ABSTRACT
Skripsi ini membahas penggunaan tenses yang terdapat dalam kumpulan
cerita pendek berjudul Pieces of Life. Kumpulan cerita pendek ini ditulis oleh para
mahasiswa/i jurusan S1 Sastra Inggris, Universitas Kristen Maranatha, yang
mengambil mata kuliah Creative Writing pada tahun 2008. Data penelitian ini diambil dari dua cerita pendek yang berjudul “I Am a hero” dan “Hallucination in My World.”
Analisis data dilakukan berdasarkan teori A Non Contrastive Approach to Error Analysis dari Jack C. Richards. Hasil analisis data ini menunjukkan bahwa kedua penulis paling sering membuat kesalahan dalam tense sequence. Hasil analisis juga menunjukkan bahwa penyebab kesalahan tenses dalam dua cerita pendek tersebut adalah ignorance of rule restrictions dan false concepts hypothesized.
Skripsi ini juga mendeskripsikan cara perbaikan terhadap kekeliruan
dalam penulisan teks yang diteliti. Perbaikan tersebut memperlihatkan beberapa
kelemahan para penulis dalam aspek gramatika dan kosa kata mereka tetapi
kekeliruan ini tidak dibahas. Kesimpulan penelitian menunjukkan bahwa para
penulis perlu meningkatkan penguasaan terhadap kemampuan gramatika,
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS ... i
ABSTRACT ... ii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study...1
Statement of the Problem ... 4
Purpose of the Study ... 4
Methods of Research ... 4
Organization of the Thesis ... 5
CHAPTER TWO: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ... 6
CHAPTER THREE: AN ERROR ANALYSIS ON THE TENSES
IN PIECES OF LIFE ... 19
CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSION ... 43
BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 47
APPENDICES
Title of the book: Pieces of Life
Data 1:“I Am a Hero”
“Crang…”
“Mmmphh… Again?” I sighed and directly took the pillow to cover my ears. I
hid inside the wool blanket.
So warm, but it wasn’t warm enough to warm up my heart.
5 It happened in several times; my parents quarreled and snapped each other.
They were arguing about something that confused me. My mom said that daddy had
another woman in his life. She said it because daddy always came home late since
last month.
“You must have had an affair outside there. Someone told me that you were
10 dating with another woman at atmosphere café last night!” Mom screamed loudly,
at the same time she appointed daddy’s nose.
“I never have an affair with anyone! Last night I had a dinner with Ms. Lucia,
she is the director of Multifashion Company, and it produces woman wears andtheir
accessories. I wanted to make some deal with her related to our business, that’s all!”
“ Ah…it’s such a bullshit reason. Last month my friend saw you walking
around with that woman in Istana Plaza, and two weeks ago too. It means you had
been three times gapped with the same woman. Isn’t it enough to make distrust
you?”
5 “ Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay it’s up to you! I have already being mad at my job;
don’t try to add my problems anymore! I just want to take a rest now!” Daddy went to
bedroom and blow up the door; today I heard mom said that she was going to
divorce my dad.
When I heard that, I cried out loudly inside my heart. I really didn’t know
10 why they had to get divorce. Problems of adults are very complicated. I wander
who that woman is. Deep in my heart I was sure that my father would never did such
an affair, he was not that type of person who liked to cheat on others especially his
own wife and family.
(Saturday night)
15 When I was hanging out with my friends at a mall, I saw my dad at a
restaurant with a woman. I assumed that that woman is the one whom has made
both my parents quarreled last time at home. After some time, my dad left. It seemed
that he wouldn’t go home nor went back to that restaurant again. Without considering
the consequence I will face latter on, I straightly went into the
20 restaurant and talked to that woman.
“ You are such a distractive woman! Do you know that you are the cause of
my parents’ divorce? You want to make my family falling apart! Why do you do that
Then in a minute, she explained that she is not having an affair with my
25 father moreover she said, “We are only a partners in business and I am going to
explain everything to your mother about our relationship”.
