GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN WRITING RECOUNT TEXT BY THE TENTH GRADE STUDENTS AT SMA BUDISATRYA MEDAN.

GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN WRITING RECOUNT TEXT

BY THE TENTH GRADE STUDENTS AT SMA

BUDISATRYA MEDAN

A THESIS

Submitted as Partial Fulfillme nt of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan

By:

SUHARTINA

Registration Number: 2112121035

ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTEMENT

FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS

DECLARATION

I have familiarized myself with the University’s Policy on Academic integrity.

Except where appropriately acknowledged, this thesis is my own work, has been

expressed in my own words and has not previously been submitted for

assessment.

I understand that this thesis may be screened electronically or otherwise for

plagiarism.

Medan, Januari 2016

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ABSTRACT

Suhartina. Registration Numbe r: 2112121035. Grammatical Errors in Writing Recount Text by the Tenth Grade Students at SMA BudisatryaMedan.A Thesis. English Educational Program, State University of Medan, 2015.

This research deals with the tenth grade students’ grammatical errors in writing recount text. This research uses a qualitative design in which the data are taken from the sentences of texts. This research applies random technique to get a representative sample; from 160 tenth grade students at SMA Budisatrya Medan, 20 students are chosen as the sample. The data are collected by writing test and interview. The analysis found that: 1) There are five types of grammatical errors; they are verb 89 cases (57.4 %), pronoun 6 cases (3.9 %), preposition 10 cases (6.5 %), punctuation 32 cases (20.6 %) and spelling 18 cases (11.6 %). 2) The causes of errors; Interlingual transfer contributes 10 % and intralingual transfercontributes90 %. The, intralingual transfer divides into 4 categories; overgeneralization contributes 46 %, ignorance of rule restriction 0 %, incomplete of rule application 10 % and false concept hypothesize 44 % in causing errors happened. So, the most dominant type of grammatical errors made by the tenth grade students in writing recount text is verb. It is hoped that the result of this research is useful for everyone who wants to study about grammatical errors.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First of all, the writer would like to thank The Almighty Allah SWT for His blessings, so the writer is able to accomplish her thesis as a partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Sarjana Pendidikan at the English Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts (FBS) in State University of Medan (UNIMED).

During the process of writing, the writer realizes that she can’t accomplish

without supports from many people. The writer would like to express her sincere gratitude to:

 Prof. Dr. Syawal Gultom, M.Pd, as Rector of State University of Medan.  Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum., as Dean Faculty of Languages and Arts.  Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd., as the Head of English Department and

Nora Ronita De wi, S.Pd., S.S., M. Hum., as the Head of Education Program of English Department.

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life. The writer’s sincere gratitude also goes to her dearest sisters and brother for the supports and pray.

 Amir Hamzah Harahap, for love, time, laughter, happiness, supports, togetherness and everything he gave that can make the writer experienced other sides of life.

 Diaz Pradya Azmi, Fany Amelia Purba, Liza Ismaniar Lubis, Adeliany Putri and Weny Ardianti, for insane and ridiculous actions, laughter, togetherness, time and helpsthatthey experienced together in formal and informal occasions in achieving S.Pd.

 All Students Class B of English Education 2011 who suddenly had interaction and helped the writer in accomplishing all requirements for graduation.

Medan, Januari 2016

The Writer

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CHAPTER II.REVIEW OF LITERATURE ... 8

A. Theoretical Framework ... 8

1. Errors ... 8

2. Error Analysis ... 12

3. Grammar... 14

4. Writing ... 17

5. Grammatical Errors in Writing Recount Text ... 22

B. Relevant Studies ... 27

D. Instruments for Collecting the Data ... 32

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CHAPTER IV. DATA ANALYSIS, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

.

34

A. Data Analysis ... 34

1. Types of Errors ... 34

2. Causes of Errors ... 41

B. Findings ... 47

C. Discussions ... 48

CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

...

