AN ANALYSIS ON GRAMMATICAL ERRORS
IN THE SPOKEN LANGUAGE MADE BY THE STUDENTS OF BUSINESS COMMUNICATION CLASS AT WISMA BAHASA
YOGYAKARTA
A Thesis
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By RUSI YANNY
Student Number: 021214040
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA
Serenity sets up as the result of
an awareness of
appreciating other people
…. (rusi)
A dedication for:
mama
papa
sisters
brothers
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My endless thank is dedicated to the Lord for allowing me to get along with my diary of life until now. The last earth quake tragedy in Jogjakarta reminded me that He still loves me so much that He gives me a chance to step on my stairs again. I Thank Him for this precious chance.
Completing my study after five years, finally I come to the gate of my future life. When I step forward, I remember the words that always remind me that I go to school not for academic purposes but for my life. I realized that the completion of this thesis would never have been done without the help of the following people.
The marvelous help of Markus Budirahardjo S.Pd., M.Ed. as my thesis sponsor was really important for me. I thank him for leading me to accomplish
this thesis. I believe that I was not able to finish this without his sincerity.
Lots of thanks are addressed to my beloved family for supporting me in this study. My mother and father, Rita and Cui Tien, are two important people in my life. I would never have been like this if they had neglected me in the past fifteen years. I am really indebted to them for the whole of my life time. The good will never return for the evil. I promise this to myself and they can keep these words. My eternal indebtedness also goes to my three sisters, Fani, Henni, and Leni, for supporting me with any kinds of supports including the financial one. I believe there is no sacrifice without love. In that way I know they love me very much. I really appreciate that. Brothers, Hendri and Herman, who also support
me in any kinds of condition will never lose their part in my acknowledgement. That’s what brothers are for.
I cherish someone who becomes a part of my life now. The words he always gives to me lead me to be better and will never be forgotten. I deeply grateful for all decrees and experience he has given to me and I would like it be immortal now and forever. I hope he can always be part of my life.
My gratitude also goes to my comrades in arms, Anna, Vera, Dy, Leny, Lucia, Dewi, Fifi, Rina. Nevertheles, Op, Eny, Yali and also Eka. I thank them for the days that we had together. Unforgettable thanks go to the people in former boarding house, Kos SUBOROK, for supporting me and being parts in my boat so that I could sail it to an island now. Last but not least, I would also like to express my gratefulness to my crazy, cool, narcissist and inspiring friends in Wisma Bahasa, Mas Boel, Cici’e, Prima, Ette, Fajar, Lety, Lila, Gelar, Mawar, Niken,Tiwuk, Mas Sugeng , Mas Iman, Pak Omar and my language consultant, Adrian Coen. It is a great time to have them in my life. I thank them for teaching me how to live in society, to make me “crazy”, and to be my family.
Finally, I would like to thank all people who have given me supports, love, guidance, and prayers who I cannot mention one by one.
RUSI YANNY
3. Theory of Error ... 20
CHAPTER III : RESEARCH METHODOLOGY A. Research Methods ... 32
CHAPTER IV: RESEARCH RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS A. Data Presentation ... 43
1. Frequency Distribution of the Error Types Based on the Grammatical Error Types Checklist ... 44
g. Adjectives (Adj) ... 58
h. Possessive Case (Pos) ... 59
2. Discussion on Each Cause of Errors Produced by the Participant .. 60
a. Ignorance of Rule Application ... 60
b. Falsely Hypothesized Concepts ... 61
c. Incomplete Application of Rules (Inc) ... 63
d. Overgeneralization (Ov) ... 64
C. Other Findings ... 65
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS A. Conclusions ... 69
B. Suggestions ... 70
BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 73
APPENDICES ... 76 Appendix 1. Minimum Requirements
Appendix 2. Questions Used for the Interviews Appendix 3. Interviews Transcripts
Appendix 4. The Result of Grammatical Error Types Checklist Appendix 5. The Result of Causes of Errors Checklist
LIST OF TABLES
page
Table 2.1 Differences between Spoken and Written Language ... 15
Table 3.1 Personal Data of the Participants ... 34
Table 3.2 Grammatical Error Types Checklist ... 38
Table 3.3 Causes of Errors Checklist ... 38
Table 3.4 Frequency Distribution of the Error Types ... 39
Table 3.5 Frequency Distribution of the Causes of Errors ... 39
Table 4.1 Frequency Distribution of the Error Types ... 46
Table 4.2 Frequency Distribution of the Causes of Errors ... 48
LIST OF FIGURE
Page Figure 2.1 Psycholinguistic Sources of Errors ... 29
ABSTRACT
YANNY, RUSI. 2007. An analysis on Grammatical Errors in the Spoken Language Made by the Students of Business Communication Class at Wisma Bahasa Yogyakarta. Unpublished Thesis. Yogyakarta. Sanata Dharma University.
In learning a language, it is common for the students to make errors (Dulay, 1982). Errors in spoken language vary and include errors in grammar, pronunciation and word choice. In this study, the researcher focused on how grammar plays an important role in language learning. It is the basis for making a sentence. Therefore, applying the knowledge of grammar to the production of utterances is necessary. However, more people nowadays learn English for communication purposes with less attention to the grammar points.
Concerning this issue, this study was designed to look thoroughly at the grammatical errors made by 10 (ten) people who were in Business Communication class at Wisma Bahasa. There are two problems to be solved in this study: (1) What kind of grammatical errors are produced by the participants in the spoken language? (2) What are the possible causes of errors produced by the participants?
The study itself has two objectives. The first is to find out kinds of grammatical errors produced by the participants in the spoken language. The second is to figure out the causes of grammatical errors produced by the participants.
To solve the problems, the researcher utilized descriptive statistic study that were intended to investigate the 10 participants’ grammatical errors in spoken language. The data were gathered by conducting a series of interviews. The results of the interviews were transcribed into written form. Then, they were analysed by using two checklists, i.e. grammatical error types checklist and causes of errors checklist.
The findings show that the most frequent errors were errors in tenses. Then it was followed by other findings in which the researcher found 8 (eight) other kinds of errors. They were errors in redundancy, nominalization, missing subject, object or noun, non sequiturs, pronouns, word order, sub-clause construction errors, and adjective clause connectors. Errors in concords, finite verbs, prepositions, articles, verb groups, adjectives and possessive cases came with fewer numbers. On the other hand, the results of the causes of errors checklist shows that almost all of the errors made in the learners’ spoken language were caused by ignorance of English rules.
