An Error Analysis on Students' in Transforming Voice of Simple Past Tense

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AN ERROR ANALYSIS ON STUDENTS

’

IN TRANSFORMING

VOICE OF SIMPLE PAST TENSE

(A Case Study at the Second Grade Students of SMP Al Kautsar

Parungpanjang-Bogor )

Proposed by:

by

IDA NURLAELA 208014000013

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH EDUCATION

FACULTY OF TARBIYAH AND TEACHERS

’

TRAINING

SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY

JAKARTA

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v

Simple Past Tense” (A Case Study at the Second Grade Students of SMP Al-Kautsar Parungpanjang Bogor),. Strata 1 (S1). English Education

Department, Faculty of Tarbiyah and Teachers’ Training, Syarif

Hidayatullah State Islamic University, Jakarta 2015.

Keywords : Error analysis, Type of Error, Kinds of the voice of simple past tense.

This study was carried out to analyze and to classify the types and kinds of

student‟s error in using passsive voice of simple past tense. Besides, the purpose of the study was to find out some error in using passsive voice of simple past tense.

The method used his qualitative. The research was designed in a case study. Furthermore, the subject of this study was the second grade students of SMP Al-Kautsar Parungpanjang-Bogor of VIII A class which consisted of 25 students, because five of the students were absent, the writter took 20 students as the sample. The data were collected through observation, test and interview both students and English teacher.

The result of the error analysis process showed that students committed error into three types: omission, misformation, and ordering. From the frequency of each errror types, misformation was the error which most frequently produced by the student. It took 90% of the total errors. Morever, 7% errors fell into omission and for ordering, it only took 3%. Besides the term of transformation pasive voice into active voice of simple past tense was the most frequent error done by the students with percentage 30%, transformation active voice into passive voice of simple past tense with percentage 24,50%, it is followed by error

in term of verb “be” with percentage 24,50%, and in term of the corrrect verb with

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of Simple Past Tense”(Studi Kasus di SMP Al-Kautsar

Parungpanjang-Bogor)),. Strata 1 (S1). Jurusan Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Fakulas

Tarbiyah dan Keguruan. Universitas Islam Negeri Syarif Hidayatullah,

Jakarta, 2015. .

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis dan mengelompokan tipe-tipe, dan jenis-jenis kesalahan yang dilakukan oleh siswa dalam menggunakan passsive voice of simple past tense. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui beberapa kesalahan dalam menggunakan passive voice of simple past tense.

Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah metode qualitative, sedangkan pola umum atau rancangan penelitian yang digunakan oleh peneliti adalah studi kasus (case study). Selanjutnya, peneliti memilih siswa kelas VIII.A yang berjumlah 25 orang, dikarenakan 5 dari siswa kelas VIII.A tersebut tidak dapat hadir, penulis mengambil 20 siswa sebagai subject dalam penelitian ini. Data penelitian ini diperoleh melalui observasi, test dan wawancara kepada siswa dan guru bahasa inggris.

Hasil dari penelitian error analysis menunjukan bahwa siswa melakukan tiga jenis kesalahan yaitu omission, misformation, dan ordering. Dilihat dari presentase setiap jenis kesalahan, misformation merupakan jenis kesalahan yang paling sering dilakukan dengan presentase sebesar 90%, selanjutnya kesalahan omission sebesar 7%, selanjutnya kesalahan ordering sebesar 3%. Disamping itu jenis kesalahan passsive voice of simple past tense yang paling banyak dilakukan oleh siswa adalah pasive voice into active voice of simple past tense dengan presentasi 30%, transformation active voice into passive voice of simple past tense dengan presentasi 24,50%, diikuti kesalahan dengan menggunakan verb

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Praised be to Allah, Lord of the world, who has given the writer His

love and compassion to finish the last assignment in her study. Peace and

salutation be upon to the prophet Muhammad, her family, her companion, and her

adherence.

It is a pleasure to acknowledge the help and contribution to all of

lecturers, institution, my parents with families and friends who have contributed

in different ways hence this skripsi is processed until it becomes a complete

writing which will be presented to the Faculty of Tarbiyah and Teachers‟ Training

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of S.Pd (Bachelor of Art)

in English Language Education.

The writer also would like to express her sincere gratitude to her

advisors, Mr. Drs. Sunardi Kartowisastro, Dipl.Ed. and Mrs. Ummi Kultsum,

M.Pd. who have patiently given their valuable help, guidance, and corrections to

finish this skripsi.

The writer also realizes that she would never finish writing this skripsi

without the help of some people around her. Therefore, she would like to say a lot

of thanks to:

1. Prof. Dr. Ahmad Thib Raya, MA., the Dean of the Faculty of Tarbiyah and

Teachers‟ Training Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University Jakarta. 2. Dr. Alek, M. Pd., the Head of Department of English Education.

3. Zaharil Anasy, M.Hum., the Secretary of Department of English Education.

4. All lecturers and staffs of Department of English Education.

5. All teachers and students of SMP Al Kautsar Parungpanjang-Bogor, for giving

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writer in finishing this “Skripsi”.

The writer does realize that this skripsi cannot be considered perfect

without critiques and suggestions. Therefore, it is such a pleasure for him to get

critiques and suggestions to make this “Skripsi” better.

Jakarta, Juli 2015

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ix

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

In learning English, it means that learning a foreign language. It also needs

hard work to learn as it is not our native language.It must be capable to master not

only the four basic skills, those are Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing but

also the language components such as Grammar, Pronunciation, and Vocabulary.

In order to support the development of our English and obtain an English

language skill effectively.

Structure is important part of language components. The structure of a

language, sometimes refer to as grammar. There are many ways of describing the

grammar of a language. One approach sees grammar as a set of rules which

specify all the possible grammatical structure of the language1.

Structure or grammar has important role in foreign teaching, without a

good knowledge, learners‟ language development will be severely constrained.

