By: Hardiansyah 208014000044
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TARBIYA AND TEACHERS’ TRAINING
SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY
JAKARTA
2015
A “Skripsi”
Presented to the Faculty of Tarbiya and Teachers’ Training in Partial Fulfillment of Requirements for the Degree of Strata 1 (S-1)
in English Language Education
By: Hardiansyah 208014000044
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH EDUCATION
FACULTY OF TARBIYA AND TEACHERS’ TRAINING
SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY
JAKARTA
2015
iv
ABSTRACT
Hardiansyah. 2015. An Analysis on Difficulties Faced by Students in
Understanding Personal Pronouns (ACase Study in the Second Year of SMP Bahrul Ulum Jakarta. Skripsi, English Education Department, The Faculty of Tarbiyah and Teachers’ Training, Syarrif Hidayatullah State Islamic University Jakarta.
The purpose of this research was describe is the causes of students’ difficulties in understanding personal pronoun and to know which the most difficult in personal pronoun faced by the students of SMP Bahrul Ulum Jakarta. The method used in this study was descriptive analysis. The writer described the students’ difficulties in understanding personal pronoun by using percentage. The data of this research were taken from test and interview, for supporting the data. The test is used for knowing which the most difficult in understanding personal pronoun that faced by the students of SMP Bahrul Ulum Jakarta. The test is multiple choices with the total item are 25 items. Then, the interview is used to support this research in order to know the causes of students’ difficulties in understanding personal pronoun. After conducting the research, the writer founds several finding of this study. Based on the result of the test, students got difficult in understanding personal pronoun. It can be seen that the percentage of students’ difficulty in understanding personal pronoun; difficulty in subject pronoun 56.06%, difficulty in object pronoun 64.65%, difficulty in possessive pronoun 55.76%, difficulty in possessive adjective 46.21% and difficulty in reflexive pronoun 48.48%. It can conclude that the most difficulty faced by student of SMP Bahrul Ulum Jakarta is in using object pronoun. Based on the result of interview, the reason why students faced difficulties in understanding personal pronoun are caused by interlingual transfer, intralingual transfer and the concept of learning.
ABSTRAK
Hardiansyah. 2015. An Analysis on Difficulties Faced by Students in Understanding Personal Pronouns (A Case Study in the Second Year of SMP Bahrul Ulum Jakarta. Skripsi, Jurusan Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Fakultas Ilmu Tarbiyah dan Keguruan, Universitas Islam Negeri Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta.
Penelitian ini bertujuan menjelaskan penyebab-penyebab kesulitan siswa dalam memahami personal pronoun dan untuk mengetahui mana yang paling sulit dalam personal pronoun bagi siswa SMP Bahrul Ulum Jakarta. Metode yang diguakan dalam penelitian ini adalah metode deskriptif yang dikategorikan sebagai sebuah study kasus. Penulis menggambarkan kesulitan siswa dalam memahami personal pronoun dengan menggunakan persentase. Data dalam penelitian ini diambil berdasarkan tes dan wawancara. Tes digunakan untuk mengetahui mana yang paling sulit dalam memahami personal pronoun bagi siswa Bahrul Ulum Jakarta. Tes berbentuk pilihan ganda dengan total soal 25 buah. Adapun wawancara digunakan untuk mendukung penelitian ini untuk mengetahui penyebab-penyebab yang dihadapi siswa dalam memahami personal pronoun. Setelah melakukan penelitian, penulis menemukan beberapa penemuan dalam penelitian ini. Berdasarkan hasil test, siswa mendapatkan kesulitan dalam memahami personal pronoun. Hal tersebut dapat terlihat dalam persentase kesulitan siswa dalam memahami personal pronoun; kesulitan dalam subjek pronoun adalah 56.06%, kesulitan dalam objek pronoun 64.65%, kesulitan dalam possessive pronoun 55.76%, kesulitan dalam possessive adjective 46.21% dan kesulitan dalam reflexive pronoun 48.48%. Hal tersebut dapat terlihat bahwa masalah yang paling sulit dalam memahami personal pronoun bagi siswa SMP Bahrul Ulum Jakarta adalah dalam menggunakan objek pronoun. berdasarkan hasil wawancara, alasan mengapa siswa tersebut menghadapi kesulitan dalam memahami personal pronoun dikarenakan interlingual transfer, intralingual transfer dan konsep dalam pengajaran.
vi
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
ﻢﻴﺣﺮﻟﺍ ﻦﻤﺣﺮﻟﺍ ﷲ ﻢﺴﺑ
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, for His blessing, love and mercy given to the writer, so she can complete the last assignment in her study. Then, peace and salutation be upon the prophet Muhammad, his family, companion and his adherences.
This “skripsi” is presented to the Faculty of Tarbiyah and Teachers’ Training in a partial fulfilllment of requirements for the Degree of S.Pd (S-1) in English Education Department.
In arranging this skripsi, a lot of people had given motivation, support, advice and even remark to helped the writer. In this oppotunity, the writer would like to express great honor and gratitude to all of them.
First of all, the writer would like to express his deepest gratitude to his beloved parents, to his beloved wife Nursyamsiah, his son Axel Hardian, his brothers Bambang Suwignyo and Muhammad Hadjar, his sisters Handriani and Haryanti and the and the whole family who always give prayer, support, motivation and moral encouredgment to finish his study. Also, she expresses great honor and deepest appreciation to her advisor, Dr. Alek, M.Pd and Drs. Nasifuddin Djalil, M.Ag., who have given suggestions and critical remarks in the process of completing this skripsi.
