vii
ABSTRACT
Raras, Maria Immaculata Nimas Vidyasari. 2013. Subject-Verb Agreement Errors Made by the Seventh Graders of SMP Pangudi Luhur 1 Yogyakarta. Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University.
Learning, understanding, and mastering subject-verb agreement in senior high school could become a good start for students in learning English. Normally, a sentence must have a subject and a verb. Subject-verb agreement is easily found in textbooks, magazines, newspapers, and other sources of information. Since it is a common thing, it must be mastered and understood by the students. However, seventh graders in SMP Pangudi Luhur 1 Yogyakarta had problems in writing so that they would make errors in forming subject-verb agreement.
The researcher was interested to investigate further the subject-verb agreement errors since there was anecdotal evidence which was gathered from the seventh graders in SMP Pangudi Luhur 1 Yogyakarta. It showed that subject-verb agreement errors were made by many students in the seventh grade. This situation encouraged the researcher to find out what errors were usually made by the students. By doing preliminary data gathering from an interview with a veteran English teacher in that school, the researcher was convinced that students in the seventh grade often made errors in forming their subject-verb agreement. In this research, the researcher undertook a document analysis method by obtaining the data from students’ written work. Students’ written work was chosen because it would be easier to see the errors. Besides, description was chosen because it could aim to improve students’ creativity to describe an object that they often see. In analyzing the data, the researcher used surface structure taxonomy from Dulay, Burt, and Krashen (1983) as the basic theory. The research problem in this research aimed to find out subject-verb agreement errors made by the seventh graders in SMP Pangudi Luhur 1 Yogyakarta.
From the data gathered, the researcher found that most of the errors happened in misinformation category (68.65%), followed by omission category (29.85%), and then addition category (1.50%). Since subject-verb agreement is a very basic topic to be learned, it would be better if teachers give more attention to it. In the last chapter, the researcher also offered recommendations for teachers, students, and future researchers who are interested to follow up this study.
viii
ABSTRAK
Raras, Maria Immaculata Nimas Vidyasari. 2013. Subject-Verb Agreement Errors Made by the Seventh Graders of SMP Pangudi Luhur 1 Yogyakarta. Yogyakarta: Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Mempelajari, memahami, dan menguasai kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja di sekolah menengah pertama bisa menjadi awal yang baik bagi siswa untuk mempelajari Bahasa Inggris. Di dalam sebuah kalimat, harus mempunyai sebuah subjek dan sebuah kata kerja. Kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja sangat mudah ditemukan pada buku teks, majalah-majalah, koran-koran, dan sumber informasi lainnya. Karena mudah ditemukan, kesesuaian subjek dan kata kerja harus bisa dikuasai dan dimengerti oleh siswa. Namun, siswa kelas VII SMP Pangudi Luhur 1 Yogyakarta membuat kesalahan kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja pada tugas menulis mereka.
Peneliti tertarik untuk menyelidiki lebih lanjut tentang kesalahan pada kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja karena adanya bukti anecdotal yang dikumpulkan dari siswa kelas VII SMP Pangudi Luhur 1 Yogyakarta. Bukti itu menunjukkan bahwa kesalahan pada kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja dibuat oleh banyak siswa di kelas VII. Hal ini mendorong peneliti untuk menemukan kesalahan apa saja yang dibuat siswa. Berdasarkan pengumpulan data awal dari hasil wawancara dengan guru Bahasa Inggris berpengalaman di sekolah itu, peneliti semakin yakin bahwa siswa sering membuat kesalahan pada kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja mereka. Dalam penelitian ini, peneliti melakukan metode menganalisa dokumen dengan mengumpulkan data dari tugas tertulis siswa. Tugas tertulis siswa dipilih karena akan lebih mudah untuk menemukan kesalahan. Selain itu, deskripsi dipilih karena hal itu bisa meningkatkan kreatifitas siswa untuk dapat mendeskripsikan sebuah objek yang sering mereka lihat. Untuk menganalisa data, peneliti memakai teori surface structure taxonomy yang dikemukakan oleh Dulay, Burt, dan Krashen (1983). Rumusan masalah di dalam kajian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui kesalahan pada kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja yang dibuat oleh siswa kelas VII SMP Pangudi Luhur 1 Yogyakarta.
Berdasarkan data yang diperoleh, peneliti menemukan bahwa sebagian besar kesalahan terjadi pada kategori misinformation (68.65%), dan kemudian diikuti oleh kategori omission (29.85%), dan kategori addition (1.50%). Karena kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja adalah dasar pelajaran yang harus dipelajari, maka akan lebih baik jika guru memberikan perhatian lebih dalam mengajarkan hal itu. Pada akhir bab, peneliti juga memberikan saran kepada guru, siswa, dan peneliti lainnya yang tertarik untuk menindaklanjuti penelitian ini.
i
SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT ERRORS MADE BY THE SEVENTH GRADERS OFSMP PANGUDI LUHUR 1 YOGYAKARTA
ASARJANA PENDIDIKANFINAL PAPER
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain theSarjana PendidikanDegree
in English Language Education
By
M.I. Nimas Vidyasari Raras Student Number: 081214034
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA
ii
ASarjana PendidikanFinal Paper on
SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT ERRORS MADE BY THE SEVENTH GRADERS OFSMP PANGUDI LUHUR 1 YOGYAKARTA
By
M.I. Nimas Vidyasari Raras Student Number: 081214034
Approved by
Sponsor
iii
ASarjana PendidikanFinal Paper on
SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT ERRORS MADE BY THE SEVENTH GRADERS OFSMP PANGUDI LUHUR 1 YOGYAKARTA
By
M.I. NIMAS VIDYASARI RARAS Student Number: 081214034
Defended before the Board of Examiners on 10 December 2013
and Declared Acceptable
Board of Examiners
Chairperson : C. Tutyandari, S.Pd., M.Pd. _________________
Secretary : Drs. Barli Bram, M.Ed., Ph. D. _________________
Member : Markus Budiraharjo, S.Pd., M.Ed., Ed.D. _________________
Member : G. Punto Aji, S.Pd., M. Hum. _________________
Member : C. Tutyandari, S.Pd., M.Pd. _________________
Yogyakarta, 10 December 2013
Faculty of Teachers Training and Education Sanata Dharma University
Dean,
iv
It is amazing how much can be done if we
are always doing.
-Thomas
Jefferson-Not all of us can do great things,
but we can do small things with
great love.
