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An Analysis of Grammatical Errors in Essay Writing at Bethany
Elementary School
Riski Veriando Setianda
Abstract
This study investigated errors in English tenses found in the students’ writing
test of 5th grade students at Bethany Elementary School offered in first semester, 2012-2013 academic year. There were 12 students participated in
this study The data were collected from the students’ essay about daily activities and holiday. It was found that the students still had problems in using two basic tenses, i.e Simple Present Tense and Simple Past Tense. I suggested that the teachers need to focus not only on the organization of writing but also on the grammar especially tenses when they teach writing.
Keywords: Error, Simple Past tense, Simple Present Tense
Introduction
Nowadays, English is becoming more important. More than three hundred million people are speaking English as native speakers and more than four hundred million people speak English as second or foreign language (Rad, 2007). In recent years, the teaching of English in Indonesia is expanding into primary or elementary school setting as a local content course. Teaching English for young learners has been officially permitted since 1994 to prepare human resources in the future. It may be considered as a controversial issue in teaching English as a foreign language in Indonesia. Introducing English to young learners is arguable especially from the linguistic point of views.
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reading, and writing. “in order to master the English language, learners have to be adequately exposed to all of the four basic skills, namely listening, speaking, reading and writing”
(Brown, 2000). Writing is one of the skills in which learners or students express their ideas, comments, or opinions as a means of communication. Bryne (1979) explained that writing is transforming our thoughts into language. In other words, writing can be defined as a way of communication by transforming observations, information, thought, or ideas into language, so it can be shared with others. Also, Bryne (1979) added that it is neither easy nor spontaneous; it requires conscious mental effort. Writing is not only just transforming our thought or idea in written form but also it relays to the process of monitoring any single words or features that we have written and the process of rereading and revising our writing. Writing gives unique opportunities of explore ideas and enquire information.
Horton (1982) defined writing as away to express people‟s feelings, emotions, and
ideas in order to find the most suitable words to convey message and also saying something in different way. Brigdes and Lunsford (1984) emphasized that writing is a process in which learners are encouraged to be more active in expressing the ideas. However, it is not easy to develop a good piece of writing, especially for children. Warren (1985) proposed that writing is no trouble; just jot down ideas as they occur. The jotting is simple. It is the occurring which is difficult.
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more enthusiastic and lively as learners than adults because a child‟s thinking develops as
gradual growth of knowledge and intellectual skill toward a find stage of formal and logical thinking” (Cameron 2001, p.2). I believe that almost all children have imaginations which
can help them to express ideas. Expressing idea is the main way to start a good writing.
The difficulties of writing may cause mistakes which children do not realize. That mistake actually happen from the student‟s understanding about the pattern, in this case is
grammar. Written language cannot be separated from grammatical rules. Haffernan and Lincoln (1986) proposed that fine writing needs an effective understanding of grammar. In similar vein, Byrne (1979) suggested that good writing is produced by a good writer who produces sentences which are arranged in a good sequence, a particular order, and linked together in certain ways. Sounds, words, sentences are meaningful within this frame of each language structure and system. Similarly, each language uses its own pattern of arrangement and form for its grammatical meanings. Kroll (1990) believed that English language learners who have already learned to write in another language have knowledge and literacy skills that can help them write in English, but they still face many difficulties. Juel (1994) added that writing has been characterized as the most challenging of the literacy domains. Bassically, writing is a complex process requiring visual memory, attention, phonological processing, semantic operations, and motor performance. It is therefore less specific and less automatized in terms of reading and it can easily be disturbed by the interference of concurrent cognitive and motor operations (Moretti et al., 2003).
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purpose of writing. I believe that every writer has a goal, that is, to make the readers understand what she or he really means by reading her or his writing (Flower, 1985). That is why grammatical aspects in a piece of writing need a special attention. When a piece of writing has problems with grammatical errors, the readers will not understand what the writers really mean. The readers might feel confused when they are reading it. The specific problems especialy happen in each sentence of writing. Sentences are made up of patterns of arrangement of words group, words, stress, etc. On the other hand, children appear to have specific problems separating closed words, including prepositions, articles and conjunctions, from the nearest content word (noun, verb, or adjective) (Ferreiro & Pontecorvo, 1996 ; Tolchinsky & Cintas,2001 ). When words are not semantically salient such as auxiliary verbs, clitics and prepositions in English, separating words accurately can remain difficult in some cases until high school (Tolchinsky, 2003). Bassically, sentences occur in sequences, and each language has its own system for the ordering of sentences in sequences.