But students who learn English, meet a number of problems in structure or

grammar. Some students feel bored and unpleasant in learning grammar, because

they think it is difficult to understand. Beside that, the rules of grammar make

them confused. According to by Celce-Murcia and Sharon-Hilles, “Grammar is

often taught in isolated sentences that give a fragmental, unrealistic picture of

English and make it difficult for students to apply what they have learned in actual

situation”2

.

There are many aspects discussed in English Grammar, one of them is

passive voice. According to Dixon “the passive voice is formed from the verb to

be, used an auxiliary and the past participle of main verb.”3_{Azar said that “passive}

1

Graham Lock, Functional English Grammar: An Introduction for Second Language Teachers, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 1.

2

Marianne Celce-Murcia and Sharon Hilles, Technique and Resources in Teaching Grammar, (New York: Cambridge Madison Avenue: Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 8.

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voice is used when it is known or not important to know exactly who perform an

action,”4

Most passive voice sentences in English have lost the original active voice

subject because it is not necessary. The real purpose of the passive voice is to

bring the much more interesting predicate of the sentence to the front, because this

is the most important part of the sentence in English.5

Students usually find the difficulties when they learn passive voice, Martin

Parrot in his book. Grammar for English language teachers said that, “teaching

materials often concentrate on the form of standard passive constructions, and

practice activities often involve mechanically transforming active constructions

into passive one. Learners sometimes end up with the impression that passive

constructions are some kind of optional, deviant version of active construction.”6

The English Passive is a problem for non-English speakers, mainly with

regard to use. Even though English is a foreign language and students can easily

learn from the form of active voice to passive voice. Based observation 20thMay

2015 , the writer found that most of her students in VIIIth grade students of SMP

Al Kautsar are still difficult to change active sentence to passive sentence, e.g.

“He sang a song” most students answer “a song was sanged by he”, or the

students don‟t know the form past participle. e.g. “Fried rice was eaten by the students” most students answer “the students eat fried rice”. The writter can get

summary from the research, most of students have problem in transforming voice

of simple past tense. Passive constructions are “very common in scientific writing

and other kinds of expression where the writers are most interested in event and

processes in things that happen”.7

Therefore, it is important for English learners to

have a good understanding on it.

4

Betty SchramferAzar, Understanding and Using English Grammar, (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc.,1989), p. 123.

5

W. Standard Allen, Living English Structure for Schools, (London: Longman, 1958), p. 149.

6

Martin Parrot, Grammar for English Language Teacher, (Cambridge: Cambrdige University Press, 2000), p. 256.

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Based on the statement above, the writer is interested in doing research

about students difficulties in learning passive voice of simple past tense in this

paper.The writer chooses “An Error Analysis on Students’ In Transforming

Voice of Simple Past Sentence ( a Case Study at the second grade students of

SMP AL-Kautsar Parungpanjang-Bogor)”, as the title.

B. Identification of the Problem

Based on the background of study above, the writer can identify the

problem these:

1. The students have problems when they began using the forms of active

voice to passive voice of simple past tense

2. The students have trouble where and when they must change the words in

passive voice of simple past tense

3. The students do not know how to distinguish between the form of verb 1,

verb 2 and verb 3.

4. The students usually forget the subject and the object position in passive

sentence.

5. The teacher may not have sufficient competence in the class when she

explains the passive voice of simple past tense.

C. Limitation of the Problem

In order to make the problem focus, this research was limited on an error

analysis on students‟ in transforming voice of simple past tense at the Second

Grade Students of SMP Al Kautsar Parungpanjang-Bogor.

Formulation of the Problem

Based on the statement above, to make the study easy to understand, the

writer formulates the problem as follows:

1. What type of errors that are made by students in transforming voice of

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2. In term of verb “be”, correct verb, transformation what kind of error are

commonly made by students?

D. Objective of the study

Based on the statement of the problem above, the objective of the study

are as follow:

1. To identify and analyze the errors was done by the students in

transforming voice voice of simple past tense.

2. To find out the most types of frequent errors made by students in

transforming voice of simple past tense.

E. Significance of the Study

This study is expected to give useful information for:

a. Students

The students will get proper treatment in decreasing their errors in

transforming voice of simple past tense, so they can express voice of simple

past tense effectively and correctly in their communication whether spoken or

written

b. English teacher

The result of this study for English teachers to get clearly information about

the types of students‟ errors in transforming voice of simple past tense, so they will give proper treatment to decrease students errors in transforming voice of

simple past tense.

c. Further Researcher

Other researchers who are interested in analyzing of students‟ errors at Junior

High School can get the basis information from this study, so they can do their

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CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

A. Errors

Learning second language is not the same as learning first language or mother

tongue. Learning first language is not influenced by other language, while

learning second language is influenced by mother tongue or first language and it

caused errors and mistakes. In learning second language, errors are inevitable and

it is as a feedback for teacher and learning process.

According to Dullay, “Errors are flawed side of learner speech or writing.

They are those parts of conversation or composition that deviate from some

selected norms of mature language performance.”1

It means that there is a stray

norm of language performance.

Meanwhile, Gass and Selinker state that “Errors can be taken as red flags;

they provide windows onto a system that is, evidence of the state of a learner‟s

knowledge of the L2.”2 Errors in second language learning not to be viewed solely

as the result of imperfect learning, because they give indications that the learners

are figures out some system that is, to impose regularly on the language the

learner is exposed to.

Based on the various definitions above, the writer concludes that error is

the deviations form of language performance because of the influence of learners‟

first language system in learning second language process.

When talk about error, people may also think about mistake. Error and

mistake are two synonyms, but in language learning it has different meaning, so

we have to pay attention on the distinction between error and mistake. To make a

crucial distinction between error and mistake, in their book Second Language

Acquisition, Susan and Selinker defined mistakes are akin to slips of the tongue;

that is, they are generally one-time-only event. An error, on the other hand, is

systematic; that is, it is likely to occur repeatedly and is not recognized by the

1

Heidi Dullay, Language Two, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982), p. 138.