-Mother
Theresa-I dedicate this paper to
my great father Heribertus Supardi,
v
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY
I honestly declare that this paper, 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, 10 December 2013
The Writer
M.I. Nimas Vidyasari Raras
vi
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN
PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma:
Nama : M.I. Nimas Vidyasari Raras Nomor Mahasiswa : 081214034
Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Santa Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:
SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT ERRORS MADE BY THE SEVENTH GRADERS OFSMP PANGUDI LUHUR 1 YOGYAKARTA
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 saya buat dengan sebenarnya.
Dibuat di Yogyakarta,
Pada tanggal: 10 December 2013
Yang menyatakan
vii
ABSTRACT
Raras, Maria Immaculata Nimas Vidyasari. 2013.Subject-Verb Agreement Errors Made by the Seventh Graders of SMP Pangudi Luhur 1 Yogyakarta. Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University.
Learning, understanding, and mastering subject-verb agreement in senior high school could become a good start for students in learning English. Normally, a sentence must have a subject and a verb. Subject-verb agreement is easily found in textbooks, magazines, newspapers, and other sources of information. Since it is a common thing, it must be mastered and understood by the students. However, seventh graders in SMP Pangudi Luhur 1 Yogyakartahad problems in writing so that they would make errors in forming subject-verb agreement.
The researcher was interested to investigate further the subject-verb agreement errors since there was anecdotal evidence which was gathered from the seventh graders inSMP Pangudi Luhur 1 Yogyakarta. It showed that subject-verb agreement errors were made by many students in the seventh grade. This situation encouraged the researcher to find out what errors were usually made by the students. By doing preliminary data gathering from an interview with a veteran English teacher in that school, the researcher was convinced that students in the seventh grade often made errors in forming their subject-verb agreement. In this research, the researcher undertook a document analysis method by obtaining the data from students’ written work. Students’ written work was chosen because it would be easier to see the errors. Besides, description was chosen because it could aim to improve students’ creativity to describe an object that they often see. In analyzing the data, the researcher used surface structure taxonomy from Dulay, Burt, and Krashen (1983) as the basic theory. The research problem in this research aimed to find out subject-verb agreement errors made by the seventh graders inSMP Pangudi Luhur 1 Yogyakarta.
From the data gathered, the researcher found that most of the errors happened in misinformation category (68.65%), followed by omission category (29.85%), and then addition category (1.50%). Since subject-verb agreement is a very basic topic to be learned, it would be better if teachers give more attention to it. In the last chapter, the researcher also offered recommendations for teachers, students, and future researchers who are interested to follow up this study.
viii
ABSTRAK
Raras, Maria Immaculata Nimas Vidyasari. 2013.Subject-Verb Agreement Errors Made by the Seventh Graders of SMP Pangudi Luhur 1 Yogyakarta. Yogyakarta: Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Mempelajari, memahami, dan menguasai kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja di sekolah menengah pertama bisa menjadi awal yang baik bagi siswa untuk mempelajari Bahasa Inggris. Di dalam sebuah kalimat, harus mempunyai sebuah subjek dan sebuah kata kerja. Kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja sangat mudah ditemukan pada buku teks, majalah-majalah, koran-koran, dan sumber informasi lainnya. Karena mudah ditemukan, kesesuaian subjek dan kata kerja harus bisa dikuasai dan dimengerti oleh siswa. Namun, siswa kelas VII SMP Pangudi Luhur 1 Yogyakarta membuat kesalahan kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja pada tugas menulis mereka.
Peneliti tertarik untuk menyelidiki lebih lanjut tentang kesalahan pada kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja karena adanya bukti anecdotal yang dikumpulkan dari siswa kelas VII SMP Pangudi Luhur 1 Yogyakarta. Bukti itu menunjukkan bahwa kesalahan pada kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja dibuat oleh banyak siswa di kelas VII. Hal ini mendorong peneliti untuk menemukan kesalahan apa saja yang dibuat siswa. Berdasarkan pengumpulan data awal dari hasil wawancara dengan guru Bahasa Inggris berpengalaman di sekolah itu, peneliti semakin yakin bahwa siswa sering membuat kesalahan pada kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja mereka. Dalam penelitian ini, peneliti melakukan metode menganalisa dokumen dengan mengumpulkan data dari tugas tertulis siswa. Tugas tertulis siswa dipilih karena akan lebih mudah untuk menemukan kesalahan. Selain itu, deskripsi dipilih karena hal itu bisa meningkatkan kreatifitas siswa untuk dapat mendeskripsikan sebuah objek yang sering mereka lihat. Untuk menganalisa data, peneliti memakai teori surface structure taxonomy yang dikemukakan oleh Dulay, Burt, dan Krashen (1983). Rumusan masalah di dalam kajian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui kesalahan pada kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja yang dibuat oleh siswa kelas VII SMP Pangudi Luhur 1 Yogyakarta.
Berdasarkan data yang diperoleh, peneliti menemukan bahwa sebagian besar kesalahan terjadi pada kategori misinformation (68.65%), dan kemudian diikuti oleh kategori omission (29.85%), dan kategori addition (1.50%). Karena kesesuaian antara subjek dan kata kerja adalah dasar pelajaran yang harus dipelajari, maka akan lebih baik jika guru memberikan perhatian lebih dalam mengajarkan hal itu. Pada akhir bab, peneliti juga memberikan saran kepada guru, siswa, dan peneliti lainnya yang tertarik untuk menindaklanjuti penelitian ini.
ix
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to Jesus Christ and
Mother Mary, who always give me never-ending blessings. I thank Jesus for
giving me many great people who always support and give their biggest love to
me.
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my sponsor, Markus
Budiraharjo, S.Pd., M.Ed., Ed.D., for his care, time, guidance, and valuable
suggestions in finishing this final paper. I would also like to express my gratitude
to all PBI lecturers who had shared their knowledge during my process in PBI.
I would like to thank Br. Valentinus Naryo, FIC, M.Pd. as the
headmaster of SMP Pangudi Luhur 1 Yogyakarta, A. Ismargyaning Utami,
S.Pd. as the English teacher, and also the respondents of my research, VIID
students, for their willingness to do the assignments.
My greatest gratitude goes to my beloved parents, bapak Heribertus
Supardi and ibu Veronica Himas Indarti for their eternal love, never-ending support, and prayer. My thanks also go to my only one elder brother, mas
Yohannes de Britto Dimas Indra Nugroho for being a great brother in the
world. Without them, I could have never finished this final paper.
