CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
A. Grammar
1. The Definition of Grammar
In learning English, there are several components that should be mastered by students. One of them components is grammar. Grammar is the system of a language. People describe grammar as the “rule” of a
language. It is a basic of knowledge of language to use effectively.
There are lots of grammar definitions: According to Jeffrey and Stacy (2003:16) grammar is the set of rules that govern its structure, it determines how words are arranged to form meaningful unit. Besides that Michael Swan (2005:19) defines that grammar is the rules that show how words are combined, arranged or changed to show certain kinds of meaning. In other hand, Hornby (1987:375) defines grammar as a study or science of, rules for, the combination of words into sentences (syntax), and the form of words (morphology). The oxford Advance Learner’s (2006: 648) defines that is the rules in a language for changing the form of words and joining them in to sentences.
2. The Importance of Grammar
In learning English, one of the aspects which are very important is master of grammar. The students are expected to master a grammar so that what they write, speak, read and listen have a clear meaning, for example, when yes/no question functions as an object in a noun clause, it uses whether/if. If they do not understand the structure of noun clause, they will understand the if as if it is part of conditional sentence.
According to Finnochiaro (1974:61) defines that the grammar terms are used in helping the students to see the form meaning position and function of any item. It will depend on a great extent on their knowledge of grammatical terms in their native language.
So, it can be concluded that grammar is important to support the students in learning English. Understanding grammar helps the students how to produce a sentence correctly. Without grammar, a language is difficult to be understood.
B. Noun Clause
1. Definition of Noun Clause
2. The Function of Noun Clause
2.1 A Noun Clause as a Subject
The first grammatical function of noun clause is as a subject. The roles of noun clause as a subject are divided into four forms. Those are positive, negative, yes/no question and Wh-question.
Positive form
If a clause acts as a positive subject so, it should begin with “that”. Example:
1) a. Coffee grows in Brazil. b. This is well known to all.
That coffee grows in Brazil is well known to all.
2) a. The world is round. b. It is a fact.
That the world is round is a fact.
Negative form
If a clause acts as a negative subject so, it is the same with positive form; it should begin with “that”.
1) a. You don’t have money. b. It is not surprising.
That you don’t have money is not surprising.
2) a. She doesn’t understand spoken English. b. It is obvious.
Yes/no question form
If yes/no question acts a subject in a sentence, it must start with “whether” and it should be changed into positive form.
Example:
1) a. Is English difficult or easy?
b. It depends on teacher’s explanation.
Whether English is difficult or easy depends on teacher’s explanation.
2) a. Can she speak Chinese? b. This is not important for us.
Whether she can speak Chinese or not is not important
for us. Wh-question form
If wh-question acts as a subject of a sentence, it must start with question word and also it should be changed into statement.
Example:
1) a. Where does she come from? b. This should be found out soon.
Where she comes from should be found out soon.
2) a. How much money did he steal? b. This is not easy to know.
2.2 A Noun Clause as an Object
A second grammatical function of noun clause is as an object. The roles of noun clause as an object are divided into four forms. Those are positive, negative, interrogative (yes/no question), and wh- question.
Positive form
If a clause acts as an object in positive form so, it may begin with “that” or not. It is an optional.
Example:
1) a. He is a smart student. b. I know this.
I know that he is a smart student.
I know he is a smart student.( without that)
2) a. He is a good actor. b. I think.
I think that he is a good actor.
I think he is a good actor.(without that)
Negative form
If a clause act as an object in negative form is the same with positive form. It can be begun with “that” or not.
Example:
Rachel knows that Sarah can’t swim. Rachel knows Sarah can’t swim.
2) a. He doesn’t come in my party. b. I don’t know
I don’t know that he doesn’t come in my party.
I don’t know he doesn’t come in my party.
Yes/no question
If a clause act as an object in yes/no question form, it must use “whether or if”.
Example:
1) a. Is he married? b. I want to know this.
I want to know whether she is married. I want to know if she is married.
2) a. Does Angela know how to cook? b. I wonder.
I wonder whether Angela knows how to cook.
I wonder if Angela knows how to cook.
Wh-question
If a clause acts as an object in wh-question form, it should be changed into positive form.
Example:
b. I don’t know.
I don’t know who she is.
2) a. How old is he? b. Do you know this?
Do you know how old he is.
2.3 A Noun Clause as a Complement
A third grammatical function of noun clause is as a complement. Positive form
If a clause acts as a complement in positive form so, it may be begun with “that” after to be.
Example:
1) a. We have to buy a new printer. b. The decision is this.
The decision is that we have to buy a new printer.
2) a. We have to use English during in the class. b. The conclusion is this.
The conclusion is that we have to use English during in
the class. Negative form
If a clause acts as a complement in negative form, it may be begun with “that” after to be.
Example:
b. The decision is this.
The decision is that I will not go to the ceremony.
2) a. She could not finish this work. b. The finally is this.
The finally is that she could not finish this work.
Yes/no question
If a clause acts as a complement in yes/no question form so, it may be begun with “whether” after to be.
Example:
1) a. Should we move to other town? b. The problem is this.
