i
SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT ERRORS MADE BY STUDENTS IN PARAGRAPH WRITING CLASS
A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By
Yustinus Calvin Gai Mali Student Number: 071214039
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA
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A Sarjana Pendidikan Thesis on
SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT ERRORS MADE BY STUDENTS IN PARAGRAPH WRITING CLASS
By
Yustinus Calvin Gai Mali Student Number : 071214039
Approved by
Advisor
Date
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SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT ERRORS MADE BY STUDENTS IN PARAGRAPH WRITING CLASS
By
YUSTINUS CALVIN GAI MALI Student Number : 071214039
Defended before the Board of Examiners on 2 December 2011
and Declared Acceptable
Board of Examiners
Chairperson : C. Tutyandari, S.Pd., M.Pd. _______________ Secretary : Made Frida Yulia, S.Pd., M.Pd. _______________ Member : Made Frida Yulia, S.Pd., M.Pd. _______________ Member : Carla Sih Prabandari, S.Pd., M.Hum. _______________ Member : C. Tutyandari, S.Pd., M.Pd. _______________
Yogyakarta, 2 December 2011
Faculty of Teachers Training and Education Sanata Dharma University
Dean,
iv Temukanlah tujuan hidupmu Capailah itu
dan
JANGAN PERNAH BERHENTI Sebelum kamu mencapainya...
listener-v
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY
I honestly declare that this thesis, which I have written, does not contain the work or parts of the work of other people, except those cited in the quotations and the references, as a scientific paper should.
Yogyakarta, 11 November 2011
The Writer
vi ABSTRACT
Mali, Yustinus Calvin Gai. 2011. Subject-Verb Agreement Errors Made by Students in Paragraph Writing Class. Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma University.
Writing is one of the skills learnt by ELESP students. They learn how to produce English sentences which are grammatically correct. Therefore, to be able to produce the correct sentences, they need to apply the required grammatical elements in the sentences which they write correctly. One of the required grammatical elements to apply in the sentences is subject-verb agreement. Thus, they are required to master subject-verb agreement and to apply it accurately in order to enable them to always produce English sentences which are grammatically correct. Besides, they are also prepared to be future English teachers, the one who later becomes the model for his/her future students, in a real school where writing skill, involving subject-verb agreement, becomes a skill that is still taught. It is ironic if an English teacher is unable to give an example of the correct sentence. Therefore, before coming to the school and being the model for students, ELESP students have to master subject-verb agreement well and to be able to minimize the occurrence of subject-verb agreement errors. However, the writer still finds the fact that ELESP students make the errors. For that reason, it would be significant to find out the errors made by the students as well as to discover the factors behind the errors.
There were two problems to be solved in this research. Those problems are (1) What are subject-verb agreement errors that are made by students in Paragraph Writing class of ELESP? (2) What are the factors that cause students in Paragraph Writing class of ELESP to make those subject-verb agreement errors?
To answer the first research question, the writer conducted a document analysis. The documents to analyze were the written work of students in class B of Paragraph Writing at ELESP in 2010/ 2011 academic year. Then, the errors found in the students’ written work were classified into several categories of errors based on surface structure taxonomy. Furthermore, to answer the second research question, the writer carried out an interview whose respondents were eight students of class B of Paragraph Writing who made various subject-verb agreement errors.
From the data gathered, the writer found that most of the errors belonged to misinformation category (71.4%) and were subsequently followed by omission category (17.9%) and addition category (10.7%). Then, based on the result of the interview, the writer found five (5) major factors that caused the students to make the errors, namely interlingual error, ignorance of rule restrictions, incomplete application of rules, false concepts hypothesized, and carelessness. Based on the research results, the writer proposed recommendations for students, lecturers in Paragraph Writing class, and future researchers who want to follow up this research.
vii ABSTRAK
Mali, Yustinus Calvin Gai. 2011. Subject-Verb Agreement Errors Made by Students in Paragraph Writing Class. Yogyakarta: Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Menulis merupakan salah satu bidang keahlian yang dipelajari oleh para mahasiwa Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Sanata Dharma Yogyakarta. Mereka belajar bagaimana menghasilkan kalimat-kalimat Bahasa Inggris yang benar secara gramatikal. Oleh karena itu, untuk mampu menghasilkan kalimat-kalimat yang benar secara gramatikal, para mahasiswa perlu untuk mengaplikasikan secara benar elemen-elemen gramatikal yang diperlukan di dalam kalimat-kalimat yang mereka tulis tersebut. Salah satu elemen gramatikal yang diperlukan di dalam kalimat-kalimat tersebut adalah kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja. Jadi, para mahasiswa diwajibkan untuk menguasai kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja dan diwajibkan pula untuk mengaplikasikan secara akurat kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja tersebut dengan tujuan untuk memungkinkan mereka agar selalu menghasilkan kalimat-kalimat Bahasa Inggris yang benar secara grammatikal. Selain itu, para mahasiswa Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris juga dipersiapkan untuk menjadi seorang guru Bahasa Inggris di masa yang akan datang, yang nantinya menjadi seorang model bagi para muridnya pada masa mendatang, di sekolah dimana keahlian menulis yang melibatkan kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja menjadi suatu keahlian yang masih diajarkan. Menjadi ironis jika seorang guru Bahasa Inggris tidak mampu untuk memberikan contoh tentang suatu kalimat menggunakan kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja dengan benar. Oleh karena itu, sebelum berada di sekolah dan menjadi model bagi para muridnya, para mahasiswa Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris harus menguasai kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja dengan baik dan harus mampu untuk memperkecil munculnya kesalahan-kesalahan tentang kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja. Akan tetapi, penulis masih menemukan fakta bahwa para mahasiswa Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris membuat kesalahan-kesalahan pada kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja. Karena itu, untuk mengetahui kesalahan-kesalahan pada kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja yang dibuat oleh para mahasiswa Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris dan menelusuri faktor-faktor yang menyebabkan munculnya kesalahan-kesalahan tersebut akan menjadi bermanfaat.
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Untuk menjawab pertanyaan pertama dalam penelitian ini, penulis melakukan suatu analisis dokumen. Dokumen yang dianalisis ialah karya tertulis para mahasiswa di kelas Paragraph Writing B pada Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris di Universitas Sanata Dharma angkatan 2010/ 2011. Kemudian, kesalahan-kesalahan yang ditemukan diklasifikasikan ke dalam beberapa kategori kesalahan berdasarkan surface structure taxonomy. Selanjutnya, untuk menjawab pertanyaan kedua dalam penelitian ini, penulis melakukan interview yang respondennya ialah delapan mahasiswa di kelas Paragraph Writing B yang membuat beragam kesalahan tentang kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja.