50

A. Conclusions ... 50

B. Suggestions... 51

REFERENCES ... 53

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LIST OF TABLES

Pages Table 1.1The Percentage of Students’ Writing ... 2

Table 2.1 TheThree Fundamentals of Genre- Based Writing ... 19

Table 2.2TheRhetorical Structure or the Textual Elements in Recount Text . 21 Table 4.1 The Percentage of Data Analysis of the Grammatical Errors in

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LIST OF FIGURES

Pages Figure 4.1.The Diagram of the Causes of Grammatical Errors ... 42

viii

LIST OF APPENDICES

Pages

Appendix A. Writing Test. ... 56

Appendix B. Students’ Work Sheet ... 57

Appendix C.The Classification of Errors (I) ... 61

Appendix D. The Classification of Errors (II) ... 67

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. The Background of the Study

In Indonesia, English is taught as a foreign language. English generally has been learned by the students since they were in the basic level of education.

When students learnt English, they are focused on mastering four language skills:

They are Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing. Listening and reading are

receptive skills while speaking and writing are productive skills. All of the skills

are to be improved in the process of teaching and learning English.

In the process of teaching and learning English, writing skill is more

complicated than that of other language skills. Braine and Yoruzu (1998:

130)inJaved (2013)state that basically the writing skill requires a well- structured

way of the presentation of thoughts in an organized and planned way.Writing as

one of the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing has always formed part of the syllabus in the teaching of English (Harmer, 2004:31).

Based on the preliminary observation of the English teacher of SMA

Budisatrya Medan on 28th March 2015, the writer asked the teacher about students’ writing recount text score list for the first semester. Then, the writer

asked about the minimum criteria mastery for writing recount text. The writer saw the minimum mastery criteria (KKM) was applied 80 meanwhile the students’

writing recount text score were still low. Of course, most of the students cannot

reach theminimummastery criteria (KKM) which applied by school for English

lesson.Formoredetail, the students’ accumulated score are shown on the table

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Table 1.1.The percentage of the Tenth Grade Students’ Writing Recount Text

2nd

From the table 1.1 above shows that the students’ ability in writing recount

text is still low. It can be known from the percentage which shows that there are

only 45 students get score greater than 80, 14 students get score equal to 80, and

101 students get score less than 80. It can be concluded that the most of students’

score percentage isunder the KKM.

According to the Educational Level Oriented Curriculum (Kurikulum

Tingkat SatuanPendidikan: KTSP) 2006 of Senior High School, students are

required must be able to understand to write various types of genre such as

descriptive, narrative,recount, report, procedure, explanation, analytical

exposition, hortatoryexposition, news item and anecdote. Meanwhile in the

syllabus that stated inCompetence Standard of the tenth grade student curriculum of English subject,there are four writing genres that must be learned by students

such as recount, narrative, procedure, and descriptive. So the writer chooses the

recount text as the writing genres in this study.

Recount text is one of the writing genres that the students must learn. This

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which has a function to retell or inform an event or activity in the past. It can be

experiences and events.

In fact, mastery of writing recount text is a significant problem in the

school. Almost the number of the students cannot understand how to write.

Whereas, writing recount text requires well knowledge when the students produce

words, sentences, paragraph at the same time with good English grammatical.

English grammar is more complicated than Indonesian grammar.

There are some reasons why the students difficult and do not understand

how to write recount text. Firstly, many students lack of vocabulary and grammar. Second, they do not understand how to write the text correctly, especially to write

the structures of contents in the text. Some mistakes are made when the students

do not understand well about the English grammar. Many students commonly

make grammar errors in their learning especially in writing such as verb, pronoun,

preposition, spelling and punctuation. The third is sometimes the teacher also do not aware about students’ errors. Then, the students make their errors repeatedly

because they do not have the correction and less practice and it is called errors

(Emmaryana, 2010).

Errors in language learning are natural. Errors usually occur in the

productive skills, speaking and writing, but to analyze errors in productive skills

in short time is not easy (Anggraeni: 2013). It takes time, money, and requires a

high ability of an analysis. Therefore, the writer decides to analyze only the grammatical errors in students’ writing recount text. The writer chooses the

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make writing which are correct in grammar, so it is important to know whether the

students make grammatical errors or not and what kind of grammatical errors that

students make.