My gratitude is also expressed tomas gajah,Romo Laurentius Dwi Agus
Merdi Nugroho, Pr., for his support, prayer, and patience for guiding me to be a
x
My special thanks go to Desiderius Arysta Yuan Christanto for being
my number one supporter. His love, care, patience, attention, support, and prayer
have completed my life.
At last, I would like to thank all friends and people whose names cannot
be mentioned one by one, especially for those who had already supported and
helped me in finishing this final paper. May God bless them all.Berkah Dalem.
xi
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE……….. i
APPROVAL PAGES………. ii
DEDICATION PAGE………... iv
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY………. v
PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI……….. vi
ABSTRACT………... vii
ABSTRAK……….. viii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………... ix
TABLE OF CONTENTS………... xi
LIST OF TABLES………. xiii
LIST OF APPENDICES………... xiv
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION A. Background………. 1
B. Research Method………. 5
CHAPTER II. DISCUSSION A. Review of Related Literature……… 9
1. Error……… 9
a. Definition of Error……… 9
b. Types of Error………... 10
1) Linguistic Taxonomy……….. 10
2) Surface Structure Taxonomy……….. 11
a) Omission………... 11
b) Addition………... 11
c) Misinformation………. 12
d) Misordering……….. 13
xii
2. Subject and Verb Agreement……….. 14
a. Concord of Number……….. 15
b. Concord of Person………. 17
3. Subject in English………... 19
a. Pronoun………. 19
1) Personal Pronouns………... 19
2) Demonstrative Pronouns………. 20
3) Indefinite Pronouns………... 21
b. Noun………. 22
1) Proper Nouns………. 22
2) Concrete and Abstract Nouns………. 22
3) Count and Noncount Nouns……… 23
c. There is and There are………... 23
4. Descriptive Writing………. 24
B. Findings………... 24
CHAPTER III. CONCLUSIONS……… 29
REFERENCES………. 31
xiii
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1.1: The Classification and The Subject-Verb Agreement Errors
Made by the Students (blank)……… 7
Table 1.2: The Summary of Subject-Verb Agreement Errors Made by the Students……… 8
Table 2.1: The Forms of Be……… 18
Table 2.2: The Modal Auxiliaries………... 19
Table 2.3: The Modal Auxiliaries………... 20
Table 2.4: Indefinite Pronouns followed by–body,-one, and–thing……… 21
Table 2.5: Common Indefinite Pronouns……….... 21
xiv
LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix A
Surat Ijin Penelitian……….. 33
Appendix B
Samples of Students’ Written Work………. 35
Appendix C
1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, the researcher provides research background containing the
investigated problems, the importance of the study, and an overview of the study
strategy. It also provides the research method of the study.
A. Background
English is not an easy foreign language that is commonly taught in
Indonesia. As learners of English as a foreign language, students are demanded to
have good abilities in both speaking and writing. Since speaking and writing are
two productive skills, the students will inevitably produce errors. Errors come up
as the effect of different language systems between mother tongue and foreign
language. Besides, an error also happens because students do not know what the
correct is (Ellis, 1997, p. 17).
Based on a preliminary data gathering through an interview with a veteran
English teacher in SMP Pangudi Luhur 1 Yogyakarta, it was found that the
English teacher was accustomed to teach students based on materials provided in
a text book. The English teacher admitted that she did not teach subject-verb
agreement in depth, but when the students made errors, she would explain those to
them. The English teacher also stated that sometimes the students could not
differentiate between the verb and the adjective after a subject in a sentence. They
the verb or omit it. Meanwhile, some students could not differentiate a singular
nouns or a plural nouns, so that they would make errors on putting the auxiliary
verbsis,are, was,andwere.
Referring to experts, subject-verb agreement can be defined as follows.
According to Langan (1996), a sentence must have a subject and a verb (p. 297).
A subject is someone or something that the sentence speaks about, then what the
sentence says about the subject is called a verb (Langan, 1996, p. 297). The
existence of a subject and a verb in a sentence is obligatory. If there is no subject
in a sentence, it cannot be called as a correct sentence. The opposite, if there is no
verb in a sentence means that is not a perfect sentence. Wood (1981) states that a
verb has to follow its subject based on number or person (p. 12). Furthermore, the
subject is used to determine concord where the verb depends on its subject
whether it is singular or plural (Quirk & Greenbaum, 1973, p. 10). In addition,
Leech and Svartvik (1994) add that concord can also be called as agreement (p.
260). Thus, in this research, subject-verb agreement can be defined as a rule
which the verb has to follow its subject that is used to determine concord in both,
number or person.
Harmer (2007) states that it is very important to encourage students in
order to seriously take more responsibility for their own learning (p. 21).
Learning, understanding, and mastering subject-verb agreement in junior high
school could become a good start for the students in learning English.
Subject-verb agreement is very common thing and can be found in some writings, such as
students can sharpen their understanding in subject-verb agreement by writing.
Practice writing a lot would help the students improving and producing better
writing time by time (Nunan, 2003, p. 92).
According to Tiedt (1989), writing is one of some methods to express
ideas which could happen in everywhere with any kinds of subject contents and
being the concern of every teacher in the world (p. 1). By writing a lot, students
are expected to be able to improve their creativity in developing ideas. Moreover,
the students could also improve their writing ability by reading. Reading some
books or other sources information could develop someone’s ideas and
knowledge. Even the students could note the use of punctuation and capitalization
or how to spell in uncommon words (Tiedt, 1989, p. 5). Tiedt also states that
writing is the most difficult skills and is needed a hard work to do (p. 6).
Compared with other skills, writing skill needs to keep ideas before it disappears.
However, teachers could encourage students by clustering ideas on paper while
writing the ideas freely (Tiedt, 1989, p. 6).
The researcher was interested to investigate the subject-verb agreement
errors since there was anecdotal evidence which was gathered from the seventh
graders inSMP Pangudi Luhur 1 Yogyakarta.Some various errors came up as the
problems. It showed that the students had not understood yet about how to
compose a good writing. This situation encouraged the researcher to do research
in that school.
In SMP Pangudi Luhur 1 Yogyakarta, the English teacher provided time
researcher planned to do a research by analyzing what the errors were and how
many errors that students had made in their writing assignment which was given
by the teacher. However, the researcher only focused on subject-verb agreement
errors which were made by the seventh grade students. The seventh graders were
chosen because they might make many errors in their writing.