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LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN
PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma: Nama : Yustinus Calvin Gai Mali
Nomor Mahasiswa : 071214039
Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:
Subject-Verb Agreement Errors Made by Students in Paragraph Writing Class
beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di Internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.
Demikian pernyataan ini yang saya buat dengan sebenarnya.
Dibuat di Yogyakarta
Pada tanggal : 14 Desember 2011 Yang menyatakan
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Initially, I would like to thank my Savior, Jesus Christ. He has given His grace and love, so I could finish this thesis. “I thank you Lord!”
Then, I would like to express my great thankfulness to my major sponsor, Made Frida Yulia, S.Pd., M.Pd., for her time, guidance, and advice given to me during the writing process of this thesis. Without her help, I would have never been able to finish this thesis.
I am also greatly indebted to the lecturer of class B of Paragraph Writing, Cristina Kristiyani, S.Pd., M.Pd. Shegave me the permission to access the data I needed and to interview the students in her class.
My sincere thankfulness also goes to the respondents of my research, students in class B of Paragraph Writing of 2010/2011 academic year. I thank them very much for their written work which I used as the data of this research. I also thank them for their time and cooperation to be the respondents of the interview.
I also thank Mbak Tari and Mbak Danik. I thank them for all their precious help to me during my study at the English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University. Their help is precious to me.
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I thank my beloved brother, Peter Chrysologus Lando Mali, S.E. I thank him so much for his worthful advice. I also thank my beloved cousin, Heronima Yustina Mina for her help and motivation.
Profound thankfulness is addressed to Florentinus Ari Mursodo. I thank him very much for his precious help. I also thank him for his valuable advice.
My special thanks go to Regina Ndiki and Theodora Dhambo, my aunts. I thank them very much for their prayers to me. Afterwards, I also thank Ir. Wawan Edi Dayanto, B.Sc. and Sony Etwan Kisworo, S.E., who supported my study.
I also express my sincere thankfulness to Jessica Christiana Pattinasarany, M.A., my aunt, for the sharing and for some references which really supported my thesis. Then, I also thank Hana Haryono and Lidya Ariyani, my other aunts, for their help and support.
My special thanks also go to my beloved friends in PBI: Deny, Ian, Arum, Sr.Yusta, Redy, Reta, Gaby, Merici, Dian, and all friends in PROCESS 2009/2010. What we have done together is unforgettable.
Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to all people and friends whose names I could not mention here. I thank them very much for their support and prayers. Without them all, I could have never reached this achievement. Once again, I personally thank them all!
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
TITLE PAGE... i
APPROVAL PAGES... ii
DEDICATION PAGE... iv
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY... v
ABSTRACT... vi
ABSTRAK... vii
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS... ix
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS... x
TABLE OF CONTENTS... xii
LIST OF TABLES... xvi
LIST OF APPENDICES... xvii
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION A. Research Background ... 1
B. Research Problem ... 6
C. Problem Limitation ... 7
D. Research Objectives ... 8
E. Research Benefits ... 8
xiii
CHAPTER II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
A. Theoretical Description ... 13
1. Subject-Verb Agreement ... 13
a. Subject Verb Concord in Number ... 14
b. Subject Verb Concord in Person ... 16
2. Subjects in English ... 19
a. Noun ... 19
b. Pronoun ... 22
c. There Is and There Are ... 28
3. Verb Phrases ... 28
4. Errors ... 30
a. Definition ... 30
b. The Sources of Errors ... 31
c. Other Possible Sources of Errors ... 35
d. Types of Errors ... 38
e. The Significance of Errors ... 41
5. Error Analysis ... 42
a. Steps of Error Analysis ... 42
B. Theoretical Framework ... 44
CHAPTER III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY A. Research Method ... 47
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C. Research Participants... 48
D. Instruments and Data Gathering Technique ... 50
1. Human as a Research Instrument ... 50
2. Document ... 51
3. Interview ... 52
E. Data Analysis Technique ... 55
1. The Data from Students' Written Work ... 55
2. The Data from the Interview ... 57
F. Research Procedure ... 58
CHAPTER IV. RESEARCH RESULTS AND FINDINGS A. The Students’ Subject-Verb Agreement Errors ... 60
1. Data Presentation of the Errors Made by the Students ... 60
2. Discussion on the Errors Made by the Students ... 62
B. The Factors that Caused the Students to Make the Errors.... 70
1. Data Presentation of the Factors that Caused the Students to Make the Errors ... 70
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CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
A. Conclusions ... 87
1. The Students' Subject-Verb Agreement Errors ... 87
2. The Factors that Caused the Students to Make Subject-Verb Agreement Errors ... 88
B. Recommendations ... 90
1. For Students in Paragraph Writing Class ... 91
2. For Lecturers in Paragraph Writing Class ... 91
3. For Future Researchers ... 92
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LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
2.1 The Forms of Be... 17
2.2 The Modal Auxiliaries... 18
2.3 List of Uncountable Nouns... 21
2.4 The Pairs of Singular and Plural Pronouns... 23
2.5 The Pairs of Singular and Plural Pronouns with Their Be... 23
2.6 The Pairs of Singular and Plural Pronouns with Their Verb... 23
2.7 Universal Indefinites... 25
2.8 Partitive Indefinites... 26
2.9 The of-partitives... 27
3.1 The Classification and the Examples of the Errors Made by the Students 56
3.2 The Number of Subject-Verb Agreement Errors Made by the Students... 57
4.1 The Number of Subject-Verb Agreement Errors Made by the Students... 61
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LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix Page
A. Surat Ijin Penelitian ... 97
B. Samples of Students’ Written Work ... 99
C. The Classification and the Examples of Errors Made by the Students ... 108
D. The Interview Blueprint ... 115
E. The Interview Guide ... 121
F. Data Classification of the Interview ... 125
G. Data Classification of the Interview (English version) ... 145
H. Samples of Interview Transcripts ... 163
1 CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This introductory chapter consists of six parts. They are research background, research problem, problem limitation, research objectives, research benefits, and definition of terms.
A.Research Background
The English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University Yogyakarta, henceforth called ELESP, aims to prepare its students to become not only as an English language user in professional fields but also as a future English teacher. As teachers candidates who are going to be a model for their future students, ELESP students are required to learn English skills and to master the skills before they are ready to teach the skills to their future students and be a model for their future students. One of the skills that they learn is English writing. In writing an English sentence, ELESP students are required to write a subject and a verb within the sentence. Then, they also have to think about the agreement between the subject and the verb within the sentence.
correct subject-verb agreement in a sentence and to teach their future students of a sentence whose subject-verb agreement is correct. Otherwise, they will not be able to apply correct subject-verb agreement in a sentence. Consequently, they will not be able to teach and to guide their students to do so.