As the writer’s observation of the tenth grade students at SMA Budisatrya

Medan, the writer found some errors in students’writing such as they wrote in

some sentences below:

a. Me didn’t like you.

We can see that the structure of the sentence is wrong. It is about pronoun. The students think and only know that the term “me” can be used in every

function of the sentence. Instead of the term “me” as the object. So, the

correct sentence is “I didn’t like you”.

b. Sarah go to the beach yesterday.

We know that the structure of the sentence is wrong. It is about verb. The sentence indicates past tense. While the students write the verb “go” it

means that present time. The students don’t know that to show the activity

happens in the past time, the verb must changes into regular or irregular verb. So, the correct sentence is “Sarah went to beach yesterday”.

c. We arrived there in 10.00 p.m.

We can see that the students make error in term of preposition. They only

know that the preposition can be used in every situation. Instead of preposition “in” for nonspecific times during a day, a month or a year. So,

the correct sentence “We arrived there at 10.00 p.m. Because it indicates

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According to the explanation above, it is important by the teacher to give

error analysis on students writing. Error analysis is an activity to identify, classify

and interpreted or describe the errors made by someone in speaking or in writing

and it is carried out to obtain information on common difficulties faced by

someone in speaking or in writing English sentences. Gass&Slinker (2001:79)

state that error analysis is a type of linguistic analysis that focuses on the errors

learners make. In short, error analysis is the process of determination the

incidence, nature, causes, andconsequences of unsuccessful language. Error

analysis gives advantages for both students and teachers. For students, error analysis is needed to show them in what aspect in grammar which is difficult for

them, to show the errors made by the students, to know the source or the cause of

the error and how the students can learn from their errors in order that they will

not make some errors repeatedly. And for teachers, it is required to evaluate

themselves whether they are successful or not in teaching English especially in writing. That’s why the writer is interested in analyzing students’ writing Recount

text especially in their grammatical errors.

B. The problems of the Study

Based on the background, the problems of the study are formulated as

follow:

1. What kind of grammatical errors dominantly appear in writing Recount

text made by the tenth grade students of SMA Budisatrya Medan?

2. What are the causes of the grammatical errors made by the tenth grade

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C. The Objectives of the Study

Based on the research statement, this particular study aimed at finding out:

1. To know the kind of grammatical errors which dominantly appear in tenth grade students’ writing Recount text in SMA BudisatryaMedan.

2. To knowthecausesof the grammatical errors made by the tenth grade

students of SMA Budisatrya Medan in writing Recount text.

D. The Scope of the Study

This research will only focus on errors found in students’ writing recount

text especially in grammar. In grammar errors, there are also many kinds of

errors. Sawalmeh (2013: 1) states that there are some kinds of errors in grammar.

They are errors in verb tense, word order, singular/ plural form, subject-verb

agreement, double negatives, spellings, capitalization, articles, sentence

fragments and prepositions. This research will only focus grammar errors found in students’ writing recount text (verb, pronoun, preposition, spelling and

punctuation).

The scope of this study is the product in a recount text written by the tenth

grade students at SMA Budisatrya Medan.

E. The Significance of the Study

Findings of the study are expected to be relevant theoretically and

practically.

1. Theoretically

The study theoretically, it can develop and enhance the concept and

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2. Practically

The findings of the study are expected to give a feedback.

1. For the teachers, this research becomes reference for them to select the

better ways in teaching process.

2. For the students, this research becomes feedback for them so they can be

better in learning English, especially in writing.

3. For the readers, this researchbecomes reference for them to know

grammatical errors made by the students.

4. For the researchers, this research becomes reference and develops the

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CHAPTER IV

DATA ANALYSIS, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

A. Data Analysis

This study was a qualitative research which described the findings of

analyzeddata and used descriptive method in which the data are collected,

analyzed and drawn a conclusion. In this case, the study analyzed the grammatical errors made by students to find out the types of grammatical errors which got

errors and the causes of errors occurrences.