Finally, two conclusions were drawn from this study. First, all participants made grammatical errors in their spoken language and the most occurring errors were those related to tenses. Second, almost all of the errors made by the learners were caused by less attention to the rule restriction.
The researcher also provided suggestions intended for the English teachers and learners at Wisma Bahasa, and the English Language Program at Sanata Dharma University, and future researchers.
ABSTRAK
YANNY, RUSI. 2006. An analysis on Grammatical Errors in the Spoken Language Made by the Students of Business Communication Class at Wisma Bahasa Yogyakarta .Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University.
Membuat kesalahan dalam mempelajari suatu bahasa adalah hal yang umum terjadi (Dulay: 1982). Kesalahan dalam bahasa berbicara ada berbagai macam seperti tata bahasa, pelafalan dan pemilihan kata. Tata bahasa berperan penting dalam mempelajari suatu bahasa. Tata bahasa merupakan dasar untuk menghasilkan suatu kalimat. Dengan demikian sangatlah penting untuk menerapkan ilmu tata bahasa dalam ucapan. Akan tetapi, saat ini lebih banyak orang mempelajari Bahasa Inggris untuk tujuan komunikasi dan kurang memperhatikan penggunaan tata bahasa.
Menanggapi hal tesebut, penelitian ini bertujuan untuk melihat lebih menyeluruh kesalahan-kesalahan tata bahasa yang dilakukan oleh 10 (sepuluh) pelajar di kelas Bisnis Komunikasi di Wisma Bahasa. Ada dua permasalahan yang harus dipecahkan dalam penelitian ini: (1) Kesalahan tata bahasa jenis apa yang dihasilkan oleh partisipan dalam bahasa berbicara? (2) Apa saja penyebab kesalahan tata bahasa yang dihasilkan oleh partisipan tersebut?
Ada dua tujuan dalam penelitian ini. Yang pertama, penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menemukan jenis-jenis kesalahan tata bahasa yang dihasilkan oleh partisipan dalam bahasa berbicara. Yang kedua bertujuan untuk mengungkap penyebab kesalahan tata bahasa yang dihasilkan oleh partisipan tersebut.
Untuk memecahkan permasalahan tersebut, peneliti menggunakan deskripsi statistik. Data dikumpulkan dengan cara mengadakan serangkaian wawancara. Hasil wawancara kemudian diubah menjadi bentuk tertulis. Kemudian data tersebut dianalisa dengan menggunakan dua jenis cheklist yaitu grammatical error types checklist dan causes of errors checklist.
Penemuan-penemuan dalam penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa kesalahan yang paling sering terjadi adalah kesalahan dalam tenses. Kemudian diikuti oleh kesalahan dalam other findings yang mana terdapat 8 jenis kesalahan lain yaitu redundancy, nominalization, missing subject, object or noun, non sequiturs, pronouns, word order, sub-clause construction errors, dan adjective clause connectors. Sementara itu terdapat lebih sedikit kesalahan dalam concords, finite verbs, prepositions, articles, verb groups, adjectives dan possessive cases. Di sisi lain, hasil dari causes of errors cheklist menunjukkan bahwa hampir semua kesalahan yang dihasilkan oleh pelajar dalam bahasa berbicara dikarenakan oleh ignorance of English rules.
Akhirnya, ada dua kesimpulan dalam penelitian ini. Yang pertama, semua partisipan membuat kesalahan tata behasa dalam bahasa berbicara dan kesalahan yang paling sering terjadi adalah kessalahan dalam tenses.Yang kedua, hampir semua kesalahan-kesalahan yang dihasilkan disebabkan oleh kurangnya perhatian terhadap batasan rumusan yang ada.
Peneliti juga memberikan saran yang ditujukan kepada guru-guru dan pelajar di Wisma Bahasa, Program Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris Universitas Sanata Dharma dan peneliti-peneliti yang akan datang.
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background
Along with the expanding number of countries using English, many people regard English as a very important language to learn. For most people, English is considered important as a means to bridge the communication gap. They need English as a means to communicate with others. One learns English not only to be able to write something down on paper, but also to speak in order to communicate with others. As a result, spoken language becomes really important among the people because speaking is a completely practical activity which requires the learners to practise conversing in more real situations as in real life. Therefore, a lot of people learn English in order to communicate with other people around the world.
in direct conversation between people. Besides, the language applied in written language is more formal compared to the spoken language.
Second, spoken language demands the speakers to respond immediately right after the other speakers finish their speech. Meanwhile in writing language, the writers have a range of time to think and revise what they want to say. Thus, when the learners face written works, they can be really good at it since they have time to think before they write it down. Besides, they can even revise it. However, when they face the real speech production, they do not have time to think or even revise it. A message must be shaped as it is uttered. Along with this, errors are commonly found since the learners can not formulate what they want to say in English. The errors in spoken language vary, namely: word choice, pronunciation and grammar. The researcher in this study did not work on the first two types. The third type became the focus of this study.
As stated by Celce-Muria (1992), grammar seems to be crucial if advanced proficiency is desired and a high level of literacy is required. She also stated that grammatical accuracy is very important because it marks a second language learner as competent: for instance, it helps open academic, social, and economic doors for them. Therefore, grammatical errors are not desirable because they may result in misunderstanding or misinterpretation and miscommunication and of course it makes the communication ineffective.
recognise that it is a house. Therefore, the scaffolding becomes really important. Likewise in producing a sentence, grammar is a really important element in order to make a sentence meaningful. The importance of grammar is also admitted by Littlewood (1983). He states that the mastery of grammar is important to support communication. Further, he says that the knowledge of grammar is a basic requirement for using a language since the language learners are provided with the frames, rules, and patterns for constructing sentences as well as understanding others. To support this idea, Fromkin and Rodman (1990) believe that knowing a language means knowing how to combine words to form phrases and phrases to form sentences. To conclude, applying the knowledge of grammar in producing utterances is necessary. Changing the form or order of words alters the meaning.
On other hand, there are two points which need to be underlined. First, as Streven (1982) points out, with there being so many versions of English around
the world, English users neglect grammar instruction in order to achieve fluency in communicating. Second, there have been various emphases that emerged in particular times throughout the history of English teaching. By the nineteenth
century, the Grammar-Translation Method emerged as an influential way of studying a language. At that time, the grammar was the focus of learning a
language and accuracy was emphasized to achieve the mastery of language (Chomsky, 1966). By the mid-nineteenth century, Europeans demanded oral
proficiency in learning a language. This demand created a rejection of the grammar translation method. Oral proficiency was stressed more than grammar
teaching until it came to the year of 2005. Communicative Language Teaching
appeared to be improved in Indonesian education. This language teaching stressed the learners’ competence as well as the learners’ performance as the target.
