I. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background of the Study
Gerund is a verb form which ends in –ing and is used in a sentence like a noun. These verbal forms are often found in many sentences with
different functions such as subject, (direct) object, used after preposition, and
after possessive which often lead to some confusion. To know how the
verbals work, it is essential to understand their meaning and purpose.
Verbals in gerund are derived from verbs but function as a noun by
adding the suffix-ing to verbs. According to Allen (1974:177) the part of the
verb that ends in-ing has two very important functions: (1) It can have the
force of an adjective as well as that of a verb. We call this the present
participle, and (2) It can have the force of a noun as well as that of a verb. We
call this the gerund. Unfortunately, this actually causes errors and problems
due to not only the gerunds use verbs + ing in the sentence but also the
present participle. This is consistent with a statement of a thesis entitled
“Teaching Gerund to the Second Years Students of SMPN3 Peusangan by
Using the Five Finger Tehniques” (in www.kapabeujaya.wordpress.com website) which states that many students may get confused on gerund
because gerund has exactly the same form as the present participle. The same
form will also create errors if it is not properly understood. This idea is
supported by Damianus in his thesis “The Ability of the 2007 Year Students of English Literature Department, University of Sumatera Utara to
understanding about them can make serious problem especially in the case of
the use of English grammatical structure correctly.
Lack of understanding of the verb + ing form that can be used either
as gerund or as present participlemay cause errors in its use. It will lead to a
different understanding of the meaning between the speaker and listener in a
communication. This means that the use of language and its message delivery
is not achieved well. Sapir (1949:7) says that language is purely human and
non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions, and desire by
means of system of voluntarily produced symbols.
There are some results of previous studies on the use of gerund to
students stating that the rate of student errors in using gerund is still high. The
research conducted by Damianus to the students of English Department of
USU in 2007 states that they made error about 37.98% and the error analysis
on the use of gerund research conducted by Arjati to the students of English
literature of UNNES in 2007 also found that many students make errors in the
use of gerund. The error rate in each type of gerund ranged 16% to 69%. The
results of the researchs above show that there are still many students who do
not understand the use of the gerund so that they still make many errors.
In addition, to determine whether there are still many learners who
do not understand the use of gerund, the writer had conducted a preliminary
research on January 26th, 2013 to the fourth semester students of English
Department in the academic year of 2012/2013. The writer chose them as
objects of research since they had learned gerund in semester 3 (three) and
preliminary research, the writer took twenty students as sample and data were
obtained by giving them test. The test is completion test consisting of 60
questions, 39 questions of gerund and 21 questions of other English
structures, so that the students must complete the blank in the sentence by
changing verb in bracket into the correct gerund form. The completion test is
arranged randomly.
In the preliminary research, the writer found that many learners still
made errors in the use of gerund. The writer checked their answer and the
result showed that 50% students get correct answer under 60 (poor-enough)
and 50% students get above 60 (good-very good). It means that many of the
students do not understand how to use gerund. For example, many learners
make error in answering these two following questions in the preliminary test.
1. Avoid ... (make) silly mistakes.
→ Avoid making silly mistakes.
2. I am looking forward to ... (get) a salary arise next month.
→ I am looking forward to getting a salary arise next month.
There are 70% of 20 students made errors or in other words, as many as 14
learners make errors in completing them. The first question is a gerund
functioning as a direct object and the second is gerund after preposition.
There are many types of errors made by the learners such as the addition of
affixes "s", "ed", the use of "to" or modal "will".
Based on the previous studies and the results of the preliminary
continuing research on the use of the gerund of the fourth semester students
of English Department in the academic year of 2012/2013.
Errors made by the learners in the process of learning English
because English is the second language in Indonesia. As a second language,
learners have to study hard to understand the sentence structures that are very
different from those Indonesian sentence structures.
Second Language Acquisition may refer to any language that is
learned by learners after they have mastered their mother tongue (first
language). Our mother tongue is Indonesian language while other language
that we want to learn is called Second Language. Ellis (1985:5) says that
Second Language Acquisition is the study of how learners learn an additional
language after they have acquired their mother tongue. There are generally
found errors when learners learn the second language, for every language has
its rule that is different to other languages. It has been proved in the
preliminary test resulted that many of the learners made errors.
There are several definitions of errors according to experts. Ellis
defines that errors reflect the gaps in a learner’s knowledge. They occur because the learner does not know what is correct. It is caused the learners do
not have the capability of understanding the structure of a language. This
understanding is almost the same with the definition of error proposed by
The behaviorists defines that errors occur as the learners get the wrong
teaching method so that they cannot use the language correctly.