The 20 recount texts as the sources of the study were written by the tenth

grade students at SMA Budisatrya Medan, in which they were given the same

topic about their interesting experience. The data were identified and classified into 5types: verb, pronoun, preposition, punctuation and spelling. Besides, the

data which got errors were analyzed to find out the causes of errors.

English grammar books, materials related to grammar, theories about types

and causes of errors, and former studies re lated to grammatical errors were used to

analyze the data.

1. Types of Errors

After analyzing the data taken from the 20 writingsrecount texts collected,

then the percentage of errors in grammar is shown in the following table. The

classification of grammatical errors consists of errors of verb, errors of pronoun,

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Table 4.1.The Percentage of Data Analysis of the Grammatical Errors in

Recount Texts which means that this kind of grammatical errors dominantly occurred. Based on

the classifications of errors, it was found that 155 errors occurred (see table 4.1).

The explanations about them could be seen below.

a. Verb

Verb was the type of error which got the highest total percentage of

grammatical errors occurred. There were 89 errors found.Based on the analysis,

there were some cases the students made errors in producing verb form.

1) Students made errors in producing verb past form. They still used verb

present in the sentences whereas they wrote about their past experience.

So, they failed to recognize changed verb presentinto verb past in regular

and irregular verbs. The examples could be seen below.

- We start on 06.00 a.m from Budisatrya. (It should be: “We started on

06.00 a.m from Budisatrya.)(RH:X-2)

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The words „start‟and„go‟ should be changed into regular (-d/ -ed) or

irregular verb past to indicate the past tense of „start‟and„go‟ because the students

wrote the text based on their past experience so it must be changed into past tense.

2) Students made errors in producing verb especially in auxiliary verb form.

Sometimes, students also omitted the auxiliary verb when they shared their

past experience. The examples could be seen below.

- I and my familyso happy. (It should be:“I and my family were so

happy”.)(NAL: X-4)

- Itvery cold air. (It should be:“Itwas very cold air”.)(NAL: X-4)

The student omitted auxiliary verb that must appeared in those sentences.

If the sentence indicated to adjective so it must be followed by auxiliary verb. That‟s why the student made errors because she does not complete in writing her

sentence.

3) Students also added auxiliary verb which did not need it in the sentences

actually. So, the sentence became wrong. The examples illustrated below.

- I amate very much. (It should be:“I ate very much”.)(PMS: X-1) - I am become amazing. (It should be:“I became amazing”.)(IL: X-3)

The word „am‟ should be erased in those sentences. The errors occurred

because of the presence of the word that must not be appeared in sentences. The

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4) Students actually knew that they had to use verb 2 in their writing. But,

they failed in changing the verb. They did not apply what they have

learned actually. The example could be seen below.

- I plaied with my sister. (It should be: “I played with my sister”.)

(ZA: X-3)

I and young sistersleept. (It should be: “I and young sister slept”.)(ZA: X-3)

The words „plaied’ and ‘sleept’shouldbe changed into regular or irregular

verb past. In this case, the students tried to change the verb into verb past, but they

failed in changing it. If his aim was to change the word into verb past „play‟, then he had to write „played‟ not „plaied‟ because it was regular verb. And the word „sleep‟ must be changed „slept‟ not „sleept‟ because it was irregular verb.

b. Pronoun

The errors of pronoungot6 cases with percentage 3.9 %.The errors of pronoun happened because some students made errors in placing pronoun in their

sentence. They did not know that every pronoun had their own function. So, the

students still confuse to choose and to use the word to be the right pronoun. The

examples could be seen below:

1. Once time me and family on the way went touncle‟s house.(It should be: “Once time I and family on the way went touncle‟s house.”)(PEH: X-3)

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3. One day, when it was twelve years old… (It should be:“One day, when I was twelve years old…”)(ARF: X-4)

The students simply wrote pronoun without knowing its function. The

students could not write the words „me‟ and „it‟because it did not match with the sentences.The function of pronoun „me‟ to indicate first person pronoun, but as

the object. While in that sentence, the student tried to write pronoun as the subject.