However, the reality showed that the application stressed more on the learners’ performance.
The above phenomena have had an impact on the less attention of grammar application. Regardless of those phenomena, most English learners do not pay attention to their grammar when they produce utterances. As a matter of fact, one can produce utterances without correct grammar. Consequently, his or her grammar is so ‘messy’ that other people may find it difficult to comprehend the message he or she delivered. As a result, the communication is not successful since communication is said to be successful when the receiver decodes the same message as the speaker encodes. Thus, when the hearer can not decode the message, the communication will come to a halt (Akmajian, Demers, and Harnish: 1988). To conclude, grammar in spoken language is important.
Reviewing the existing undergraduate theses of the English Language Education Study Program at Sanata Dharma University, the researcher found some studies that investigated grammatical errors. Among them were Rahardjo’s research (1999) about The Grammatical Errors made by the Indonesian Advanced EFL Learners in Writing at Sanata Dharma University, and Putranti’s research (2006) about An Analysis on the Errors in the English Composition. The first study investigated the grammatical errors made by 30 semester-eight-students of English department in their written test. Rahardjo (1999) found that the Indonesian advanced EFL learners at Sanata Dharma still made grammatical errors in their writing and the most frequent errors were errors in the use of nouns and then verbs, prepositions, articles, agreement, and sentences. On the other hand, Putranti conducted an analysis on grammatical errors in the composition made by the students of SMU Stella Duce 1 grade 11 Yogyakarta from academic year 2005/2006. Putranti (2006) figured out that the students of Stella Duce 1 grade 11 Yogyakarta made grammatical errors in their English composition. As a result, most errors produced by the students were errors the area of finite verbs and tenses.
Both studies above focused on the participants’ writing works. Likewise, Abisamra (2003) conducted a study on English grammatical errors made by the
Arabic students in the written language. The result of the study showed that all the participants made grammatical errors in their written works. Along with this, the
Regardless of the phenomenon above, the researcher thinks that the research that investigates the grammatical errors taken from the oral production is still lacking. Therefore, it is important to have a study that investigates the grammatical errors taken from the oral production since English is nowadays used by a lot of people mostly for communicative purpose of oral production. This study was devoted to seeing more thoroughly the grammatical errors by focussing on a small group of people who are in Business Communication class at Wisma Bahasa. This thesis sets out to investigate the grammatical errors of 10 (ten) students taking business communication English class at an English institution in which the researcher is teaching now.
B. Problem Limitation
This study was a case study done on 10 people from non English department who study English at Wisma Bahasa in Business Communication class. These people are chosen because they are learning English for communication purposes. Since in this study the researcher needs to do a series of interviews, the researcher chose the class which demands the students to talk a lot. In addition, they are Indonesians who have learned English for quite some time before they joined this course.
produce errors. There are four categorizations of causes of errors that are assumed to influence the learners to produce errors. The four categorizations are ignorance of rule restriction, falsely hypothesized concepts, incomplete application of rules, and overgeneralization
However, this study has some limitations. First, this study is a case study on a small group of people in a single English institution. Thus, the results of this
study can not be generalised. Second, this study is limited to investigating the grammatical errors and the causes of errors produced by ten people in a Business
Communication class at Wisma Bahasa. However, it does not discuss more about the speech intelligibility level of the participants as the researcher lacks expertise,
experience and supporting resources to do this.
There is no doubt that pronunciation is also important in spoken language.
It should not be neglected but taken into account seriously. However, the researcher realised that it is beyond the capability to have the study on that aspect at the same time as the other aspect which is grammar. To conclude, it is assumed
to belong to a different study.
C. Problem Formulation
There are two main problems which guide the researcher in conducting the study:
1. What kinds of grammatical errors are produced by the participants in the spoken language?
D. Research Objectives
Based on the problems formulated above, the researcher has formulated two objectives of this study. All of them are to answer the questions in the previous part.
Therefore, the objectives of this research are stated as follows:
1. To know kinds of grammatical errors produced by the participants in the spoken language.
2. To know the possible causes of errors produced by the participants.
E. Research Benefits
By doing this study, the researcher expects the results will contribute some benefits to:
1. Wisma Bahasa-English Division Teachers
in learning English grammar. Therefore the teachers could conduct the teaching-learning more effectively.
2. Students
This study is hopefully able to improve the learning of grammar. From the errors the students made, they will recognize the difficult parts of grammar they face. As a result, they can learn something from their errors and give more attention to learning about those difficult parts without neglecting other parts. Furthermore, this study provides a discussion on each error so that it will help the students to enrich their grammar knowledge. Besides, it is hoped that the teachers can help the learners improve their proficiency to facilitate acquiring grammatical competence so that they can produce good spoken English or at least, reduce these errors in speech production.
3. English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University (EESP) and Further researchers
F. Definition of Terms
To make a clear understanding of this study, the researcher includes some definitions of important terms:
1. A Case Study
A case study is a study which focuses on an instance or an event, or upon a particular entity. In this study, the term refers to a study of 10 people from non English department who learn English at Wisma Bahasa in Business Communication class.
2. Interview
Interview is a meeting at which an interviewer asks somebody questions in order to collect data from that person. In this study, this term refers to the oral production made by the 10 people in business communication class that are recorded.
3. Error Analysis
In this study, error analysis refers to an attempt to provide data about which grammatical error types occur in the learners’ oral production and the cause of the errors.
4. Students of Business Communication Class at Wisma Bahasa
The students in this case are those who are taking business communication class at Wisma Bahasa. They are Indonesian learners who are taking this class for 30 hours.
5. Errors
CHAPTER II
LITERATURE REVIEW
In this chapter, the researcher discusses some theories related to the research problems. This chapter is divided into two parts. They are theoretical description and theoretical framework. In the theoretical description, some related theories concerning speaking skills, errors and error analysis as well as the importance of grammar will be discussed further. The Theoretical Framework summarizes all relevant theories, which help the researcher to solve the research problems.