Her appreciation and thank also goes to:
1. All of the lectures of English Education Department
2. Dr. Alek, M.Pd., the Head of English Education Department
3. Zaharil Anasy, M.Hum., the secretary of English Education Department 4. Prof. Dr.Ahmad Thib Raya, M.A., the Dean of Faculty of Tarbiyah and
Teachers’ Training Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University Jakarta. 5. Her beloved best friends in PBI who always support the writer.
6. To all of people whose name can not be mentioned for their contribution to the writer during finishing her paper.
May Allah, the Almighty bless them all, so be it.
Finally, the writer hopes this “skripsi” is useful for the writer particularly and all the readers, and she realized that this skripsi is far from being perfect. Therefore, the writer would like to welcome any suggestion and critism to make this paper better.
Jakarta, 10 July 2015
viii TABLE OF CONTENTS APPROVEMENT SHEET ... ... i ENDORSEMENT SHEET ... ... ii ABTRACT ... ... iii ABSTRAK ... ... iv ACKNOWLEDGMENT ... ... v TABLE OF CONTENT ... ... vi CHAPTER I : INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study...1
B. Focus of the Research ... ...5
C. Research Questions ... ...5
D. Aim of the Research...5
E. Significance of the Study ... ...5
CHAPTER II : THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK A. Definition of Pronoun ... ...7
1. Kinds of Pronoun...9
2. Personal Pronoun ...9
3. Types of Personal Pronoun...11
B. Personal Pronoun Problems ...16
C. The Difficulties in Personal Pronoun ... ...19
1. Difficulties ... ...19
2. Error ... ...20
3. Difference of Error and Mistake ... ...22
4. Source of Errors...23
D. Test...25
1. Types of Tests...25
CHAPTER III : RESEARCH METHODOLOGY …...28
A. Time and Location ... ...28
B. The Method of Research………..…....28
C. Data and Source ... .... 28
D. The Technique of Collecting Data ... ...28
1. Procedure ... .... 28
2. Instrument ... . .... 29
E. The Technique of Data Analysis ... ...29
CHAPTER IV : RESEARCH FINDING and INTERPRETATION...31
A. The Descriptions ... ...31
B. The Data Analysis………...…....39
C. The Interpretation………...………...42
CHAPTER V : CONCLUSION and SUGGESTION Conclusion...45
Suggestion...45
BIBILIOGRAPHY ...46
APPENDIX 1: Test Sheet...48
2: Score Analysis...50
1
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the StudyIn a social interaction, communication plays the curcial role for people and it cannot be separated from the language. The language itself has very important role in this life as a tool of the expression and the performance of social transaction between individuals1. People can express their feeling, emotion, ideas or opinion and interact with others through the language.
Nowdays, English has become the popular language which is learnt by most people in many areas of the globe. English is known as an international languange. It is because people entire of the world most widely used English for communication and international contact.
In this area, everyone is demanded to prepare a great resources for their life particularly in science and technology. Of course, to compete againts a global demanding, the people should have an adequate knowledge and good skills. Moreover, mastering English language both oral and written English actively is necessity for academic and global media communication requirement because it has become compulsory for everyone who wants to compete againts the globalization era.
As we know that the aim of teaching English in Indonesia is to enable students to use English as a means of communication with other people. In Indonesia, English is used as foreign language and a target language that is taught in the kindergarten and the elementary school as local content subject. It is also taught in the junior high school, the senior high school, and the university as compulsory subject. Many people now are trying to master English by attending certain English course or inviting a private English teacher to their home. English that is taught consist of four language skills; listening, speaking, reading and writing. And it also involves three language component such as; phonology,
1 Jack C. Richards and Theodore S. Rodgers, Approaches and Methods in Language
gammar, and vocabulary. One of the sub skills that should be mastered in learning English by the students is grammar. They have to master the grammar properly beacause it is needed even in communicative ways.
Grammar is one of the language aspects which is taught to every language learners. Penny Ur stated that “ Grammar is somtimes defined as the way words are put together to make correct sentences”2. By learning grammar, someone can communicate his or her message clearly and precisely. Without grammar, learners can communicate effectively only a limited number of situations. Richard Veit also stated on his book Discovering English Grammar “your Grammar is what enables you to understand the every words you are now reading as well as to speak and write words and sentences of your own. You have had Grammar of English for as a long as you have known English”.3 So, many linguist and researcher have given support to grammar instruction in ESL and EFL.When students learn English especially grammar skill, one of the subject learned by them is part of speech. There are eight part of spech; verb, noun, adjective, adverb, pronoun, preposition, conjunction and interjunction. The main concern in this study is about English pronoun. Pronoun are word that used instead of nouns. Cambridge advance learner dictionary stated that ‟ pronoun is a word which is used instead of a noun or a noun phrase: pronoun are often used to refer to a noun that has already mentioned”4. Pronoun can be used as a subject and an object in a sentence called subjective and objective pronoun, they can be used as adjective to modify some nouns called possessive adjective, and they can also be used to subtitute for a noun phrase called posssessive pronoun.
Personal Pronoun is used for efficiency, especially in written like an article, mail or memo. The writers will avoid to repeat the same words by using pronoun to represent the words in order to save time.
2 Penny ur, A Course in English Language Teaching, (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1996) p. 75.
3 Richars Veit, Discovering English Grammar, (Boston, USA, 1986). P. 1
4 Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, (Singapore: Green Giant Press, 2009), p.
In fact. Personal pronoun in English grammar is naot always difficult, even it has been familiar, especially when learning English.