Because after pronoun there was verb, so it must be changed pronoun „I‟. The

word „it‟represented the thing except people. The student wanted to share his

experience, so exactly the „it‟ not true in that sentence. So, it must be „I‟ because

he shared his experience not other thing.

c. Preposition

Errors of prepositiongot 10 cases or 6.5 %.In using a preposition, one

should be aware because there was no certain rule for this. One has to determine

which preposition should be used based on its context. In this case, the errors

occurred because of the students did not know how to use preposition based on

context. They only realized that each of prepositions can be accepted in every sentence. So that students did errors repeatedly. The examples could be shown

below.

1. We went at Sunday. (It should be:“We went on Sunday.”)(RH: X-2) 2. We started on 06.00 a.m from Budisatrya. (It should be:“We started at

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Sentences in number 1 and 2 had the same form of error. It appeared

because the student had no knowledge how to use preposition based on its function. The preposition „at‟ in the first sentence was wrong. The preposition „at‟

to designate specific times (at 12. 15 p.m.).So, to designate days or dates the

student had to use preposition „on‟. And the preposition „on‟ in the second

sentence also was wrong. In that sentence, she wrote preposition „on‟ to designate

specific times. While to designate specific times the student must be used

preposition „at‟. That is why her sentences became error because she did not place

preposition based on its function.

d. Errors of Punctuation

Errors of punctuationgot32 cases with percentage 20.6 %.Students made

errors of punctuation in using capitalization. They did not aware how to use

capitalization in their sentence which actually it was so important. Students often

made errors in using capitalization such as the beginning of sentence and name of

place. The example can be seen below.

- We started at 06.00 a.m from budisatrya.(It should be:“We started at

06.00 a.m. from Budisatrya”.)(RH: X-2)

Sometimes, the student made errors of punctuation in producing commas

and apostrophe. Sometimes they added apostrophe that actually did not need and

sometimes omitted it. The examplecan be known below.

- The village in West Sumatra’s. (It should be: The village in West

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Sentences number 1 and 2 had the same form of error. It happened because

of the students got carelessness in writing those sentences. They did not aware

about the use of punctuation. In the first sentence, student did not put upper case

letter to indicate specific place. To indicate proper names of people, ethnic groups,

places, countries, institution and religions, it must be used capitalization. In the

second sentence, the student put apostrophe that actually did not need in that

sentence. The word „West Sumatra‟ was a part of Sumatra not to show the

possession of Sumatra. That is why their sentences got error. Because to write

well, students must be punctuate well, but to punctuate well, the students must

also wrote well.

e. Spelling

Errors of spellinggot 18 cases with percentage 11.6 %. The errors in

spelling occurred because of the carelessness and less in practicing whenthe

students wrote because most of the students did not know aware about thespelling of the words. So, they were often wrote a word without incorrect spelling. Students

added a letter in a word which actually it became incorrect spelling. The examples

can be seen below.

- …but we were not borred visited Brastagi. (It should be:“… but we were

not bored visited Brastagi”.)(STF: X-4)

- Durring in journey…(It should be: “During in journey…”.)(AK: X-4)

- Finished the rest, we enjoyed a verry happy holiday. (It should

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Sentences no 1, 2 and 3 had the same form of error. It appeared because the

students did not know how to write the words in English language. For example, the

word „borred‟. The student did not think that how to write the word „borred‟ with

single „r‟ or double „r‟. It happened also in the second and third sentence. Sometimes

the students thought that spelling the words in English was same what they said with

what they had to write. That is why the students wrote the words without knowing it

was correct or wrong.

2. Causes of Errors

After analyzing the data, to find out the causes of students‟ grammatical

errors, the writer did interview to the students. According to Erdogan(2005:

265)the causes of errors are categorized within two domains, they are interlingual

and intralingual transfer. Based on the interview, the result could be seen below.