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learner as an error.3 It means that mistake is the same as slip of the tongue that is

usually only one time happens, and learner who makes a mistake is able to

recognize it as a mistake. On the other hand, error usually occurs repeatedly, and

learner who makes an error is unable to recognize it as an error hence she or he

cannot correct it either.

In addition, Brown states that a mistake refers to a performance error that

is either a random guess or a “slip” in that it is a failure to utilize a known system

correctly.4It means that mistakes refers to error performance, and it cause by

unsuccessful in using the language system which learner knows. Therefore, when

learners do a mistake they can do self-corrected.

From the definition above, the writer concludes that mistake and error

have different meaning. Mistake occurs because of some aspect of performance,

such as lack of attention and carelessness. Learners who makes mistake are able to

do self-correction. Whereas, error occurs when there is incomplete learning of the

target language, so learner cannot do self-correction. In addition, usually learners

make a mistake only one time, but errors occur repeatedly.

B. Error Analysis

Error Analysis is a process based on analysis of learner‟s error in their

process of second language learning. According to James, “error analysis is the

process of determining the incidence, nature, causes, and consequences of

unsuccessful language.”5

Douglas wrote on his book “Error Analysis is the fact that learners do make

error, and that these errors can be observed, and analyzed. Led to sugar of study

the learner „errors‟6

Error Analysis is the method that can be used to help the

3

Gass and selinker, loc. cit.

4

H.Douglas Brown, Principles of Language learning and Teaching,Fifth Ed,(New York: Pearson Education, 2007), p. 217.

5

Carl James, Error in Language Learning and Use, (New York: Longman 1998), p.1

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learner and Teacher to avoid in making error.Moreover, Ellis states that “Error

analysis as a tool for investigating how learners acquire a second language.”7

According to Brown “the fact that the learners do make error, and that these

errors can be observed, analyzed, and classified to reveal something of the system

operating within the learner, led to surge of study of learners‟ error, called error analysis, ”8

1. The Types of Error

Based on surface strategy taxonomy, Dulay classify types of error, such as

omission, addition, misformation, and misordering.9

a. Omission

Omission errors are characterized by the absence of an item that must

appear in the well-formed utterance.10 This type of error occurs if there is an

omission of some required item, such as morpheme or word. Language learners

may be omit grammatical morphemes, such as –s for plural noun (the – s in

books), propositions (on, in, at, by, etc.), article (a, an, the), and inflection –ed for

past participle.

For example omission of to be:

Rendi the president of the new company

b. Addition

Addition errors are the opposite of omissions. They are characterized by

the presence of an item which must not appear in a well-formed utterance. It

usually occurs in the later stages of second language acquisition, when the learner

has already acquired some target language rules. In fact, adddition errors result

from the all too faithfull use of certain rules.

For example in syntax : The London

7

Rod Ellis, The Study of Second Language Acquisition, 2nd Ed, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), p.45.

8

H. Douglas Brown, Principle of Language Learning and Teaching, 5th Ed., (New York: Pearson Education, 2007) p.259

9

Dulay, op. cit, p.150.

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In morphology : The books is here

c. Misformation

Misformation errors are characterized by the use of the wrong form of the

morpheme or structure. This type of errors occurs when learner supplies incorrect

item in a well-formed utterance.

For example: Rudi speaked English well.

d. Missordering

Missordering error occur because incorrect placement of a morpheme or a

group of morphemes in an utterance.

For example: what Riki is doing?

2. Source of Error

To find out why certain errors occurs, people must know about cause of

error that learner made. Errors were understood as the implication of learner‟s

mother tongue interference habit to second language learning. Errors which are

resulted from mother tongue interference were called interlingual errors.

However, in error analysis although interference from mother tongue as a source

of errors, it is not the sole source of errors. Richards cites four major causes of

interlingual (developmental) errors: over generalization, ignorance of rule

restrictions, incomplete application of rule, and false concept hypothesized.11

Moreover, Corder claims in Hubbard book that there are three major cause

of errors, they are mother tongue interference, overgeneralization, and error

encouraged by teaching material or method.12

a. Mother-tongue interference

In learning foreign language, young children learner looks to be able

produce new sounds more easily and effectively than older learner. It caused by

the influence of older learner experience in learning first language.

b. Overgeneralization

11

Jack C. Richards, A Non-Contrastive Approach to Error Analysis, (San Fransisco: pearson, 1970), p.6.

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Overgeneralization occurs when student acquired one structure that already

saved on their mind, and they use the structure into new structure which different

with the previews structure. For example, when student masters one structure

(simple present tense) then the teacher ask his/her to change into present

continuous which she or he haven‟t masters yet, so she/hemight be write (“She

walks quickly” into “She is walks quickly)

c. Error encouraged by teaching material or method

Errors appear error can appear to be induced by teaching itself and error is

an evidence of failure of ineffective teaching or lack of control. For example,

when the teacher teach tenses, he only emphasized on one structure, so the student

will use the emphasize one foe all structure.

In addition, Brown states four sources of error, they are: interlingual

transfer, intralingual transfer, context of learning and communication strategies. 13

a. Interlingual Transfer

Interlingual Transfer is a significant source of error for all learners.

Interlingual errors are the result of language transfer, which are caused by the

learner‟s first language. Interlingual errors may occur at diffetent levels such as transfer of phonological, morphological, grammatical and lexical-semantic

elements of the native language into target language. For example, language

learners apply their first language grammar structure to the target language.

b. Intralingual Transfer

Intralingual transfer is the other reason for second language learner for

committing errors. Intralingual errors result from faculty or partial learning of

target language rather than language transfer. They may be caused by the

influence of one target language upon another. Intralingual error occurs when the

learners try to build up concept and hypotheses about target language from their

limited experience with it. For example, learners try to use two tense markers at

the same time in one sentence while they have not mastered the language yet.