Students often make mistakes and errors in using personal pronoun. They use the form of objective pronoun when it serves as the subject of the sentence. They also use the form of subjective pronoun when it serves as the object. Ideally, the second years students of SMP Bahrul Ulum Jakarta are supposed to master that element personal pronoun, because it always uses in their activity. When they speak or write something, pronoun is always used. Here are some examples:
Example 1:
Me called her susan. I called she susan.
The first sentence is incorrect because this pronoun form is object pronoun that serves as the object of the sentence. The object pronoun “me” should be changed to the subject pronoun “I”. The correct sentence must be : “I called her susan”
Then, on the second sentence is also incorrect, because this pronoun serves as the object. The subject pronoun “she” should be changed to the object pronoun “her”. Moreover, the correct sentence must be : “I called her Susan”. Both mistakes above happened because students cannot distinguish the use between the subject and object pronouns.
Example 2:
John, yours book is on the table Where is your?
The first sentence is incorrect, because the possessive pronoun “yours” is accompanied by the noun book, and the possessive pronoun must not be accompanied by noun. In this case, the possessive adjective “your” is needed. The correct sentence must be: “John, your book is on the table”.
Moreover, in the second sentence obove is also incorrect, because the possessive adjective “your” in this sentence is not accompanied by noun. so , the possessive adjective must be accompanied by noun. For this case, possessive pronoun “yours” is needed. The correct sentence must be: where is yours?. These mistake also occured because students cannot distingush the use between possessive adjective and the possessive pronouns and they think that there is not differenciate between those pronouns.
Example 3:
I have a little sister. His name is Susi.
The sentence above absolutely wrong. “His name is Susi”, is wrong because the possessive adjective “his” does not agree with the previous sentence that refer to gender (Susi and sister) it is clearly that Susi and sister refer to feminine gender (female). This pronoun should be replaced with the posessive adjective “her”because the pronoun her is as an antecedent of English pronoun which is female gender. The correct form of the sentence is “I have a little sister. Her name is Susi”
However, the third singular pronouns contrast in gender, which is a clasification of NPs that has variety of dimensions in some language put in English mainly around sex.
*. The masculine gender pronoun he is used for males *. The feminine gender pronoun she is used for females
*. The neuther pronoun it is used for in animates, or for male or female animals5
After analyzing the sentences above, the writer conclude that students may find difficult dealing personal pronouns. The incorrect sentences made by students above show their level of knowledge in using personal pronouns. Therefore, the
5 Rodney Huddleston and & Geoffrey K. Pullum, A student’s Introduction to English
writer uses an analysis to know the difficulties faced by students in understanding personal pronouns and why they do the errors.
Finally, based on the fact above, he interested in writing a “skripsi” under the title
“An Analysis on Difficulties Faced by Students in Understanding Personal Pronouns”
B. Focus of the Research
.
In this research, the writer focuses his research to analyze the percentage of difficulties of understanding personal pronoun (subject pronoun, object pronoun, possessive adjective, possessive pronoun and reflexive pronoun).
C. Research Questions
There are two problems analyzed in this research:
1. What are the percentages of students’ difficulties in understanding personal pronoun?
2. What are the causes of students’ (SMP Bahrul Ulum Jakarta) difficulties in understanding personal pronoun?
D. Aim of the Research
.
The aim of the research is to know and analyze the causes of difficulties in understanding personal pronouns of SMP Bahrul Ulum Jakarta. Besides, the aim of this research is to know the most difficult in understanding personal pronoun.
E. Significance of the Study
This research is expected to give useful information for : a. Students
This research may help the students in junior high school, senior high school and univesity about some common difficulties faced by students in understanding personal pronouns.
b. English teacher
By knowing some common difficulties made by the students in understanding personal pronouns, they will find out a better strategy to teach it in order to the students can overcome their difficulties.
c. Further researchers
It can also be used as a reference for other researchers who are interested in doing a further linguistic research to personal pronouns.
7
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
A. Definition of PronounFirst, the writer would like to explain about pronouns before giving the definition of personal pronoun. According to Frank, The traditional definition of pronoun is a word that takes the place of noun.1
On the other hand, the word ‘pronoun’ comes from the Latin pronomen meaning “for a noun”. as the word implies, pronoun are the words that we use in place of nouns.2
One of pronoun function is to avoid the word repetition on sentence. For example: “Bagus and Dewi are students of SMPN Permata Indah. Bagus and Dewi are the second grade’s students”. The subject in the first sentence are Bagus and Dewi. In second sentence, the subject is repeated. The repetition “Bagus and Dewi” in second sentence is just a wasting word unnecessary. And what does the text look like when it occurs in long paragraph. Here, the student should be able to write the sentence “ Bagus and Dewi are students of SMPN Permata Indah, they are the second grade’s students”
As John Langan said that “ pronouns are shortcut to keep you from unecessarily repeting words in writing”.3 By definitions above, we can say that pronoun is a word that is used in place of noun, thing, person and place. It refers to an individual or group of person and things. A pronoun must agree in number with the word or words it replaces. If the word a pronoun refers to is singular, the pronoun must be singular; if the word is plural, the pronoun must be plural4. For example: “Lola agreed to lend me her Billie Holiday Albums”. In this sentence, the pronoun “her” refers to the singular word Lola. The students are learning in their classroom. The pronoun “their” refers to plural word “students”.
1 Marcella Frank, Modern English, A Practical Reference Guide, (New Jersey: Prentice
Hall, 1972), p. 20.
2 Barbara Dykes, Grammar for Everyone, (Australia: ACER Press, 2007), p. 35. 3 John Langan, Sentence Skill, form A, (New York; Mc Grow Hill Press, 2003), p. 195. 4 Ibid.