Moreover, teacher candidates are going to deal with the agreement between subject and verb when they have become a real English teacher in the classroom. It is because writing skill becomes one of the skills that is still taught to students in the school. It means that it is possible that in the real classroom especially in writing lesson, an English teacher will be asked by his or her students to give a lot of examples of English sentences whose subject-verb agreement is correct. Besides, teacher candidates are going to often deal with the subject-verb agreement when they have become a real English teacher not only in the school but also in some places where they have to teach someone, especially about writing. For example, it may happen when teacher candidates have to become private teachers for their private students who are also possible to have some lessons about subject-verb agreement. It means that teacher candidates also have to be able to be a model for their private students, especially become a model in teaching a sentence whose subject-verb agreement is correct. Therefore, learning, understanding and mastering subject-verb agreement in writing a sentence becomes an essential thing to do by ELESP students.
making errors become an inevitable part of learning (p.138). However, Norrish (1983) states that in language learning, errors are important in a process of learning and the errors may actually become an essential part in learning a language (p. 6).
Considering the importance of learning, understanding and mastering agreements between a subject and a verb in a sentence and the fact that learners make errors in the process of learning, the researcher is interested to study subject-verb agreement errors made by students in Paragraph Writing class at ELESP. Then, the factors that cause them to make those subject-verb agreement errors are also analyzed.
Furthermore, in this study, cluster random sampling is chosen by the researcher. Cluster random sampling can be defined as the selection which focuses on groups or clusters of subjects rather than individuals (Fraenkel & Wallen, 2009, p. 95). The second semester students in a Paragraph Writing class of ELESP, who can be the representative of subject-verb agreement errors made by the second semester students in other Paragraph Writing classes of ELESP, are chosen as the sample of the research.
class in semester one. Moreover, all students have to write a descriptive text, which requires them to apply Present Tense in writing the sentences, in their Progress Test II. In addition, the consideration of the accessibility to the respondents, time, and financial reasons also make the researcher choose students in a Paragraph Writing class at ELESP as the sample of this research.
especially in giving the example of a sentence whose subject-verb agreement is correct when they have graduated and have become a real English teacher.
Furthermore, when ELESP students graduate, they are considered as a master of English, whose accuracy is highly required. Further, ELESP students will not be considered anymore as learners whose errors are tolerable. If they cannot write a sentence whose subject-verb agreement is correct, they will not be able to teach and to guide their students to do so. Therefore, students especially in Paragraph Writing class at ELESP are required and encouraged to master subject-verb agreement since they are in the beginning semester.
Actually, in year 1990, which was twenty one years ago, there was a researcher who conducted the research which was similar with this research. Nevertheless, there are some differences between the previous research and this research. The participants of the previous research were students in three Senior High Schools in Yogyakarta. Then, the previous research aimed to find out the kinds of problems which were usually faced by high school students in Indonesia in handling subject-verb concord of number and person and the underlying reasons for having such problems. In addition, the previous research used two types of tests which were completion test and two-choice test as the instruments to obtain the data. In the previous research, two-choice test was defined as a test that provides only two options for students to decide which one of the two is correct.
agreement errors made by students in Paragraph Writing class at ELESP and to find out the factors that cause them to make those subject-verb agreement errors. Furthermore, this research uses human as a research instrument, the document, which is students’ written work of Progress Test II, and interview as the instruments to obtain the data.
Because this research presents subject-verb agreement errors made by students in Paragraph Writing class at ELESP and the factors behind it, the students are expected to see and to know the errors that they made, to realize the factors behind their errors, to learn from their errors, and then not to make the same errors in other writing classes held in upper semesters.
When the students are able to always write sentences whose subject-verb agreement is correct since they are in the lower semester, it will lead them to become a future English teacher who does really understand and master subject-verb agreement in a sentence. This condition will also lead them to become English teachers who are able to be a model for their future students especially in giving the example of a sentence whose subject-verb agreement is correct and to teach their future students to write a sentence using correct subject-verb agreement, afterwards.
B.Research Problem
1. What are subject-verb agreement errors that are made by students in Paragraph Writing class of ELESP?
2. What are the factors that cause students in Paragraph Writing class of ELESP to make those subject-verb agreement errors?
C.Problem Limitation
In order to make this research feasible and to make readers obtain the point of the research, the researcher limits the research to a certain area. The researcher is only concerned with subject-verb agreement errors made by the second semester students in one Paragraph Writing class of ELESP in 2010/2011 academic year.
The grounds for the limitation are that the students in Paragraph Writing class are still at the beginning level where errors, particulary in subject-verb agreement, tend to happen. In addition, they are prepared to be English teachers who must be able to be a model for their future students especially in giving the example of a sentence whose subject-verb agreement is correct. Besides, the students in one Paragraph Writing class are chosen as the participants of the study because the researcher considered them the representative of subject-verb agreement errors made by the second semester students in other Paragraph Writing classes at ELESP.
or a mistake. Therefore, the researcher assumes that every incorrect subject-verb agreement in a sentence is due to the errors that students make.
D.Research Objectives
In this study, the researcher determines two objectives. They are to find out:
1. Subject-verb agreement errors made by students in Paragraph Writing class of ELESP.
2. The factors that caused students in Paragraph Writing class of ELESP to make those subject-verb agreement errors.
E.Research Benefits
students in Paragraph Writing make, and then to be able to become not only as an English language user in professional fields but also as a language teacher who masters subject-verb agreement. Therefore, when they graduate, it will make them able to become a model for their students especially in giving the example of a sentence whose subject-verb agreement is correct.
E.Definition of Terms
In order to make it easier for readers to follow the discussion and to avoid misinterpretation and misunderstanding, the researcher presents some terms that are often used in this research. They are:
1. Subject-Verb Agreement
In order to be able to give the definition of subject-verb agreement, the researcher, first, tries to define the definition of subject and verb. Langan (1996) defines that a subject is who or what the sentence speaks about (p. 297). This research agrees that subject is who or what the sentence speaks about. Then, Langan (1996) mentions that verb is what the sentence says about the subject and verb also tells people the time of an action (p. 297, p. 347). In addition, according to Ellsworth (1981), verb is a word or group of words used to tell something about the subject (p. 9). In this research, verb refers to a word or group of words used to tell something about the subject and to tell people the time of an action.
number and in person (p. 12). Then, Quirk and Greenbaum (1973) mention that the subject is used to determine concord, with those parts of the verb that distinguish between singular and plural, and the selected verb depends on whether the subject is singular or plural (p. 10). In this research, subject-verb agreement can be defined as a rule which states that verb must agree with its subject, which determines concord, in number and in person.