I felt relieved and asked her to come to our house and ask her to explain
everything to my mom that instant.
*
(At Home)
“I am very sorry for what had happened to you, I just want to explain
5 everything that has happened in the past three weeks. I really don’t have
anything with your husband; I an only his business partner, we are working on a
project that we have some agreements to make”.
My mother asked, “ If you really are doing business with my husband, why do you
have to meet him so often?”
10“When we are at Istana Plaza, we were discussing about the right location
to open up a boutique; then at atmosphere café, we were making sure the
agreement and the rules, more than that I am engaged and will get married soon”.
Finally my mom understands the situation and there is no more misunderstanding
15 between my mom, my dad and Miss Lucia.
“I am so sorry forwhat happened in your family”, said Ms. Lucia.
“I am the one who should apologize for misunderstand you and my husband as he
don’t tell me that he is planning to have new project and ill cooperate with your
company” apologized my mother.
20 Then the two of them drifted into a very a long conversation till dawn and
Once my father comes home, my mom told my dad of what has just
happened that afternoon.
Daddy asked,” How can Miss Lucia come to our house?”
Mom smiled and said. “it’s all because our lovely and precious daughter.”
“Yes, I’m a Hero” I smiled proudly.
Then my mom and dad made up and saying sorry to each other then we had
dinner together and chatted during dinner time along with some jokes about
5that matter. “It was the happiest moment and very delicious dinner with my parents
and it will stay the same forever”, I told myself.
My mother told my father about her misunderstanding. My mother thought
that he was having affair with someone else. But she finally knew that the woman
was only her husband’s business partner and she was not having an
10 affair with her husband.
When my mom is talking about her gladness feeling, dad was interrupted her.
“Oh, my dear, I feel guilty to you. You are the kindest woman I ever known. I
can’t lie anymore”
15 “Actually I am having an affair with another woman. And right it’s Lucia.
But she told me to appreciate your feeling. She said that you are honest and I can’t
betray you like this” he said.
Mom was shocked and she remains silence for few hours. And dad feels
guilty for what he has done. Many times he told his regret but mom was still in
Data 2: “Hallucination in My World”
It was a calm morning on 11th September, 2011. The sun shone brightly. My
name is Paul. My parents and I went to WTC to visit Bob, my uncle. He worked there
as a marketing of Foretec, Inc. His office was just a small office but cozy. There was
a comfortable sofa where you could take a little nap when you
5 were tired. It happened so fast. The building was suddenly shaking. It was a
tremendous and terrified shaking. I saw people screaming outside, running randomly
nowhere, panic. They said “GOD, HELP!!”
We were scared too, we leave the office hand in hand so we would not
separate each other. I had a headache because of the crowded and panic
10 people. People ran nowhere who wanted to leave the building too suddenly, I
separated with my parents and Bob.
I came across the fireman and asked him if he saw my parents and uncle. I
showed him family’s picture from my wallet. But he asked me to leave from that
building immediately and found my relatives outside, maybe they had already gone
out first. When I was out of the building, I still couldn’t find them because of too many
people and the crowd was terrible.
*
It was a Monday morning, I woke up at 7 and directly prepared my breakfast.
I had to prepare it as simple as I could since I lived alone without my parents. I miss
them very much, they have never come back since that damn day.
20 Ting, Tong (the bell ringing). “wait a minute!” I said.
When I opened the door my coffee cup fell of my hand. I felt just very shocked,
“Mom? Dad?” asked me.
“Yes, dear. Why are you looking us like that, like you are looking a ghost.”
Mom said.
“But…but…Oh My God! I must wake up. It is just a dream!”
“No, no dear. You aren’t in a dream”. Said dad.
“well, come in, come in. What you want to drink? Asked me.
“lime honey tea, dear. Just like usual. “ Mom said.
“I want a cup of coffee for a wonderful morning day.” Said daddy.