All the children‟s writing may have errors in their sentences. Error is “an unwanted
form”, specifically, a form which a particular course designer or teacher does not want
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readable style of writing, whilst appearing informal, is maintained through technical issues which is easy to obfuscate by a children which has poor writing style.
Mistakes, errors, and problems in children‟s writing are related with grammar.
Without knowing the grammar of the language, they may get a lot of difficulties. Wilson in Rean (1971:102) stated that grammar of language is the system of devices which carry the structural meanings of that language in speech and writing. This system specifies the way words in a given language are related to each other. Grammar is the sound, structure, and meaning system of language. All languages have grammar, and each language has its own grammar. People who speak the same language are able to communicate because they intuitively know the grammar system of that language, that is, the rules of making meaning. Students who are native speakers of English already know English grammar. They recognize the sounds of English words, the meanings of those words, and the different ways of putting words together to make meaningful sentences.
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found that, when well taught, any kind of grammar (traditional or modern) can be learned by most school children at least at secondary level and in some cases at primary level - for example, fifth-graders (Gale 1967). It is also interesting to remember that grammar was one of the few subjects that teachers taught purely on the basis of what they themselves learned at school, without any kind of 'boost' at university; a subject with such weak intellectual underpinnings is doomed to eventual extinction, so it is imperative to ensure that the same mistake is not repeated.
There are many things that we can learn in grammar, one of them is tenses. Simple present tense and simple past tense are two examples. In the past, they are taught from the first year students of junior high school. Now, they are taught from elementary students. Simple present tense is taught at the first semester of elementary and simple past tense is taught at the second semester. Learning tenses is very important to make a sentence well and clear suitable with the time of the activity. Talking about tenses, most students of Indonesia find it difficult to learn. Based on my observation, when I taught simple present tense and simple past tense to some elementary students, most of the learners had difficulties in using verbs. The learners were confused in using verb –s, verb 1 and verb past, and also in using auxiliary do, does, and did. It is difficult because English has a different system from Indonesia. Their native language influences them in constructing English sentences. In Indonesia, there are no changes of the verb caused by time. There are no concord between subject and the verb either. For example, the sentence „saya makan sekarang and dia makan sekarang‟ in Indonesia the verb is not influenced by the person. In English sentence, „I eat
now and he eats now‟, have different verbs, one of the verb has -s. Therefore, there is a great
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that tenses are the most problem in student‟s writing. They are still confused about plural and
singular, verb agreement, verb be, etc.
This research aimed to analyze the grammatical errors made by the learners in constructing simple present tense and simple past tense in the writing. An Italian proverb says Sbagliando S’impara (we learn through our error) and making mistakes can indeed be regarded as an essential part of learning (Norrish, 1995:1). Students‟ error in learning a
foreign language is a part of learning process. It is impossible for students to learn a foreign language without making mistakes or errors. Because in learning foreign language, making errors is common, acceptable, and important part in order for the teacher to improve the teaching method and provide feedback.
Other study about grammatical errors made by the learners in constructing simple present tense and simple past tense in the writing is on Dyah Yeny‟ thesis (2009). The study used different subject in collecting data. She used Integrated Course 2‟ students of Satya
Wacana Christian University as her subject. This research here used 5th grade elementary students as the subject.
This research aimed to address the following research question; What are the common grammatical errors that occur in the writing of 5th grade of elementary students? The purpose of this research was to describe the common errors in simple present tense and simple past tense of the students‟ writing.
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assistance for those who would like to study further about grammatical errors in writing by children.
The Study
This study used a descriptive method. I used students‟ writing in Bethany Elementary School Salatiga to identify the kinds of grammatical errors. The focus of this research was the grammatical errors in essay writing of 5th grade students of elementary school.
The participants of this research were the students of 5th grade of elementary school at Bethany Elementary School in the 2012 / 2013 academic year. The total number of the student were 12 students. I adopted purposive sampling that based on specific needs. Purposive sampling signifies to see sampling as a series of strategic choices about with whom, where and how to do the research (Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2000).
The research instrument of this study is writing prompt. All subjects were given two series of pictures about holiday (past tense) and daily activities (present tense) and some questions related to the pictures as a guide to write their stories. Then, the students were instructed to write stories. Each student wrote only once (each series of pictures) in a piece of paper and the were given freedom to express their ideas based on the pictures and questions given.