By knowing what the errors are and how many errors students make, the
teacher is expected to be able to see her students’ writing ability. It also helps the
teacher to give more attention on what the errors usually come up in students’
written work. To create a better improvement in writing, the teacher needs to
emphasize the subject-verb agreement materials to the students. Improving the
subject-verb agreement topic would give many benefits to the students. A good
mastery in the subject-verb agreement would also help the students to easily
compose and produce a good grammatically correct writing. Besides, subject and
verb are the basic thing in an English sentence. Thus, it is worth to learn since it is
important for writing.
The students cannot produce the same writing with the same errors day by
day. Thus, it would be a teacher’s duty to help the students improving their
writing skill by emphasizing how subject-verb agreement works. Besides, the
teacher could give them some writing practices. The researcher hopes that it
would build students’ motivation to learn English better. Therefore, the researcher
has already formulated a question for this research. That is what are subject-verb
B. Research Method
Qualitative inquiry was used in this research. In gathering the data,
qualitative research deals with data in the form of words which are purely
descriptive but not numerical (Sprinthall et al., 1991, p. 100). The data were
collected from the students’ written work which was analyzed by using document
analysis procedure. According to Ary, Jacobs, and Sorensen (2010), a document
analysis is aimed to identify specified characteristics of written or visual materials
(p. 457).
The sample of this research was obtained by using purposive sampling.
According to Ary et al. (2010), the sample elements of purposive sampling judge
to be typical or representative which were chosen from the population. The
population in this research was six classes of seventh graders at SMP Pangudi
Luhur 1 Yogyakarta. However, the researcher only gathered from one class since
it was not possible to involve all students from six classes by considering the
accessibility to the respondents, financial constraint, and time availability. The
researcher chose class VIID since there were no absent students in that class.
In conducting this qualitative research, the researcher served human and
documents as the important instruments to obtain and analyze the data. According
to Ary et al. (2010), the students’ writing was written by people who experienced
the phenomena under study directly which can be considered as a primary source
(p. 443). That is why the researcher chose students’ written work with description
as the topic. Descriptive writing was chosen because it could help the students to
to help students improving their creativity and involving their imagination.
Besides, this topic had already discussed in the class, so that the data for this
research was able to become an exercise for the students as well.
Before the researcher collected the data, there were several steps as
procedures. The researcher made a thesis proposal and asked approval from the
researcher’s advisor. After obtaining approval from the researcher’s advisor, the
researcher asked to permission letter from university. The next day, the researcher
came to school and asked permission from the headmaster ofSMP Pangudi Luhur
1 Yogyakartaand the English teacher whose classes were used in this research.
On the process of obtaining the data, the researcher could not join the class
since that week was for daily exam. The researcher asked help from the English
teacher to give instruction to the students. The data was collected from the English
teacher between 22 and 29 May, 2013. It took only a week because the teacher
and the students were really cooperative helping the researcher. After collecting
all the data, the researcher started to analyze the data by finding the errors and
categorize them based on the theories by experts in Chapter II.
There were several steps the researcher had to do before analyzing the
errors. First, the researcher assigned a number for each student’s written work as a
code. Second, the researcher checked the students’ written work by underlying the
errors. Third, the errors were put into the table provided. Fourth, the researcher
tried to analyze and classify the subject-verb agreement errors according to the
types of errors on Surface Structure Taxonomy. According to Dulay, Burt, and
namely (1) omission, (2) addition which is sub-categorized into regularization,
double-marking, and simple additions, (3) misinformation which is
sub-categorized into regularization, archi-forms, and alternating, (4) misordering (as
cited in Ellis & Barkhuizen, 2005, p. 61). Fifth, the researcher calculated the
percentage and from the percentage the researcher could know which types of
errors that mostly did by the seventh graders at SMP Pangudi Luhur 1
Yogyakarta. Table 1.1. below is how the researcher classified and calculated the
percentage each type of errors that have been made by the students.
Table 1.1. : The Classification and The Subject-Verb Agreement Errors Made by the Students (blank)
The researcher used a formula to calculate the percentage of each type error that
the researcher found in students’ written work. The formula can be seen below.
A
x 100% B
A= The total number of each type of errors
B= The total number of all errors
After obtaining the percentage from each type of errors, the researcher
found what types of errors mostly happened in their written work. Sixth, the
Total Number of Each Type of Errors
Total Number of All Errors
researcher could present the summary of some error examples and the percentage
that have been made by the students in Table 1.2. as below.
Table 1.2: The Summary of Subject-Verb Agreement Errors Made by the Students
No Error Category Error Sub-Category Examples of Error Number of Errors
Percentage (%)
1. Omission
-2. Addition
Regularization Double-marking Simple additions 3. Misinformation
Regularization Archi-forms/Alternating
forms 4. Misordering
-At last, the researcher discussed further what she had already analyzed based on
9
CHAPTER II
DISCUSSION
In this chapter, the researcher presents review of related literature based on
the theories from some experts which become the bases of this research. The
second part presents the findings as well as the interpretation of the findings.
A. Review of Related Literature
In this research, the researcher used several theories from experts to help
to analyze the data. This part will be elaborated more the theories below.
1. Error
a. Definition of Error
Defining the word error would not be easy since error has its synonymous
word. The term that almost synonymous with error is mistake. James (1998) as
cited in Brown (2000) argues that an error and a mistake cannot always be
distinguished. For example an English learner says “John cans sing”, but in other
time he/she says “John can sing”. From the previous example it is difficult to
determine a word “cans” is an error or a mistake (p. 218). According to Ellis
(1997), an error raises gaps in learner’s knowledge and happens because the
learner does not master or even misunderstand the correct one (p. 17). However,
still according to Ellis (1997), a mistake is an occasional lapse where learners
Corder (1967) says that the term mistake is a term used by performance
errors, while the term error is a developing knowledge by learners rule system
that is reserved for the systematic deviation in some of the second language
literature (as cited in Dulay, Burt, & Krashen, 1982, p. 139). Sometimes
researchers also distinguish the factors of errors. Chomsky (1965) calls fatigue
and inattention as performance factors, while the lack of learners’ knowledge of
the rules of the language is called as competence factors (as cited in Dulay et al.,
1982, p. 139).