I am still confused am I dreaming?! But I know for sure that Mom’s favorite
drink is lime honey tea and dad usually stars the day with a cup of a
10 coffee. But all happens just so suddenly. I had to leave my parents because I had
a class that I could not pass anymore because of my attendance was finish at Econ
Class.
“Mom, dad, I must go now to campus, it’s ok? “ I asked.
“ Yea, yea…just be careful and study hard today ok? “ Mom and dad said.
15 Then I went to campus with a strange feeling. Mom and dad suddenly
appeared and they didn’t feel like missing me. Like they have just gone for an hour
but no it has been two years. Didn’t they realize it? But the weird thing was when I
arrived at home, the drinks were still in the dinning table. Mom and dad didn’t drink it.
20 Cafeteria always looks full, all students must queue to get today’s food.
After waiting at a long time, now this is my turn, but suddenly Robert came and
occupied my position.
“Hey, I want today’s food, be quick!” he said.
“Hmm, by the way, it is my turn, queue please.” I said.
“I know, you are Robert, but…but…”said me.
“So, just move and shut your mouth!” Robert threatened me.
When Robert pushed me, he made my food drop. I hate him because he
always behaves as he wishes. He is a devil. The worst thing that he has done to me
is hiding my assignment at basketball field.
5 “Are you okay?” someone at my back asked me.
“I’m okay, but my food…,ooohh…”I said.
“Hmmm, I can share my food with you, by the way, my name is Tommy, what
is yours?” Tommy said.
“My name is Paul, nice to meet you Tom.” I said.
10 After that event, I became closer with Tom. Sometimes, he visited me but
because we were in the different faculty, Tom and I usually met at lunch time at
cafeteria. We became best friends. We always shared our problem and he knew
about my weird parents’ appearance which sometimes they were gone like gone with
the wind. Because of my weirdness so Tommy gave me an article
15 about Dr. David Collin. He is the best psychologist in New York. It is said in New
York Times Magazine.
*
It was very hard to make appointment with Dr. David Collin, but finally I got it.
The appointment took on Monday 14th March. I told him everything about
20 my weird parents’ appearances which looked very real. I told that sometimes I
saw mom talking with dad at the parlor but sometimes they were just gone like the
wind. The weird thing was sometimes I could hear their voice inside my head.
After listening my story, Dr. David made a conclusion that maybe my sick
25 voices. After explaining about Schizophrenia, he gave me a medicine to eliminate
the hallucination when it came.
Day after day, I became better. My parents never come again. Yes that was
so sad but, I had to face it that they were just my hallucination. But I become
suspicious too because after that I have never met Tommy again. Because my
condition became better and better so Dr. Collin advised me to decrease to drink
5 the medicine but I still have a consultation with him, he wants to know my health
progress.
I have never met Tommy again, so I think that Tommy was just my
hallucination too. My day was like a cloudy day not a sunny day, like I lost a part of
my life.
10“Tom? Where have you been??” asked me surprisingly.
“Sorry, sorry my friend, I was so busy with my assignment and exam” he
said.
“How is your condition now? Did my article help you?” He said.
“wait, wait, I need to go to the toilet first.” I said.
In the toilet, I took that medicine again, I was just still wondering whether Tom
is the real one or the fake one. I know the consequence if Tom is just my
20 imagination, I must lose my best friend in the world. Frightened, I went out
from the toilet and “OH MY GOD…”
“TOM, you..you…I mean…YOU ARE REAL?”shouted me. “Yeah, this is me, I
am human and alive. Why don’t you believe me?” He asked me.
25 “No, no I believe you but I just want to make all clear. I have lost my
“Yeah…yeah…I know what you mean, sorry because I said that you didn’t
believe me.” He said.
I told Tom about everything that he had missed because of his busy activity
in his faculty. I hugged him and thanks to God because he still smile at
5 me and gives me a best friend who still cares for me in this world. He knows my
feelings of loosing my parents because of that I said that God still smile to me.