From the definition above, it can be known that pronoun is a word that takes place of noun, in order to avoid the repetition word in the sentence.
Actually, Pronouns have some different types that can people use in daily activity. There are “I”, “we”, “them”, “their”, “her” etc that can people usually use. The differences of many pronouns are more highly inflected for grammatical properties, (person, case, number and gender), and all pronouns are lack the derivational endings such as; -tion, -ment that nouns have. Pronouns have most of the same functions as noun, such as;5
a. Subject of the verb
Example: They were late for their appointment. b. Object of the verb
direct object
Example: We enjoyed ourselves at the party indirect
Example: We will send you the goods immediately c. Subjective complement
Example: That’s the one d. Object of preposition
Example: After this, be more careful. Do not talk about computer to me. e. Appositive
Nonrestrictive:
Example: Mary, one of the most intelligent girls I know, is planning to attend the university.
Rectrictive:
Example: The men all got into boat.
1. Kinds of Pronoun
Pronouns have various types, as they can be seen below: 1. Personal Pronouns. (they, we, i ,you)
2. Reflexive Pronoun. (myself, yourself, himself, herself) 3. Demonstrative Pronoun. (this,that,those)
4. Relative Pronoun. (who, that, whom, whose, which, where)
5. Interrogative Pronouns. (who, whom, what, where, whose, which, how)
6. Indefinite Pronoun. (none, all,one, each) 7. Reciprocal Pronoun. (Each other, one another)6 2. Personal Pronoun
Pronouns is a structure class whose members serves as subtitution forms for noun phrases. The noun phrases for which a pronoun subtitutes is called the antecedent of the pronoun. The subcategories of pronoun serve as subtitution forms to different degrees. 7
Personal pronoun itself, are part of pronouns that are words that replace a noun or noun phrase, but they commonly refer to person and thing. “personal pronouns are the ones we usually think of when the word pronoun comes to mind, we generally label them on the basic of person and members”.8
From the definition about pronoun above, the writer concludes that personal pronouns is a word that take places of noun. however, the position and function as the significant fators in organizing a part of speech often consider pronouns as a subclass of noun and subtitution forms to different units.
There are four case forms of personal pronoun to indicate different sentence function. There are: subjective case, objective case, the possessive case and refelxive case.
6 Ibid., p. 21.
7 Marks S. Lc Tourneau, English Grammar, (Weber State University, 2001 Hancourt), p. 66. 8 Martha Kolln, Understanding English Grammar Fourth Edition, (New York: Macmillan,
Personal pronouns change their form for person:
1. Number: singular, plural (e.g. I/we).
2. Person: first person, second person, third person (I/you/she)
3. Case: subjective, objective, possessive (I/me/mine)
4. Gender: masculine, feminine, neuter (he/she/it)
Chart 2.1
Form of Personal Pronoun
Subject Object Possessive Adjecive Possessive Pronoun Reflexive Singular : I You He She It Me You Him Her It My Your Her Him Its Mine Yours Hers His My self yourself Himself Herself Itself Plural : we You They Us You Them Our Your Their Ours Yours Theirs Ourselves Theirselve s Yourselve s
3. Types of Personal Pronoun
a. Subject Pronoun
Chart 2.2.
Form of Subject Pronoun Subject pronoun Singular Plural I You, He, she, it We You They
A pronoun in the subject group (I,you, she, he,it we, they) may be used in two ways:9
As the subject of a verb Examples:
He is my brother. (He is the subject of the verb is). We girls gave a party. (We is the subject of verb gave).
He is taller than I. (The sentence is not written out in full, it means. He is taller than I am. I is the subject of the verb am).
As a word that means the same as the subject. Examples:
That boy in the blue jeans is he. (He is the same as the subject boy). It was she all right (She is the same as the subject It)
9 Teressa, The Least You Should Know About English Basic Writing Skill, (Macomb Illionis:
b. Object Pronoun
Chart 2.3
Table of Object pronoun Object pronoun Singular Plural Me You Him, her, it Us Our Them
Object pronoun are another types of pronouns. These are pronoun that replace nouns or noun phrase in object position in the sentence. Object position means that the noun or noun phrase receives the action of the verb.1 0 Examples:
1. The girls read. (noun phrase in subject position). 2. She reads. (subject pronoun).
3. The girl reads books. (noun phrase in object position) 4. He reads them. (pronoun in object position).
In sentence (1) the girl is the subject of the verb reads.
The noun phrase, the girl answer the question Who Reads?, a question that helps tell us who or what the subject of the verb is.
Since the girl is in the subject position and refers to a a single female person, the subject pronoun she can replace The girl (sentence 2).
In sentence (3) books is the object of the verb reads.
The word books answer the question what does the girl reads?, a question that helps tell us what (or who) the object of the verb is
Since books is in object position and refers to a plural object, the object pronoun them can replace books (sentence 4).
Object pronoun as the object of preposition1 1 Examples:
Do not look at me. (me is the object of the preposition at)
We will go to Bali with them. (them is the object of preposition with)
c. Possessive Adjective and Possessive Pronoun Chart 2.4
Form of Possessive Adjective and Possessive Pronoun Possessive Adjectives Possessive Pronoun
Singular Plural Singular Plural
My Our Mine Ours
Your Your Yours Yours
Singular Plural Singular Plural
His Their His Theirs Her Hers Its Its
We use both possessive adjective and pronouns to talk about ownership or relationship between people. We put a noun after a possessive adjective, but not
after a possessive pronoun.1 Furthermore, we use possessive adjective in front of 2 nouns and use possessive pronouns without nouns.