Such as in this sentence: “She is plays the computer” , it is because the singular of

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third person requires “is” in present continuous, and “-s” at the end of a verb in simple present.

c. Context of learning

In the case of the school learning, context refers to the classroom with its

teacher and material, and in the case of untutored second language learning,

context refers to the social situation. In a classroom context, the teacher or text

book can lead the learner to make faulty hypothesis about the language. Students

often make errors because of misleading explanation of the teacher, faulty

presentation of a structure or world in a text book, or even because of improperly

contextualized pattern.

d. Communication strategies

Communication strategies were defined as related to learning style.

Communication strategy relates to how people express meaning and deliver

message to others. In learning process, some students may be using some

strategies and style to express their message. However, those strategies that

students use sometime can make themselves become a source of error.

3. Step in Analyzing Errors

According to Rod Ellis, the procedure for analyzing errors includes five steps,

there are: 14

a. Collecting of a sample of learner‟s language

Most samples of learner language which have been used in error analysis

include data collected from many speakers who are responding to the same kind

of task or test. Some studies use samples from a few learner that are collected over

a period of weeks, months, or oven years in order to determine pattern of change

in error occurrence with increasing L2 exposure and proficiency.

b. Identification of errors

The first step in the analysis requires determination of elements in the sample

of learner language which deviate from the target L2 in some way. The

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identification of error involves a comparison between what the learner has

produced and what a native speaker counterpart would produce in the same

context.

c. Description of errors

The description of errors involves specifying how the forms by the learner

differ from target form. For purposes of analysis, errors are usually classified

according to language level (whether an error is phonological, morphological,

syntactic, etc.), general linguistic category (e.g. auxiliary system, passive

sentence, negative construction), or more specific linguistic elements (e.g. articles,

prepositions, verb form)

d. Explanation of errors

Accounting for why an error was made is the most important step in trying to

understand the processes of SLA. Two of the most likely causes of L2 errors are

interlingual and intralingual factors.

e. Evaluation of errors

This step involves analysis on what effect the error has on whoever is being

addressed according to Ellis, the design of error evaluation studies involves

decision on who the addresses (e.i. the judges) will be, what errors hey will be

asked to judge, and how they will asked to judge them.15 Moreover, in the

evaluation of errors the teacher may asks the addressees of error try to correct the

error by themselves. There evaluation of errors includes the following steps:

1) Select the errors to be evaluated.

2) Decides the criterion on which the errors are to be judged.

3) Prepare the error evaluation instrument.

4) Choose the judges.

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C. Passive voice

1. Concept of Passive voice

As a two-sides coin, passive voice is the opposite of active voice in

sentence pattern. Both show different understanding and function and have

dissimilar rule in use.

Some linguists have comprehensive view about passive voice, and Sweet

is the one of those whom has done it. He states, “the passive voice is …A

grammatical device for (a) bringing the object of a transitive verb into prominance

by making it the subject of the sentence, and (b) getting rid of the necessity of

naming the subject of a transitive verb”.16

Sentence does, at least, contains a subject and a verb. Based on the

explanation above, a sentence which has no object, or it is usually named

intransitive, will not be able to be turned into passive voice. This occurs because

in passive sentence. Its subject is derived from the object of active sentence. As

what azar writes, “in the passive, the object of an active verb becomes the subject ofthe passive verb”.17

According to Frank about passive voice that “ … the same action is referred to indirectly; that is, the original „receiver‟ of the action is the

grammatical object of the preposition by”.18 Here, she illustrates the subject by

naming original doer and the object refers to original receiver. Also, it is used a

preposition by to clear what things to be the object.

As it has been demonstrated in the beginning, passive voice has certain

function in its usage. Parrot says “We choose passive constructions to avoid very

long subjects- a passive construction allows us to put a long and/or complex

16_{LjiijanaMiholvic, “}

Some observations on the Use of the Passive voice”, in W.L.Darley

(ed.), English Language Teaching , (Plaistow: Oxford University Press, 1963), vol.XVII No.2, p. 77.

17

Betty SchrampferAzar, Understanding and Using English Grammar, ( New Jersey : Prentice-Hall, 1989), Second edition, p. 120.

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phrase at the end of a clause where it is easier to understand than at the

beginning”.19

Then, another is simply addressed by frank, “the passive is preferred when the “doer” of an action (or, the agent) is unimportant or unknown”.20

From those explanations the writer concludes that passive voice used for

make the sentence or the meaning of the action simpler to deliver.

Furthermore, in detail of its general use, parrot implies some examples of

passive voice in sentences as follows:

a. To describe processes, example:

The beans are picked in late summer and are left to dry in the sun.

b. To introduce evidence, argument, or opinion, example: it is sometimes argued

that ….

c. To avoid the implication of personal involvement or responsibility,

example:The vase got broken, Mum

d. With certain verbs – verbs we use when the person who did the action

generally unimportant, example:He is alleged to be in sanatorium.21

It may be illustrated for the summary of passive voice‟s usage shown by

kameen :

a. Use the passive to place a short object and verb before a long subject thus

avoiding front-heavy sentences, example:

The IRS has been cheated by otherwise honest individuals who feel too large

a percentage of their salaries goes for taxes and who believe that the

government is wasting their tax dollars.

b. Use the “it” or “second passive” form to sound objective or to indicate that

there is no absolute proof for the statement, example:

It is said that governor is a high-stakes gambler.

c. Use the agent less passive to describe technical processes and to report

research procedures and results, example:

Cars are manufactured in Detroit.

19

Parrot, op. cit., p 288.

20

Frank, op. cit., p. 67.