*
I don’t have couragement to see the WTC building because I’ll remember
with my parents and uncle who are still missing. When I had to go to the public
library I would turn my way and I was afraid if I am in crowded place. Tom asked
10 me to face my fear. Tom accompanied me to the WTC building and gave my
parents and uncle a bunch of flower. Tom invites me to the crowded place. Maybe it
was hard for the first time but as the time run I have couragement to stand in the
crowded place. Now I can go shopping alone and go to the theater.
I never forget to give progress to Dr. Collin. He said that my development
15 is very good and I can stop taking my medicine. Now I am not afraid anymore to
see my parents’ pictures and go to WTC building, even though I still miss them so
much. Deep in my heart, I believe, I knew that they will always watch me from
heaven and I believe someday I can gather with them again in heaven.
20 Every time I see the sky, I always thank to God because He still cares of
me he gives me a wonderful best friend in the world with an accidentally met.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background of the studyStudying grammar is important for every learner of a second or foreign
language because communication, both spoken or written, will not be successful
without the use of correct grammar. A learner of a second or foreign language
learner, specifically a learner of English as a second or foreign language, cannot
be said to be masterful if she or he is unable to demonstrate her or his good
English grammar. Therefore, grammar cannot be neglected in the process of
English learning.
When English is learned as a second or foreign language, the learners
will normally make errors, which can be caused by the different systems of the
learners’ mother tongue (L1) and the English language (L2). In Indonesia,
English is learned as a foreign language. Commonly, Indonesian learners of the
English language will regard English grammar as a serious problem. The difficulty
of learning the English grammar is generally caused by the different systems of
English and Indonesian. One of the grammatical difficulties frequently faced by
learners in learning English grammar is about tenses, which are not found in
Producing the right English tenses can be difficult for the learners
because the Indonesian language has no tenses. According to Hornby, “ the
word tense stands for a verb form or series of verb forms used to express a time
relation” ( Hornby 78). In addition, Martin (142) says, “ Verbs tell time. They tell
whether something takes place in the past, the present, or the future. A verb
changes its form to indicate time. Verbs have three basic tenses, past, present
and future.”In the Indonesian language, to express an idea in a different time
frame, we only need to attach an adverb of time, such as kemarin, besok, tadi pagi, etc. In the English language, there are various tenses, namely present and past tenses, future tenses and perfect tenses. In the Indonesian language, a verb
does not show the time when the action happens; however, in the English
language, a verb shows it. For example, we say Saya pergi ke bioskop kemarin and Saya selalu pergi ke sekolah pukul tujuh in the Indonesian language, whereas in English we say I went to the cinema yesterday and I always go to
school at seven o’clock.
The different way of Indonesian and English in showing different time
frames may cause English learners to make frequent errors in using English
tenses. The fact that English learners often make errors in English tenses makes
me interested in analyzing the tense errors in students’ English in order to find
out the types and causes of errors that they often make.
In this thesis, I will analyze the tense errors in an anthology entitled
Pieces of Life , which consists of the sixth semester students’ short stories in
their Creative Writing class in the English Department, Faculty of Letters,
Maranatha Christian University. The short stories were compiled in 2008. I
choose Pieces of Life to be analyzed because it is unedited and the dominant
the first experience for most students of Creative Writing Class in writing a short
story.
In my analysis, I present my correction of the spelling, vocabulary,
grammar and punctuation found in the data. Hence, although the analyzed data
in this study contain those errors, I only discuss the errors in the use of tenses in
my analysis.
The reason of my taking the data from the sixth semester students is that
they are considered to be intermediate students who are expected to write in
English with proper grammar. However; in reality, they still apply incorrect
grammar, especially tenses, in their writing.
According to Corder, errors are divided into two kinds, namely
performance errors and competence errors. Performance errors are said to be
caused by fatigue, inattention and a temporary lack of memory and they are often
called mistakes. On the other hand, competence errors are caused by lack of
knowledge of the rules of the language, and they are often called errors.