The occurrence of errors in learning or using a second language is
normal. Learners are still soldered on the use of first language, so they do not
know which ones are correct to use. The occurrence of errors in the process of
learning is a process of mastering second language because of the presence of
the errors, learners can analyze and correct them. Strevens (1969) in
Richards (1974:4) hypothesized that errors should not be viewed as problems
to be overcome, but rather as normal and inevitable indicating the strategies
that learners use. He conjectured that if a regular pattern of errors could be
observed in the performance of all learners in a given solution and if a learner
were seen to progress through this pattern, his errors could be taken as
evidence not of failure but success and achievement in learning.
In second language acquisition is found the term of error analysis
that has a meaning of investigating the errors in second language learning by
collecting and describing samples made by language learners. In other words,
this is a procedure to analyze the errors in the language learning process to be
known and corrected by using several ways of analyzing. Ellis (1985:296)
states that errors analysis is a procedure used by both researcher and teacher.
It involves collecting samples of learner’s language, identifying the error in sample, describing these errors, classifying them according to their
hypothesized causes, and evaluating their seriousness. Susan and Selinker
(2008:517) say that error analysis is a procedure for analyzing second
language data that begins with the errors learners make and then attempts to
There is a close relationship between an error analysis on the use of
gerund and second language acquisition, that is gerund is one of English
structure features and English is the first foreign language (second language)
in Indonesia that must be learned by Indonesian students. In the process of
learning gerund, many learners make errors and it is a normal case because it
is the process for the learners to acquire the second language.
To find out why the learners could make errors, a research about the
error must be done. There are several types of errors that were dictated by
experts. According to Ellis (1997:15), there are four kinds of errors: (1)
Omission is the error of leaving item that is required for an utterance to be
considered grammatical, (2) misinformation is the error of using one
grammatical form in place of another grammatical form, (3) misordering is
the error of putting the words in an utterance in the wrong order, and (4)
overgeneralization is the error of using over grammatical form in an
utterance.
1.2. Problem of the Study
Learners may make errors when they use English language, especially on the
use of gerund, which is one of the English structure forms. Dealing with the
matters and based on the background above, the writer has formulated the
problems of the study as follows:
1. What kinds of error on the use of gerund are made by the 2012/2013 fourth
semester students of English Literature of Faculty of Cultural Studies of
2. What are the causes and the sources of the errors on the use of gerund
made by the 2012/2013 fourth semester students of English Literature of
Faculty of Cultural Studies of USU.
3. What kind of error on the use of gerund is the most dominant made by the
2012/2013 fourth semester students of English Literature of Faculty of
Cultural Studies of USU.
1.3. Objective of the Study
Mastering a language properly and correctly takes a lot of time as learner of
language needs to know the system of the language. One is dealing with the
grammatical system of grammar and usage.
Based on the explanation above, the writer can describe the objectives of the
study are as follows:
1. To find out kinds of error on the use of gerund are made by the
2012/2013 fourth semester students of English Literature of Faculty of
Cultural Studies of USU.
2. To find out the causes and the sources of errors on the use of gerunds
made by the 2012/2013 fourth semester students of English Literature of
Faculty of Cultural Studies of USU.
3. To find out the kinds of error on the use of gerund is the most dominant
made by the 2012/2013 fourth semester students of English Literature of
1.4. Scope of the Study
In each form of English grammar has its own formula, such as the use of
gerund. Gerund is divided into several types and each type has certain
requirements in its use that the learners might make errors in using it.
According to the explanation above, the writer limits the research related to
the use of gerund such as gerund as subject, gerund as (direct) object, gerund
as subjective complement, gerund as object of preposition, gerund a fter
possessive adjective, and Gerund used in the Negative Adjective in the
2012/2013 forth semester students of English Literature of Faculty of Cultural
Studies of USU.
1.5. The Significance of the Study
The errors on the use of the gerund sometimes are predictable but sometimes
not. The kinds of error were made also varied; therefore, it is very important
to have a better method to avoid making errors.
By doing this research, the writer hopes the result is useful to provide:
1. Input to the readers generally and especially for students of English
Literature in order they become more careful in using gerund.
2. Information about the kinds of error on the use of gerund and as a
consideration matery in teaching and learning gerund especially in English
Literature Department.
3. Guidance on the use of gerund to motivate learners to be more seriously