1. Possessive Adjective Examples:
She is one of my friend. (singular) Those are your pencil.(singular) This is her pen. (singular) Those are their shirts. (plural) 2. Possessive Pronoun
Examples:
Those cars are mine. (mine is possessive pronoun, that shows possession. On the other word, it can say, “those are my cars”).
The book on my table is yours. (yours is possessive pronoun, that shows possession. It means that “your book is on my table”).
The most beautiful picture is hers. (hers is possessive pronoun, that shows possession. Hers in this sentence means her picture).
Possessive adjectives are followed immediately by noun; they do not stand alone, but refer to the possessor and not to the thing possessive. My, your, his, her, its, our and their are determines, while in grammars and dictionary called “possessive adjective”.
Moreover, possessive pronouns are not followed immediatelly by noun, they stand alone. It also shows possession the same as in possessive adjective (Mine, yours, hers, his, ours, theirs)
We say “a freiend of mine/ yours/ ours/ his/ hers and theirs” not a friend of me, friend of her or friend of him etc1 3
Examples:
1 Milada Broukal, Grammar Form and Function, (New York: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc, 2
2005), p. 121.
1 Raymond Murphy, English Grammar in Use, (Australia: Cambridge University Press, 3
I am going to a wedding on Saturday. A friend of mine is getting married. (not a friend of me).
We went on holiday with some friend of ours. (not some friend of us). Mechelle had an argument with a neighbour of his.
It was a good idea of yours to go swimming this afternoon. In the same way, we say ‘ a friend of Tom’s, a friend of my sister’s. Examples:
It was a good ideaof Tom’s to go swimming. That woman over there is a friend of my sister’s.
For learners of English, difficulties in the use of possessive adjective and possessive pronoun arise for several reason. First, they are similiarities in form between the subject and object pronouns. The possessive pronouns and the possessive adjective are also similar in form. Second, English pronoun forms
distinguish between gender when the pronoun back to a female or male subject.1 4 d. Reflexive Pronoun
We use reflexife pronouns when the subject and object are the same. A reflexive pronoun is combination with one of the personal pronoun or with the impersonal pronoun-one, genarally refers to an animate being usually a person. The most common use of the reflexive pronoun is as an object that “reflects back” to the subject ; it used1. 5
1. As the direct object of the verb Example:
You must not blameyourself for that mistake.
(the subject you and the object yourself have the same identity). 2 As the indirect object of the verb
Example:
I bought myself a beautiful watch. (or I bought a beautiful watch for myself).
1 Andrea de Capua, op. Cit, p. 72 4 1 Frank, op.cit., p. 32. 5
3. As a prepositional object Of a verb:
We should depend on ourselves rather than on others. Of an adjective :
She is angry with herself for making such a mistake
In popular speech, reflexive pronoun is sometimes used in the last part of a compound subject or object.
My wife and myself were invited to the party
Her teacher asked her friend and herself to help with the decoration. 4. We can use reflexive pronouns for emphasis1: 6
Examples:
You will have to wash the dishes yourself. I hope you like this food. I made myself.
B. Personal Pronoun Problems.
Most the learner have some difficulties in using the formal personal pronoun. Here are some problem that learner face:
a. A pronoun appears to refer to more than one word12
Example: I locked my suitcase in my car, and then it was stolen
The sentence may be confusing and unclear. What was stolen? It is unclear whether the suitcase or the car was stolen
Corrected to: I locked my suitcase in my car, and then my car was stolen b. A pronoun with two possible antecedants
Example:
Whenever John is able to help his brother financially, he is very happy. Corrected to:
John is happy when he is able to help his brother financially.
c. An unnecessary personal pronoun after a noun subject Example:
My friends, they told me the whole story Corrected to:
My friends told me the whole story. d. Vague it.
The persona pronoun it is used without a definite antecedant.
Example: baecause Jane had once had a bad accident while driving. She was afraid to try it again.
Corrected to: ....she was afraid to try to drive again.
In certain colloquial idioms, a definite antecedent is not required for the personal pronoun it.
Example: the strain of final examinations is to great, Ican not take it. e. A pronoun whose antecedent must be infered from the preceding discourse Example:
My father is an engineer. This is a profession I admire very much.
Corrected to: My father is an engineering. Engineering is a profession I admire very much.
f. A pronoun whose antecedent remotely precedes it. The antecedent is so far back in the discourse as to cause difficulty in associating the pronoun with its antecedent.
Example:
The author tells the story of a man who gambles away his entire fortune and has nothing left for his family to live on. The gambler, in despair, decides to commit suicide. He goes on tell us how the man helped by an old friend.
“He” in the third sentence should be corrrected to the author or the writer (or, the author’s name can be given)..
g. Too many it’s near each other. Personal it appears in close proximity with impersonal or anticipatory it.
Example:
We like it very much in this hotel. It’s wonderful to relax in its comfortable atmosphere. It is possible we’ll stay in it again on our next vacation.
h. Loose use of it or they as subject.
It or they is sometimes used as the subject of a verb, while the agent that should actually be the subject is put in prepositional phrase.
Example:
In the newspaper, it says that the concert was cancelled
Corrected to: The news paper says that the concert was cancelled Example:
At the university, they require an examination for all entering freshmen
Corrected to: The university requires all examination for all entering freshmen. i. Shift in Pronoun Number
Example:
The student must be made to understand how each lesson can be of value to them.
The sentence can be corrected either by changing the student to students, or by changing them to him.
j. Shift person
“third person” is not used in one part if it is shifted back to the personal you Example:
a good song lends comfort to people, so that you feel less alone.