2. Error
called as mistake in some language literature (Corder, 1967, as cited in Dulay et al., 1982, p. 139), or competence errors. Besides, Dulay et al. (1982, p. 139), further mention that the disctinction between performance and competence error is essential, but to determine the nature of a deviation without doing careful analysis is still not easy to do. In addition, it is difficult to determine whether the wrong or the incorrect rules of subject-verb agreement applied in a sentence by the students is an error or a mistake because at that time the students were in Progress Test, where they did not have a chance to revise their written work. Therefore, in this research, the researcher assumes that every incorrect subject-verb agreement in a sentence that the students in Paragraph Writing class made is an error.
3. Paragraph Writing Course
Paragraph Writing is a writing course in the second semester at ELESP. This Paragraph Writing course is held after Basic Writing course in semester one. It means that students who enter Paragraph Writing class are those who are only equipped with the theory of writing from Basic Writing class in semester one. In addition, students who enter Paragraph Writing class are mostly new students who have just studied for two semesters at ELESP.
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CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
In this chapter, the researcher discusses two major areas of discussion on which this research is based. The first are the theories related to the research, which are elaborated in the theoretical desccription. The second is the presentation of the theoretical framework which elaborates the framework synthesized from the discussed theories in the theoretical description.
A.Theoretical Description
This section deals with the theories to support the accomplishment of the research. This section, then, is divided into five parts, namely subject-verb agreement, subjects in English, verb phrases, error and error analysis.
1. Subject -Verb Agreement
is and as in plural: the films are and concord of person, for example, as in 1st person: I am and as in 2nd person: you are (p. 260).
Furthermore, Quirk and Greenbaum (1973) state that the selected form of a verb, which permits a distinction between singular and plural, depends on whether the subject is singular as in the man makes, or plural as in the men make (p. 11). Greenbaum (1989) adds that the agreement of subject and verb is always applied whenever the verb displays disctinctions in number and in person (p. 208). Greenbaum (1989) further states that for all verbs other than be, the distinctions only happen in Present Tense, where the third person singular has the –s form and the third person plural, which is like the first and the second persons, has the base form (p. 208).
a. Subject Verb Concord in Number
According to Langan (1996), subject-verb concord in number means that a verb must agree with its subject in number (p. 338). The concord of number occurs between a subject and its finite verb. Langan (1996) states that a singular subject, which is one person or thing, takes a singular verb, while a plural subject, which is more than one person or thing, takes a plural verb (p. 338). For examples:
[1] The man buys a new car. [2] Budi is a student.
The subject in sentence [1] and in sentence [2] is singular, so it should be followed by a singular verb. However, the subject in sentence [3] and in sentence [4] is plural, so a plural verb should follow the subject.
Greenbaum (1989) states that the rule of subject-verb agreement in number should also be applied to all finite clauses, whether they are main clauses or subordinate clauses (p. 209). Then, according to Langan (1996), if subjects in a sentence are joined by either...or, neither...nor, not only...but also, the verb should agree with the subject that is closer to the verb (p. 340). The examples are:
[5] Neither Desta normy friendswant to come to the room. [6] Either Agus or Tiadrinks a glass of milk everyday.
In sentence [5], the nearest subject, my friends, is plural, so the verb that follows the subject should be plural. However, in sentence [6], the nearest subject, Tia, is singular, so the singular verb should follow the subject.
In addition, Greenbaum (1989) mentions that if a subject in a sentence consists of two or more phrases that are linked by and, even if each subject is singular, the subject has plural meaning (p. 211). The examples are:
[7] Your bicycle, your car, and your motorcycle are expensive. [8] The book, the pen, and the pencil are new.
Besides, the subject will still be plural if and is simplified though not actually present in a sentence (Greenbaum, 1989, p. 211). Sentence [9] and sentence [10] are the examples.
Furthermore, Greenbaum (1989) mentions that if the noun phrases are introduced by each or every, the subject is considered singular (p. 211). For examples:
[11] Every student and every teacher has to buy the ticket. [12] Each man and each woman is given a new book.
In addition, Langan (1996) states that a verb must agree with its subject even when the verb comes before the subject (p. 339). Langan (1996) adds that words that may precede the subject include there, here and, in questions, who, which, what, and where (p. 339).
[13] There are ten students in the classroom. [14] Here is the book.
[15] Where are your pencils?
Furthermore, Langan (1996) mentions that words that come between the subject and the verb in a sentence do not change the subject-verb agreement within the sentence (p. 338).
[16] An old televsion with a round screen shows the best quality. [17] The dogs in the gardens eat a plate of rice every morning.
The subject of sentence [16], television, is singular, so the verb which follows the subject is plural. However, the subject of sentence [17], dogs, is plural. Therefore, the plural verb should follow the plural subject in sentence [17].
b. Subject Verb Concord in Person
essential to explain. In the Present Tense, be has three forms, e.g., I am, He/ She / It is, We/ You / They are (Leech & Svartvik, 1994, p. 264).
For further information, Greenbaum (1989) mentions that the verb be is used to make further distinctions in the present and to show distinctions in the past (p. 208). Table 2.1. is used to show forms of be.
Table 2.1 The Forms of Be (Leech & Svartvik, 1994, p. 243)
Non- negative Uncontracted
negative
Contracted negative
Base Be
Present 1st person singular am, ‘m am not, ‘m not ain’t
3rd person singular is,’s is not, ‘s not isn’t
2nd person singular and all person plural
are, ‘re are not, ‘re not
aren’t
Past 1st and 3rd person singular was was not wasn’t
2nd person singular and plural
were were not weren’t
1st and 3rd person plural were were not weren’t
Then, according to Leech and Svartvik (1994), main verbs, which can be either singular, such as call, like, try or irregular, such as buy, drink, run, have only two forms in the Present Tense (p. 264). The examples are:
[18] He/ She/ Our friend likes cooking.
[19] I/ You/ We/ They/ Our friends like cooking
Sentence [18] shows 3rd person singular, while sentence [19] does not show 3rd person singular.
such as –s forms, -ing forms, or –ed participles (Leech & Svartvik, 1994, p. 243). Furthermore, modal axuiliaries come in front of the simple form of a main verb (Azar & Hagen, 2006, p. 398). For example:
[20] I/ You/ We/ They/ He/ She/ It/ Our friend/ Our friends will cook dinner today.
Table 2.2. is used to show forms of modal auxiliaries.