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In analyzing the data, first I read and studied the students‟ writings. Then, I corrected the writings and focused on the tenses errors. After that, I divided the errors based on the two tenses. Next, I arranged the finding of errors in three steps. The first explanation was the intoduction of errors. The second showed the context of errors. The last showed the possible causes of errors and analysis. Finally, I summarized the errors on tenses and presented the result.
Discussion
The purpose of this study was to investigate the common grammatical errors of past tense and present tense. The analysis found 48 errors, which could be divided into two types of tenses errors. There were 22 errors in the simple present tense, and 26 errors in the simple past tense.
A. Number of Simple Past Tense Errors
Type 1-incorrect
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It can be seen in Figure 1 that the number of errors was high. It indicated that making mistakes can indeed be regarded as an essential part of learning (Norrish, 1995:1). Figure 1 shows the number of errors in first type of tenses error. It was Simple Past Tense type. In the simple past tense errors, the student made four types of errors. Type 1 was the incorrect use of Simple past tense verb. Type 2 was the incorrect use of Simple past tense form by adding (be) before the transitive verb. Type 3 was the misuse of Simple past tense because the students used present perfect tense in their sentences. Type 4 was the incorrect use of Simple present tense. The study found 22 errors in type 1 (84%), 1 error in type 2 (4%), 2 errors in type 3 (8%), and 1 error in type 4 (4%). It is clear that the students still made many errors in simple past tense. Mostly, they made errors in type 1 (22 errors (84%)). It was the highest ranked of errors in simple past tense and this study. For further analysis, all types of error from simple past tense were selected and interpreted.
Error type 1. The incorrect use of simple past tense
In the analysis, some students made errors in using simple past tense. The following italicized word(s) or phrase(s) were some the examples of the errors in using simple past tense form:
1. My friend who invited me. I bringa lot of things, such as: blanket, sunblock, etc. 2. I went to the beach yesterday. I spend my holiday only for one day. My family
invited me there.
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tense. So, it should be changed into brought and spent. However, they used the simple present tense.
Error type 2. The incorrect use of simple past tense
In analyzing the data, the writer found another error type in using simple past tense. Here are the examples:
3. I rode a bus to get there. The driver who wasdrove the bus.
The word was (be) in the example above was the incorrect use of the simple past tense form by adding was (be) before the transitive verb. The sentences were inappropriate because was (be) must not preceded by an transitive verb. So, the correct sentence should be,
The driver who drove the bus.
Error type 3. The misuse of simple past tense
In the analysis, the writer also found the misuse of simple past tense. Here are the examples:
4. My brother went to meet my father, and my father has put something in my brother hands. Then we can swim together.
5. I started to go to Jepara. When I havearrived, I saw a beautiful hotel.
12 Error type 4. The incorrect use of simple past tense
From the data that had been collected, the writer found that some students did not use simple past tense form correctly. The following are the examples of the errors:
6. In the second day, I went to the market and bought some food. After that, I‟am swimming and in the night I prepared to go home at 9 p.m.
The sentence above was the example of the incorrect use of simple past tense. If the sentences indicate the activities that happened in the past time, the students should use simple past tense. However, they used present continous tense instead. So, the correct sentennce should be, In the second day, I went to the market and bought some food. After that, I swam and in the night I prepared to go home at 9 p.m.
B. Number of Simple Present Tense Errors
Type 1-absence
Figure 2. Errors in Simple present tense
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Figure 2 shows the number of errors in Simple Present Tense type. In the simple present tense errors, the student made five types of errors. Type 1 was the absence of –s morpheme in the simple present tense verbs for third person singular subject. Type 2 was the misuse of an –s morpheme by adding it to the verb of the second person singular subject. Type 3 was the
misuse of V - ing morpheme by adding it to the verb. Type 4 and type 5 were the incorrect use of simple present tense.. The study found 4 errors in type 1 (18%), 4 errors in type 2 (18%), 7 errors in type 3 (32%), 5 errors in type 4 (23%), and 2 errors in type 5 (9%). It is clear that the students still made many errors in simple present tense. Mostly, they made errors in type 3 (7 errors (32%)). It was the highest number of errors in the simple present tense. For further analysis, all types of errors from simple present tense were selected and interpreted below.