However, to determine learners’ mistakes and errors is difficult and it needs a
long and sophisticated study or analysis (Richards 24-25). In this paper, I will not
differentiate between errors and mistakes owing to the fact that they are difficult
to be differentiated and there is limitation time in finishing this thesis.
In doing the research, I take two stories because I find that those two
stories contain errors which are commonly made by the students. Moreover, the
writers of these two stories are still available in the campus to be interviewed
while some others have graduated. In analyzing the data, I use a non-contrastive
approach. In this approach, there are two kinds of errors: intralingual and
developmental errors, which are explained as follow: “Intralingual errors reflect
the general characteristics of rule learning, such as faulty generalization,
apply; on the other hand, developmental errors illustrate the learner attempting to
build up hypotheses about the English language from his limited experience of it
in the classsroom or textbook” (Richards 173).
Finally, I hope this paper will give some contribution to the English
learners in general and help them to understand their errors in English tenses so
that they will be able to improve their use of tenses in their writing. I also hope
this paper can be an additional reference for lecturers of grammar and writing
classes.
912 words
1.2 Statement of the problem
In this paper, the problems that I would like to research are formulated as the
following questions:
1. What types of tense error do the students make in their short stories?
2. What are the causes of the tense errors?
1.3 Purpose of the Study
The purposes of this study are
1. To find out the types of tense error that the students make in their short
stories.
2. To find out the causes of the tense errors.
1.4 Method of Research
I read books and other references from the library and the Internet to
obtain some error analysis theories. Afterwards, I took two short stories from
Pieces of Life that are suitable for my analysis. I analyzed the errors in using
writers to check the story line or the meaning of certain words in their short
stories. After that, I classified the kinds of errors that the students made and
finally I wrote this thesis.
1.5 Organization of the Thesis
There are four parts in this thesis. Chapter One is the Introduction, which
consists of the Background of the Study, Statement of the Problem, Purpose of
the Study, Method of Research and Organization of the Thesis. Chapter Two
contains the Theoretical Framework. Chapter Three presents the Analysis of
Tense Errors in the Collection of Short Stories Entitled Pieces of Life by Students
of English Department, Maranatha Christian University. Finally, Chapter Four
contains the Conclusion. At the end of the thesis, I put the Bibliography and the
CHAPTER FOUR
CONCLUSION
This study investigates the errors in the use of the English tenses in two
short stories taken from an anthology entitled Pieces of Life, written by the
students of Creative Writing class in 2008. In this paper, the writer analyzes the
two short stories entitled “I Am a Hero” and “Hallucination in My World.” The two
short stories were chosen to be analyzed because up to the present time, the
writers are still available to be interviewed whereas the others have left. The
interview is needed in this research to check the story line or the meaning of
unclear words in their short stories.
In this chapter, I present some concluding points that are related to the
purposes of this study, which are (1) to identify types of tenses error that the
students make in their short stories, and (2) to identify the causes of the tenses
errors.
In Data 1 and Data 2, the interlingual errors such as, I go to the cinema
yesterday, can not be found. The errors which are found in Data 1 and Data 2 do
not show the interference of the mother tongue but they are caused by faulty or
partial learning of the target language, rather than from language transfer. For
example in Data 1, p.50, l.11, *When mom is talking about her gladness feeling,
dad interrupted, which has been revised When mom was talking about her
an interlingual error because it does not show the interference of Indonesian
language. It is difficult to say that this example belongs to an interlingual error
because Indonesian language does not have tenses. However, it can be
categorized into an interlingual error if the writer writes *When mom talk about
her gladness feeling, dad interrupt. That example shows the interference of
mother tongue because in Indonesian language we simply say, ketika ibu sedang bercerita tentang kebahagiannya, ayah menyela. The fact that Interlingual errors are not found in the data makes the non-contrastive approach is used in this
thesis.