The problem is whether we should move to other town?
2) a. Will we go to Susan’s party? b. The question is this.
The question is whether we will go to Susan’s party or
not. Wh-question
If a clause acts as a complement in wh-question form so, it may be begun with “Wh-question” after to be.
Example:
1) a. Where did he hide the gold? b. What we want to know is this.
2) a. Why did she sell her car with very cheap price? b. What I don’t understand is this.
What I don’t understand is why she sold her car with
very cheap price.
2.4 A Noun Clause as an object of Prepositions
A fourth grammatical function of noun clause is as objects of preposition. Prepositions don’t stand alone. It should be followed by
noun. This noun is called the object of the preposition, because the preposition is placed before the object. The example of prepositions are about, an, in, at, to, of ,for, after, before, from, and so on. The roles of noun clause as an object of prepositions are divided into two forms. Those are interrogative (yes/no question), and Wh- question. Yes/no question
If a clause acts as an object as preposition in a sentence, it should be connected with “whether/if” and also it should be changed into positive form.
Example:
1) a. Is song good for teaching English?
The discussion about whether song is good for teaching English or not will be presented in tomorrow’s
workshop.
2) a. Can we use translation to explain vocabulary? b. The problem about this is up to the teacher.
The problem about whether we can use translation to
explain vocabulary or not is up to the teacher. Wh-question
If a clause acts as an object as preposition in a sentence so, it should be connected with “wh-question” and also it should be changed into positive form.
1) a. What will he say? b. You must listen to this.
You must listen to what he will say.
2) a. What do people think about me? b. I don’t care to this.
I don’t care to what people think about me.
C. Error Analysis
1. Definition of Error Analysis
An error usually occurs constantly. It can last long if it is not corrected. The correction usually is done by teacher through remedial learning, exercise, practice and so on. An error is a description of students’
misunderstanding language system that they learned. If they do not understand about it so, an error will be happened.
Analyzing an error is important to know how far the students’ ability that they learned, and to know what strategy which is appropriate to decrease that error. According to some experts of language think language error disturb the achievement of goal of language learning.
Therefore, language error which is made by students should be declined or it must be omitted. It can be achieved if the intricacy of language error is learned deeply. The learning of that is called error analysis. According to Ellis (in Tarigan,1990:68) Error analysis is a procedure which is usually used by researcher and language teacher which covers collecting data, error identification, error explanation, error classifications, and evaluation.
2. Procedure of Error Analysis
a. Sample collection
The sample collection is language error which is made by students such as a test result, essay, and conversation.
b. Error Identification
Recognize an error based on linguistic category, such as structuring of word, combining a word, and arranging a sentence.
c. Error explanation
Describing the location of error, the cause of error and giving a correct example.
d. Error Classification
Choosing an error based on linguistic category, such as structuring of word, combining a word, and arranging a sentence.
e. Evaluation
Correcting error by arranging an appropriate material, good book, and a suitable technique of teaching.
3. The Types of Error
Based on surface strategy taxonomy, there are four types of error analysis (Tarigan, 1995: 149):
a. Omission
It is marked by nonexistence of a morpheme or word that should exist in the utterance and writing form. For example:
It should be “what is Rachel doing?” “ You understand?”
It should be “ do you understand?”
b. Addition
It is the opposite of omission where a morpheme or a word which is not needed exists in the utterance or in the writing form. For example: “He doesn’t knows your name.”
It should be“Hedoesn’t knowyour name.”
Actually, addition is caused by the wariness of using a principle. Students extremely focus on positive form of the sentence that the singular subject of simple present tense isfollowed “verb + s”.
c. Mis-formation
It is marked by using of wrong morpheme or word. For example: “The dog eated the chicken this morning.”
It should be “The dog atethe chicken this morning.”
This happens because students think that all of past tense forms are added “ed”, where “eat” belongs to that category. They do not know the “eat” is irregular verb, which changes without adding “ed”.
d. Mis-ordering
This error is marked by the incorrect placement of a morpheme or word. For example:
“What Daddy is doing?”
It happens because there is an inversion in the sentence where the position of auxiliary is changed with subject.
D. Previous Study
As the consideration to conduct this research, it is needed to know previous relevant research conducted by other people. The first is, by Kittiporn Nonkukhetkhong in 2013 entitled “Grammatical Error Analysis of the First Year English Major Students”. The purpose of this research were
1) to investigate type of error made by the first year English major students, and 2) to explain characteristic of the error and give example of the error in order to find out the poper way to solve those error. The characteristic of grammatical errors found in this research were ommision, misformation, misordering and overgeneralization in which it was indicated in general grammatical errors; verb, noun, possesive case, article, preposition, adjective, adverb (47.41%), syntatic errors; sentence structure, ordering and coordination/subordination (19.53%), lexical error; word selection and word formation (11.69%).
The second research was by Nur Baithy, in 2014. The title of this reseach was “An Analysis of Students’ Error in Learning Noun Clause”. The aim of this research was to analyze the students’ error in learning
32 errors or 16% and the lowest error frequency was misordering with 16 errors or 8%.