Table 2.2 The Modal Auxiliaries (Leech & Svartvik, 1994, p. 244)
Non-negative Uncontracted negative Contracted negative
can cannot, can not can’t
could could not couldn’t
may may not mayn’t
might might not mightn’t
shall shall not shan’t
should should not shouldn’t
will will not won’t
would would not wouldn’t
must must not mustn’t
ought to ought not to oughtn’t to
used to used not to didn’t use to
need need not needn’t
dare dare not daren’t
2. Subjects in English
Since the students might possibly use various forms of subjects when they write a sentence, in this section, the researcher presents some possible forms of a subject in English language which deal with the focus of the research as well as the information whether the subject has singular or plural meaning.
a. Noun
According to Curme (1966), a noun is the name given for a living being or lifeless thing (p. 11). Though there are various kinds of noun, in this part, the researcher only presented the various kinds of noun which deal with the focus of the research. Those kinds of nouns are:
1) Proper and Common Nouns
2) Concrete and Abstract Nouns
Greenbaum (1989) states that concrete nouns refer to people, places, or things, such as girl, kicthen, car (p. 108). Then, abstract nouns can be used to show qualities, states, or actions, such as humor, belief, action (Greenbaum, 1989, p. 108). However, some nouns may be either concrete or abstract, depending on their meaning. Some of them are:
[21] Desta can kick a football 52 yards. [22] Desta often plays football on Sundays.
The noun, a football, which shows a concrete noun, can be seen in sentence [21], while the noun, football, which functions as an abstract noun, can be seen in sentence [22]. For further information, according to Greenbaum (1989), there is a tendency that abstract nouns are considered noncount (p. 108).
3) Count and Noncount Nouns
According to Greenbaum (1989), count nouns can be said as entities that are viewed as countable (p. 108). Greenbaum (1989) adds that count nouns, therefore, may have both a singular and a plural form and they can be accompanied by determiners that refer to distinctions in number (p. 108), e.g., singular meanings: a student, one player, every teacher, plural meanings: ten students, many players, those teachers.
distinctions in number (p. 108), such as much information, your information, that information. Then, in this part, the researcher presented typical lists of noncount nouns that are commonly used as noncount nouns and put it in Table 2.3.
Table 2.3 List of Uncountable Nouns (Azar, 1989, p. 206) No Noncount Nouns Category Lists of Noncount Nouns
1 Whole groups made up of similar items
baggage, clothing, equipment, food, fruit, furniture, garbage, hardware, jewelry, junk, luggage, marchinery, mail, makeup, money/cash/change, postage, scenery, traffic.
2 Fluids water, coffee, tea, milk, oil, soup, gasoline, blood.
3 Solids ice, bread, butter, cheese, meat, gold, iron, silver, glass, paper, wood, cotton, wool.
4 Gases steam, air, oxygen, nitrogen, smoke, pollution.
5 Particles rice, chalk, corn, dirt, dust, flour, grass, hair, pepper, salt, sand, sugar, wheat.
6 Abstractions beauty, confidence, courage, education, enjoyment, fun, happiness, health, help, honesty, hospitality, importance, intelligence, justice, knowledge, laughter, luck, music, patience, peace, pride, progress, advice, information, news, evidence, proof, time, space, energy, homework, work, grammar, slang, vocabulary.
7 Languages Arabic, Chinese, English, Spanish.
8 Fields of Study chemistry, engineering, history, literature, mathematics, psychology.
9 Recreation baseball, soccer, tennis, chess, bridge, poker.
10 General Activities driving, studying, swimming, travelling, walking (and other gerunds)
11 Natural Phenomena weather, dew, fog, hail, heat, humidity, lightning, rain, sleet, snow, thunder, wind, darkness, light, sunshine, electricity, fire, gravity.
In addition, there are some nouns which are exceptional or require special comment, such as singular nouns ending in –s (Leech & Svartvik, 1994, p. 317). According to Leech and Svartvik (1994), news has singular meaning (p. 318). It can be seen in sentence [23].
[23] That is good news.
Then, Leech and Svartvik (1994) mention that subject names in –ics are always considered singular (p. 318). They are classics, linguistics, mathematics, phonetics, statistics. The example is:
Names of games ending in –s, such as billiards, darts, dominoes have singular meaning (Leech & Svartvik, 1994, p. 318). The example is:
[25] Billiards is my favourite game.
Besides, Leech and Svartvik (1994) state that the names of some diseases ending in –s, such as measles, mumps, rickets, shingles are usually considered singular (p. 318). In addition, there are also some nouns which occur only in the plural, such as people, police, and trousers (Leech & Svartvik, 1994, p. 318).
[26] Many young people are not going to the cinema. [27] The police have closed the case.
In addition, Leech and Svartvik (1994) add that people is the plural form of person (p. 318).
b. Pronoun
According to Lester (1990), a pronoun means a word that is used in place of one or of more than one noun (p. 23). There are some different types of pronoun. Nevertheless, in this part, the researcher only presents those which deal with the focus of the research.
1) Personal Pronouns
talking about. They are he, she, it, they. Then, the second factor is number. It can be either singular or plural. The researcher used Table 2.4., Table 2.5., and Table 2.6., in order to give more explanation about the second factor of personal pronouns.
Table 2.4 The Pairs of Singular and Plural Pronouns (Lester, 1990, p. 25)
Singular Plural
Table 2.5 The Pairs of Singular and Plural Pronouns with Their Be (Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman, 1999, p. 54)
Copula Be
Present Tense Past Tense
Person Singular Plural Singular Plural
1st I am we are Iwas we were
2nd you are you are you were you were
3rd he/ she/ it is they are he/ she/ it was they were
Table 2.6 The Pairs of Singular and Plural Pronouns with Their Verb (Marianne et al., 1999, p. 54)
Verb Walk
Present Tense Past Tense
Person Singular Plural Singular Plural
1st I walk we walk I walked we walked
2nd you walk you walk you walked you walked
3rd he/ she/ it walks they walk he/ she/ it walked they walked
2) Demonstrative Pronouns
Greenbaum (1989) mentions that there are four types of demonstrative pronouns in common use (p. 131). They are this and that, which both have singular meaning (Greenbaum, 1989, p. 131). Then, these and those, which both have plural meaning, are other forms of demonstrative pronouns (Greenbaum, 1989, p. 131). The examples are:
[28] This is my house. [29] That is my room. [30] These are his books. [31] Those are our cars.
In addition, the singular demonstratives pronouns, such as this and that can be used to show both count and noncount meanings.