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d. Use the agent less passive to describe technical processes and to report

Hydrogen and Chlorine were combined, and the resulting chemical reaction

was observed.

e. Use the agent less passive to describe technical processes and to report

Hydrogen and Chlorine were combined, and the resulting chemical reaction

was observed.

f. Use the passive with the by-agent phrase when referring to historically or

socially significant works, Example :

Gone with the wind was written by Mitchell.22

Else, there is a rule must be noticed in forming passive voice. Dissimilar

with active, in producing passive sentence, not all the verbs are able to be turned

into passive. As it has been viewed that only transitive verbs are able to be

changed to passive. Michael swan has told that “some transitive verbs cannot be

used in the passive, at least in certain of their meanings. Most of these are

“stative” verbs (verbs which refer to states, not actions, and which often have no progressive forms). Example are: they have a nice house. (But not: A nice house is

had …)”.23

Moreover, Brown has mentioned the verbs (single word transitive

verbs and single-object prepositional verbs) as follows :

 Single word transitive verbs : agree, climb, dare, exclaim, guess, hate, have,

hesitate, joke, lack, let, like, love, mind, pretend, quit, reply, resemble,

survive, swear, thanks, try, undergo, want, watch, wish, wonder, yell.

 Single – object prepositional verbs: agree to/with, apologize to/for belong to,

bet on, come across/for, compete with, cope with, correspond to, glance at,

laugh about/at, listen to, live like/with, look at/like, participate in, smile at,

stay with, talk about/to, wait for/with.24

22_{Patrick Kameen, “The passive voice : it must be spoken for” in John F. Haskel (ed.),}

TESOL NEWSLETTER,(lllions: Pantagraph Printing, 1983), p. 181.

23

Michael Swan, Practical English Usage,(Oxford University Press, 1983), p. 462.

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2. Forms of Active and Passive voice

The passive occurs in both spoken and written English, and it is used very

frequently in technical writing.

Most verbs that take an object can be used in the passive voice, the primary

focus is on the subject (the agent or doer of the action)25

Passive verb-forms are made with different tenses of to be, followed by a

past participle. The tenses and the rules for their use are the same as for active

verb-forms26. Beside that the “by phrase” is used in passive sentences when it

important to know who forms an action. And usually there is no “by phrase”

when it is not important to know who performs an action27.

Broukal and wisniewska made rules in forming passive voice in their

book “Grammar Form and Function”, they are28

:

a. To form the passive voice, we change the object of an active voice sentence

into the subject of a passive one. The subject of the active sentence can

become the agent in a passive sentence. The agent tells who or what did the

action in a passive sentence. It is introduced with the preposition by.

Subject

Verb Object

Active voice The Pilot flew the airplane

Passive voice The airplane was flown by the pilot

b. Form the passive voice with a form of the verb be + a past participle Question

use an auxiliary verb before the subject.

25

Patricia K. Werner, et. Al, interaction 2: Grammar, (A venue of America, New York : McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2002), 4th Edition, p. 267.

26

Michael Swan, Practical English Usage, (New York : Oxford University Press, 1980), p. 458.

27

Betty SchramferAzar, AlihBahasaBudjianto, Fundamental of English Grammar. EdisiDwibahasaInggris-Indonesia, (Jakarta :BinarupaAksara, 1983)2nd Edition, p. 28.

28

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Subject Be (other auxiliary)

Past Participle The great

Wall

was built by the

Chinese The

Tourists

are being shown around by

the guide

Yes/No Questions

Auxiliary Verb

Subject (Other

auxiliary)

Past participle

Was the great

wall

built by the

Chinese?

Has It been visited by many

people?

W-H Question

Wh-word Auxiliary

verb

Subject (other

auxiliary verb)

Past participle

When was the great

wall

built

How many people

has It visited by?

c. Form passive voice sentences with transitive verbs, which take objects. We

cannot form passive voice sentences with intransitive verbs.

Transitive Verb : fly

Active Sentence : the pilot flew the plane

Passive Voice : the plane was flown by the pilot

Intransitive Verb : arrive

Correct : the plane arrived on time

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Some common intransitive verbs are appear, arrive, become. Come, go,

happen, occur, rain, and stay. Motion verbs such as go, come, walk, run, and

arrive are often intransitive.

Some transitive verbs do not have passive forms. These include stative

verbs such as cost, fit, have, resemble, suit, and, weigh.

Correct : You resemble your father.

Incorrect : You are resemble by your father.

d. Use the passive voice in following tenses. Note that the form of is in the same

tenses as the tense of the active verb.

Tense Active Voice Passive Voice

Simple Present He washes the car The car is washed by him

Present Progressive

He is washing the car The car is being washed by him

Present Perfect He has washed the car

The car has been washed by him

Simple Past He washed the car The car was washed

by him

Past Progressive He was washing the car

The car was being washed by him

Past Perfect He had washed the

car

The car had been washed by him

Future with will He will wash the car The car will be washed by him

Future with be going

He is going to wash the car

The car is going to be washed by him

Future perfect He will have washed the car

The car will have been washed by him

e. Object pronoun(me, him, her, etc.) in the active voice become subject

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ACTIVE SENTENCE PASSIVE VOICE

Subject Verb Object Subject Verb

Thousand of people

elected Her she was

elected

(by thousand people) The

Chinese

Built It it was

built

(by the Chinese)

3. Usage of Active and Passive Voice

Milada Broukal and Ingrid Wisniewska in their book, “Grammar Form

and Function”, mention some of the usage of the passive voice as follows29

:

a. The passive voice is used when the agent is not known or unimportant.

b. The passive voice uses by + an agent, it is usually because the subject of the

sentence is more important than the agent, but we want to express them both.

c. The passive voice is used to make a sentence more impersonal, in situations

involving rules, instruction, announcements, advertisement, or processes.

d. The passive voice is used when the agent is obvious from the meaning of the

sentence.

D. Simple Past Tense

1. Definition of Simple Past Tense

Many experts have explained about simple past tense, one of them is

from Patricia K. Werner, that the simple past tense is used to talk about action or

situation in the past30.