Performance and competence errors are difficult to be distinguished
because both are also very important. Since the nature of a deviation has not been
classified as a performance or competence error, the term error does not restrict to
competence-based deviations. Thus, an error refers to any deviation that is
selected from norm of language performance, no matter what the characteristics or
causes might be (Dulay et al., 1982, p.139).
b. Types of Error
Some of students’ written compositions are possibly to produce a lot of
various errors. Therefore, it is essential to classify errors based on their type.
1) Linguistic Taxonomy
This kind of taxonomy is categorized from a descriptive grammar in target
language. Besides, the grammar is relating to basic sentence structure, the verb
phrase, verb complementation, the noun phrase, prepositional phrases, adjuncts,
coordinate subordinate constructions and sentence connection (Ellis &
category classifies the errors based on a language component and a particular
language aspect. The language components are phonology (pronunciation), syntax
and morphology (grammar), semantics and lexicon (meaning and vocabulary),
and discourse (style) (p. 146).
2) Surface Structure Taxonomy
In this part, Dulay et al. (1982) divide the category into omission, addition,
misinformation, and misordering that can be seen below.
a) Omission
According to Dulay et al. (1982), the errors can be classified as an
omission when there is an absence of an item that should appear in a well-formed
sentence (p. 154), for example,*Mary president new companyinstead of Mary is
the president of the new company.
b) Addition
Addition is the opposite of omission. The addition can be meant as the
presence of an item that should not appear in a well-formed sentence. It is
sub-categorized into:
(1) Double Marking
According to Dulay et al. (1982), double marking is two items which
appear rather than one and those are marked for the same feature (p. 156), for
example, *He doesn’t knows my name instead of He doesn’t know my name.
(2) Regularization
Dulay et al. (1982) state that “the addition category are those in which a
marker that is typically added to a linguistic item is erroneously added to
exceptional items of the given class that do not take a marker”, it is called
regularization errors (p. 157). For example: *sheepsand *putted. The plural form
of *sheep is still the same instead of *sheeps. Besides, the verb *putted is not
correct, the correct past tense is *put.
(3) Simple Addition
Simple addition can be defined as a neither addition error that is not
double marking or regularization (Dulay et al., 1982, p. 158).
c) Misinformation
Misinformation deals with the incorrect form of the morpheme or
structure. There is the difference between omission and misinformation. In
omission the item is not supplied but in misinformation the learner supplies
something. According to Dulay et al. (1982) misinformation can be
sub-categorized into (p. 158):
(1) Regularization
Dulay et al. (1982) say that regularization in misinformation category
which is a regular marker is applied in an irregular one. For example: *runned
instead of *run, *gooses instead of *geese (p. 158). Other examples of
regularization under misinformation category are *I falled instead of *I fell,
(2) Archi-forms
Archi-forms refer to form selected by learners. Dulay et al. (1982) explain
further that a learner may temporarily select just one of English demonstrative
adjectives such asthis,that,these, and those, to do the work for several of them.
The learners usually write *that dogand *that dogs(p. 160).
(3) Alternating Forms
This last type of misinformation happens because the use of archi-form
that often makes fairly free alternation of various members of a class with each
other, as seen in *Those dogand *This cats(Dulay et al., 1982, p. 161).
d) Misordering
Misordering errors are characterized by the incorrect placement morpheme or
group of morpheme which is not place in a well-formed sentence e.g. *She fights
all the time her brother (Ellis & Barkhuizen, 2005, p. 61) instead of She fights
with her brother.
c. Sources of Error
A researcher must have already thought the various sources of errors made
by learners. Since many possibilities why learners made some errors in their
writing, Brown (2000) states that by trying to identify the sources, we are
expected to understand how the learner’s cognitive and affective processes are
related to the linguistic system and to formulate the integrated understanding in
second language acquisition process (p. 223). Besides, according to Brown
(2005), the sources of errors are divided into three. First,interlingual transfer, is
mother tongue and many errors are detectable in learner speech, but it is not all
errors are the result from the native language transfer, e.g. *the book of Jack
instead of *Jack’s book. Second, intralingual transfer, is overgeneralization
within the target language. This is the negative part of intralingual transfer. For
example, *Does John can sing?, *He goed, *I don’t know what time is it. Third,
context of learning, happens when there are a misleading error explanation from
the teacher, a faulty presentation in a textbook, and improperly drill to memorize
pattern.
2. Subject and Verb Agreement
Langan (1996) states every sentence must have a subject and a verb.
Subject is who or something that the sentence speaks about, then what the
sentence says about the subject is called verb (p. 297). Langan (1996) adds the
right sentence shows that a verb has to follow its subject based on the types of
concord (p. 338). Besides, Leech and Svartvik (1994) divide concord into two
types, namely concord of number and concord of person (p. 260). Concord can
also be called asagreement(Leech & Svartvik, 1994, p. 260).
According to Greenbaum (1989), the general rules of subject-verb
agreement are when the verb agrees with its subject in number and person, while
agreement happens when the verb makes any distinctions in number and person.
However, for all verbs other thanbe, the distinctions only can happen in Present
Tense. In the third person singular, the verb has the –s form, and for the third
person plural, the verb has the base form. The second person and all persons
[1] The noise distracts them.
[2] The noises distract them.
From the examples above, [1] the noiseis the singular subject that is followed by
verb –s form. For the second example, [2] the plural subjectthe noisesis followed
by the base form.
a. Concord of Number
Langan (1996) states that in this concord number, a verb must agree with
its subject in the sentence. In this case, a singular subject (one person or thing)
should be followed by a singular verb, while a plural subject (more than one
person or thing) should be followed by a plural verb (p. 338), for example:
[3] The girlwritesa letter.
[4] Danielisan artist.
[5] My friendsgoto Jakarta.
[6] The boys in this classaretaller than the girls.
From the examples above, the subjects in sentences [3] and [4] are singular so it is
followed by a singular verb. Meanwhile, the subjects in the sentences [5] and [6]
are plural so that it must be followed by a plural verb.
Langan (1996) also states when words come between the subject and the
verb in a sentence, subject-verb agreement does not change (p. 338).
[7] Aboywith glassesdrinksa mineral water.
[8] The students in the class give a birthday present to their English
The subject boy in [7] is singular, so it should be followed by a singular verb,
while subject in sentence [8],students, is plural, so that it would be followed by a
plural verb. Langan (1996) also adds in order to make it become easier, learners
should cross out the prepositional phrases to find out the subject (p. 338), for
example *A boy with glasses drinks a mineral water.
