning until the end of this thesis writing. I would like to
sincerely express my gratitude to Christina Kristiyani, S.Pd., M.Pd., who gave the permission to make her students in structure I class to be the participant of the
study. I would also like to dedicate my gratitude to the students of Structure I Class B who willingly help me to be the participant of this study.
My appreciation also goes to Caecillia Tutyandari, S.Pd., M.Pd., for her
guidance and advice on my thesis. I also express my gratitude to all lecturers at Sanata Dharma University who have taught and given me valuable and great
knowledge. I also would like to thank to the secretary staffs for helping me in the administration and the librarian for helping me in searching the references.
I am sincerely grateful to my beloved parents Bapak Triyono Freda
Tama and Ibu E.M Sri Suhartini, for their endless love and for their prayer for my success. I also thank my lovely sisters, Riesta Tyan Maretha, Eldiaz Tyan
Febila, Alzena Anabila Suhada, Bintang Suhada and Kusuma Putra for their support and attention.
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I also dedicated deepest gratitude to Henry Permana, Farah Fahrudin,
Bonny Muntahari Permana, and Solichin who willingly accept me as the part of the family.
My best gratitude goes to my partner in “crime”: Bhonz, Nyotz, Texex,
Bobby,Coli, Andre, Rara, Dhee, Ratri, Lintang, Novi, Widi, Marina, Della, Lia, Peye, Julie, Nusi, Maya, Ari Oneng, DogDick, Tomy, Ukhe, Lunatic Maya, Cece,
Pietz, Kopet, Pleky, and Lambz for sharing the joy and sorrow. I am honored to have such great friends as them. My life will not be the same without knowing them all in my life. My gratitude goes to all of my friends at Sanata Dharma
University, especially 2001 students of PBI, with whom I have got through the good and bad times during my study.
I address my acknowledgement to all my friends in Brojowikalpo 1A: Ghowez, Bebe, Ikke, Martha, Vita, Yusta, Dicta, Patrice, Hana, Neti,Thomas Djorji. I would also thank to the Gondolayu Community members: Katrow
Kats_Onde, ekhi, Anton, Reza, Yoga, Dicky, and Dj Rey_no Karno. I thank them for encouraging me to keep trying and never give up. It is great to spend time with
them.
Last but not least, I would like to thank those whose names are not mentioned here for their support and prayer so that I could finish this thesis. May
God bless them all.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE ... i
PAGES OF APPROVAL ... ii
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY ... iv
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS ... v
ABSTRACT ... vi
ABSTRAK... vii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS... viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS... x
LIST OF TABLES... xiv
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ... 1
A. Background of the Study ... 1
B. Problem Identification ... 3
xi
6.Possible Factors Causing Difficulty in Learning Preposition of Place at, in and on ... 23
a. Inter-lingual transfer... 23
b. Intra-lingual transfer... 26
c. Context of learning... 27
B. Theoretical Framework ... 28
CHAPTER III. METHODOLOGY ... 31
A. Research Method ... 31
B. Participants... 31
C. Research Instrument ... 32
D. Validity... 34
1. The Content-Related Evidence of Validity ... 35
2. The Criterion-Related Evidence of Validity ... 35
3. The Construct-Related Evidence of Validity ... 35
a. The variable Being Measured is Clearly Defined ... 36
b. Formulate the Hypothesis... 36
c. Test the Hypothesis ... 37
4. Face Validity ... 37
5. Reliability... 37
F. Data Gathering Procedure ... 39
G. Data Analysis Procedure ... 39
CHAPTER IV. RESEARCH RESULT AND DISCUSSION ... 41
A. Data Presentation ... 41
1. Students’ Achievement ... 42
2. Class’ Achievement... 44
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B. Data Analysis ... 46
1. The Reliability of The test ... 46
2. Presentation of Descriptive Statistic ... 47
3. The Analysis on the Students Achievements in Each Preposition of Place at, in and on... 50
C. Discussion ... 52
1. The Students’ Mastery on the Preposition of place at, in and on... 52
2. The Students’ Difficulties in Mastering Preposition of Place at, in and on... 52
a. The Students’ Difficulty in Mastering Preposition of place at... 53
b. The Students’ Difficulty in Mastering Preposition of place in... 55
c. The Students’ Difficulties in mastering Preposition of place on... 57
D. The Possible Causes of the Students’ Difficulties in Mastering Preposition of Place at, in and on... 59
1. Inter-lingual Transfer ... 59
2. Intra-lingual Transfer ... 60
3. Context of Learning ... 60
CHAPTER V. CONCLUSION, IMPLICATION AND RECOMMENDATION ... 62
A. Conclusion ... 62
B. Implication ... 63
C. Recommendation ... 64
1. Recommendation to the Lecturer ... 64
2. recommendation to the learner ... 64
3. Recommendation to the Other and Further Researcher ... 65
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
xiii
BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 66
APPENDICES ... 69
APPENDIX 1. The Test and the Answer of the Test ... 70
APPENDIX 2. Reliability of the Half Test ... 72
APPENDIX 3. Reliability of the Full Test ... 73
APPENDIX 4. The Students Score ... 74
xiv
LIST OF TABLES
Table 3.1: The Distribution of the Test Items ... 33
Table 4.1: The Students’ Achievements in the Test ... 42
Table 4.2: The Students’ Achievements in the First Part of the Test ... 43
Table 4.3: The Students’ Achievements in the Second Part of the Test ... 43
Table 4.4: The Class’ Achievements in the First Part of the Test... 44
Table 4.5: The Class’ Achievements in the Second Part of the Test ... 45
Table 4.6: The Errors Classification ... 46
Table 4.7: The Descriptive Analysis ... 47
Table 4.8: Students’ Score Related to the Category ... 49
Table 4.9: The Students’ Achievement on the Prepositions of at ... 50
Table 4.10: The Students’ Achievement on the Prepositions of in ... 50
Table 4.11: The Students’ Achievement on the Prepositions of on ... 50
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Dealing with learning English, learners cannot avoid learning four basic skills and three components. The four basic skills are speaking, reading, listening
and writing, while the three components are pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary. There are close relationships among them; they function together to build a complete mastery of English.