Corrected to: a good song lends comfort to you. Or so that feeless alone. k. Choice of case
Over corrected. It happens when there are two choices between subject and object (she) and (her) case forms od proouns. Many students tend to use objective
forms when standard English uses subject ones (him and me are friends), they automatically “overcorrected” in certain situations.
Example:
They appointed she and I to subcommitee
As direct object, the pronouns are suppossed to be her and me. The fact, that there are two direct objects instead of one, so nothing should be changed. It is not allowed the case of a pronoun to be determined by a following appositive.
Example: parking is a tragic dilemma for we professor.
Actually, it does not mean to write for we, so it is not allowed to allowed to write for we professor.
L. Pronoun complements.
It appears when the pronoun complements are often used in the objective case(that is him: itis them), they are supposses to be that is she and it is they. Only for pronoun me and us special exeption for this rule.1 7
Based on the explaining about the problem of personal pronoun above, it can be seen that there are many kind problems that might be occurred by students in understanding and using personal pronoun correctly and properly. The writer hopes that students are aware of personal pronoun problem in learning English grammar.
C. The Difficulties in Understanding Personal Pronoun 1. Difficulties
In English, grammar is one thing that is essential for the mastery of every foreign language learning. Students sometimes get difficulty to learn English grammar, especially in learning personal pronoun. As Centeno points out that:
A difficulty is something that inhibits the students in accomplishing correctly or in understanding quickly a given item. Difficulties may be due to several causes: related to the concept that is being learned, to the
teaching method used by teacher, to the student’s previous knowledge, or to his ability. (citied in C. Batanero, et al., 2004).1 8
Based on what Centeno said that the difficulty just the barricade of the students to comprehend in learning English grammar. It could be because of the concept of their learning, the method that the teacher used, the knowledge of the students and their ability of English.
Difficulties in learning a new language such as English commonly happen to most of the students in the world, no matter in Indonesia. The different cultural backgrounds between their mother tongue and English as a foreign language may have a great effect on students in learning foreign language. Therefore, students with learning difficultiesmay find activities that involve thinking and understanding particularly difficult.
Moreover, the differences between the two languages will become a negative transfer, from this case; the learners will face the error. On the other hand, if the two languages have the same habit, the transfer will be positive. Littlewood stated that “The differences between the two languages lead to interference, which is the cause of learning difficulties and error.”1 In other word, 9 errors in learning English grammar as a result of the difficulties that learner encountered. So, difficulties and errors are correlated each other.
From the ststement above, the writer concluded that the difficultie in learning English especially in grammar are created by the negative transfer that takes place from the mother tongue to the second of foreign language and the learner produced the error. In this case, the teachers have an important role to help the students overcome the difficulties
2. Error
1 C. Batanero, et al., Errors and Difficulties in Understanding Elementary Statistical 8
Concept, International Journal of Mathematics Education in Science and Technology, 25, 2004, pp. 527—547.
1 William Littlewood, Foreign and Second Language Learning, (Cambridge: Cambridge 9
In learning foreign language, the learners must do some errors or mistakes as Dulay and Burt on Richards’ book stated, “you can not learn without goofing”.2 According to them, error as a natural product of the process of second 0 language learning. It mens that the students as the learners may produce many forms which would not be produced by a anative speaker of the standard forms of the target language.
In the other hand, Erdogan also has the same thought with Dulay and Burt about error. He said “it is inevitable that the learners makes mistakes in the process of foreighn language learning.” 2 It means that error or mistake can not 1 be avoided in acquiring foreign language.
Douglas Brown stated that errors as a noticeable deviation from the adult grammar of a native speaker, reflecting the interlanguage competence of the learner.2 Example: if learner asks: Does John can sing? They are probably 2 reflecting a competence level in which all verbs require a pre-posed do auxiliary for question formation. So, he has committed an error. On the other hand, Rod Ellis said “errors reflect gaps in a learner’s knowledge; they occur because the learner does not know what is correct”2 3
Referring to the definition errors above, errors were considerable as the result of difficulties that students encountered in learning foreign language. Errors may happen in teaching learning process. It may be caused by the teachers who have a lack of grammar in English teaching competence or students who have different understanding in their English grammar concept.
3. Difference of Error and Mistake
2 Jack C.Richards, Error Analysis: Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition, 0
(London: Longman, 1974), p. 95.
2Vacide Erdogan, Contribution of Error Analysis to Foreign Language Teaching, Mersin 1
University Journal of the Faculty of Education, 1(2), 2005, pp. 261—270.
2 H. Douglas Brown, Principle of Language Learning and Teaching third edition, (New 2
York: Longman, 2000), p. 205.
2 Rod Ellis, Second Language Acquisition, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), p. 3
In learning of error analysis field, it is crucial to make distinction between error and mistake since most of people still misunderstand about the definition of them. Error and mistake are not the same, but in learning English foreign language both of them can be separated, morover, they always faced by student in learning. Some experts distinguished both of them such as Brown said that mistake is because of lack attention, carelessness, a “slip” or performance error, and it can be self-corrected when attention is called2 . However, error itself is the 4 learners’ competence error and they cannot make self-correction.
Hubbard, et al. stated, “errors caused by lack of knowledge about the target language (English) or by incorrect hypotheses about it; and mistakes caused by temporary lapses of memory, confusion, slips of the tongue and so on”2 . 5
The definitions above lead the researcher to sum up that error and mistake are different. Error is caused by incorrect hypothesis of the target language or use of linguistic items showing faulty or incomplete learning and learner does not know whether the correct, and can not make the self-correction. And on the other hand, mistake is caused by lack of attention, carelessness, a slip, or other aspect of performance error and can be self-corrected when attention is called. Jeremy Harmer said that “mistakes is less serious since it is the retrieval that is faulty not the knowledge”2. In other word, the students knowte rule, but they make a slip 6 when producing it.