Figure4.1.Diagram of the Causes of Grammatical Errors 10%

90%

Interlingual transfer

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From the diagram above, it could be seen that intralingual transfer the

most contributed the causes of errors with percentage 90 % or 140 cases. Then, it

was followed by interlingual transfer with percentage 10 % or 15 cases. Almost

the errors were influenced by intralingual transfer because the students had limited

knowledge about English rules and structures and their inabilities to apply what

they have learned. Besides, some errors were influenced by interlingual transfer

because the students still were influenced by Indonesian language. The

explanation could be seen below.

a. Inte rlingualTransfer

In this research, interlingual transfer contributed the errors with percentage only 10 % or 15 cases. It occurred at different levels such as transfer of

phonological, morphological, grammatical and lexical semantics elements of the

native language into the target language. The students made errors because they

were still influenced by their first language. Some of the students made errors in

changing the verb. In English verb in past should be added by suffix-ed or-d and should be added by suffix-s or –es in present tense. Meanwhile, in Indonesia the

verb did not change even in present or past tense. It made students confused and

did errors repeatedly. Then, there was a student made errors in noun pluralization.

It occurred due to the difference level of morphological. Because in Indonesia, to

show noun pluralization it did not need adding suffix –s or –es. Besides, in English we should be added it. The examples could be shown below.

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2) “In SeaWorld, I saw many fish”, instead of “In SeaWorld, I saw many fishes”.(AAR: X-2)

In the first example, student thought that present form of to be „is‟ and past

form was the same. The student assumed that the meaning was the same, so why

it has to be changed. Then in the second example, the word „fish‟should be added

by the suffix –es. Before the word „fish‟ there was, also „many‟ which indicated

the word fish should be in the plural form. The student said that she did not know

how to show that the noun in plural or singular in English language, because the

student thought that in Indonesian language there was no rule how to write that

the noun singular or plural. That is why the students‟ error influenced by the first language (Indonesian language).

b. Intralingual Transfer

In this research, intralingual transfer the most contributed the errors with

percentage 90 % or 140 cases. It is caused by the influence of one target language

item upon another. Students frequently made errors because they had lacked of knowledge about English rules and structures. For example, learners attempt to

use two markers at the same time in one sentence since they have not maste red the

language yet.

According to Richards (1971:19-22) intralingual transfer dividedinto 4

categories; overgeneralization, ignorance of rule restriction, incomplete application of rules and false concepts hypothesized. Based on the interview, the

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Figure 4.2.Diagram of the Causes of Grammatical Errors

Intralingual transfer divided into 4 categories; (overgeneralization 65 cases

or 46 %), (incomplete rule application 14 cases or 10 %), (false concept hypothesize 61 cases or 44 %) and (ignorance of rule restriction 0 %). The

explanations could be seen below.

1) Overgeneralization

In this research, overgeneralization hadpercentage46 %.The students

created a deviant structure on the basis of the other structure in the target language. They lacked of knowledge about the elements of grammar and over

generalized only what they have knew. The errors could be seenin using

preposition and punctuation. The student only knew about preposition and also

punctuation, so they over generalized the preposition without knowing its

function.

46.00%

10% 0%

44% Overgeneralization

Incomplete rule restriction

Ignorance of rule application

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a) “We started on 06.00 a.m from Budisatrya”, instead of “We started at

06.00 a.m from Budisatrya”. (RH: X-2)

b) “Thiswas not the first time we were toBrastagi”, instead of “Thiswas not

the first time we were inBrastagi”.(STF: X-4)

c) “After some hours I and my family arrived in home”, instead of “After

some hours I and my family arrived at home”.(NS: X-1)

Sentences in number 1, 2 and 3 got errors because of overgeneralization.

All the students in the sentence above said that they only knew the preposition

without knowing its function. The students over generalized the entire preposition

that they only knew. Students did not know about the rule or they could not apply

what they have learned,

2) Ignorance of Rule Restriction

In this research, ignorance of rule restriction had percentage 0 %. There were nostudentswhichmade a deviant structure in which grammatical rules are

applied into inappropriate contexts in which other rules should be used instead.