Among the three components, grammar is one which is essential to enable students to produce correct sentences because it provides rules applied in every
English sentence from the simple sentences until the most complicated ones. English sentences are composed of many kinds of constructions. Those constructions are usually formed by many classes of words or parts of speech.
One word class that can be considered the most frequently used is the preposition. Prepositions are simple words. Although they are so, they are usually difficult to
learn. Pittman (1966) comments on the prepositions: “Among those who teach or learn the English language, prepositions have earned a reputation for difficulty if not a downright unpredictability”.
Reading some English grammar books on the prepositions, the writer found that there are not many definite rules about the English prepositions. Some
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time (in the morning, on Monday, at night). On the other hand, preposition at, in
and on all can indicate place too (at the gate, in the door, on the door).
It is also important to consider that language transfer might happen while learning the second or foreign language. Learners usually translate their first
language into the target language. Prepositions of place at, in and on in Indonesian are respectively translated as di/pada, di dalam and di/di atas/pada. For
Indonesian learners learning those prepositions of place is difficult since they have almost the same meanings and their counterparts in the first language and target language do not always use them differently. The learners possibly find difficulty
when they try to translate or apply di, di atas, di dalam or pada into English. They might be confused in choosing the correct preposition to form a good and correct
sentence since in Indonesian their meanings are almost the same.
In English, preposition of place at, in and on cannot be used randomly. There are definite rules for the preposition to use in phrases or in sentences. The
function of each preposition in a phrase or in a sentence would not be the same. Based on the writer’s experience, a lot of students (in this case, the first
year student of the English Language Education Study Program) still have difficulties to apply the preposition (especially preposition of place at, in and on) in their utterances. Their knowledge of preposition might be poor since they did
not get enough explanation when they were studying in Senior High School. For example, when the students are asked to make a sentence, they might say: I saw a
lizard walking in the wall instead of I saw a lizard walking on the wall. Another example of the false concept of using preposition of place in their utterances is
caused by the transfer from their first language. Students may think that the rules
of using Indonesian preposition of place is more less the same as the English preposition of place since their meaning are almost the same. Thus, they just transfer and bring the rule and meaning from Indonesian into English. For
example, when a learner translates an Indonesian language sentence “Doni tinggal di Yogyakarta” into English, he may translate “Doni lives at Yogyakarta”. He may
think that at also means di instead of pada. In fact, his translation is incorrect; it should be “Doni lives in Yogyakarta”.
Based on the difficulties faced by the students of English Language
Education Study Program, this study is focused on measuring their proficiency of preposition of place at, in and on.
B. PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
Preposition is the most frequently-used word in English. It plays important
roles in order to produce correct sentences. The Indonesian learner as L2 students faced difficulties in learning the English (L2) since the rules in the L2 are
interfered by their mother language (L1). Overlapping between rules of both languages often occurred in their utterances.
It is likely happens when they tried to learn the prepositions of place at, in
and on. The L1 rules to apply those preposition in their utterances has been set on their mind. When they are producing the L2, the L1 rules sometimes interfering
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C. PROBLEM LIMITATION
To ease this study, the writer needs to limit the area of the research to avoid the overlapping of the study. Based on Close (1963), there are two kinds of prepositions; preposition of place and preposition of time. In this study, the writer
focused on the preposition of place at, in and on.
D. PROBLEM FORMULATION
Prepositions of place at, in and on are considered essential for every English learner to master in order to be able to produce correct and understandable
sentences. The problems are formulated as follows:
1. Have the students mastered the preposition of place at, in and on?
2. What are the difficulties faced by the students in their attempt to master the preposition of place at, in and on?
3. What are the factors which may cause difficulties to the students to master
preposition of place at, in and on?
E. OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH
The objectives of the research are decided as follows:
1. To find out the learners’ achievement in using preposition of place at, in and
on.
2. To find out the learners’ difficulties in mastering the preposition of place at, in
and on.
3. To identify the possible causes of their difficulties in their attempt to master
the preposition of place at, in and on.
F. BENEFITS OF THE RESEARCH
Hopefully, from this study, the readers, the English learners or those who are interested in learning English will be able to know more the nature of English
prepositions of place. Since there are not many English grammars textbooks that provide enough space for the discussion of prepositions of place at, in and on.
As for the teacher, this study can help them to improve their teaching
ability. From this study, the teacher might find out difficulties that are faced by their students in learning the preposition of place at, in and on. The teachers then
will be able to help the students to improve their learning.
G. DEFINITION OF TERMS
It is important to give the sufficient information about some terms used in this study in order to avoid misunderstanding. These words below are some terms
used in this paper:
1. Mastery
In this study, the term mastery is understood as proposed by Charles Fries.
Fries (1948:3) says that a person has learned a foreign language when he has thus, within limited vocabulary, mastered the sound system (that is when he can
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utterances) matters of automatic habit. The term mastery in this study is match to
the second requirement mastery (mastery of ‘structural devices’) as it listed above. It might to be said since the prepositions of place are part of structural devices and it has its own form, meaning and uses. In other words, those who are
considered to have mastered the structural devices should meet these requirements:
a. knows the forms and the rules underlying them b. knows the meaning of those forms
c. knows how to use those constructions correctly and appropriately.