However, there is a question of how error and mistake, in written data, can be distinguished. Brown stated that to identify the errors might be through the frequency of errors. If learner consistently reveals such utterance as “He cans ride a motorcycle and “He mays go to Puncak. They can be deduced as error not mistake. If an English learner says, “He cans ride a motorcycle but on other occasions says, “He can ride a motorcycle”, and “he may go to Puncak”, it is assumed as mistake not error. However, if on one or two occasions, the learner
2Douglas Brown, Principles of Language Learning and Teaching, 54 th ed., (United States:
San Francisco State University, 2007), p. 257-258.
2Peter Hubbard, et al., A Training Course for TEFL, (New York: Oxford University 5
Press, 1983), p. 134
says “he cans ride a motorcycle but on other occasion he says “he may go to Puncak”. It is difficult to determine whether “cans” is mistake or error.
4. Source of Errors
Students who dealt with errors must have their own reason why they did such kind of errors So that it is important to know the cause of the errors made by the students in order to know more about the students’ errors.
Brown mentions that errors caused by some following factor:2 7 a. Interlingual Transfer
In acquiring second language system, learners tend to transfer the first language to the second language. In this case, learner can only draw the previous linguistics system because the system of the second language is not be familiar with. In other word, they sometimes translate their native language into second language since they think it is the easiest way to deliver the messages. Example “I love she”, instead of “I love her”. It means that interlingual transfer is cause of errors as learners’ transfer of what they have known about the language system in the first language to be transformed into the target language.
b. Intralingual Transfer
Interlangual transfer is cause of errors that the target language itself as a major factor in second language learning. Although learners initially transfer their native language to the target language, then they have begun to acquire parts of new system.
c. Context of Learning
“Context” refers to the teachers and materials related to the school learning or the social situation in the case of untutored the second language learning. Both can lead learners to make errors. It may be resulted from a misleading
explanation, faulty presentation of structure or word in a textbook, and improperly contextualize pattern in a drill. It means that context of learning is the cause of errors because the teacher failed to presents a target language system correctly or the textbook students use provides the language system that is wrong.
d. Communication Strategies
Communication strategies relate to learning style. Errors occur when learner produce the L2 by their own strategy with a little previous knowledge. From this, It may results an improperly sentence meaning like structured. It means that communication strategies are the causes of errors when the learners try to presents a concept with unrepresented phrase or clause. Example: the word “right” is used instead of “true”.
Chart 2.5
Transfer, Overgeneralization, and Interference
Note: L1 = First Language or Mother Tongue L2 = Second Language or Target Language
On the other hand, Richard resume on his document in A Non-Contrastive Approach to Error Analysis. He classified that the cause of error into, 1. Overgenerilaztion, means that the learner use their learning experience of other structure in the target language. It is can be incorrect application of the rules ofthe target language itself because of their language experience. 2. Ignorance of rule restriction, it is almost seems like the sturucture of generalization. It means that
Transfer
Positive (+) Negative (-)
Overgeneralization Interference (L1 => L1) (L1 => L2) (L2 => L2) (L2 => L1)
the learners do not apply the application of rules into the context that should be applied. 3. Incomplete application of rules, that is the occurence of structure representing the development of its rules needed to create an acceptable utterance.
Then, False concepts hypotized, this one is a significance errors that caused by the faulty of comprehension.2 8
D. Test
In other words, test means the school examination, college entrance or employment. According to Antony on his book Educational and Measurement an Introduction, he said that test is involving writing or making aswer. The test itself is defined as a systematic procedure for observing one or more characteristics of a person with the aid of either a numerical scale or category system. This test could be qualitative or quantitative test.2 9
Moreover, measurement and evaluation are not same, but they are part of others. Measurement is the process of assigning numbers to individual or more. Then, ana evaluation is the systematic process of collecting, analyzing and interpreting the information to determine the axtent to which pupils are achieving instructional objective, and test isa set of question, each of which has a correct answer, that examines usually answer by orraly or writing.
1. Types of Tests
There are many purposes for which language test are developed. The test itself has defined into 3 types of language test. However, many important broad categories of test that do permit more efficient desciptionand explanation: the three types of tests categories there are:3 0
a. Objective test
2Jack C. Richards, A Non-Contrastive Approach to Error Analysis, English Language 8
Teaching, 25, 1970, pp. 6-14.
2 Anthony. J Nitko, Educational and Measurement, an Introduction, (NewYork: Harcourt 9
Brace Jovanovic, 1983). P. 6
3 Grant Henning, A Guide to Language Testing, Development, Evaluation and 0
This test is higly structured and requires the students to supply a word or more to select the correct answer
b. Subjective test
This test is to require scoring by optionated judgment, hopefully based on insight and expertise
c. Direct and indirect test
It has been said that certain test, such as ratting of language use in real and uncontrived communication situation. This test performance directly whereas other test such as multiple choice, are indirecly tapping true language performance, for example interview and contextualized vocabulary test.
d. Discrete point and integrative test
Discrete points as a variety diagnostic test are designed to measure knowledge or performance in very restricted areas of the target language. Whereas, the integrative test is to tap a greater variety of language abilities like dictation and oral imitation task.
e. Aptitude, achievment and proficiency test
Aptitude test is often used to measure the suitability of a candidate for a specific program of instruction or particular kind of employment. Achievment test is used for program evaluation as well as for certification or learned competence. f. Criterion and norm referenced or standarized test
Criterion reference tests are devised before the instruction itself is designed. The test much match teaching objectives perfectly, so that any tendency of the teacher to teach to the test would be permissible.
