i
AN ANALYSIS OF MORPHOLOGICAL AND SYNTACTIC
ERRORS IN WRITING MADE BY ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC
PURPOSE STUDENTS OF MUHAMMADIYAH MALANG
UNIVERSITY IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2015/2016
THESIS
By:
ACHMAD FAUJI
201210100311043
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
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AN ANALYSIS OF MORPHOLOGICAL AND SYNTACTIC
ERRORS IN WRITING MADE BY ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC
PURPOSE STUDENTS OF MUHAMMADIYAH MALANG
UNIVERSITY IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2015/2016
This thesis is submitted to meet one of the requirements to achieve
Sarjana Degree in English Education.
By:
ACHMAD FAUJI
201210100311043
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
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MOTTOS
-Be like the flower that gives its fragrance to even the hand that crushes
it-Achmad Fauji
-la foi peut deplacer des montagnes quoique (faith can move
mountains)-France Proverb
DEDICATIONS
This thesis is warmheartedly dedicated to: My sweet hearted parents Suliono and Siti Muda’ah
My beloved little brothers Firman, Fatony and Arif
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
In the name of Allah the Most Gracious and Most Merciful, the God Almighty, I express my great-sincere gratitude for His everlasting blessing and
mercies so I can complete my thesis on due date.
Importantly, I also would like to express my deep gratitude and appreciation to my first advisor Dr. Masduki, M.Pd. and my second advisor Rahmawati Khadijah Maro, S.Pd., M.PEd. in which they both always guide and support me to finish my thesis. It is always to be honor becoming student under supervising them because I got tremendous advice and new experiences. In addition, my very special thank goes to my parents who always devote prayers to me so that I have great days and beautiful life. Further, my great appreciation also belongs to my brothers that I love the most.
Moreover, I sincerely thank to Mr. Arif and LC officers for helping me technically conducted the study. Further, best appreciation is addressed to my little families in Malang, Mas ardi’s family and Mas Maulana’s family that have helped me fully for over 3 years. I would like also express my wholehearted gratefulness
and appreciation to my step big sisters Paola Zuniga and 董晓琴, step big brothers
Ali Ahsan and Mateusz Wronski who teach me many things as well as love and care about me everlastingly so I can keep my head up and stay strong during the storm. Besides, I specially thank to my special one Yuyung who always kindly, sincerely, supportively accompanies me during precious times.
Furthermore, for my best friends Wahyu, Rifki, Hendro, Dwiki, my much-loved collegial mates Faruoq, Arif, Eka, Fifit, Dyah, Lia, Syahil, Abdullah, Adi, Dimas, Novan, Bang Ido, Rizky, and all nice translator partners, I would like to say
big thank for this beautiful friendship and treating me like family in any ways.
Malang, 09 August 2016
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... ... viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ... ... ix
LIST OF APPENDICES ... .... xii
LIST OF THE TABLES ... ... xiii
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1Background of the Study ... 1
1.2Statement of the Problem ... 4
1.3Purpose of the Study ... 5
1.4Significance of the Study ... 5
1.5Scope and Limitation ... 5
1.6Definition of the Key Terms ... 6
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 2.1 Definition of Morphology and Syntax ... 7
2.1.1 Morphology ... 8
2.1.2 Syntax ... 9
2.2 Errors Analysis and Classifying ... 10
2.2.1 Linguistic Taxonomies for Classifying Errors ... 12
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2.3.1 Definition of Writing ... 16
2.3.2 Writing Process ... 17
2.3.3 The goal of Writing ... 19
CHAPTER IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 4.1Research Findings ... 25
4.1.1 The Types of Morphological Errors Made by Students of ESP ... 25
4.1.2 The Types of Syntactic Errors Made by Students of ESP ... 30
4.1.3 The dominant errors ... 36
4.1.4 The Causes of Errors Concerning Morphological and Syntactic Errors Made by Students ... 36
4.2 Discussion ... 38
xi 5.2 Suggestion ... 43
REFERENCES ... 45
xii
LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix 1 The Tables of Complete Coding ... 47
45
REFERENCES
Ary et. Al. 2010. Introduction to Research in Education (8th edition) Belmont:
Wadsworth.
Booij, G. 2007. The Grammar of Words (2nd edition). New York: Oxford University Press.
Brown, H.D. 2000. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching (4th edition). New York: Pearson Education
Brown, H.D. 2006. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching (5th edition). New York: Pearson Education.
Chomsky, N. 2002. Syntactic Structure (2nd edition).Berlin: Werner HildenBrand.
Corder, S.P. 1982. Error Analysis and Interlanguage. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Dulay et. Al. 1982. Language Two. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Dawson, C. 2009. Introduction to Research Method: A practical Guide for Anyone Undertaking Research Project (4th edition). Oxford: How to Books Ltd.
Fromkin, Rodman, Hyams.2014. An Introduction to Language (10th edition). Boston: Wadsworth.
Frankel, Wallen. 2009. How to Design and Evaluate Research in Education (7th edition) New York: McGraw-Hill
Gass, Mackey. 2005. Second Language Research: Methodology and Design. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
Harmer, J. 2004. How to Teach Writing. Essex: Pearson Education Limited.
46 McCarthy, A. 2002. An Introduction to English Morphology: Words and Their
Structure. Great Britain: Edinburg University Press.
Oshima, Hogue. 2007. Introduction to Academic Writing (3rd edition). New York: Pearson Education.
Payne, T. E. 2007. Describing Morphosyntax. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Roberts, N. 2011. Analysing Sentences: An Introduction to Syntax (3rd edition). Great Britain: Pearson Education Limited.
Tallerman, M. 2015. Understanding Syntax (4th ed.). New York: Rouletge.