2. Preposition of place at, in and on
In this study a preposition of place means a word or a group of words often placed before a noun or pronoun to indicate place (Curme, 1966). A
preposition of place at is used to show the exact points. Preposition at and in is used within a larger area and is consequently used with bigger towns’ valley and countries (Corder, 1979:107), and on is used to indicate position on a surface
partially or entirely (Close, 1962: 150). 3. Error
In this study, error, as it is stated by Norrish (1993; 7), “is a systematic deviation, when a learner has not learned something and consistently gets it wrong“. Corder (1997) who is cited in Dulay (1982: 139) states that “Error is
reversed for the systematic deviations due to the learner are still developing knowledge of the L (2) rule system”.
4. Inter-lingual Transfer
In this study, inter-lingual transfer as it is stated by Dulay et al., in the
book Language Two, states the theories of interference and transfer. The first one is essentially psychological and the other is essentially sociolinguistic. Interference has been used to refer to two very different linguistic phenomena.
Interference refers to language interaction, such as linguistic borrowing and language switching.
5. Intra-lingual transfer
In this study Intra-lingual errors are those which reflect the general characteristic of rule learning, and developmental errors illustrate the learner
attempting to build op hypothesis about the English language from his limited experience of it in the classroom textbook (Richards, 1977: p.174).
8 CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter contains two main topics of discussion on which this study is based. The first section discusses on the theories related to the study which later
on help to answer the questions of the study as it was wrote in the problem formulation. The second is the theoretical framework of mastering the preposition
of place at, in and on.
A. Some Existing Theories about Preposition of Place at, in and on
The function of language is usually defined as by which man communicates or to convey information; a system of communication; for the
purposes of communication (Corder 1979, p.32). The primary use of preposition in English according to Dixon (1991, p.270) is to introduce a peripheral noun phrase, providing location or temporal specification (e.g. in the house, at three
o’clock) or making an instrument (with a stone), a beneficiary (for Mary), a recipient (to John). Close (1962, p.141) states that prepositions express a
relationship in space between one thing and another, and relationships in time between events. There are many kinds of prepositions in English related to place and time. Preposition of place as a part of language system has a certain function.
Its function is to indicate direction or location of the following noun. Thus, prepositions of place indicate (Close, 1962, p.141):
• something with no dimension or unspecified dimension: A POINT
• something with one dimension: A LINE
• something with two dimensions: A SURFACE (having an area) and,
• something with three dimensions: A SPACE (having volume).
“In using prepositions we are concerned not so much with objective measurement, i.e. with the actual dimension of the thing to which we are referring to, as with how we imagine them to be at the time of speaking. Thus, we can
imagine a town as a point in the map, a surface to go across, or a space we live in or walk through. Moreover, a point itself, as seen through microscope, may appear
to have an area which can be covered or space which can be penetrated” (Close, 1962, p.143).
However, this study was only concentrated on prepositions of place at, in,
and on. Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech & Svartvik (1978, p.807) discuss the prepositions of place at, in and on, which is described as follows:
Picture 1.
X at, as dimension-type 0 preposition (point)
on, as dimension-type 1 or 2 preposition (line or surface)
in, as dimension-type 2 or 3 preposition (area or volume) The preposition of place at, in and on can signify simple position and
destination. The notion of simple position (or static location) and destination (movement with respect to an intended location) obtains cause and effect relationship (Quirk et al, 1980: 107):
Destination Position
Tom went to Cambridge As a result: Tom was at Cambridge.
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Tom dived in (to) the water. As a result: Tom was in the water.
Further discussion below will explain existing theories about prepositions of place at, in and on and their uses. However, complex prepositions like in spite of and in view of will not be disscussed.
1. Preposition of place ‘at’
The function of preposition of place at, according to Spit Corder (1979,
p.107) is to show an exact point. R. A. Close states that the other functions of at
are to show the same position without specifying dimension. In other words, He says that the preposition of place at has the idea of stationary relationship with an
unspecified dimension (1962, p.142).
There are many uses of the preposition of place according to its functions.
Raymond Murphy (1990, p.328) gives some examples of the uses of the preposition of place at, which is used to show the exact points, as follows:
The preposition of place at is used
a. when someone is at an event or exact time, e.g.: • at a conference
• at a football match
• at a party
The uses in sentences are
• She met the headmaster at a conference.
• I saw jack at the football match on Sunday.
• There were many people at the party.
b. to show an exact place or location, for example;
• at the royal festival hall
• at the cinema/ at the theatre
• at the company’s headquarter
• at the national museum
Picture 2.
_________ at the top (of the page)
_______________ _______________
_______________ at the bottom (of the page) Picture 3.
X at the end of the street
The uses in the sentences are:
• We went to a concert at the royal festival Hall.
• They were at the national Museum last Sunday.
• Write your name at the top of the page.
• Write the mark at the bottom of the page.
• Jack’s house is the white one at the end of the street.
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• We stop at a pretty village on the way to London.
The use of the preposition of place at that has an idea of stationery relationship with unspecified dimension is shown in the following examples:
- at the bus stop - at the door
- at the window
The uses in the sentences are - The man is at the bus stop.
- He is standing at the door. - She is sitting at the window.
These sentences suggest that the subjects occupy more or less the same position as the indicated places without specifying dimensions.
Beside the two functions above there are some expressions requiring
preposition of place at such as: - at home
- at university - at work - at school
- at the seaside - at someone’s house
- at a station - at an airport - at the north pole
The uses in the sentences are
- I’ll be back at work until 5.30 but I’ll be at home all evening. - Julia is studying medicine at university.