Another assumption come from Sidney Greenbaum and Randolph Quirk

that the simple past tense is used to refer a situation set a definite time in the past.

a. The event past is used with dynamic verb sense to refer to a single definite

event in the past. The event may take place over an extended period (The

29

Broukal and Winslewska, Grammar form and Function, (New York: McGraw-Hill Companies, inc., 2005), pp. 214-215.

30

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Normans invaded England in 1006) or at a point of time (The plane left at.

9.am)

b. The habitual past is used with dynamic verb senses to refer to past events that

repeatedly occur :We spent our holidays in Spain when we were children.

c. The state past is used with stative verb sense to refer to a single unbroken

state of affairs in the past : I once liked reading novels31.

From the statements above, the writer concludes that simple past tense is a

tense that tell something happened in the past, sometimes at habitual past.

2. Form of Simple Past Tense

Use the simple past tense to talk about completed past events and

activities.

Example Note

Affirmative He helped her paint.

I stayed up last night. We listened to music after dinner.

The children played games in the living room.

All regular verbs take an-end ending in the past tense. This form is used for all subject, both singular and plural.

Negative Her roommate didn’t

like that restaurant.

We didn’t order a

pizza last night.

My family didn’t own

a computer until

recently.

I didn’t live in a dorm

last year.

For negative past tense verbs, use did not before the simple past form of the main verb. The contraction for did

not is didn’t.

Simple past tense yes/no question include did(n‟t) before the subject. Note

that the main verb in the question is in the simple form. There is no final –ed

ending in the question form.

31

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Yes/No Question and Short Answer

Possible Answer

Example Affirmative Negative

Affirmative Question

Did your mother cook last night? Did you move to a new apartment? Did the neighbors visit last night

Yes, she did

Yes, I did

Yes, they did

No, she didn’t

No, I didn’t

No, they didn’t

Negative Question

Didn’t she rent

a video last night?

Didn’t he call

you at home?

Didn’t they

paint their house a few years ago?

Yes, she did

Yes, I did

Yes, they did

No, she didn’t

No, I didn’t

No, they didn’t

3. Usage of Simple Past Tense

Here are some usages of simple past tense declared by wishon and burksin

their book, “Let‟s write English”.

a. The simple past tense is used to report a state or activity which can be

ascribed to a definite past time. A past adverbial is either expressed or else

understood from the context in which the past tense used.

The airplane arrived at noon.

She finished her university studies at the age of twenty.

I had a busy yesterday; I wrote many letters.

b. The past tense is also used for activities that occurred over a period of time in

the past, but are mow finished, or that occurred at intervals in the past, but

don‟t occur now.

Before the war, I worked for an insurance company.

Last week, I worked until midnight.

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c. The past tense of the verb use combines with to form an auxiliary which is

used to described customary or habitual action in the pat.

I used to be a boy scout

I used to get up at 05.30 every morning.

d. The past form of do as an auxiliary is used with the simple past form of the

verb to express emphasis.

I did study for the examination.

No matter what Lisa said, he did finish the work32.

As we know from the explanation above simple past tense is telling situation

and event in the past.

E. Passive Voice of Simple Past Tense

1. Form of passive voice of simple past tense

The experts have already explained about passive voice and simple past

tense above. If both are fused, there will be a new definition that passive voice of

simple past tense is a sentence in which the subject is the recipient of the action of

the verb that occurs in the past.

To form the passive voice of simple past tense, us was or were + past

participle. The passive voice subject determines whether the verb be is singular or

plural. The agent can be included in the passive sentence is a phrase with by33.

32

George E. Wishon and Julia M. Burks, Let’s Write English, (New York : Litton Education Publishing, Inc.,1980), pp. 195-196.

33_{Werner, et. Al., …, 4}th

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Simple Past Tense

Active Passive

The Dutch invented a simple telescope

A simple telescope was invented by the Dutch

The Italians later developed several telescope

Several telescopes were developed by the Italians

2. Analysis of passive voice of simple past tense

Here, the writer will make an analysis of the sentences as an example.

The sentences :The Dutchinventeda simple telescope

Subject V2 object

Analysis : The sentence has subject (The Dutch), verb 2 (invented,

and object (a simple telescope). It‟s verb is simple past tense and it is a transitive

verb, because there is an object follows it. Thus, it may become passive and it is

shown as follows :

The sentences : A simple telescopewasinventedbythe Dutch

Subject to be past participle by phrase object

Analysis : Subject in passive sentence (A simple telescope) is derived

from object of active sentence as shown above. And the object (The Dutch) in

passive is taken from subject of active sentence. Then to be (was) decides the

subject. Whether it is singular or plural. Therefore, the subject (a simple

telescope) uses to be “was”. Beside that, as it has been shown above, the

transformation of the verb is from simple past to the past participle (invented).

By as a phrase it is used because the object is important to know.

The writer conclude that passive voice used for make the object which is

important to know get more emphasize.

F. The Problem learning Passive Voice

As it has been mentioned in chapter one, students usually find the

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English language teacherssaid that, “teaching materials often concentrate on the

form of standard passive constructions, and practice activities often involve

mechanically transforming active constructions into passive one. Learners

sometimes end up with the impression that passive constructions are some kind of

optional, deviant version of active constructions.”.34

Learners may fail to recognize a passive construction, thinking that the

subject of a sentence is the agent when it isn‟t. For example, in the following, they

may understand that man was the attacker:

 A man was attacked by three women.

This problem is particularly acute:

 Where the facts contradict normal expectations (as in the example).

 In listening as opposed to reading, where the learner can look back and check

 In listening when learners may fail to hear the auxiliary verb (e.g. was)

which makes the sentence passive.

 Where the past tense form and the past participle are the same (e.g. attacked,

but not bit/bitten).35

Based on the description above, the writer concludes that there are two

main difficulties in learning and constructing passive voice, there are: the

difficulty in using of verb be (auxiliary verb) and distinguishing the past tense

form and the past participle.