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) also
provides some words that may precede the subject, namely there, here, in
questions,who,which,what, andwhere.
[9] There are four children in the car.
[10] Here is the card.
[11] Where are your books?
Furthermore, Langan (1996) mentions when subjects in a sentence are
joined byeither…or,neither…nor,not only…but also, the verb must agree with
the subject that is closer to the verb (p. 340). The examples can be seen as
follows:
[12]Eithermy fatheror my mom likesto sing the old song.
[13]NeitherAndrewnor his friends knowthe right answer.
In sentence [12], the closest subject ismy momwhich is singular, so it is followed
by a singular verb likes. Meanwhile, in sentence [13] the closest subject is his
friends which is plural, it means that the plural subject his friends should be
Besides, Langan (1996) adds if subjects in a sentence are joined byand,
they would be followed by a plural verb (p. 340). The examples are:
[14] Desya, Clarina, and Rioarevery smart students in the class.
[15] The shirt, the skirt, and the hatarenew.
In addition, Greenbaum (1989) states if and is not present in a sentence, the
subject is still decided as plural (p. 211).
[16] Desya, Clarina, Rioarevery smart students in the class.
[17] The shirt, the skirt, the hatarenew.
However, Greenbaum (1989) also states if the noun phrases are introduced by
everyoreach, the subjects are considered singular (p. 211).
[18]Everyman andeverywomanhasthe same right.
[19]Eachgirl andeachboy in the seventh-gradeisa great student.
b. Concord of Person
According to Leech and Svartvik (1994), in the present tense there are
three be as the form, they are I am *I am a student, He/She/It is *She is very
beautiful, We/You/Theyare*You are a dentist(p. 264). In a sentence,beform is
not only has the present tense form, but also it has eight different forms in
common. They aream, is, are,was, were, being, andbeen. These be forms are
used in every sentence based on the tense that is used. Leech and Svartvik made a
table that would help students to learn easily. In the table 2.1. below shows the
Table 2.1: The Forms of Be (Leech & Svartvik, 1994, p. 243)
1stand 3rdperson singular
2ndperson singular and plural
1stand 3rdperson plural
was
-ingform being not being
-edform been
Then, according to Leech and Svartvik (1994), main verbs have only two
forms in the present tense (p. 264), for example,
[20]He/she/our friendetc.likescooking
[21]I/you/we/they/our friendsetc.likecooking
Sentence [20] shows the 3rd person singular subject, while sentence [21] does not
show the 3rdperson singular subject.
Leech and Svartvik (1994) also add that modal auxiliaries only have one
form (p. 264). It means that modal auxiliaries cannot be added by –s form, -ing
form, or–edparticiple, for example,
For modals can, may, shall, and will have a special past forms could, might,
should, andwould. While the others (must, dare, need, ought to, used to) do not
have any forms. The table 2.2. below is the examples of modal auxiliaries.
Table 2.2: The Modal Auxiliaries (Leech & Svartvik, 1994, p. 244)
Non-negative Uncontracted negative Contracted negative Can
Didn’t use(d) to, usedn’t to Needn’t
Daren’t
*amayn’tis rare
*bshan’tis rare, especially in American English
*cused to,need, anddareas auxiliaries are rare in all forms
3. Subject in English
In this section, the researcher provides some possible subjects in English,
since students possibly use various subjects in their writing. From the subject, the
researcher is expected to know whether it is singular or plural.
a. Pronoun
1) Personal Pronouns
According to Lester (1990), personal pronouns have many different forms
based on three factors (p. 24). The first factor is person. In person, there are first
person, second person, and third person. The first person is a person who is
speaking (I,we). The second person is a person being spoken to (you). The third
second factor is number. In this factor it can be singular or plural. Table 2.3. is the
pairs of singular and plural.
Table 2.3: The Modal Auxiliaries (Lester, 1990, p. 25)
Singular Plural
possessive. However, since this research deals with subject-verb agreement, the
researcher would discuss the subject only. According to Lester (1990), subject
refers to pronouns used as the subject of sentence, such as I,you,he, she,it,we,
they.
2) Demonstrative Pronouns
Greenbaum (1990) states that there are four demonstrative pronouns that
are commonly used (p. 131). The demonstrative pronounthisandthatcan be used
for singular, whiletheseandthoseare plural.
[23] This is your book.
[24] That is your pencil.
[25] These are her shirts.
In addition, Lester (1990) states that the demonstrative pronouns could also be
used as modifying adjectives, for example:
[27] I wanted to buythisbook.
[28] I wanted to buythis.
Thisin sentence [27] is an adjective modifyingbook, while in sentence [28]thisis
pure demonstrative pronoun.
3) Indefinite Pronouns
The following are indefinite pronouns that are composed ofany,every,no,
andsomewhich are followed by–body,-one, and–thing(Lester, 1990, p. 28).
Table 2.4: Indefinite Pronouns followed by–body,-one, and–thing(Lester, 1990, p. 28)
-body -one -thing
any anybody anyone anything
every everybody everyone everything
no nobody no one nothing
some somebody someone something
Lester (1990) adds that everybody, everyone, and everything have a
collective meaning, but they are actually singular in grammatical use. For some
beginners, they would think that these pronouns are plural (p. 28). The example
can be seen as follows.
[29] Everybody in schoolwerethere.
Lester (1990) also mentions that they are indefinite pronouns that are commonly
used.
Table 2.5: Common Indefinite Pronouns (Lester, 1990, p. 28)
b. Noun
1) Proper Nouns
Proper nouns are the name of specific people, places, or occasions that
usually begin with a capital letter, such as Shakespeare, Chicago, January,
Christmas (Greenbaum, 1989, p. 107). However, Greenbaum (1989) also adds
that sometimes names may consist of more than one word, such as The Hague,
New York Times, Kennedy Airport, Captain Andrews, Mount Everest (p. 107).
Besides, proper nouns sometimes can be converted into common nouns.
Greenbaum (1989) states common nouns are nouns that are not names, such as
capital, for example, Thecapitalof the Netherlands is The Hague (p. 107).
2) Concrete and Abstract Nouns
According to Greenbaum (1989), nouns also can be classified into
concrete and abstract nouns. Concrete nouns refer to people, places, or things,
such asgirl,kitchen,car, while abstract nouns refer to qualities, states, or actions,
such as humor,belief,action (p. 108). Some of the nouns may be either concrete
or abstract depending on their meaning, for example:
[30] Thomas can kick afootball50 yards.