- We’ll be arriving at 9.30. Can you meet us at the station?
- I was at Tom’s house last night.
Corder ( 1979, p.108 ) says that the prepositions of place at is also used
with certain verbs, such as aim at, laugh at, throw at, look at, arrive at. For example:
- Throw a stone at the fierce dog.
- He looked at me.
The verb point can be followed by either preposition at or to. The contrast
between a point at and point to is shown in the example below (Close, 1977). - He pointed at the brown house (the same as aim at).
“Point at suggest an exact place and can be followed by human subject or
object and inanimate subject or object. - He pointed to the trees.
“Point to” suggest in the direction of the trees.
Corder also introduces principal collocation with the preposition of place
at. A collocation means a group of words frequently found together. It often has a
meaning that cannot be easily understood even if the meaning of each word in the group is known (Corder, 1979: 112). Here are the lists of principle of collocation
with at:
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At home means stay in the house
At church means inside the church
At sea means on a ship
At school means stay in the building (school) to learn
At hand means near by 2. Preposition of place ‘in’
The preposition of place in is to indicate that X occupies some or all the space Y (Close, 1962: 141). The preposition of place in has an idea of within a geographical location such as towns, valleys and countries (Corder, 1979: 107).
The uses of preposition of place in observed by some expert are presented in the following pictures.
Picture 4.
In (inside)
In a room/ in a building
In a garden/ in a park
In a town/ in a country
In the water In the sea In the river
In a row/ in a line
In a queue
The uses in sentences are: - There is no one in the shop.
- The children are playing in the garden.
- When we are in Italy, we spent a few days in Venice.
- Robert lives in a small village in the mountains. - Look at the girl swimming in the river.
- I prefer to sit in the front row.
- Have you read the article in the newspaper? (Murphy, 1990: 224)
Some prepositions which requires preposition of place in are: - ( sit ) in armchair
- In a photograph
- In the sky - In hospital
- In prison For example:
- Who is the woman in the photograph?
- It was a lovely day. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. - Don’t sit in that armchair. It’s broken.
- Tom’s father is in hospital.
There are also principles collocations with the preposition of place in
(Corder, 1979: 115-6), such as:
In place means in a certain place.
In bed means lay on a bed.
3. Preposition of place ‘on’
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a. in relation with a line ( one dimension )
e.g. I am on my way home. We are on the motorway.
b. to indicate location on a surface ( two dimension )
Picture 5.
On the ceiling On the wall On the floor
For example:
- Don’t sit on the floor.
- There is a dirty mark on the wall/ on the ceiling.
- Have you seen the notice on the notice-board?
- There is a report of the football on page 7 of the newspaper.
- The book you are looking for is on the top shelf/ on the table.
- Don’t sit on the chair. It’s broken.
- Our flat is on the second floor of the building.
Murphy (1990, p.235) gives the uses of preposition of place on as follows: 1) Idiomatic expression with prepositions of place on.
on the left/ on the right (or on the left/ right-hand side)
2) To indicate location on a small area, such as a small island.
e. g. Tom spent his holiday on a small island of the coast of Scotland. 3) To indicate enclosure in a geographical map, such as on the coast/ on a
river/ on a road.
e, g. London is on the river Thames.
Portsmouth is on the south coast of England.
4. Comparison of the uses of preposition of place at, in and on
Comparison of the uses of preposition of place at, in and on has been introduced (Quirk et al., 1980: 310). Observe the following.
• at the door
e.g. The manager stood at the door.
The door is seen as a dimensionless location, and no details concerning its shape or size into focus. Thus, at is a dimension-type 0 preposition.
• on the door
e.g. There was a new coat of paint on the door.
It makes us see the door as two dimensional things, i.e. a surface. On can indicate location of either one or two dimension (line or surface). Thus, on
is a dimension-type one or two preposition. • in the door
e.g. There was a wood worm in the door.
18
The contrast between on (=surface) and in (=area) has various implications
according to context, as the three examples below. Observe the following part (Quirk et al., 1980: 310).
a. on the window : The frost made pattern on the window. (window= a glass
surface)
in the window : A face appeared in the window/ mirror. (window, mirror=
framed area)
on the field : The players were practising on the field. (field=surface for sport)
in the field : Cows were grazing in the field. (field= enclosed area of land)
b. on the island : He was marooned on a desert island. (viewed as a mere space)
in the island : He was born in a long island. (viewed as inhabited
interior)
The opposition between at (dimension-type 0) and in (dimension-type 2 or
3) can also cause difficulty. In is used for continents, countries, provinces, and sizeable territories of any kind; but for towns, villages, either at or in is appropriate, depending on the point of view; e.g. at/ in Stratford-upon-avon. A
very large city, such as New York, London, or Tokyo, is generally treated as an area; e.g. He works in London. However, one can treat it as a point on the map if
global distance is in the mind; e.g. our plane refuelled at London on its way from New York to Moscow (Quirk et al, 1980: 310).
Preposition of place at and in can also be used preceding buildings, but
they are used differently:
‘At’ refers to a building in its institutional or functional aspect, whereas ‘in’ refers to three dimensional structure.
For example:
- He is at school (=He is attending school).
- I met Mr. Smith in school (=the building). (Quirk et al al, 1980: 310)
The verb arrive is followed by either in or at.
“Arrive in” is usually used with countries or towns, For example: When did he arrive in Britain?
“Arrive at” is usually used with buildings,
For example: What time did you arrive at the hotel?
(Murphy, 1990: 224).