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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
This introductory chapter gives the information about the basic ideas related
to the study being conducted. This chapter discusses the background of the study,
statement of the problems, purpose of the study, significant of the study, scope and
limitation, and the definition of key terms. All of the points mentioned above will
be explained as follows.
1.1Background of the study
It is particularly known that teaching language is often linked with grammar
and it directs to the further issues concerning morphological and syntactic aspects
within it. Generally, people learn language by the way they speak. It is because they
associated language with speaking matters. However, in the field of education, we
learn through different ways in both implementing and studying theoretical review.
Grammar is the notion of the language which means grammar is the element of
teaching language that we cannot deny it exists on it. Sometimes, grammar can be
difficult for students to catch due to its conceptualization and rules. Those set of
rules should be equipped for young or foreign language learners in order to be the
basic of well learning language. Fromkin, Rodman and Hyams (2014) state that
every grammar is equally complex, logical, and capable of producing an infinite set
of sentences of any thought. Grounded on the expert’s statement above, we are
2 complex and logical thought. Over simplifying grammar, it refers to morphology
and syntax. If we assume grammar is the set of rules of language, then morphology
and syntax are the basic rule of them because in morphology we will learn about
structure and words formation while syntax is about combining phrases and phrases
into sentences.
Morphology is the rule of word formation process. As young and foreign
language learners, they should know about this basic order of words formation
process. It is important because the way language forms words might be different
from other languages, in this case we learn English as target language. Sometimes
students or young learners have thoughts that why word formation among
languages are different. This case would be deeply discussed in morphological
pedagogic in order to make clear the line of differences and its rules. By
comprehending this general understanding surface of morphology, they are
supposed to have references to make words formation and know where it comes
from in order them to develop further writing or speaking skill.
Syntax in general is the study of rules to combine words into phrases, and
phrases into sentences. We cannot separate morphology and syntax in the study of
language. In common institutions, they usually put morphology and syntax as one
subject to study, it happens due to without reasons, but it is because those are unity
that relates each other. Especially in writing area, this would often appear to be
inspected when we talk about syntax. After learning about words formation,
learners are supposed to combine phrases in order to make good and correct
3 discussion because most of young or foreign language learners often make errors
in this case. According to Chomsky (2002), syntax is the study of the principles and
processes by which sentences are constructed in particular languages. So it is clear
that syntax does also exist in languages, and the researcher wants to know and
identify the errors within it.
Morphology and syntax are beneficial basic lessons for young and foreign
language learners. For young and foreign language learners, before they are lectured
about theoretical and conceptualization of language, in this case we called grammar,
they had better know about the basic and essential matters of them called
morphology and syntax. By learning morphology and syntax at first, at least they
know basic of language rules before they continue studying other matters in
grammar such as noun clause, adjective close, gerund, etc. These basic rules
concerning morphology and syntax will automatically direct them to develop
language and get ready to other grammar rules.
English for specific purpose (ESP) is seemingly to be best target for this
research because the students of ESP almost have no background of knowledge in
English in general. It is because most of them take other subjects instead of English
but they have to deal with English at the beginning of two semesters. This case
attracts the researcher to conduct further research in order to examine whether they
have basic knowledge of morphological and syntactic aspects or not as well as
identifying the errors and types. Furthermore, it would also give them feedback
about the concept of learning language that they should know the very basic rule of
4 Besides those issues above, the researcher sees the opportunity to study
more about it in order to reveal types errors as well as analyse it. The English for
Specific Purpose learners in the University of Muhammadiyah Malang who are in
writing class also seem to be perfect subjects because they are studying foreign
language and they focus on writing skill. In this research, ESP writing class is taken
because the researcher will identify through their papers test or homework and
doing some interviews. All those reasons intrigue the researcher to conduct an
analysis on English for Specific Purpose learners based on morphological and
syntactic view.
1.2Statement of the Problems
1. What are types of morphological and syntactic errors made by ESP students
in Muhammadiyah Malang university academic year 2015/2016?
2. What are the dominant type of errors found in the study?
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1.3Purpose of the study
1. To know the types of morphological and syntactic errors made by ESP
students in Muhammadiyah Malang University academic year of
2015/2016?
2. To know what are the dominant type of errors found in the study?
3. To know the causes of error identified in the study
1.4 Significance of the study
The significance of this study is firstly to identity and analyse the
morphological and syntactic errors from ESP of students’ writing. Secondly, this
study is also supposed to find the dominant errors in the study. Lastly, this study
analyses about potential causes of the errors in writing made by English for Specific
Purpose students of Muhammadiyah Malang University in writing class academic
year 2015/2016. This study is aimed to give essential information to both the
lectures and researcher. Meanwhile, there are many types of errors and causes of it.
For lectures, they can use this study to develop better teaching. For the researcher,
it can give the information about types of errors and what are the causes of it. The
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1.5Scope and Limitation
The scope of this study is only to analyse types of morphological and
syntactic errors, dominant errors as well as identifying the causes of errors in
English for Specific Purpose learners at University of Muhammadiyah Malang. The
researcher only limits the problem of the morphological and syntactic errors in ESP
writing class academic year 2015/2016.
1.6Definition of the Key Terms
1. Morphology
The study of the internal structure of word, and of the rules by which words
are formed.
(Fromkin, Rodman & Hyams, 2014: 37)
2. Syntax
The part of grammar that represents a speaker’s knowledge of sentences and
their structure.
(Fromkin, Rodman & Hyams, 2014: 77)
3. Writing
Symbolic representation of language through the use of graphic signs.
(Yule, 2010:212)
4. Error
The result of one's systematic competence (the learner's system is incorrect).