[31] Jeremy often playsfootballon Saturdays.
Sentence number [30] is the example of concrete nouns, while sentence number
[31] is the example of abstract nouns. However, according to Greenbaum (1989),
3) Count and Noncount Nouns
According to Greenbaum (1989), count nouns refer to entities which can
be called as countable. Therefore, count nouns can be both singular and plural.
Usually they are accompanied by determiners that refer to distinctions in number
(p. 108).
Singular Plural
a
one student
every
ten
many students
those
Noncount nouns refer to entities which can be called as a mass that cannot
be counted or non-countable, e.g., bread, furniture, music. They are counted as
singular and accompanied by determiners that do not refer to distinctions in
number (Greenbaum, 1989, p. 108)
much
your information
that
c. There is and There are
In speech, using a singular verb after introductorythere is common thing
even when the subject, which follows the verb, is plural (Greenbaum, 1989, p.
217).
[32]There’stwo men waiting for you.
However, Greenbaum (1989) also states that students should follow the general
rule which is formal writing (p. 217).
[34] Therearetwo men waiting for you.
In addition, Azar (2009) says that there+be introduces the idea that something
does exist in a particular place (p. 91).
4. Descriptive Writing
According to McMurrey (1983), description is a term used rather loosely
in ordinary conversation which means something that quite specific. Description
is usually combined with other kinds of writing, such as narration. The goal of
description is to visualize a person, a place, or a thing by providing details as
much as possible. It includes all senses, particularly sight, while other senses, such
as smell, hearing, touch, and taste, are also important roles in description (p. 239).
B. Findings
In this part, the researcher would present the number of subject-verb
agreement errors found in students’ written work and the discussion of
subject-verb agreement errors made by the students.
To obtain the data, the researcher analyzed thirty-seven (37) students’
written work of class VIID. After analyzing the data, the researcher found
sixty-seven (67) errors of subject-verb agreement. However, the errors that the students
made were various. The researcher used surface structure taxonomy to help to
analyze and to classify the subject-verb agreement errors. In that taxonomy, there
are four errors categories, namely omission, addition which is sub-categorized
into regularization,double-marking, and simple additions, misinformation which
misordering. The examples of errors and the percentage of each type errors can be
seen in Table 2.6.
Table 2.6: The Number of Subject-Verb Agreement Errors Made by the Students
No Error
My brother sleep in the second floor.
(Singular marker “-s”)
20 29.85 In my house consist of several rooms.
(Singular marker “-s”)
My parent’s bedrooms is on the southern most part of my house.
(Plural marker “-s”)
I like all rooms in my house, but my favorite rooms is my bedroom and living room.
(Incorrect*beto show the plural subject)
46 68.65 In the bathroom, there is a shower, soap, a
mirror, and a toilet.
(Incorrect*beto show the plural subject)
4. Misordering - - 0 0
From the data in Table 2.5, there were three types of subject-verb
agreement errors found in students’ written work, namely omission, simple
addition which is under addition, and archi-forms/alternating forms which is
under misinformation. According to the data above, there were twenty (20) or
29.85% errors which were classified into omission error category. Omission is an
absence of an item that should appear in a well-formed sentence (Dulay et al.,
1982, p. 154). Following are the examples of omission error category found in
[1a] *My brother sleep in the second floor.
[2a] * In my living room there long wooden seat and wooden table.
[3a] *Carport in my house enough to park the 2 cars.
[4a] *The garage is not very big either, it only fit one car and two
motorcycles.
In sentence [1a] *My brother sleep in the second floor, the omission error
occurred in the verb*sleep. Since the subject is singular, the student should apply
a singular marker –s to the verb. Thus, the correction would be [1b] My brother
sleeps in the second floor. Other omission errors also occurred in sentence [2a]
and [3a]. The students did not applybeform as the verb in the both sentences. The
correct sentences would be [2b]In my living room, there are a long wooden seat
and a wooden tableand [3b]Carport in my house is enough to park the two cars.
While in sentence [4a] has the same case with sentence [1a]. The omission error
occurred in the verb *fit. It happened because the student did not apply singular
marker –s to show the singular subject. In this sentence, the correction would be
[4b]The garage is not very big either, it only fits one car and two motorcycles.
Under the addition category, there was one (1) or 1.50% error of simple
addition sub-category. According to Dulay et al. (1982), simple addition can be
defined as a neither addition error that is not double marking or regularization (p.
158). The simple addition error made by the student can be seen as follow.
In sentence [5a], the student put plural marker –s in the word *bedrooms
while the verb*isshows singular verb. The researcher had decided to omit “-s” in
*bedrooms because logically parents must have only one bedroom. Besides, this
sentence also had another type of error category which is archi-forms/alternating
forms. The apostrophe is used for showing possessive, for example in the word
*my parent’s. The word parentsshow both mother and father, butparentexplains
one of them which are mother only or father only. Thus, in this case the
apostrophe (‘) should be put after the wordparents. So that the possible correction
is [5b]My parents’ bedroom is on the southern most part of my house.
Under the misinformation category, the researcher did not find any errors
in regularization. Nevertheless, the researcher found forty-six (46) or 68.65%
errors in another sub-category of misinformation which is called
archi-forms/alternating forms. The examples of archi-archi-forms/alternating forms can be
seen as follows.
[6a] *My house had five bedrooms.
[7a] *I like all rooms in my house, but my favorite rooms is my bedroom
and living room
[8a] *In the bathroom, there is a shower, soap, a mirror, and a toilet.
[9a] *But I’m sleep in first floor.
[10a] *It have 3 bedrooms, one living room, a dining room, and a
kitchen…
Sentence [6a] shows incorrect usage of tense. It can be seen from the word
Thus, sentence [6a] should be replaced by [6b] My house has five bedrooms.
However, in sentence [7a] and [8a], the researcher found that the students put the
wrong verb to show a plural subject, so that it must be [7b]I like all rooms in my
house, but my favorite rooms are my bedroom and living room and [8b] In the
bathroom, there are a shower, soap, a mirror, and a toilet. Another example of
this error is sentence [9a] *But I’m sleep in first floor. From the sentence, the
researcher found that there were two verbs which werebe, in this case is *am, and
the verb*sleep. However, the verb *sleepdoes not need anybe to emphasize its
function as the verb, so that the correct sentence would be [9b] But I sleep in the
first floor.Then, in sentence [10a], the error occurred in the verb *have. The verb
*haveis used to show a plural subject. However, the subject in this sentence is *it
which shows the third person and which is always followed by a singular verb.