The expressions of at the front/ at the back and in the front/ in the back
give different ideas.
“At the front/ at the back” suggests the exact position as the following picture shows.
Picture 6.
At the back
20
”In the front/ in the back” suggests the enclosure of front/ back position as
illustrated in the following picture. Picture 7.
In the back
In the front
Murphy observes that prepositions of place at, in and on are interchangeable in some cases. We can say ‘in the corner of a room’ but ‘at the
corner and on the corner of a street’. For example, - The television is in the corner of the room.
- There is a telephone box at/ on the corner of the street.
To add more information, the rules of preposition of place in Bahasa Indonesia are inserted. By comparing both rules of English prepositions of at, in
and on to preposition of place in Bahasa Indonesia, giving information of what causes the difficulties to the students to learn English (L2).
5. Indonesian Preposition of Place di, di atas, di dalam and pada
In this section we will discuss Indonesian Prepositions of place di, di atas,
di dalam and pada. The theories and the uses of those Indonesian prepositions of
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
places are taken from Indonesian linguists’ book, Abdul Chaer (1987) and M.
Ramlan (1980).
a. Preposition Of Place di
Preposition of place di is used to indicate position of a certain thing (or
noun). It usually precedes a noun which contains an idea of a place (adverb of place). For example:
- Kami belajar di perpustakaan.
- Dia berada di pulau Bali.
Di is also used to show where a certain article is written (in newspaper, magazines, books, etc.). For example:
- Artikel itu dimuat di surat kabar. (dican be replaced bydidalam/dalam).
b. Preposition Of Place di atas
In order to state the location thoroughly, the preposition of place di can be used with other prepositions like atas and dalam. The preposition of place di atas
is to indicate a higher position (Ramlan, 1980: 67-68). For example: - Buku itu saya letakkan di atas meja.
- Wanita itu menjunjung beban di atas kepalanya.
c. Preposition Of Place di dalam
The preposition of place di dalam is used to indicate a place having
volume or space. For example:
- Uang itu disimpan di dalam lemari.
22
Preposition of place dalam is also used to indicate a place having volume or space, and in this case, dalam and di dalam are interchangeable. Thus, the preposition of place in those two sentences can be replaced by the preposition of place dalam. The preposition of place dalam itself is more used to show that someone is in a certain situation or event. For example:
- dalam bentrokan itu beberapa orang menjadi korban.
d. Preposition Of Place pada
The preposition of place pada is used to signify locations which do not show the exact place. For example:
- Ibu bekerja pada Dinas Kesehatan Kota.
- Perasaan sedih masih terbayang pada wajahnya.
The uses of the preposition of place pada here can be replaced by the
preposition of place di.
Pada is usually usd to indicated position on a surface (Ramlan, 1980: 92). For example:
- pada tiap-tiap balon ditempelkan secarik kertas bergambar bunga emas.
- Lukisan akan bagus kalau di gantungkan pada dinding sejajar dengan pandangan mata.
Pada is also used in front of pronoun, e.g. pada orang itu terdapat sifat-sifat yang patut dijadikan contoh, but the preposition di is never used preceding noun.
From the theories of preposition of place at, in and on an Indonesian preposition of place di, di atas, di dalam and pada, we can observe that the
preposition of place at has similar meaning with di and pada, the preposition of
place in has similar meaning with di and di dalam, and the preposition of place on
has similar meaning with di, di atas and pada. Indonesian learners often use the preposition of place at, in and on interchangeably since their meanings are almost
the same. However, they just may not use those prepositions at random. It is almost impossible in practices that the Indonesian learners will use preposition of
place at or on to interpret di dalam, in or at to interpret di atas, and in to interpret
pada. The most interchangeably uses which possibly occur are that the prepositions of place at, in and on are used to interpret di.
There are several difficulties faced by the L2 learner during their study. The factors that may lead the L2 learner faced the obstacles will be explained
below.
6. Possible Factors Causing Difficulty in Learning Preposition of Place at, in and on
Brown (1987) elicits some factors that possibly cause the learners’
difficulty in learning second language, namely interlingual transfer, intralingual transfer and context of learning. The clarification of each factor is as follows. a. Inter-lingual Transfer
Dealing with transfer, Brown suggest that
24
Dulay et al., in the book language Two, also states the theories of
interference and transfer. Interference has been used to refer to two very different linguistic phenomena. The first one is essentially psychological and the other is essentially sociolinguistic. The psychological use of the term interference refers to
the influence of old habits when the new ones are being learned, whereas sociolinguistic use of the term interference refers to language interaction, such as
linguistic borrowing and language switching (Dulay et al.,1978:98 ). Weinrich defines interference as:
Those instances of deviations from the norms of either language which
occur in the speech of bilinguals as a result of their familiarity with more than one language, i. e., as a result of language in contact (cited in Dulay et al., 1982:99)
While Haugen defines linguistic borrowing as:
Borrowing is linguistic diffusion, and can be unambiguously defined as the attempt by a speaker to reproduce in one language, pattern which has learned
in another… it is the language of the learner that is influenced, not the language he learns (cited in Dulay et al., 1982:99)
Behavioural psychologist, who first defined ‘transfer’ technically, used it to refer to a process described as the automatic, uncontrolled, and subconscious use of past learned behaviours in the attempt to produce new responses. In this
sense transfer may be of two types: negative and positive. Negative transfer refers to those instances of transfer which result in error because old, habitual behaviour
is different from the new behaviour that is being learned. In contrast, positive transfer results in correct performances because new behaviour is the same as the
old. Both types of transfers refer to the automatic and subconscious use of old
behaviour in new learning situations (Dulay et al., 1982: 101).