As a matter of fact, the analyzed data in this study contains various
errors. Nevertheless, only the errors in the use of the English tenses are
discussed; as a result, only three types of errors are found in Data 1 and Data 2,
which are errors
in the production of verb group, errors in the distribution of verb group and
miscellaneous errors; in addition, it can be seen that the errors are caused by the
writers’ ignorance of rule restriction and false concepts hypothesized.
In Data 1 and Data 2 the miscellaneous error is the type of error that is
most frequently made by the writers. The second is the distribution of verb group
and the third is the production of verb group. There are thirty errors that are
classified as the miscellaneous error. Data 1 and Data 2 show that the most
frequently type of error which has made by the writers is miscellanous error,
which consists of only the error in tense sequence. From the Data 1 and Data 2,
it can be seen that the writers tend to mix present tense and past tense in one
sentence referring to the past. For example, Data 1, p.50, l.18, Mom was
shocked and she remains silence for few hours, which has been revised into
Mom was shocked and she remained silent for few hour. In Data 2, the same
leave…, which has been revised into We were scared and we left…. Besides, the
writers also tend to mix present tense and past tense in a reported speech. For
example, p. 49, ll. 24-26, she explained that she is not…, which has been revised
into …she explained that she was not…. The same error is also found in
p. 55, ll. 14-15. For example, He said that my development is …, which has been
revised into He said that my development was….
The distribution of verb group takes the second position of the type of
error which are frequently made by the writers. There are twenty eight errors
which are categorized into the distribution of verb group and only the errors in the
use of tenses are classified as the distribution of verb group. From Data 1 and
Data 2, it can be seen that the error in the use of present tense is frequently
comitted by the writers. Both of the writers frequently use simple present tense
instead of simple past tense when they are retelling an event referring to the
past. For example, sentence of Data 1, p. 49, ll. 14-15, Finally my mom
understands..., which has been revised into Finally my mom understood....
The production of verb group is the most infrequent type of error which
has made by the writers. In Data 1, there are only two errors classified as the
production of verb group whereas in Data 2, there is no error which classified as
the production of verb group. In Data 1, it can be seen that the writer has made
the errors in presenting present perfect tense form. The two wrong forms of
tenses which have been made in Data 1 indicate that the writer was rather
careless in writing the short story. For example, p. 48, ll. 5-9 and p. 50, ll. 12-13
of Data 1, “…I have already being mad…” has revised into ”… I have already
been mad…” and “…I ever known…” has revised into “… I have ever known…”
From Data 1 and Data 2, it can be seen that false concepts hypothesized
becomes the main cause of the errors in these stories owing to the fact that the
and tense sequence. Their mother language can be the reason for the writers to
apply the wrong tenses in their stories. They might have found difficulties in
applying English tenses because the Indonesian verbs do not show the time
when the action happens.
Ignorance of rule restriction is not the dominant cause of errors in Data 1
and Data 2 on the grounds that the most infrequent errors which were found are
errors in applying tense forms. It can be concluded that the writers did not find
difficulties in applying the rules of tense form because tense form is simple and
easy to be memorized.
From all the findings, it can be estimated that the writers had insufficient
efforts in writing their stories. The findings also reveal that the writers have not
mastered the English tenses. It would be useful for the writers to keep practicing
English tenses. They should choose one particular time in presenting the story,
and stick to it. It is also important for the students to use the time expression like
yesterday, already, now, tomorrow, etc to minimize the possibility of making
errors in the use of different tenses.
This study has analyzed only two short stories. In future, relevant studies
are recommended to analyze more short stories in order to result in more
findings and a deeper discussion and interpretation of the student’s creative
writing.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books
Lilyana, S., comp. and ed. Pieces of Life. Bandung: Creative Writing Class, 2008.
Martin, J. Heath English. Massachussetts: D.C. Heath and Company, 1984.
Richards C, Jack. Error Analysis Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition.
London: Longman Group Limited, 1974.
Websites
www.scielo.edu. 2010. Error Analysis. 22 March 2010
<
www.scielo.unal.edu.co/scielo.php?pid=S165707902008000200008&script=sci_arttext