Thus, the sentence should be replaced by [10b]*It has three bedrooms, one living
29
CHAPTER III
CONCLUSIONS
In this chapter, the researcher is going to present the conclusion of the
research findings. The researcher had found some subject-verb agreement errors
in students’ written work made by the seventh graders of class VIID in SMP
Pangudi Luhur 1 Yogyakarta. The researcher used the theories from Dulay, Burt,
and Krashen which helped the researcher to classify and analyze the errors.
The data were obtained from thirty-seven (37) students’ written work.
From the data, the researcher found sixty-seven (67) errors of subject-verb
agreement which were classified based on the types of errors in surface structure
taxonomy. The first type of error was omission. In this type of error, the
researcher found twenty (20) errors or 29.85%. The second type of error was
addition. In addition category, there were no regularization and double marking
errors found. However, the researcher found one (1) error or 1.50% on simple
addition. Thus, from the addition category could be said that there was one (1)
error or 1.50% only. The third type of error was misinformation. In
misinformation category, they were regularization and archi forms/alternating
forms as the sub-category. The researcher did not find any errors on
regularization, but there were forty-six (46) errors or 68.65% on archi
forms/alternating forms. Therefore, from the misinformation category could be
said that there were forty-six (46) errors or 68.65% found in students’ written
The last type of error was misordering. However, after analyzing all the
data, the researcher did not found any errors on misordering category. Therefore,
the errors which were mostly made by the students were misinformation category
(68.65%), and followed by omission category (29.85%), and addition category
(1.50%).
From the findings, the researcher expects English teachers to give more
attention in teaching subject-verb agreement. The English teachers could ask the
students to practice writing a lot in order to improve their understanding in
forming subject-verb agreement in a sentence. Besides, the teachers should give
any feedbacks on students’ written work so that students can improve their writing
by learning errors they have made.
The researcher also expects students to pay attention to teachers’
explanation. It would be better to encourage themselves by asking the teacher
when they find any difficulties in writing. Besides, they are expected to be able to
be responsible for their own writing by doing self-editing before they submit their
work.
For future researchers who are interested in this subject-verb agreement
topic, you may modify or continue this study to be better research. The future
researchers could find errors sources by doing interview or questionnaire to obtain
data. Besides, the researcher suggests future researchers to make further research
31
REFERENCES
Ary, D., Jacobs, L. C., & Sorensen, C. (2010). Introduction to research in education(8thed). Belmont, CA: Wardsworth.
Azar, B. S. (2009).Understanding and using English grammar(4thed.). New York: Pearson Education
Brown, H. D. (2000).Principles of language learning and teaching(4th ed.). New York: Addison Wesley Longman.
Dulay, H., Burt, M., & Krashen, S. (1982).Language two. New York: Oxford University Press.
Ellis, R. (1997).Second language acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ellis, R. & Barkhuizen, G. (2005).Analysing learner language.Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Greenbaum, S. (1989).A college grammar of English. New York: Longman.
Harmer, J. (2007). The practice of English language teaching (4th ed.). Essex: Longman.
Langan, J. (1996).College writing skills(4thed.). New York: McGraw-Hill
Leech, G. & Svartvik, J. (1994).A communicative grammar of English (2nd ed.). London: Longman Group Limited.
Lester, M. (1990).Grammar in the classroom. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.
McMurrey, D. A. (1983).Writing fundamentals.New York: Macmillan.
Nunan, D. (2003). Practical English language teaching. New York: The McGraw-Hill.
Quirk, R. & Greenbaum, S. (1973).A university grammar of English. Essex: Longman.
Sprinthall, R. C., Schmutte, G. T., & Sirois, L. (1991).Understanding educational research. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Appendix A
Appendix B
Appendix C
Doc. #
Subject-Verb Agreement Errors
Found in Students’ Written Work Brief Errors Analysis Possible Correction
Types of Errors
Omission Addition Misinformation Misordering
R DM SA R Ar-F/ Al-F
1
My house had five bedrooms. Incorrect tense usage My househasfive bedrooms. 1
My brother sleep in the second floor. Singular marker “-s” My brothersleepsin the second floor. 1
But I’m sleep in first floor. Incorrect*be But Isleepin the first floor. 1
I had three bathrooms. Incorrect tense usage Ihavethree bathrooms. 1
2
In my house consist of several rooms. Singular marker “-s” In my houseconsistsof several rooms. 1
My parent’s bedrooms is on the southern most part of my house.
Incorrect placement of
apostrophe Myparents’ bedroomis on the southern
most part of my house.
1
Plural marker “-s” 1
All the room doors facing west, except my grandparent bedroom is located in front room ironing.
Missing*beas the
verb of the sentence All the room doorsmygrandparents’bedroom is located inarefacing west, except front room ironing.
In the family room,there area television, a bed, a chair, a carpet, a table and the picture of Jesus.
1
In the garden that has many plants. Incorrect subject and
verb
In the garden,there aremany plants. 1
-Doc. #
Subject-Verb Agreement Errors
Found in Students’ Written Work Brief Errors Analysis Possible Correction
Types of Errors
Omission Addition Misinformation Misordering
R DM SA R Ar-F/ Al-F
5
In my house also there garage and draw well.
In my living room there long wooden seat and wooden table.
Missing*beas the verb of the sentence
In my living room,there area long wooden seat and a wooden table.
1
In family room there sideboard, organ, wooden seat, wooden table, bookcase, computer, television, and aquarium.
Missing*beas the verb of the sentence
In family room,there area sideboard, an organ, a wooden seat, a wooden table, a bookcase, a computer, a television, and an aquarium.
1
In my bedroom there guitar, violin, bed, wardrobe, desk study, dressing table, and electronic goods.
Missing*beas the verb of the sentence
In my bedroom,there areguitar, violin, bed, wardrobe, desk study, dressing table, and electronic goods.
1
In kitchen there refrigerator, stove, plate, glass, and other cooking tools.
Missing*beas the verb of the sentence
In the kitchen,there area refrigerator, a stove, plates, glasses, and other cooking tools.
1
In bathroom there shower, bucket, and other bath appliances.
Missing*beas the verb of the sentence
In the bathroom,there areshower, a bucket, and other bath appliances.
1
6 No subject-verb agreement error -
-7 I use to play in my garden. Incorrect form of the
verb to show regularly event