Though they are a lot of people who learn a second language every year, only very few succeed in mastering it. The most obvious reason is that a learner of
a second language has had experience with another language. Another reason is there are some factors determine the type and degree of second language learning.
Those factors can be linguistic, social and psychological. It has been common in second language teaching to stress the linguistic influence. Linguistically the process in second language learning depends on (1) how the second language
differs from the first, and (2) how much the first language interferes with the second (Mackey, 1961: 107-8). It is of course not surprising that this process has
been emerged, because native language interference is surely the most immediately noticeable source of errors for the second language learners. It is clear from learning theory is that a person will use whatever previous experience
he or she has had with language in order to facilitate the second language process. The native speaker has acquired an obvious set of prior experience. Sometimes the
native language is negatively transferred, and we say then interference has occurred (Brown, 1987: 87). For example, related to this study, the Indonesian prepositions of place (di, di atas, di dalam and pada) uses have, in this case,
interfered with the person’s production of a correct English form. Unfortunately the Indonesian learners lack positive transfer so that there are many negative
26
Beyond the interference there are still many factors which influence the
probability of occurrence of interference phenomena (Els et al., 1884: 59-60): 1) Amount and nature of input: interference is especially likely occurs when
the L2 input is limited in quantity and scope. This situation occurs mainly
where L2 is learned in an L1 environment (e.g. schools); most studies showing a limited role of interference focus on learning L2 in an L2 environment,
where L2 input is abundant and varied;
2) Level of linguistic analysis: more L2 learning research has been done at the level of morphology and syntax than at the phonological and lexical levels;
3) Linguistic distance between L1 and L2: interference phenomena manifest themselves especially strongly between related linguistic system: the degree of
interference is partly determined by the degree of ‘translability’ of L1 feature into L2 feature;
4) L2 learning stage: there is some evidence that, for adult learner at least, interference phenomena are most frequent in the first stage of L2 learning process;
5) Task focus: if the focus of L2 use is on correct grammatical form rather than on communicative effectiveness, interference is likely to occur: written translation task under time pressure constitute extremely favourable conditions
for the occurrence of interference phenomena. b. Intra-lingual Transfer
Brown (1987: 178) says that once learners have begun to acquire parts of the system, more intra-lingual transfer-generalization within the target language is
manifested. As learners progress in the second language, previous experience
begins to influence structure within the target language itself. Negative intra-lingual transfer, or overgeneralization, then often causes errors in the actual L2.
Richards (1974: 174-8) suggest types and causes of intra-lingual and
developmental errors. Intra-lingual errors are those which reflect the general characteristic of rule learning, and developmental errors illustrate the learner
attempting to build op hypothesis about the English language from his limited experience of it in the classroom textbook. Intra-lingual errors occur (1) when the learner creates a deviant structure on the basis of his experience of other structure
in the target language (overgeneralization), (2) when the learner fails to observe the restriction of structure in the target language (ignorance of rule restriction),
and (3) in learners’ structure whose deviation represent the degree of development of the rules required to produce acceptable utterances (incomplete application of rules), (4) while developmental errors derive from faulty comprehension of
distinction in the target language (false concept hypothesized) (Richards, 1977: 174-8).
The occurrence of overgeneralization, ignorance of rule restriction, incomplete application of rules and false concept hypothesized may cause errors in the actual L2. Thus, those factors may become possible reasons causing
difficulties in language learning process. c. Context of Learning
28
because of a misleading explanation from the teacher, faulty presentation of a
structure or word in a textbook, or even because of a pattern that was rotely memorized in a drill but not properly contextualized (Brown, 1987: 179-80).
Broughton purposes similar reasons that context of language learning and
teaching can be possible sources of students errors (1978: 133-4). They are the poor teaching and learning process. The poor teaching: The teacher’s lacks of
mastery of the material which respectively make the students know nothing or at least less comprehend the subject.
The teaching-learning process: Even though there are optimal efforts to make the students avoid errors, errors are still produced. It means that there is still a place for errors in teaching-learning process. In this matter, the learners and the
teachers could be the factors for making errors.
B. Theoretical Framework
It is obvious that the second language learners find it difficult to learn English grammar. The preposition of place at, in and on is part of English
grammar and also has its own rules underlying them. According to Fries (1948), a person is said to have mastered a foreign language if he or she can understand utterances in that foreign language and also produce understandable production of
them. Secondly, he or she has to be able to make the structure or syntax of the target language matters of automatic habit. It means that he or she has internalised
the rules underlying the utterances that he or she produces so that his or her utterances are acceptable.
The focus of the study was on the preposition of place at, in and on. When
someone wants to master the preposition of place at, in and on, there were three important points need to be considered. They are: the meaning, the function and the uses. Each preposition of place has its own meaning underlying them. Though
the meaning of each preposition of place at, in and on is more or less the same, the function of each preposition is different. Their function can’t be replaced one to
another. The last one is the uses. The students should be able to use the preposition with the right meaning and function as the way it is in the appropriate situation.
There were three problems regarding to the first semester students mastery on the prepositions of place at, in and on in this study. The test was used to collect
information needed and also to answer those problems. The first problem was that how much the first semester students have mastered preposition of place at, in and
on. The statistical computation was used to answer the problem. The result of the
computation was then compared to the standard of mastery stated in the academic regulation of Sanata Dharma University (2002). The students’ mastery then can be
determined. Secondly, the writer tried to find out the difficulties faced by the students in their attempt to master preposition of place at, in and on. The students score in each part of the test gave the information about what difficulties faced by
the students in mastering preposition of place at, in and on. From their scores in the test, the writer found out their mastery on each preposition of place at, in and
30
one of the preposition of place at, in or on fell below the minimum standard of
mastery stated in the Academic Regulation of Sanata Dharma University, it means that they still have difficulties in mastering that preposition of place. The third problem was on the possible sources of their difficulties. The writer tried to
31
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
A. Research Method
The method used in conducting the research was descriptive research. There were two kinds of study conducted in this research; these were survey
research and library research.