Error type 1. The absence of –s for third person singular subject
In the analysis, the wrong form of simple present tense was found in the students‟ writing. It was the absence of –s morpheme. The following are the examples of the errors:
7. I must find my owm seat. Then the teacher teach us. 8. I go to school use a car. My dad drive it.
The first and the second examples above were inappropriate sentences because there was no –s morpheme in the simple present tense verbs for third person singular subject. The sentences were inappropriate because the students did not add an –s morpheme after the verbs. The words teach and drive should be changed into teaches and drives.
Error Type 3. The misuse of –s for second person singular subject
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9. After that, I take a bath with soap and water. And then I changes my clothes for school.
10. After do the exercise, I brushes my teeth. Then, I take a bath.
The words changes and brushes above were inappropriate. It was the misuse of an –s morpheme by adding it to the verb of the second person singular subject. The sentences were not correct because the verbs should not have an –s morpheme. So, the correct sentences should be, After that, I take a bath with soap and water. And then I change my clothes for school and After do the exercise, I brush my teeth. Then, I take a bath.
Error type 3. The misuse of V-ing present participle
In analyzing the data, the writer found another error type in using simple present tense. Here are the examples:
11.I have dinner at 6 p.m. Then I brushing my teeth.
12.I go to school with my dad. At the school, I studying a lesson. The lesson is English.
The sentences above were the misuse of V - ing morpheme by adding it to the verb. The sentences were not correct because the verbs should not have V - ing morpheme. It should use simple present tense (V1) to tell about routine. The words brushing and studying should be changed into brush and study.
Error type 4. The incorrect use of simple present tense (1)
In the data, the students wrote a daily activities essay, so, they had to use simple present tense. In fact, many students did not use simple present tense. The following are some examples of the errors:
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14.I take a bath at 7 a.m. After that, I was changing clothes for school.
The first and the second examples above were related to the incorrect use of simple present tense. To tell about daily activities, the students should use the simple present tense. However, they used the past continous tense. It made the sentences inappropriate. So, the sentences should be changed into After I have breakfast, I watch TV for a while and I take a
bath at 7 a.m. After that, I change clothes for school.
Error type 5. The incorrect use of simple present tense (2)
The last errors were found from the data that had been collected. The writer found that some students did not use simple past tense form correctly. The following are the examples of the errors:
15.I woke up at 7 o‟clock. After that, I have a warm up before I take a bath. 16.I was woke up at 6 a.m. After that, I have breakfast.
The sentence above was the example of the incorrect use of simple present tense. To tell about daily activities, the students should use the simple present tense. However, they used the simple past tense. It made the sentences inappropriate. So, the sentences should be changed into I wake up at 7 o’clock. After that, I have a warm up before I take a bath and I wake up at 6 a.m. After that, I have breakfast.
Conclusion
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22 errors (84%) in the incorrect use of Simple past tense. Second, it found 1 error (4%) in the incorrect use of Simple past tense form by adding be before the active verb. Third, it found 2 errors (8%) in the misuse of Simple past tense. The last type was 1 error (4%) in the incorrect use of Simple past tense.
Errors in using the simple present tense were found to be the second highest with 22 errrors (46%). There were 5 types of errors in this tense. First, it found 4 errors (18%) in the absence of -s morpheme. Second, it found 4 errors (18%) in the misuse of an –s morpheme. Third, it found 7 errors (32%) in the misuse of V-ing morpheme. Fourth, it found 5 errors (23%) in the incorrect use of Simple present tense. The last type was 2 errors (9%) in the incorrect use of Simple present tense.
The study shows that the students lacked of grammatical knowledge in Simple past tense and Simple present tense. In this case, the finding shows that the students have not mastered the tenses yet. They still make errors both in Simple past tense and Simple present tense. This result was similar with the conclusion of Yusuf Tiono‟ thesis (2010). He
concluded that tenses errors found in students‟ writing were considered as basic error. Those errors occured because the students mistyped the words or they lacked grammatical awareness.
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Since the result of the study, I would like to give the following suggestion. When teaching writing, teachers should focus not only on the organization of writing but also on the grammar especially tenses. This can be done when students are doing revision. Hedge (2001) mentioned that before students submit their writing, teacher should encourage them to do revision, of which grammar correction is one of them. Rereading the text and making changes especially in grammar to improve their writing need to do. During the revison, the teacher should direct the students to add, remove, move, or substitute the incorrect tenses.
Teaching English for young learners‟ material was changing over time. The case of
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Acknowledgment
This thesis would not have been done completely without the help and support from many people. Therefore, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the following people who have assisted me in completing this thesis. First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Lord. I would also like to express my huge appreciation to Prof. Dr. Gusti Astika, M.A., my supervisor, for his patience and kindness in supervising me for the last three month, Maria. Ch. Eko Setyarini, S.S. M.Hum, the examiner of my thesis, for his/her willingness to examine my thesis and giving suggestions for my improvement.