1. Difficulty in Using of Auxiliary Verb be

The verb is the most complex part of speech. Its varying arrangements

with noun determine the different kinds of sentences-statements, questions,

comments, and exclamations. A verb is a word that asserts something about

persons, things or ideas and is essential to sentence meaning.36

34

Parrot, op. cit., p. 257.

35

Ibid., pp. 294-295.

36

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The verb to be : be, being, am. are, is, was, were, shall be, will be, has

been, have been, had been, shall have been, will have been.37

Be as the main verb has three basic patterns:

Example

a. John is a students be + a noun

b. John is intelligent be + an adjective

c. John was at the library be + a prepositional phrase

Be function as an auxiliary verb as well as a copula. The copula, links

nonverbal predicates (i.e., nouns, adjectives, certain adverbials) with their subject

and serves as a carrier for tense and subject-verb agreement.38

teacher

Copula: John is tall

In boston

Auxiliary: John is talking to Susan. (Progressive aspect)

Many students often confused in using active and passive verb forms. This

is no surprising, because:

a. Be is used make both passive verb-forms and active progressive tenses.

b. Past Participles are used to make both passive verb-forms active perfect

tense.

Compare:

He was calling. (Active-past progressive)

He was called. (passive-past simple)

He has called. (Active-present perfect)

The most common problem in the use of auxiliary verb be is that students

have a tendency to omit it. Second language learners have been observed to omit

the copula regardless of whether or not their native language has an equivalent

form. The other problem involves use of wrong from of be. The multiplicity of

37

Azar, op. cit., p. A6

38

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forms explains while learners sometimes use the wrong form of the verb be in

their speech or writing.39

2. Distinguishing Past Tense Form and The Past Participle

Other difficulty in learning passive voice for students is distinguishing

simple past and past participle, both in regular and irregular verbs.

The passive voice is a form of the verb be (am, is, are, was, were, been,

being) and a past participle (usually past-tense verb). If the verb works with

“have,” as in “have ___,” then it is a past participle.

English verbs have two participles. One, called variously the present,

active, imperfect, or progressive participle, is identical in form to the gerund,

and indeed the term present participle is sometimes used to include the gerund.

The term gerund-participle is also used. The other participle, called variously the

past, passive, or perfect participle, is usually identical to the verbs preterit (past

tense) form; though in irregular verbs the two usually differ.40

According to L.G Alexander, “for regular verbs the past participle has the same form as the simple past tense: e.g., arrive, arrived, and arrived. For

irregular verbs the simple past tense and the past participle can be formed in

variety of ways: e.g., drink, drank, drunk.41

Randolph Quirk and Sidney Greenbaum in A Students Grammar of the

English Language give differences between irregular and regular verb:

a. Irregular verbs either do not have the regular-ed inflection

b. Irregular verb typically, but not necessary have variation in their base vowel:

Choose-chosen, write-wrote-written.

c. Irregular verb have a varying number of distinct form. Since the-s and –

ingforms are predicable for regular and irregular verb alike. The only one

forms that need be listed for irregular verb are the base (V), the past (V-ed1),

and the past participle (V-ed2). 42

39

Murcia and freeman, loc.cit.

40

http:/en.wikipedia.org/wigi/pastparticiple, 23 Maret 2015.

41

Lg. Alexander, Longman English Grammar, (London:Longman Group UK Limited, 1988), p. 171.

42

Randolph Quirk and Sidney Greenbaum, A student’s Grammar of the English

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For irregular verb, the case is more complicated. One generalization we

can make is the following: if a verb form ends in-en. It is a past participle. in other

words, al –en forms are past participle forms: for example, given, been, driven,

eaten, taken. Unfortunately (for it would make the identification of past participles

much simpler), the converse is not true. Not all past participles end in –en. For

example, we have already seen that the past participle form of regular verbs is the

same, superficially, as their past tense form: both end in –ed (e.g., walked,

climbed, breathed). In fact, the identical forms for both the past tense and past

participle are one characteristic of regular verbs.43

43

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27

CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A. The Place and Time of the Research

This research was held at SMP Al Kautsar Parungpanjang-Bogor, which is

located on Jl. Rambutan Raya Kp. Somang Kec. Parungpanjang-Bogor from 20th

May up to 20th of June 2015.

B. The Subject of the research

The subject of the research is the second grade students of SMP Al Kautsar

Parungpanjang-Bogor, academic year 2014/2015. The grade consists of two

classes with the total 50 students, and the writer only took one class which

consists of 25 students, because five of the students was absent, the writter took

20 students as the sample.

C. The Method of Research

In this research, the writer used the qualitative method, and the design of the

research is case study. She analyzed and described the data from the observation

by using qualitative method. Then, the writer analyzed the students error in

transforming voice of simple past tense, and to find out the type of errors, that the

students made most in their test in transforming voice of simple past tense, and

also to know in terms of verb “be”, correct verb, transformation active sentence

into passive sentence and transformation passsive sentence into active sentence.

D. Instrument of the Research

The instruments of the research are observation, tests and interview. First

the writer visited the school to do research. Then, she did unstructured observation

to know teaching learning process, the students‟ error in transforming voice of

simple past tense, and the types of errors that the students made most. Second, the

writer gave the written test as the instrument of the research. This test was focused

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of multiple choice, 10 questions complete the sentences using correct verb of

passive voice of simple past tense and 20 questions essay,10 questions are about

change the following sentences from active into passive form of simple past tense,

and 10 questions are about change the following sentences from passive voice into

active form of simple past tense.

The numbers of item are divided into four parts. Part I to find out the

passive voice of simple past tense form, part II complete each sentence using

correct verb of simple past tense on form of passive voice, part III changing the

following sentences from active into passive form of simple past tense, part IV is

changing the following sentences from passive voice into active form of simple

past tense.