The survey was conducted to get the data to be analyzed in studying the preposition. The research was intended to describe the problems faced by students
in mastering the English preposition of place and also some possible factors that might caused the difficulties.
The library research was conducted in order to get the data related to the study by observing and studying related literature.
The result of this research, both the survey and the library research would
be presented in a descriptive way.
B. Participants
The subject of this research was the first semester students of the 2007/2008 academic year in the English Language Education Programme of
Sanata Dharma University Yogyakarta. They were chosen because the writer intended to measure their mastery in prepositions of place at, in and on. The
writer’s assumption was that they must have had learnt the preposition of at, in
32
Since it is very difficult to include all the members of a target population
(all members of the first semester students), the writer then selected a portion of the population as the representative sample to study the first semester students’ mastery on the preposition at, in and on.
In selecting the representative sample the writer used the cluster sampling technique. Within this technique, the chosen sample is not an individual but a
group of individuals who are naturally together. These individuals constitute a cluster insofar as they are alike with respect to characteristics relevant to the variables of the study.
C. Research Instrument
The library research was primarily based on the literature related to the research. In collecting the data about the English preposition and the information to support the research, the literature was used as the source of information.
Shortly, the library research did not need a special instrument in collecting the data.
A test, as an instrument, was also used in collecting the data on the student’s mastery of the English preposition. The test was constructed in the form of recognition and production types, in order to get the effective and efficient
measurement instrument. Heaton (1979) mentions the importance of choosing this type of test: “a good language test may contain either recognition type test items
or production type test items, or a combination of both”.
The recognition test was in the form of gap-filling test. The students were
asked to complete the sentences containing the English prepositions of place at, in
and on. The objective of the test was that the students were able to demonstrate their ability to use the preposition of place at, in and on.
The production test was in the form of translation test. The students were asked to translate some Indonesian sentences into English. The objective of the
test was that the students were able to distinguish the differences between the rules underlying the preposition of place of their L1 (Indonesian) and the rules underlying the preposition of place at, in and on in English.
As it is mentioned before, the test was divided into two parts (part A and part B). The first part of the test (part A) contains 40 items of recognition test. The
second part of the test (part B) contains 10 items of production test. Most of the test items were taken from some authoritative English grammar book and few items were modified by the permission of the major sponsor and co sponsor. The
distribution of the test item is presented in table 3.1 below.
34
Since the test was intended to measure the students’ mastery of preposition of
place at, in, and on, the scoring system used in this research was the 1-0 scale. This scale was chosen with the assumption that the prepositions of place are disinter-changeable. The correct answer was scored 1 and 0 was for the incorrect
answer.
There are two important characteristics should be possessed by every
measuring instrument in order to acquired the valid and reliable research result (Ary, Jacobs and Rezavieh 1979). Therefore, the instrument to collect the data of the research should meet what is called validity and reliability of the test.
D. Validity
A test is said to be valid if it measures accurately what it is intended to measures (Hughes 1989). Whereas, Milikan (1989, p. 24) states that the urgency of validity in the instrumentation for gathering data is that “validity is an
important consideration in the development and of instruments, and the risk of misuse and misinterpretation of instruments, and of data gathered, should not be
under-estimated”.
There were several types of validity: content validity, construct validity,
criterion-related validity and face validity. Currently, those types of validity
mentioned above are seen as the evidence of validity since it is considered as a unitary concept (Fraenkel & Wallen 1993; Wiersma 1995). It is difficult to make
an instrument that has all those evidences of validity mentioned above. And yet, it
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
does not mean that the test constructed in this study was invalid. Further
discussion on each evidences were discussed as follows:
1. The content-related evidence of validity (content validity)
This evidence refers to the content of the instrument. Bachman (1990)
divides this type into two: content relevance and content coverage. Content relevance means that the content of the test should be relevant to the purpose of
the test. Content coverage means that the test should cover all (or at least adequately sample) elements of the language intended to be tested.
Based on the explanation above, the test constructed in this study had the
content-related evidence of validity. Reasons to come up with the conclusion are: the content of the test was relevant to the purpose of the test, which was to
measure the students’ mastery on the preposition of place at, in and on and the test covered all the forms and adequately sampled the meanings and uses of the preposition of place at, in and on.
2. The criterion-related evidence of validity
This validity refers the relationship between the scores on a measuring
instrument and an independent external variable (criterion) believed to measure directly the behaviour or characteristics in question (Ary et al 1974).
Since the independent external variable (criterion) was not available in this
study, then it can be said that the evidence of criterion validity was not found.
3. The construct-related evidence of validity
36
construct validity if it can be demonstrated that it measures just the ability which
it is supposed to measure. The word construct refers to any underlying ability (or trait) which is hypothesized in a theory of language ability”.
Another expert (Ary et al 1974: 201) said that the term construct is used to
refer to something that is not itself directly measurable but which explains observable effects.