Next, I would like to acknowledge and deepest sincere to my beloved parents, my father, Budi Sunoko, who has been passed away, I am sorry if I cannot made you proud yet, I wish I could reply all your kindness to me, and my mother, Siti Rondiyah, for every thing that she has done for me and the endless love in giving me her support morally and financially all through this year. I also wish to express my love and gratitude to my beloved families, my brother, Aulfiando Setianda, my sister in law, Maria Fransiska, also my niece and my nephew, Theodora Celina setianda and Theodorus Jovan Cakra Setianda; for their support to my study.
I would also like to thank to my whole big family that each also helps me in their own way. All of my friends that I can not mention one by one. Thank you for everyone who‟s
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Harris. R. J. (1962). An experimental inquiry into the fuctions and value of formal grammar in the teaching of English. London: University of London.
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Tolchinsky, L., & Cintas, C. (2001). The development of graphic words in written Spanish: What can be learnt from counterexamples? In L. Tolchinsky (Ed.), Developmental aspects in learning to write (pp. 77–95). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic.
22 Appendix A
Use this picture below as ilustration to help you in making a good story
Write your daily activities and use the pictures as a guide. Use present tense in your writing. This questions below will help you to arrange your writing, answer it in full sentences!
1. When do you wake up (picture 1)? 2. What do you do next (picture 2)?
3. What do you do before you take a bath (picture 3)? 4. When do you take a bath (picture 4)?
5. What do you do before you go to school (picture 5)? 6. Who drives you to school (picture 6)?
7. What do you do/learn at school (picture 7)? 8. When do you go home (picture 8)?
9. What do you do after you get back home (picture 9)? 10. When do you have dinner (picture 10)?
23 Appendix B
Use this picture below as ilustration to help you in making a good story
Look at the series of picture above. Write your own family holiday and use these pictures as a guide. Use past tense in your writing. This questions below will help you to arrange your writing. Answer it in full sentences!
1. Where did you go for your family holiday (picture 1)? 2. When did you go there (picture 2)?
3. How long did you spend on your holiday (picture 2)? 4. Who invited you there (picture 3)?
5. What did you bring on your holiday (picture 4)? 6. What did you ride to go there (picture 5)? 7. Who drove it (picture 5)?
24 Appendix C
List of students’ error in simple present tense Table 1. Type 1
Number of student‟s
errors
Students‟ errors The corrections
1 My dad drive a car. My dad drives a car.
2 The teacher come and... The teacher comes and...
3 The driver drive it. The driver drives it.
4 Then the teacher teach us. Then the teacher teaches us.
Table 2. Type 2
Number of students‟errors
Students‟errors The correction
1 I wakes up at 6.30 o‟clock. I wake up at 6.30 o‟clock.
2 I brushes my teeth. I brush my teeth.
3 Then I changes my clothes for the school.
Then I change my clothes for the school.
4 My parents drives me to school every Monday to Friday.
25 Table 3. Type 3
Number of students‟errors
Students‟errors The correction
1 I studying a lesson. I study a lesson.
2 I eating with my dad. I eat with my dad.
3 After I wake up, I warming up. After I wake up, I warm up.
4 I taking a bath. I take a bath.
5 I learning Math, English, Science, etc.
I learn Math, English, Science, etc.
6 I brushing my teeth. I brush my teeth.
7 I going to take a bath. I go to take a bath.
Table 4. Type 4
Number of student‟s
errors
Students‟errors The correction
1 After breakfast, I was watching
TV for a while.
After breakfast, I watch TV for a while.
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3 After I finished, I was changing
my clothes.
After I finished, I change my clothes.
4 In the school, I was learning and
eating.
In the school, I learn and eat.
5 I was taking a dinner. I take a dinner.
Table 5. Type 5
Number of student‟s
errors
Students‟errors The correction
1 I woke up at 07.00 o‟clock. I wake up at 07.00 o‟clock.
27 Appendix D
List of students’ error in simple past tense
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and see the beautiful mountain.
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my brother hand. brother hand.
2 When I have arrived... When I arrived...
Table 4. Type 4
Number of students’errors
Students’errors The correction
1 After that Iam swimming and in the night I...
After that I swam and in the night I...