g. Speed and power test
Speed test is test that might be expected to get every item correct, given enough time, but sufficient time is not provided, so examines are compared on their speed rather that knowledge itself. Power test are testthat allow sufficient time for every person to finish, but that contain such difficult items that view if examiners are expected to get every item correct.
a. Validity
Validity is refer to extent to which the result of an evaluation procedure serves the particular use for which they are intended. A test is valid when it measures effectively what it is suppossed to measure whether itcan be achievment, aptitude or proficiency in the language.
b. Reliability
This test is concerning with the degree to which it can be trusted to procedur the same result upon repeated administration to the same individual, or to give consistent information above the value of learning variable being measured.
c. Comprehensiveness
A foreign language test is said to be comprehensive when it contains an apprpriatness proportions of item from all aspect of the material to be tested d. Practicality
It would be unwise if in the design and administration of foreign language test were consider it validity, reliability and comprehensiveness apart from its practically.3 1
3 Mary Finochiaro and Syden Sako, Foreign Lnguage Test a Pratical Approach, (New 1
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
A. Time and Location
This research took places at SMP. Bahrul Ulum Jakarta which is located on
Kampung Baru Jakarta Barat. This research was done on Wednesday, March, 04
2013.
B. The Method of Research
The method, which is used in this research, is qualitative descriptive method.
The writer describes the students’ difficulties in understanding personal pronouns by
using percentage of students’ difficulties
.
C. Data and Source
In this research, the researcher took the data sources in the second grade
students which is consists of 33 students. Then he took 7 students who got low score
after test given for interview.
D. The technique of Collecting Data
1. Procedure
Before doing this research, the writer did observation to know how many
classes that available in SMP Bahrul Ulum Jakarata. After doing observation, he
chose the class for the subject of the research, and then he gave the test to the
students. After giving the test, he calculated and tabulated the score and then he chose
7 students for doing interview.
2. Instrument
a. Test
This test was used to know the percentage of students’ difficulties in
understanding personal pronoun. The writer gave a test which focused on the use of
personal pronoun. The test consists of twenty five items; each of personal pronouns
has certain items. For subject pronoun; it has six items. Object pronoun also has six;
possessive adjective has four items, possessive pronoun has five items and last,
reflexive pronoun has four items. The writer put the item at random, as it can be seen
below.
Table 3.1
Personal Pronoun Area and Each Item
NO
Personal Pronoun Area
Number Items
1
Subject Pronoun
4, 8, 11, 16, 24, 25
2
Object Pronoun
7, 9, 12, 14, 20, 23
3
Possessive Adjective
1, 3, 6, 19
4
Possessive Pronoun
5, 13, 17, 15, 21
5
Reflexive
2, 10, 18, 22
b. Interview
The writer gave interview to the students; it is used by the writer as the
technique of collecting data to know why students of SMP Bahrul Ulum Jakarta faced
difficulties in understanding personal pronoun.
E. The technique of Data Analysis
In this part, the writer analyzes the data is used qualitatively analyzed in
which describes the cause of difficulties faced by the second year students of SMP
Bahrul Ulum Jakarta
.Besides, it also described the most difficulties in understanding personal
pronoun faced by students of SMP Bahrul Ulum Jakarta. The data are calculated
using simple percentage formula. The formula as follow:
100 %
P: Percentage
f: Frequency of wrong answer
N: Number of samples or students
1After having percentage and frequency, the writer looks for the average mark
by using the formula:
100%
P: Percentage
F: Frequency of wrong answer
N: Number of samples
N: Number of item test
31
CHAPTER IV
RESEARCH FINDINGS and INTERPRETATION
A. The Description
In this section, the writer analyzed the students’ difficulties in understanding
personal pronoun based on the test given. In this research the writer gave the test
about personal pronoun that consists of 25 items. Six items consist of subject
pronoun, six items consist object pronoun, five items consist of possessive pronoun,
four items consist for possessive adjective and four items for reflexive. The writer put
the item at random as it can be seen below.
Chart 4.1
Personal Pronoun Area and each Item
No
Personal Pronoun area
frequency of
difficulties
1
Subject Pronoun
4, 8, 11, 16, 24, 25
2
Object Pronoun
7, 9, 12, 14, 20, 23
3
Possessive Pronoun
5, 13, 15, 17, 21
4
Possessive Adjective
1, 3, 6, 19
5
Reflexive
2, 10, 18, 22
Next, knowing the highest and the lowest rate of the kinds of students’
difficulties in understanding personal pronoun, the writer calculated and elaborated
the frequency of the students’ score of the test. Here table 2 shows the students’ score
of the test.
Chart 4.2
Students’ Score of Test Result
No Participants Score No Participants Score
1 Student 1 28 17 Student 17 56 2 Student 2 28 18 Student 18 48 3 Student 3 36 19 Student 19 56 4 Student 4 32 20 Student 20 32 5 Student 5 44 21 Student 21 52 6 Student 6 40 22 Student 22 60 7 Student 7 44 23 Student 23 36 8 Student 8 44 24 Student 24 48 9 Student 9 32 25 Student 25 28 10 Student 10 60 26 Student 26 48 11 Student 11 52 27 Student 27 36 12 Student 12 44 28 Student 28 68 13 Student 13 48 29 Student 29 52 14 Student 14 40 30 Student 30 44 15 Student 15 32 31 Student 31 72 16 Student 16 48 32 Student 32 48 33 Student 33 40 Average 44.73 Highest Score 72 Lowest Score 28