To show that the test constructed in this study has the evidence of this type of validity, as it proposed by Fraenkel & Wallen (1993:145), three steps was administered to obtain the evidence. Those steps are discussed as follows:
a. The variable being measured is clearly defined
The variable (or in this study, the element of language) to be measured in
this study was the grammatical competence of the first year students of the English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University. The focus of this study was to measure their grammatical competence on the
preposition of place at, in and on. b. Formulate the hypothesis
The hypothesis then was proposed in this study. This study was intended to measure the students’ grammatical competence especially on the area of preposition of place at, in and on. The students’ whose grammatical competence
is low (in this study, it means their mastery on the preposition of place at, in and
on) score low in all part of the test. In the opposite, those whose grammatical
competence is high, score high in all parts of the test.
c. Test the hypothesis
To know the students’ mastery on the preposition of place at, in and on, the students were given a test. The test also functions as a means to prove that the proposed hypothesis was true. Previous discussion explained that the test had the
content validity. In other word, the test really was to measure just the ability which it was supposed to measure. For that reason, the test in this study can be
said to have the construct-related evidence of validity.
4. Face Validity
Face validity is important to make a test accepted by candidates, teacher,
etc, because it will convince that the test is measuring what is intended to test. Face validity is a condition in which a test looks as if it measures what it is
supposed to measure (Hughes 1989: 27). Even though this validity is weak and unscientific (Bachman 1990; Lado 1961), it is still considered necessary and important (Brown 1994: 256).
Before the test was administered, the content of the test was consulted to the lecturers in the English language Education Study Programme of Sanata
Dharma University. They said that the test really measure what it is intended to measure. The test then can be said to have the face validity.
E. Reliability
Lado (1964:169) says that “a test is reliable if the scores obtained with it
38
Brown’s definition about reliability is almost the same with previous definition
that is a test is said reliable if it is consistent and dependable (Brown 1994: 253). Milikan (1989: 25) gives a longer and clearer definition about reliability as quoted below: “Reliability – refers to the dependability, stability, consistency,
accuracy, or predictability of the research design and the researcher. A test of reliability would be the extent to which another could replicate this research and
achieve fundamentally the same result or findings. Reliability can be defined as the relative absence of errors of measurements in a measuring instrument, the relative absence of distortion in observational techniques, and the relative
accuracy of interpretation in reporting qualitative data”.
To measure the reliability of the test the writer used the split-half procedure. This procedure requires only a single administration of the test. After
the results of the test were collected, the items in the test were divided into two comparable halves. The first half (which later were labelled X) was the odd-numbered items and the second half (which later labelled Y) was the
even-numbered items. Then the students’ scores on each half were counted. The writer used the Pearson Product moment to determine the reliability of the half test. The
formula is as follows:
Where:
r: Pearson r
∑X: The sum of X scores
∑Y: The sum of Y scores
∑XY: The sum of the products of paired X and Y scores ∑X2: The sum of the squared score in X distribution
∑Y2: The sum of the squared score in Y distribution
N: The number of the subjects
The result of the computation was the reliability of the half test. To determine the reliability of the full test, the writer employed the Spearman-Brown Prophecy Formula. The formula is as follows:
Where:
r1: The reliability of the full test
r1/2: The person r correlation of the two halves (the reliability of the half test)
F. Data Gathering Procedure
The test intended to gather the data was conducted in structure I class of the first semester students in the academic year of 2007/ 2008. Since the writer
used the cluster sampling technique, the test was conducted only in a class. The students’ were asked to do the 50 items of the test which is divided into two parts in twenty minutes. The test was administered on 30 August 2006.
G. Data Analysis Procedure
40
the population. As the standard to determine whether the answer is correct or
incorrect, the writer used the authoritative English grammar textbooks and the review of the literature as it is listed in the previous chapter. To avoid the overlap in this study, the grammatical errors in constructing the sentences in production
test (test part II) was ignored.
Since the test was divided into two parts, the writer then counted the
number of correct answers of each student in each part of the tests and in whole parts of the test. Based on the findings, the writer found out the percentage of the correct answers achieved by each student. Based on this fact the writer also found
out the percentage of the students achieving the percentage of the correct answers. To determine the students’ mastery on the preposition of place at, in and on, the
writer compared the result of the computation to the minimum standard of mastery stated in the Peraturan Akademik Universitas Sanata Dharma (2002). According to Peraturan Akademik Universitas Sanata Dharma (2002), the
minimum standard of mastery percentage is 56%. It means that the students are considered not to have difficulties if their percentage of the correct answer is
above 56%. In the other word, if their percentage is lower than 56%, it can be said that they still have difficulties in mastering the preposition of place at, in and on.
41 CHAPTER IV
RESEARCH RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
This chapter contains the research findings and discussion of the study. The first section of this chapter presents the data collected from the test. Tables are used
to ease the data presentation to be comprehended. The second section of this chapter is dealing with answering the problem of this research.
A. Data Presentation
As explained before in the previous chapter, the test was administered to the
first semester students of English Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University year 2007/2008. The test itself was divided into two parts. The first part of
the test was the completion test. This kind of test was intended to measure their ability to use the preposition of place at, in and on. The second part of the test was the translation test. The purpose of the test was to figure out the students ability to
distinguish the differences between the rules underlying the preposition of place of their L1 (Indonesian) and the rules underlying the preposition of place at, in and on in
English.
To ease the data presentation, the presentation of the statistical computation was divided into three parts. The first part shows the individual achievement in the
42
achievement in the test which shows the whole students performance in each item of the test. The third part is dealing with the error classification.
1. Students Achievement
The students’ achievement in the whole part of the test is presented in table 4.1 below.
Table 4.1 The Students’ Achievement in the Test Percentage of correct
Most of the students (11 students) achieved 60-69% of correct answers. None of the students achieved the highest percentage (90-100%). The students’ lowest
achievement fell in the range 30-39%, there was only one student who achieved it. The presentation of the students’ achievement in each part of the test would be seen as follows:
