A. Background of the Study
In the teaching learning process of English as a foreign language, errors
made by the students have always been a significant concern to almost all
language teachers. The students always make errors in their foreign language use.
This problem makes the teacher have to think what he has to do to solve the
problem in his foreign language teaching. Teacher becomes confused whether he
has to continue to the next material or to correct their errors and makes the
remedial course. Most of the people agree that making mistake is a part of
learning and they also agree that correction is a part of teaching.
Many errors always occur in different aspects of language learning. They
occur as natural phenomena, for example, in speaking as well as in writing. The
corrections of spoken language are also true for the correction of written language.
When a teacher says, “These exercises are full of mistakes” or “Their writing is
good but they make lots of mistakes when they speak”, we have no difficulty in
understanding what the teacher means. If we look carefully at the mistakes the
students make and the mistakes we make by ourselves, we will find that the errors
cover many different things that happen in language use, and the errors will lead
to a misunderstanding. The linguistic mistakes of the students are an important
and necessary part of their language learning.
Errors made by the students in their task are of many kinds, both in
quantity and in quality. We often find errors in their written task for example, the
use of grammar and vocabulary. It is very depressing for students to get back any
piece of written work that the teacher has corrected. By investigating the students'
errors in their writing tasks, the teacher can understand what quantity and quality
of errors are in their writing task. Those errors, of course, can be taken as
supportive feedback to their students in order to reduce errors made by the
students in their writing tasks. Any correctness will help them become more
accurate in their own use of the language.
In giving feedback to his students, the teacher may use different kinds of
correction techniques. Firstly, the teacher puts certain marks or symbols on the
free margin that can be understood clearly by the students. Secondly, the students
are given the oral explanation and they are asked to study their errors correction or
by giving information about the errors they make, so by putting certain marks or
symbols and by giving the oral explanation or some information, the teacher can
help students see and correct the errors in their own works. Edge (1997: 50) states
that correction should mean helping people to become more accurate, not insisting
completely Standard English. Involving learners in judgments about correctness
also, helps them become more accurate in their own use of the language.
This research aim is to find out the effectiveness of the teacher's errors
correction feedback on the students’ written works which are returned to them.
The effectiveness of error correction is focused on the improvements of students’
B. Limitation of the Study
From the discussion in the background of the study and the writer needs to
limit the broad problem areas in order to have a distinct focus. In this study, the
researcher wants to find out the effectiveness of the error correction feedback on
grammar especially on the verb of simple past tense, because the writer has
observed the problem that students of SLTP Negeri 1 Baki Sukoharjo in
2005/2006 academic year face. The problem is in writing especially in using
simple past tense. They still make errors in using simple past tense. The error
correction feedback here is especially focused on forms and it is directed to
provide a treatment in reducing errors in students’ rewritten work.
C. Problem Statement
In this research paper, there is a problem statement. The problem statement is
1. Does the error correction feedback on grammar especially on the verb of
simple past tense contribute the improvement of the writing skill of the
second year students of SLTP Negeri 1 Baki in 2005/2006 academic year?
D. Objectives of the Study
In this study the researcher has several objectives to be achieved, namely:
1. to identify whether the error correction feedback on grammar especially on the
verb of simple past tense can be understood by the second year students of
2. to describe experimentally whether the error correction feedback on grammar
especially on the verb of simple past tense contributes the improvement of
writing skill of the second year students of SLTP Negeri 1 Baki in 2005/2006
academic year.
E. Significance of the Study
The writer hopes that this study will give some contributions to the process
of teaching English. There are some expected contributions of the study for the
English teacher and students.
1. For the English Teacher
It will hopefully make teacher do the following things, such as;
a. to know the importance of error correction feedback in students’ written
compositions.
b. to apply the effective error correction feedback on students’ written
compositions.
c. to know the contribution of error correction feedback to the students’
writing skill so they realize and able to find the way to overcome the
problems concerning the students errors.
d. to know the effectiveness of the teaching materials and its appropriate
feedback to achieve the improvements.
2. For the students
It may enable students to do these several things, for example:
b. to recognize the deviant forms and structure in their written work.
c. to correct their errors over the symbols and mark given.
d. to write good composition.
e. to feel more confident in their ability to communicate.
f. to feel more willing to risk producing errors because they have come to
realize that they learn by doing.
F. Research Paper Organization
Organization of this research paper is given to the reader in order to be
able to understand the content of the paper easier. They are as follows:
Chapter I is introduction which consists of the background of the study,
limitation of the problem, problem statement, objectives of the study, significance
of the study, and research paper organization.
Chapter II is review of related literature. It deals with the previous study,
the notion of error, the definition of error correction feedback, the definition of
writing skill, the definition of the effectiveness of error correction feedback on
writing skill, conceptual frame work, hypothesis, and remedial teaching.
Chapter III is research method. It consists of type of the research, time of
the research, subject of the research, object of the research, data and data source,
and technique for analyzing data.
Chapter IV is research result. In this chapter, the writer presents the data
analysis discussion of research finding.