A. Theoretical Description
Theoretical description discusses some related theories concerning speaking skills as well as the importance of grammar, errors and error analysis. 1. Speaking
The following discussion covers theory of spoken English and the differences between spoken and written English
a. Theory of Spoken English
“an active and productive interaction” using oral cavities in the “usage sense”. It is a part of reciprocal exchange in which the reception and production play a part. To conclude, speaking needs face-to-face interaction that emphasized on the dialogue, or discussion.
In general, speaking is defined as an oral communication or an activity that involves two or more people as the participants to react to what they are and make their contributions at high speed (Johnson and Morrow: 1983). In other words, if the number of people talking is only one, it is not a communication because interaction needs an interaction between the speakers.
Besides, speaking has a close relationship with the linguistic components such as grammar, pronunciation, and many more. As Hughes (2002: 7) argues, “… a niche for speaking in its own right whilst breaking it down into three distinct areas: the global or discourse level, the structural level, and the level of speech production.”
Foreign language learners may find it difficult to learn speaking a language since effective oral communication requires the ability to use the language appropriately in social interaction as when the Paulstan and Bruder (1976) state that speaking needs a competence to communicate in the target language.
b. Spoken English versus Written English
Spoken and written languages are different in some characteristics. As stated by Reid (159) in his article, there are 9 (nine) points which underline the differences between spoken and written language.
1) Permanence
The written language is fixed and stable. In that case, people can read at whatever time, speed, and level of thoroughness they wish. In contrast, the spoken one is more impermanent as it moves on in direct conversation.
2) Explicitness
In written text, it is very important for the researcher to explain all the things clearly so that the reader can get the writer’s ideas. For instance, the researcher needs to provide clear examples to make it clear. On the other hand, only some important information is required to be explained in spoken since some messages are probably already clear by the knowledge shared by both the speaker and the listener.
3) Density
The messages presented in writing are much denser whereas in spoken the messages are conveyed through words which are sometimes repeated by the speaker for some times.
4) Detachment
5) Organization
The researcher has time to provide an organized and well formulated writing since she or he has time to edit it before it is available for the readers while the corrections take place whenever it is needed in the middle of direct interaction in speech. Thus a written text is well-governed with the conventional rules of grammar and the vocabulary is somehow more precise and formal compare to the spoken one.
6) Slowness of production, speed of reception
It is obviously shown that writing is much slower in case of production since it takes time to think and revise it. However, the readers can comprehend it easier when they read than they have to listen to someone speaking in live talk.
7) Standard language
Acceptable standard variety of the language is used in writing while in spoken, speech may sometimes be in a regional or other limited-context dialect.
8) A learnt skill
Spoken skill, at least mother tongue, is mostly acquired automatically, while the writing skill in most cases is deliberately taught and learned.
9) Sheer amount and importance
Redundancy makes spoken language is far longer compare to written which is well governed.
quoted by Ven Lier (1995:88). He differentiates spoken from written language as follows:
Spoken language Written language
1. Auditory
2. Temporary; immediate reception 3. Prosody (rhythm, stress intonation) 4. immediate feedback
5. planning and editing limited by channel Table 2.1 Differences between Spoken and Written language (Ven Lier: 1995)
Brown and Yule, as stated by Nunan (1995), distinguish spoken and written language into different concepts. The written language is characterized by
well-formed sentences that are integrated into highly structured paragraph. In contrast, spoken language consists of short, often fragmentary utterances in a
range of pronunciation.
“hesitations, both silent and sounded, are an almost essential part of normal speech.”
On the other hand, there are four ways in which spoken language is “prior to” the written as stated by Palmer (cited by Richards, 1974: 8). They are:
1) Human beings used speech long before they had writing and they are still many languages that have no written form.
2) The children learn to speak first before they learn to write 3) Speaking takes more time in humans’ live than writing does.
4) It is possible to convert the writing language into speech without loss, but to write down something that is said sometimes lose a great deal.
2. Grammar
The following discussion covers the theory of grammar, the importance of grammar, and grammar in spoken and written English.
a. Theory of Grammar
The common definition of grammar, as stated in Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English, is “the study of the forms and how they are put together in the statements; the rules about the use of words; as to study English grammar; a grammar lesson mistakes in English” (Hornby, 1974:543). In other words, it is said that grammar is the study or science of rules for forming words and combining them into sentences.
grammar. Lado (1977:141), for instance; he found that for common people, “grammar has been the study of the rules of correctness, that is, rules that claimed to tell the students what they should not say in order to speak the language of the society educated classes.”
On the other hand, grammar is said as the basic units of meaning such as words, and the rules to combine them to form new sentences (Fromkin et al.:1990). Meanwhile, Richards, Platt, and Weber as quoted by Nunan (1999) suggest that grammar is a description of the way language structure produces sentences.
The understanding of grammar is, later, broadened by Lado (1977) into: 1) Grammatical structure which means the pattern of arrangement of words in
sentences and the pattern of arrangement of parts of words.
2) Grammatical pattern which means an arrangement of words that has a meaning.
Fries, on the other hand, (1945:28) proposes grammar as a more specific definition. Grammar is stated as “the pattern of form and arrangement by which the words are put together.” To add, he defines grammar into:
2) Grammar is regarded as a body of philosophical material equally applicable to all languages-universal grammar, the grammar of any languages.
As it can be lined that most discussed element in grammar is the rules of correctness in general. However, those rules are not fixed. Rivers (1968:56) states that, “To most people, grammar is the rules of language set out in a terminology which is hard to remember, with many exceptions, appended to each rules.” Thus, it means that there are many exceptions in grammar.
Likewise, Burton (1982:128) adds that “grammar of language is not a recollection of hard and fast rules. It is more flexible (and, therefore, more useful) than that.” It can be said that grammar is applicable to any sentence in a language and it gives an account of the way in which a language is used by those who use it well.
From the definitions above, it can be concluded that grammar covers several elements, namely rules, patterns, forms, and words arrangements.
b. The Importance of Grammar
According to Colburn (1949:31), grammar is not merely the names of parts of speech and parts of a sentence. Grammar is the knowledge of some principles governing the way words work in group to give certain effects. As a result, changing the form or order of words will alter the meaning too. Since human beings live in varied circumstances, it is important to apply the knowledge of grammar to use and choose the form of language best suited to each particular situation (Burton, 1982).
In any discussion, we must recognise that grammar is to language what anatomy is to the human body…. To say that grammar can be brushed aside as inconsequential or irrelevant is of course nonsense. The question to ask is rather to what degree we must be aware of the grammar we use, just as we may ask to what extent we must be aware of the anatomy of our bodies as we act and play and think and work.
This means that in producing a sentence, grammar is a really important element in order to make a sentence meaningful. Therefore, English users must be aware of the grammar use in producing a sentence. In addition, Brooks (1964) also stated that rules of grammar are very important to be applied especially in formal education. Therefore, it can be said that it is necessary for the school learners to learn the rules of grammar in the very earliest of school.
Since grammar plays an important role in language learning, Krashen (1982) proposes two roles of grammar in language learning. The first is grammar roles as a monitor. The second is as a subject matter.
Grammar as a monitor is used to correct the learners’ mistakes when producing output in writing and speaking. Knowledge of grammar rules is used to raise the learners ‘awareness of grammatical accuracy. The learners are led to think first whether their outputs are grammatically correct or not. For those who have acquired language well, grammar as a monitor is not essential. Hence, thinking about grammar when producing speech may bother the fluency of speech.
The definitions of grammar as stated above clearly define that grammar is useful to help the language learners or users make use of words. English grammar leads the learners or users to make use of the English language in a proper manner. Moreover, an understanding of grammar speeds up the language learning. Although it is possible to speak or to write without any knowledge of grammar, indeed, learning grammar gives some benefits.
c. Grammar in Spoken and Written English
Like other languages, English has two channels, speech and writing. One is transmitted by sound-waves, originated in speaking and received in learning. Another is transmitted by some visible marks like letters and others as produced in writing and received in reading. However, spoken and written English, as argued by Leech (1995) share the same grammar but is used differently in these two channels. Grammar in written English tends to be more specified and formal compared to that in the speech. On the other hand, as Burton (1982) states, grammar in spoken English is more flexible and thus more useful).
3. Theory of Errors
The following discussion covers the definition of error, the differences between errors and mistakes, the source of errors, and the types of errors.
a. Definition of Error
according to Corder, as cited by Fisiak (1981: 224), is “systematic deviation characteristic of the learners’ linguistic system at a given stage of learning.” In other words, the learners are using a definite system of a language at every point in their development. In this case, the learners’ errors are the evidence of this system and are themselves systematic. Corder, as stated by Dulay (1982) concludes errors as systematic deviations due to learners’ developing knowledge of the second language rule system.
Dulay himself (1982:139) and Brown (1987: 170-171) suggest three
aspects for defining concept of errors. 1) An error is a systematic deviation.
The deviations made by the learners are automatically in an ordered system following the certain patterns that are noticeable. For that reason, Brown (1987) says that errors can be observed, analysed, and classified to reveal the learners’ tendencies in learning.
2) The learners’ knowledge that is on progress causes systematic deviation which is later recognized as error.
This means that beginner learners tend to produce errors in language learning. 3) The definition reflects what is called interlingua competence.
Errors therefore involve at least two-language system within the learners’ minds. This implies that errors are mostly occurred in the non-native language learning.
b. Errors versus Mistakes
Many people regard errors as mistakes. However, linguists argue that errors are regarded distinct from mistakes on account of some factors. As discussed before, an error is a systematic deviation due to the on-progress knowledge of the learners which reflects the Interlingua competence of learners. Chomsky (1965, cited in Dulay, 1982: 139) defined errors as those resulted from the lack of knowledge of the rules of the language, which he calls ‘competence’; while mistakes are due to factors such as fatigue and inattention, which he calls ‘performance’. A similar theory is also proposed by Corder (as cited in Fisiak, 1981:224) about the distinction between errors and mistakes. Mistakes are deviation due to performance factors such as memory limitation, spelling pronunciation, fatigue, emotional constraint, etc. Mistakes, are corrected by the learners’ themselves if they notice them. In addition, Miller (as cited in Richard, 1974:25) argues that it’s a kind of useless to state the rules for making mistakes.
Brown (1987:170) notes that a mistake refers to a performance error that is either a random or a ‘slip.’ In that, it is a failure to utilize a known system
correctly. On the other hand, Corder (1967, 1971) reveals a criterion that makes a mistake different from an error. It is the self-correct ability criterion. A mistake
can be self-corrected, but an error cannot. Errors are “systematic,” i.e. likely to occur repeatedly and not recognized by the learner.
would never get it right unless he learns about it. On contrast, mistake refers to the inconsistent deviation when the learner does understand something but sometimes he or she makes deviation and uses the wrong form. Lapse, in another hand is another type of wrong usage which is neither a mistake nor an error and can happen to anytime. This may happen because of lack of concentration, shortness of memory, fatigue, etc.
c. The Source of Errors
Richards (1974) in their paper titled “the study of learner English” exposes 7 sources of errors. They are:
1) Language transfer
One’s first language could attribute the second language learners’ learning. 2) Intralingual interference
Richards exposes four types and causes for intralingual errors: a) Overgeneralization
It is associated with redundancy reduction. The learner makes a deviant structure base on his experience of other structures in the target language. b) Ignorance of rule restriction
The learner applies the rule to the wrong context which should be with other rule.
c) Incomplete application of rules
It happens when the learner does not put the complete application of rules in his or her utterances.
3) Sociolinguistic situation: motivation (instrumental or integrative) and settings for language learning may affect second language learning.
4) Modality: modality of exposure to the target language and modality of production.
5) Age: the age variation affects the learning capacities.
6) Successions of approximate system: The acquisition of new lexical, phonological, and syntactic items varies from one person to another.
7) Universal hierarchy of difficulty: the inherent difficulty for man of certain phonological, syntactic, or semantic items or structures. Some forms may be inherently difficult to learn no matter what the background of the learner.
On other hand, Taylor (1986, as cited in Ellis: 1994) points out that the errors source may be psycholinguistic, sociolinguistic, and epistemic and may reside in the discourse structure
The researcher was interested in the psycholinguistic source which concerns in the nature of the second language knowledge system and the difficulties which occurred in learners while using it in speech. In psycholinguistic aspect, there are three sources of errors (Ellis,1994: 57) as shown in figure 2.1 below:
transfer Competence intralingual (errors) Psychological unique
source of errors processing
Perfomance
There are three sources of competence errors, namely transfer, intralingual, and unique. Richards (1974) says that “intralingual errors reflect the general characteristic of rules and failure to learn condition under which rules apply” (Ellis, 1994:58). In addition, Abisamra (2003) also wrote that intralingual errors are students’ incomplete competence in English grammar. Intralingual errors are subdivided into overgeneralization errors, ignorance of rule restrictions, incomplete application of rules and falsely hypothesized concepts.
Richard (1971), as noted by Johnson (2001:67) proposed 4 causes of errors intralingual errors, namely overgeneralization, ignorance of rule restrictions, incomplete application of rules, and falsely hypothesized concepts .
The overgeneralization error includes the area in which the learner creates a deviant structure on the basis of his experience of other structures in the target language. For example a learner produces a sentence like *She can dances. The learner in this case knows that the third singular subject should be followed by verb plus ‘s’ or ‘es’, like she drinks, she reads, etc. Putting the ‘–s’ in dance after ‘can’ therefore is included as an error caused by over generalization.
The ignorance of rule restrictions occurred when the learner fails to observe the restriction of existing structure rules. *She made the barber to cut her hair is a condition when the learner is ignoring the restriction of the word makes, that must not be followed by to plus a verb.
Falsely hypothesized concepts refer to the faulty comprehension of distinction in the target language. The words ‘was’ might be considered as how past time is marked in English for a learner, for instance s/he produces *Once upon a time there was happened….’
d. Type of errors
As discussed before, the intralingual errors have a great deal with the students’ incomplete competence in English grammar. Therefore, this study uses grammatical taxanomies to categorize the errors made by the learners. The grammatical taxanomies are based on the Minimum Requirements issued by the English Department of Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia and Abisamra’s grammatical classification.
As quoted by Bram (1995:55-56), R.L Fountain suggested minimum requirements such as concord, finite verbs, tenses, verb groups, and articles.
1)Concords
Fountain places three considerations to put sentences as errors in concord: a) The use of masculine and feminine pronouns.
The sentence like:” My father works in an office. She is a great employee.”is incorrect since the first subject is a male therefore the pronoun should be he but not she.
b) The use of singular and plural forms for verbs and pronouns. He likes basketball but not he like basketball.
One shoe should be one shoe
Every students should be every student All student should be all students This books should be these books 2)Finite Verbs
A finite verb has a subject and its form changes as the subject is changed from singular and plural, and the time of the action is changed.
a) I want to buy something later. She wants to buy something later. b) Today she wants to shop.
Yesterday she wanted to shop. Tomorrow she will want to shop. 3)Tenses
Tenses refer to the indication of time by the form of the verb or verb phrase whether an action is a present, past, or future one.
a)She goes to school on foot everyday. (present) b)She went to school by bus yesterday. (past)
c)She will go to school by pedicap tomorrow. (future) 4) Verb groups
It refers to the use of correct categories of verbs. For example, the use of gerunds instead of using infinitive to refer to a verbal noun.
a)Play football is my hobby.
5) Articles
It refers to the use of correct articles (a, an, the) in a sentence. a) She bought book.
b) They told me a good information. c) A Sisca left for the Yogyakarta.
On other hand, Abisamra’s grammatical classification is classified into: 1) Preposition: the use of correct preposition depended on the relationship such as
location, direction, time, or purpose in sentences. Kinds of prepositions: in, at, on, in front of, next to, etc. 2) Articles
3) Reported Speech: the use of correct noun clause to report what someone has said without quotation marks.
4) Irregular verbs
a) speak-spoke-spoken b) read-read-read c) go-went-gone
5) Possessive case: the use of ‘s or s’ to the end of compound nouns as well as possessive pronouns.
a) My mother’s clothes. b) The students’ books.
c) Mine, your, my book, her book, hers.
a) They are crazy people. b) She is a lazy girl.
4. Theory of Error Analysis
The theoretical interests in studies of errors have a feedback to both linguistic and psycholinguistics. In linguistic level, error analysis involves the explanation of errors in terms of linguistic processes or rules that are followed by the students. At this point, the students’ errors are examined in terms of syntactic and semantic linguistic level. On the other hand, in psycholinguistic level, error analysis provides explanation on how errors may occur in the language production (Corder, 1973).
Error analysis by all means is the investigation process of errors made the learners. It rested on the comparison between the errors made in the Target Language and the target language itself. As stated by Asher (1994:740):
Error analysis is the procedure of describing and explaining errors systematically. The error analysis has pedagogical and psycholinguistic aim. The pedagogical aim is roughly to provide feedback about teaching methods and materials. The psycholinguistic aim is to throw light on how languages are learned and produced.
To conclude, it’s obvious that error analysis suggests several procedures.
They are identifying, clarifying, interpreting, describing and exploring errors. In brief, the error analysis starts with collecting the data.
B. Theoretical Framework
One of the problems in learning English as a foreign language is the understanding of being accurate in using the correct grammar. English has its own grammatical rules to refer to any sequence. For example, English applies s or es to the verbs refer to the third singular subjects. i.e. She drinks or he goes. To refer to the past event, English has simple past applied to any subjects like in the sentence She drank a glass of coffee and they drank soda last night.
In this study, the researcher attempts to have an error analysis on speaking in terms grammatical errors focused on intraligual errors as suggested by Ellis
(1994). The inaccuracies are found by analysing the interviewees’ errors in producing the words during the interviews. Besides, this study emphasizes
Richards’s theory that underlined intralingual errors as the reflection of the general characteristic of rules and failure. The categorizations of grammatical
errors in this study are based on the minimum requirements issued by the English Department Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia (1995) and
Abisamra’s grammatical classifications (2003). These are the categorization:
2. Abisamra’s grammatical classifications (2003) are preposition, articles, reported speech, singular/plural, adjectives, relative clauses, irregular verbs, tenses, and possessive case.
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter deals with the procedures carried out in the study to find the
answers to the problems of this study. Some important points dealing with the
research implementation are discussed in detail in this chapter. The discussion
includes research methods, participants, settings, instruments, data gathering,
techniques of data analysis, and research procedure.
A. Research Methods
This study employed a case study. A case study, according to Milikan
(1989: 27), “is a study that will focus on an instance or an event or upon a
particular entity”. In other words, a case study is an in-depth study of a single unit,
such as an individual, a family or a group. The aim of this study is to obtain a
detailed description and understanding of the particular group of people. Then, the
researcher would know the details of the object in this research. Given the limited
scope of the study, however, the results were unlikely to be generalized.
The study started by conducting a library research. The researcher
conducted this to obtain information about the theories to support the research.
As mentioned in Chapter 1, this study investigated the two problems
formulated, namely the participants’ grammatical errors and the causes of the
errors. This study was conducted to answer those two problems. Firstly, it
Secondly, the question of what caused the participants’ grammatical errors was
also answered.
In line with the purpose of this study, the researcher involved
quantification of the number of the participants’ grammatical errors and
quantification of the causes of errors. The quantifications were applied so that the
researcher could describe the data. The data were put into descriptive statistics in
which it involved at least some amount of numerical calculation in percentage.
In addition, the researcher conducted descriptive study. “Research is
typically called descriptive when the primary purpose of the research is
description” (Sprinthall, 1991: 98). The result of this study, therefore, is to
describe the grammatical errors in spoken language made by the learners of
Business Communication class at Wisma Bahasa. In this study, the researcher
used interview method to obtain the descriptive data. Then, the data were
described since the primary purpose of this study was the description of the data.
B. Research Participants
The population of this study was the students of an English institution in
Yogyakarta, Wisma Bahasa. Since this study intended to analyse grammatical errors and the causes made in speech production, the researcher applied purposive
sampling method to select the samples. The samples chosen for this study were
judged to be typical or representative for the study (Ary, Jacob and Razavieh,
2002).
The researcher, on the one hand, was a teacher in Wisma Bahasa-English
English specifically for communication purpose. In that way, this study aimed to
obtain the detailed description and understanding of these people, specifically
their speech production. Accordingly, the researcher got the sample from the
business communication class at Wisma Bahasa. There were ten people by which
all of these students were involved as the sample. These ten people came from
different education backgrounds, majoring in different disciplines. Hence, in this
study the researcher sought to know how good the students’ speaking ability in
speech production was, especially related to grammar used. In this case, the
researcher applied interview as the media of the evaluation.
The people involved in this study were those inspired to learn and improve
their English proficiency. Before they joined the business communication class,
their English proficiency was tested. The level of the students’ proficiency was
known through the spoken test between the teacher and the students. This was
called placement test at Wisma Bahasa (WB). The brief personal data of the
subjects (with the names changed) are listed in Table 3.1.
No Name Age
2 Petrus 27 Economic Intermediate
3 Susi 31 Economic Intermediate
4 Ery 28 Economic Basic
5 Indra 26 Technique Post basic
6 Mondang 24 Economic Basic
7 Rusli 25 Economic Pra intermediate
8 Agus Subondo 27 Economic Intermediate
9 Debie 25 Economic Pra Intermediate
10 Lena 22 Technique Intermediate
Table 3.1. Personal Data of the Participants
As shown in Table 3.1, from the placement test, it was known that most of
English course. In addition, some of them were categorized as beginners in their
former courses and some others were intermediate. However, in this study the
results of this pre-test were not taken into account. The learners’ former ability
was only taken account as their prior knowledge in the class.
C. Research Settings
This study was done in the business communication class at WB English
Division, Yogyakarta. Regarding the objectives of this study, the ten people in the
business communication class as mentioned before were involved as interviewees
in the final test that they had to attend. The test was in the form of an oral test in
which the learners pretended to have a job interview. However, the interviewer
had told the students to prepare themselves to pretend to be interviewees two days
before the test. They acted as applicants, in this case the interviewees, who had to
apply for a job at WB; while the teacher, as the researcher, was the interviewer.
One-by-one, the interviews were conducted. Each person was interviewed alone
for between five to seven minutes. All of the interviews were semi-prepared in
which the researcher asked the students to participate in a kind of role play as the
applicants at WB. All of this process was held in November and December 2006.
D. Research Instruments
The data were gathered from the final test of ten students of business
communication class at WB. The final test was in the form of role play in which
the students had to pretend to apply for a job at WB. The positions which were
staff (who was in charge of serving and giving information to those who wanted
to study at Wisma Bahasa), Teacher Coordinator (who was in charge of
coordinating the teachers and setting the teaching schedule), and the last position
was as an English teacher who dealt with the teaching.
For the research instruments, the researcher applied four kinds of
instruments to gain the data. They were:
1. Interview Prompts
An interview is a meeting at which an interviewer asks somebody
questions in order to collect data from that person. The researcher, in this case,
used open-ended format interview to draw out the interviewees’ responses on the
available questions prepared by the interviewer. Accordingly, the researcher gave
a little description about what they would do in their final test which was the
interview. However, the researcher did not tell them the exact questions employed
in the interview in the description. The questions only appeared at the time the
interview was conducted. For that reason, the researcher conducted this as a
semi-prepared interview.
The questions used as the instrument in this study were based on some
suggestions from the teachers who teach English at Wisma Bahasa. After having
some consultations with them, the researcher decided these questions were
appropriate for the interview. In addition, these questions functioned as the main
questions. Other related questions were used when needed. The list of questions
2. Checklists
Checklists were important in the process of analyzing the data. The
researcher used the checklists in order to answer the two questions formulated in
Chapter 1; to find out the grammatical errors that were produced by the
participants and to discover the possible factors or causes of the errors in the
recorded interviews. To find the answers to the two questions formulated in
Chapter 1, the researcher used two checklists. There were grammatical error
checklist and causes of error checklist. a. Grammatical Checklist
Grammatical checklist was used to answer the first problem formulation. It
is important to use it to help the researcher to categorize the grammatical errors
that occurred in the interviews. Besides, the speaker in this study focused on
intralingual errors only. Ellis (1994:58) points out that intralingual error reflects
the general characteristics of the rule learning such as faulty generalizing and
incomplete application of rules as well as the failure to learn conditions under
which rules applied. The categorizations of errors in this study were based on the
minimum requirements issued by the English Department Sanata Dharma
University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia (Fountain as quoted by Bram, 1995) and
Abisamra’s (2003) grammatical error classification.