The last,having an interview to the students and teacher. The interview for

students consist of 10 questions about teaching and learning process and the

students‟ understanding about passive voice of simple past tense which was given

to the students. And the interview to the teacher consists of 15 questions about the

methodology of teaching, the students understanding about passive voice of

simple past tense, and what are the difficulties that the students mostly made.

E. The Technique of Collecting Data

In this research, the writer used several techniques to collect the data. She

gave test, interview and observation.

a. Observation

The writer used unstructured observation to know the classroom situation

when teaching learning process, how the teacher taught in the class, and facilities

that support teaching learning process. Also, the writer asked the teacher about the

students difficulties in learning English, especially in using passive voice of

simple past tense, and method or strategy usually the teacher used in teaching. In

addition, she also asked some students about teaching learning process and what

they know about passive voice of simple past tense.

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The writer gave test to the second grade students of SMP Al Kautsar

Parungpanjang-Bogor. The test were about passive voice of simple past tense.

before the students doing the test, the writer gave a little explanation about that

passive voice of simple past tense.

c. Interview

To get the students‟ understanding about passive voice of simple past tense and how the teacher taught the English subject, particularly in teaching

passive voice of simple past tense. the writer used interview that was given to the

students and interview to the English teacher. The interview consist of 10

questions, most of them asking about understanding passive voice of simple past

tense, what difficulties that the students usually made, what are the practices that

usually their teacher gave.

Besides interview to the students, the writer did interview to the English

teacher. The interview consists of 10 questions, most of them asking about the

difficulties of students‟ in using passive voice of simple past tense, what method

that the teacher used in teaching learning process and what are the difficulties that

the students‟ mostly made.

D. The Technique of Data Analysis

The technique of data analysis used by the writer in this research is descriptive

analysis technique (percentage), which is described in the table percentage, the

formula as follow:

= Percentage

= Frequency of error made

= Number of samples which is observed1

1

Anas Sudjiono, Pengantar Statistik Pendidikan, (Jakarta: PT. Raja Grafindo, 2006), p. 87.

(42)

30

A. DATA DESCRIPTION

In this part, the writer is going to provide description about instrument of

data used in this study. The data are English test result about voice of simple past

tense. She gave the test to the 20 students of the second grade of SMP Al Kautsar

Parungpanjang-Bogor which consists of 40 questions. The number of items are

divided into four parts. Part I (to find out the correct forms of passive voice of

simple past tense) which consist of 10 items, part II (complete each sentence using

correct verb of simple past tense on form of passive voice) which consist of 10

items, part III (changing the following sentences from active into passive form of

simple past tense) which consist of 10 items, part IV (changing the following

sentences from passive voice into active form of simple past tense) which consist

of 10 items.

The writer divided the table of data description into five colomns. The first

column consists of students numbers, the second column consists of students

original answers, the third column is the corrections made by the writer, the fourt

column consists of classification of kinds of the passive voice of simple past tense

errors made by students, and the last consists of classification of types of error

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Table 4.1

The Recapitulation of Types of Student’s Error in Using The Passive Voice of Simple Past Tense

Based on the recapitulation of students‟ errors types in Table 4.1, it could

be known that the highest error made by the second grade of Al Kautsar

Parungpanjang is misformation with the total errors 368, and there are 27 errors in

omission. Next, the lowest error of students‟ errors is misordering with the total

errors 13. Then, the writer calculated the frequency and the percentages of

students‟ error types in the table below:

Students Name

Omission Misformation Misordering Total Error

Student 1 3 18 - 21

Student 2 - 16 3 19

Student 3 - 19 - 19

Student 4 1 10 1 12

Student 5 1 17 - 18

Student 6 5 12 1 18

Student 7 2 21 1 24

Student 8 1 24 - 25

Student 9 1 15 - 16

Student 10 3 20 1 24

Student 11 - 13 - 13

Student 12 1 26 - 27

Student 13 3 22 - 25

Student 14 - 22 1 23

Student 15 - 20 - 20

Student 16 1 14 - 15

Student 17 - 21 1 22

Student 18 3 21 2 26

Student 19 - 19 1 20

Student 20 2 18 1 21

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Table 4.2

The Frequency and Percentages of Error Types

Based on the calculation above, it can be concluded that the total errors of

omission are 27 errors with the percentage 7%, misformationare 368 errrors with the percentage of 90% and misorderingare 13 with the percentage of 3%.

The researcher analyzed each student‟s error in their answers. In this

study, the writer found that the common kind the passive voice of simple past

tense error made by the students is in transformation term that is changing active

sentence into passive sentence and in transformation term that is changing passive

sentence into Active sentence and the common type of the error made by the

students in the passive voice of simple past tense error is in misformation.

No Types of

Error

Frequency

of error Precentage of Error

1 Omission 27

2 Misformation 368

3 Misordering 13

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Table 4.3

The Recapitulation of Kinds of Students Error in Using Passive Voice of

Simple Past Tense

Students Name

Frequency of Errors in the Passive Voice of Simple Past

Tense Total

Error Verb

“be” Correct Verb

Transformation Active into

Passive

Transformation Passive into

Active

Student 1 3 5 6 7 21

Student 2 2 5 6 6 19

Student 3 4 4 4 7 19

Student 4 3 2 3 4 12

Student 5 6 3 3 6 18

Student 6 5 3 3 7 18

Student 7 5 5 5 9 24

Student 8 6 5 6 8 25

Student 9 4 3 6 3 16

Student 10 5 5 7 7 24

Student 11 4 2 3 4 13

Student 12 8 6 5 8 27

Student 13 7 6 5 7 25

Student 14 6 5 5 7 23

Student 15 4 4 5 7 20

Student 16 5 4 3 3 15

Student 17 6 5 4 7 22

Student 18 5 6 8 7 26

Student 19 6 4 6 4 20

Student 20 6 5 7 3 21

An Error Analysis on Students' in Transforming Voice of Simple Past Tense