[32] This room is too big. [33] This water is too cold. [34] That car is new. [35] That paper is dirty. 3) Indefinite Pronouns
The indefinite pronouns will deal with the matters, namely universal items, partitive indefinites, and the of-partitives.
a) Universal Items
Table 2.7 Universal Indefinites (Greenbaum & Quirk, 1990, p. 122) Number Function Count Noncount
Positive
The compound indefinites, such as everyone, everybody, everything, no body, nothing, no one, nothing that all except no one are written as single words. In addition, Greenbaum and Quirk (1990) mention that compound indefinities can be functioned only as pronouns, and despite their entailment of plural meaning, they always take singular verb (p. 121). Sentence [36] and sentence [37] are the examples.
[36] The house was full of youngster and everyone was happy.
[37] There was an accident in that house, but no one was willing to help. Then, with none, each, and every as subjects, a singular verb should follow the subject in a sentence (Greenbaum & Quirk, 1990, p. 122-123). The examples are:
Furthermore, according to Greenbaum and Quirk (1990), a plural verb must follow the subject with both and all (p. 123). It can be seen in sentence [41] and in sentence [42].
[41] All these cars are new. [42] Both students get high score.
With neither or either as subjects, a singular verb is used (Greenbaum & Quirk, 1990, p. 123). The examples are:
[43] Neither thief was arrested. [44] Either is acceptable for me. b)Partitive Indefinities
Greenbaum and Quirk (1990) convey that in dealing with the partitives, to make a primary distinction between those in assertive use and those in non-assertive use is essential to do (p. 125). The researcher presented Table 2.8. in order to give further explanation about partitive indefinites. Besides, Table 2.8 presents the information which one of the partitives which has either singular or plural meaning.
Table 2.8 Partitive Indefinites (Greenbaum & Quirk, 1990, p. 125) Number Function Count Noncount
c) The Of-Partitives
Lock (1996) states that partitives are structures which consist of two nouns link by of (p. 47). Greenbaum and Quirk (1990) add that it is typical of the indefinite which have both a pronoun and a determiner role to fuse these roles in of-expressions where the final part is a personal pronoun or a noun preceded by a definite determiner (p. 125). The forms of the of-partitives are presented in Table 2.9.
Table 2.9 The of-partitives (Greenbaum & Quirk, 1990, p. 125)
Singular Count Partition Plural Count Partition Noncount Partition
Each of
c. There Is and There Are
In speech, learners are allowed to use a singular verb after introductory there even when the subject, which follows the verb, is plural. It is because it is common to do (Greenbaum, 1989, p. 217). However, according to Greenbaum (1989), in formal writing, learners should follow the general rule (p. 217).
[45] There issomebody waiting for you. [46] There aretwo men waiting for you.
Azar (1989) adds that in the structure: there + be, there is called an expletive.
3. Verb Phrases
To understand verb phrases and its some different forms is also required to do. It is because the researcher discussed subject-verb agreement errors and the students might possibly use various forms of verbs when they wrote a sentence. According to Lester (1990), a verb phrase consists of a main verb together with one or more helping or auxiliary verbs (p. 98). Lester (1990) further states that tense in reference to the meaning of verb phrases is two dimensional: tense refers both to time and to aspect (p. 99).
In time dimension of tense, verbs and verbs phrase can be classified into past, present, or future (Lester, 1990, p. 99). Lester (1990) conveys that there are three time forms of the verb go, e.g., past : went, present: go/goes, future: will go (p. 99).
will go, or perfect. The helping verb have is always required by a verb phrase in the perfect tense. Besides, Lester (1990) states that to classify a perfect verb phrase by time: past, present, or future, is also required to do (p. 98). There are some examples of the three verb phrase forms using the verb go (Lester, 1990, p. 99). The examples are: past perfect: had gone, present perfect: have/has gone, future perfect: will have gone. In addition, according to Lester (1990), an essential thing to consider is that the time dimension in perfect tense is indicated by the form of the helping verb have (p. 99). Lester (1990) adds that have/ has is the helping verb of the present perfect tense, whereas had is the helping verb of the past perfect tense (p. 99).
Moreover, be can also become a helping verb whose construction is called a progressive (Lester, 1990, p. 101). Lester (1990) states that there are some examples of the progressive form of the six tense follows a verb, go (p. 101). The examples are: past progressive: was/ were going, present progressive: am/ are/ is going, future progressive: will be going, past perfect progressive: had been going, present perfect progressive: have/ has been going, future perfect progressive: will have been going.
4. Errors
Since this research deals with error, it is important to elaborate what error is, sources of errors, types of errors, and the significance of errors.
a. Definition
According to Ellis (2003), error shows gaps in knowledge that learners have; error can appear because the learners do not know what is correct (p. 17). In addition, Corder (1971) says that error is a failure of the rule of the code and it depends on what particular variety of the target language which is considered the code (as cited in Ellis & Barkhuizen, 2005, p. 56).
On the other hand, mistakes can happen because, in a particular instance, the learner is not able to perform what he or she knows (Ellis, 2003, p. 17). It can be clearly seen in a learner’s writing. For example: early in Jane’s narrative writing, she wrote: The big of them contained snake. That sentence uses the past tense of the verb contain correctly. However, in the last sentence she wrote: *The basket contain a snake (Ellis, 2003, p. 17). Jane, in this case, clearly knew what the past tense of contain was as she had already used it correctly once. Therefore, her failure to say contained in the last sentence is a mistake.
whereas competence error is caused by learners’ lack of knowledge of the rules of the language (as cited in Dulay et al., 1982, p. 139).
Corder (1967) further states that in some language literature, performance error have been called mistake and the term error was admitted as systematic deviations because learners still develop their knowledge of the second language rule system (as cited in Dulay et al., 1982, p. 139). However,Dulay et al. (1982, p. 139), further mention that the disctinction between performance and competence error is essential, but to determine the nature of a deviation without doing careful analysis is still not easy to do.
Therefore, the term error is not specified only to competence based deviations in order to facilitate reference to deviations that have not been classified as performance errors, which have been called as mistake in some language literature (Corder, 1967, as cited in Dulay et al., 1982, p. 139), or competence errors. Thus, the term error can be used to present any deviation from a selected norm of language performance without considering the characteristics or causes of the deviation (Dulay et al., 1982, p. 139).
b. The Sources of Errors
Barkhuizen (2005) mention that traditionally, there are two major processes are identified: distingushing interlingual errors and intralingual errors (p. 65). 1) Interlingual Errors
Interlingual errors are the result of mother tongue influences (Ellis & Barkhuizen, 2005, p. 65). There is an example:
[47] *We went at Johannesburg last week (Ellis, 2003, p. 18).
The error in sentence [47] was made by speakers of Bantu languages in Southern Africa who frequently use the preposition at in order to refer to direction as well as location (Ellis, 2003, p. 18). Ellis (2003) further explains that the error in sentence [47] might happen because Bantu languages only use a single preposition to express location and direction where English has two prepositions: at and to (p.18).