3) Incomplete Rule Application

In this research, incomplete rule application contributed the errors with

percentage 10 %. Some of students got failure to fully develop a structure. They

omitted some elements which were needed in the sentence. Some cases could be

seen in omitting to be and preposition. The Examples could be seen below.

a) “We went in the morning 8.30 a.m.by car”. Instead of “We went in the

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b) “I and my familyso happy”. Instead of “I and my family were so

happy”.(LL: X-4)

The students omitted preposition and to bewhich important in that

sentence. He said that he forgot to put the preposition and to be. Meaning that the

student got failure to fully develop a structure. The student made errors because of

the incomplete application of rules.

4) False Concept Hypothesize

In this research, false concept hypothesized contributed the errors with

percentage 44 %. The learner failed to comprehend fully distinction in the target

language. The examples could be seen below.

a) “I am and my friends went to this place for refreshing”. Instead of “I and

my friends went to this place for refreshing”.(YS: X-3)

b) “I amate very much”, instead of “I ate very much”.(PMS: X-3)

The first sentence, student said that when she wrote a sentence, it should

be followed by to be. Whether the sentence was passive or active. Then in the second sentence, student said that she only knew to be could be used in every

sentence without knowing the function. In this case, both of them failed to

comprehend fully distinction in the target language.

B. Findings

The analysis revealed that the grammatical errors existed in recount text

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1. The types of grammatical errors found are verb (89 cases or 57.4 %),

pronoun (6 cases or 3.9 %), preposition (10 cases or 6.5 %), punctuation

(32 cases or 20.6 %) and spelling (18 cases or 11.6%). The errors of verb

occurred in changing the verb into past. The errors of pronoun occurred in

placing the pronoun based on its function. The errors of preposition

occurred in generalizing all of the prepositions without knowing its

function. The errors of spelling occurred in mistyping when write the

words. The errors of punctuation occurred because of carelessness.

2. The causes of errors that occurred were interlingual and intralingual

transfer. The interlingual transfer influenced the errors with percentage 10 %. Besides,intralingual transfer 90 %.Then, intralingual transfer divided

into 4 categories; overgeneralization (46 %), ignorance of rule restriction(0

%), incomplete application of rule (10 %) and false concept hypothesized

(44 %).It was caused by intralingual transfer if students have limited

knowledge about grammar especially (verb, pronoun, preposition, punctuation and spelling) and the rules how to form it into a sentence or

they have inabilities to apply what they have learned. On the other side, it

was caused by interlingual transfer if students are influenced by their first

native language (Indonesian language).

C. Discussions

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In the former studies, however, which analyzed about grammatical errors,

the error of verb commonly found that in changing the verb into regular (d and

-ed) and irregular verb which make the errors occur. In a research about the students‟ writing conducted by Anggraeni(2013) found that one of the errors

which are made by students is tense or verb. Such error has been a common issue

for those who concern about analyzing the errors of Indonesian students in

English grammar. This case is also found in this study, but, this study finds that

besides verb (regular or irregular verb), punctuation and spelling also occur in students‟ errors.

Related to the finding of this study and study about the grammatical errors analysis produced by speaking of English department students (A Study Speaking

Class of ELT Department of IAIN Walisongo) conducted by Adib (2012) shows

that the verb is dominant error that occurs in speaking.

This study, however, has a big possibility in causing the invalid data exist.

But, this problem can be avoided because students are given the same topics about their interesting experience, so the students write their experience with different stories and the texts are their original works. However, the amount of students‟

writings depend on the students‟ activeness and creativity, it means that students

who are active in writing have a big possibility to make greater errors.

49 Referring to the students‟ quality in writing based on the components

which should be mastered well according to Raimes (1983) in Syarifah (2015),

then it can be concluded that the students produced writing is not good yet. It is

seen from the perspective of grammar, especially through the analysis of

53

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