2) Intralingual Errors
a) Over-Generalization
According to Richards (1974), over-generalization covers instances where the learner makes a deviant structure which is caused by his experience of other structures in the target language (p. 174). In addition, over-generalization generally also deals with the creation of one deviant structure in place of two regular structures. Over-generalization can also be defined as a blend of two structures in the standard version of the language (Norrish, 1983, p. 31). In addition, Norrish (1983) further states that based on learners’ experience of the language, learners may possibly construct a deviant structure (p. 31). The example is: the use of *eated in place of ate, where in this case, the learner over-generalized form that they found easy to learn and to process (Ellis, 2003, p. 19). Other examples are:
[48] The form was is generalized for all persons and both numbers in the past tense (Richards, 1974, p. 174, p. 175).
[49] *We are visit the zoo (Norrish, 1983, p. 31).
Sentence [49] shows a blending of the continuous and the simple present (Norrish, 1983, p. 31). Richards (1974) adds that over-generalization is also because the learner reduces his linguistic burden (p. 174). For example:
[50] *He come from Solo.
b)Ignorance of Rule Restrictions
According to Richards (1974), ignorance of rule restrictions may happen because of the application of rules to contexts where they do not apply (p. 175). Richards (1974) adds that analogy, the learner rationalizing a deviant usage from his previous experience of English, may also cause learners to make some rule restriction errors (p. 175). For example: due to the analogy of the learner’s previous experience of subject + verb + object constructions, the learner felt that there was something incomplete to the sentence of that’s the man who I saw. Therefore, the learner decided to add an object after the verb, as the learner had been taught to do elsewhere. The sentence, thus, became *that’s the man who I saw him (Richards, 1974, p. 176). Another example is a learner used a particular preposition to one type of verb. However, he also used the same preposition to another similar verb because of his analogy in using the preposition, e.g., He showed me the pen leads to *he explained me the book (Richards, 1974, p. 175). c) Incomplete Application of Rules
d)False Concepts Hypothesized
Richards (1974) states that false concepts hypothesized is caused by faulty comprehension of distinctions in the target language (p. 178). For examples:
[51] *Desta was went to Jakarta yesterday. [52] *Vincent is reads the book everyday.
In sentence [51], the form was may be interpreted as a marker of the past tense (Richards, 1974, p. 178). Then, in sentence [52], the form is may also be understood by learners to be the corresponding marker of the Present Tense (Richards, 1974, p. 178).
c. Other Possible Sources of Errors
Besides interlanguage errors and intralingual errors, there are other experts who have thought about some possible causes of errors made by learners. According to Norrish (1983), there are several possible causes of errors, namely carelessness, translation and error as a part of language creativity.
1) Carelessness
2) Translation
Norrish (1983) mentions that translating word by word of idiomatic expressions in the learner’s first language is another factor that can cause a learner to make an error in his or her writing (p. 26). It can happen in the typical situation when a learner has been asked to communicate something, in this case in writing, but he is aware that he does not know the appropriate expression or structure. In addition, the learner may even be unaware that an appropriate one exists. Therefore, as the learner wishes to communicate his or her ideas, the learner will look at the language system with which the learner is familiar, namely that of his or her mother tongue (Norrish, 1983. p. 27). The example is:
[53] *Desta love Dona.
In sentence [53], actually, the Indonesian learner wishes to write Desta cinta Dona. Because the learner does not how to write Desta Cinta Dona, using correct expression of English language, the learner decides to write the sentence using the expression that he usually uses in his mother tongue, namely Indonesian language. 3) Error as a Part of Language Creativity
According to Norrish (1983), language creativity can be defined as the ability that learners have in order to use the parts of the language that they have learnt in order to say something that they may not have heard before (p. 35). Norrish (1983) adds that in certain condition, learners sometimes are required and asked to create new utterances, but with limited experience of the target language, they may possibly make mistake (p. 34). For example:
According to Norrish (1983), in sentence [54], the person who wrote the notice was aware of adjectival forms like urgent versus the nominal form urgency (p. 34). He either knew the word emergency or found it in the dictionary, marked as a noun. Nevertheless, his limited knowledge in English language did not reach to noun plus noun compounds to produce the correct form emergency visits. Therefore, he decided to play safe, in one sense, and formed what would seem, on the face of it, an entirely regular form which should fit into the pattern, which is an+adjective+visit. It is obvious that, the process that caused the person to make the error is clearly a creative one (Norrish, 1983, p. 35).
There is also another expert whose theory explains about another possible cause of errors. Brown (1980) states that context of learning can be a possible cause of errors made by language learners (p. 174).
4) Context of Learning
According to Brown (1980), context deals with the classroom with its teacher and its materials in the case of school learning, or the social situation in the case of untutored second language learning (p. 174). Brown (1980) adds that in a classroom context, the teacher or the textbook may become a factor that leads the learner to make faulty hypotheses about the language (p. 174).
d. Types of Errors
It is essential to classify errors based on the type because various and a lot of errors can be possibly found in learners’ writing production. It aims to make the researcher able to analyze the errors that he has found in learners’ writing production easier.
According to James (1998), describing errors could be presented at the terms of descriptive category named taxonomy (as cited in Ellis & Barkhuizen, 2005, p. 60). James (1998) further states that there are two kinds of taxonomy that are used in order to describe errors, namely linguistic taxonomy and surface structure taxonomy (as cited in Ellis & Barkhuizen, 2005, p. 60).
1) Linguistic Taxonomy
Ellis and Barkhuizen (2005) mention that this kind of taxonomy is usually based on categories described from a descriptive grammar from the target language (p. 60). In addition, Ellis and Barkhuizen (2005) further state that grammar included in linguistic taxonomy are general categories dealing with basic sentence structure, the verb phrase, verb complementation, the noun phrase, prepositional phrases, adjuncts, coordinate, and subordinate constructions and sentence connection (p. 60).
2) Surface Structure Taxonomy
can be categorized into four types, namely omission, addition, misinformation, and misordering (as cited in Ellis & Barkhuizen, 2005, p. 61).
a) Omission
According to Dulay et al. (1982), omission errors means the absence of an item that actually must exist in a well-form utterance (p. 154), e.g., the omission of be in the sentence: *my sister very pretty (Ellis & Barkhuizen, 2005, p. 61). b)Addition
According to Ellis and Barkhuizen (2005), this type of errors can be explained as the presence of a form that does not appear in a well-formed utterance (p. 61). Furthermore, Dulay et al. (1982) mention that addition errors can be characterized by the presence of an item which must not appear in a well-formed utterance (p. 156). Then, addition error can be sub-categorized into: (1) Regularization
Regularization deals with those in which a marker that is typically added to linguistic item is errorneously added to exceptional items of the given class that does not take a marker (Dulay et al., 1982, p. 157). For examples: *womans and *putted. Both *womans and *putted can be classified into regularization in which the regular plural and past tense markers –s and –ed, respectively, have been added to items which do not take markers (Dulay et al., 1982, p. 157).
(2)Double-Marking
didn’t came (Ellis & Barkhuizen, 2005, p. 61), *Is this is a cow? (Dulay et al., 1982, p. 157), *She doesn’t brings the book.
(3)Simple Additions
This type of errors deals with other cases of addition and it does not involve regularization and double-marking (Ellis & Barkhuizen, 2005, p. 61). In addition, Dulay et al. (1982) also mention that if an addition error is neither a double marking nor a regularization, it can be called as a simple addition (p. 158). c) Misinformation
According to Ellis and Barkhuizen (2005), this type of errors may happen because of the use of the incorrect form of the morpheme or structure (p. 61) . In addition, Dulay et al. (1982) state that there is a difference between misinformation errors and omission errors (p. 158). In omission errors, learners do not supply the item at all, while in misinformation errors, learners supply the item, although it is not correct. Then, Dulay et al. (1982) mention that misinformation errors can be sub-categorized into (p. 158):
(1) Regularizations
Dulay et al. (1982) say that regularization under the misinformation category refers to those in which a regular marker is applied in place of an irregular one (p. 158). For examples: *runned for ran and *gooses for geese (Dulay et al., 1982, p. 158).
(2)Archi-Forms
learners (p. 160), e.g., the learner uses me as both a subject and object pronoun: give me that, *me hungry (Ellis & Barkhuizen, 2005, p. 61). Another example is learners may temporarily select only one of the English demonstrative adjectives, such as this, that, these, and those, to do the work for several of them. Learners, therefore, sometimes write that dog and also write *that dogs in another time (Dulay et al., 1982, p. 160).
(3)Alternating Forms
Dulay et al. (1982) mention that alternating forms errors can happen because of the learners’ use of archi-forms that often makes free alternation of various members of a class with each other (p. 161), e.g., the pattern: Don’t +V and *No + V (Ellis & Barkhuizen, 2005, p. 61). Another example is the use of demonstratives pronoun, e.g., those dogs and *this cats (Dulay et al., 1982, p. 161).
d)Misordering
Misordering errors can happen because of the wrong placement of a morpheme or group of morphemes in an utterance (Ellis & Barkhuizen, 2005, p. 61). For examples: *she fights all the time her brother and *he is all the time late. In both sentences *all the time is misordered.
e. The Significance of Errors
benefit for foreign language teachers, e.g., errors can provide feedback and tell the teacher something about the effectiveness of his teaching techniques (as cited in Hendrickson, 1981, p. 3).
Besides, Corder (1973) mentions that errors are also able to show the teacher what parts of the syllabus he has been following have been inadequately learned or taught need further attention (as cited in Hendrickson, 1981, p. 3). Furthermore, Hendrickson (1981) states that learners can learn from their mistakes if they are given supportive feedback from their teachers (p. 3).
5. Error Analysis
This part deals with the steps in doing an error analysis. According to Ellis and Barkhuizen (2005), error analysis consists of a set of procedures for identifying, describing, and explaining learner errors (p. 51).
a. Steps of Error Analysis
According to Corder (1974), error analysis can be conducted through several steps, namely collection of a sample of learner language, identification of errors, description of errors, explanation of errors, and error evaluation (as cited in Ellis & Barkhuizen, 2005, p. 57).
1) Collection of a Sample of Learner Language
2) Identification of Errors
This step involves a comparison between what the learners have written in their written work and what a native speaker counterpart would write in the same context (Ellis & Barkhuizen, 2005 p. 58).
3) Description of Errors
After all the errors have been identified, the researcher can start to describe and to classify the errors into types of errors. According to Ellis and Barkhuizen (2005), this step deals with specifying how the forms produced by the learners differ from those produced in the target language (p. 60).
4) Explanation of Errors
This step involves finding out the sources of errors. In this step of error analysis, the researcher has to explain the reason or the factors why learners make the errors (Ellis & Barkhuizen, 2005, p. 62).
B. Theoretical Framework
In this part, the researcher tries to synthesize the relevant theories discussed in the previous subchapter which become the grounds to support this research and to analyze the data of the research. The theories about subject-verb concord both in number and in person tell the researcher about the kind of agreement that a subject and its followed verb have. Therefore, principally, subject-verb agreement discussed in this research requires a subject to agree with its followed verb in number and in person. To be able to form subject-verb agreement in number, Langan (1987) states that a singular subject, which is one person or thing, should take a singular verb, while a plural subject, which is more than one person or thing, should take a plural verb (p. 338). In addition, the concord of number also occurs between a subject and its finite verb. Then, subject-verb agreement in person mostly deals with the usage of the first, the second, and the third person as a subject in determining the form of a verb that follows the subject.
Then, the provided theories deal with various forms of a subject as well as the information whether the subject has either singular or plural meaning also have an important role since a subject in English language has many different forms and the students possibly may not use a simple subject, such as the name of a person, the name of a city, the first person, when they write a sentence. Therefore, the researcher needs to understand some possible forms of a subject that may be possibly used by the students, so the researcher could understand whether a subject used by the students in their sentences has either singular or plural meaning. It aims to make the researcher able to know whether a verb that follows the subject agrees with the subject or not. In addition, that the students will apply a verb that has a phrase followed the main verb is also possible to happen. Therefore, the theory of the verb phrase can be used to help the researcher analyze the agreement between a subject and its followed verb phrase in a sentence that the students wrote.
differentiating between error and mistake cannot always be clearly analyzed because the careful analysis on the nature of a deviation is required (p. 139). Thus, in this research, the researcher assumes that every incorrect subject-verb agreement in a sentence that students in Paragraph Writing class made is an error. Furthermore, in order to classify the errors in the written work made by students in Paragraph Writing class, the researcher applies the error classification based on Surface Structure Taxonomy. Thus, based on surface structure taxonomy, in this research, errors related to subject-verb agreement are (1) omission, (2) addition, which then could be sub-categorized into regularization, double-marking, simple addition, (3) misinformation, which then could be sub-categorized into regularization, archi-forms, and alternating-forms, (4) misordering. For additional information, in this research, archi-forms and alternating-forms are not differentiated by the researcher since both those forms deal with errors resulting from the alternation when the students write a sentence.
47
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter discusses the research methodology employed in this research as a mean to answer the research questions. It consists of six parts which cover research method, research setting, research participants, instruments and data gathering technique, data analysis technique, and research procedure.
A.Research Method