The minimum requirements are concord, finite verbs, tenses, verb groups
and articles (Bram, 1995:55-56) while Abisamra’s grammatical classification are
prepositions, articles, reported speech, singular/plural, adjectives, relative clauses,
This study combined those two categorizations of errors to make the
categorizations of errors more complete. However, not all the categorizations
were included since the researcher considered that some of them do not
commonly occur in regular conversation. The grammatical checklist is shown in
Table 3.2:
Sentences Concord Finite
verbs tenses
Verb
groups articles prepositions adjectives Possessive
case
Table 3.2 Grammatical Error Checklist
b. Causes of Error Checklist
Noted by Ellis (1994:59), Richard proposes that intralingual errors be
divided into overgeneralization, ignorance or rule restriction, incomplete
application of rules, and falsely hypothesized concepts. The checklist finally
revealed the causes of common errors that were produced by the speakers and it
also answered problem formulation number 2. The grammatical causes of errors
checklist is shown in Table 3.3:
Sentences Overgeneralization Ignorance of rule restrictions
Incomplete application of rules
Falsely hypothesized concepts
Table 3.3 Causes of Errors Checklist
3. Table of the Frequency Distribution of Errors
There were two tables of the frequency distribution of errors involved in
this study. They were the table of the frequency distribution of grammatical errors
used to know the frequency distribution of grammatical errors and causes of errors
made by each participant. From these two tables, the readers could see what
grammatical errors and the causes of errors of each participant. The following are
the tables:
Table 3.4 The Frequency Distribution of the Error Types
Respondents
No Causes of Errors 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ∑ %
1 Over generalization
2 Ignorance of Rule Restriction
3 Incomplete Application of rules
4 Falsely Hypothesized Concepts
Total
Table 3.5 The Frequency Distribution of the Causes of Errors
E. Data Gathering
First, the data were gathered by recording interview sessions which was
the spoken test in the business communication class at Wisma Bahasa. During the
job. In this case the interviewer used the open-ended interview in which the
interviewer prepared some questions to let the interviewees answer as they could.
The interviews were conducted after the interviewer confirmed that the
interviewees would do the final test by doing the job interview test. The questions
were made to let the interviewees answer the question and talk based on the
questions. However, the interviewer also gave the interviewees the chance to
answer freely. Therefore, the interviewees knew what they had to say when the
real interview occurred. Besides, it was hoped that the interviewees would be able
to express their feeling and comments naturally since the interviewer did the
one-by-one interview. It was meant to make them feel free to express their ideas.
F. Techniques of Data Analysis
In order to answer the questions formulated in Chapter 1, the
tape-recorded data were transcribed into written form to make it easier for the
researcher to study the data carefully. The purpose was to answer the questions
formulated in Chapter 1.
Then, the results of this transcription were compiled and analysed. The
compilation was interpreted sentence by sentence. From the compilation,
classification of errors was conducted. The two checklists prepared by the
researcher, which were grammatical error checklist and causes of errors checklist, were set as the instruments to help the researcher to put the sentences which shared the same category of errors. By doing this, several categories of
also provided room for exception whenever several sentences with various errors
beyond the eight types of errors suggested by Abisamra and Fountain.
In this study, the researcher chose descriptive data analysis in which the
data gained was later discussed descriptively. The access was gained from the
result of interviews that the researcher used to collect data. Then, the interviews
were transcribed and used to find the answer to the two problems formulated in
Chapter 1. The transcription would show the errors made by the students and what
caused their errors. Those transcriptions were analysed by using grammatical and
error type checklists.
To ensure the data analysis reliability, the researcher brought and analysed
the data to the thesis sponsor. The rest of the data analysis was done by the
researcher herself. After analysing the rest of the data, the researcher once again
consulted to the thesis sponsor about what the researcher had done to the data. In
the second consultation, a number of miscategorizations were found. Based on the
findings, the revisions of data analysis were made.
G. Research Procedure
There were steps that were taken in order to make this study run smoothly.
First, the ten participants involved as the subjects of the study were contacted. It
was done to ask the participants’ permission for conducting interviews. While
asking for the permission, the researcher also discussed the time of doing the
interviews. Second, the researcher prepared some devices including tape recorder,
The next step was conducting the interviews on the field to the ten
participants mentioned before. Systematically, the researcher conducted some
discussion during the interview. The data obtained from the interviews were
transcribed. Then, they were compiled and analysed. The researcher tried to find
the errors made by the participants by rereading and putting notes on the
identified errors. After all the errors were found, they were put into the table of
error classification and table of the causes of errors. Based on the result in the
table, the researcher calculated the percentage of each category of errors. Next,
each category was discussed by giving some description about the errors that
occurred. However, the researcher did not expose all errors made by the
participants. The researcher only put some examples in the data discussion. The
CHAPTER IV
RESEARCH RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
The following discussion sets to discuss the two problems formulated in
Chapter 1. This includes data presentation, data discussion and other findings. The
first section concerns with the data description. It includes the frequency
distribution of error types (suggested by Abisamra: 2003 and Brams: 1995) and
the frequency distribution of the causes of errors (Richards: 1974). The second
section sets up to discuss the errors and the causes of those errors descriptively.
This includes the discussion on each error type and each cause of errors occurred
in the oral production which is completed with some examples. Out of those two
sections, the researcher also found it important to set one more section to discuss
other findings that emerged beyond the researcher’s calculation; which are not
included in the error types presented by Fountain (1995) and Abisamra (2003).
This section was underlined as other findings.
A. Data Presentation
This section involved the quantification on the frequency distribution of
error types and the frequency distribution of causes of error. It was based on the
two checklists which were grammatical error types checklist and causes of errors
checklist presented in Chapter 3. The data were analyzed and put into the checklists. Then, the results of these two checklists were attached in Appendix 4
After analyzing the data, the researcher found that the ten participants
involved in this study made various errors in their spoken language. This
subjection presents the data gathered as categorized into two major areas: i.e. the
frequency distribution of the error types based on the grammatical error type
checklist and the frequency distribution of the causes of errors made based on the causes of error checklist.
1. Frequency Distribution of the Error Types Based on the Grammatical Error Type Checklist
The data were gathered from a series of interviews done to ten participants
in the business communication class at Wisma Bahasa. It was conducted on 5th
December 2006 when the learners did their final test for passing the level. The
data gathered were in the form of spoken language. Thus, the researcher
transcribed the data and had them printed for data analysis. To facilitate the
transcription process, the recorded interviews were converted into MP3 files in
order to make it easier for the researcher to play the recording repeatedly in order
to transcribe them. The following discussion was about the grammatical errors
made by the ten participants based on the data transcribed.
After the data were transcribed, they were analyzed and classified into 8
categories of errors suggested by AbiSamra (2003) and Fountain (quoted by
Bram, 1995). They were concord, finite verbs, tenses, verb groups, articles,
prepositions and adjectives, possessive case. The errors which were not included
Based on the checklists provided, the researcher classified the errors made
by each participant. The frequency of errors were classified, calculated, and
presented in descriptive statistics, i.e. percentage. Other findings category was
provided to cover the errors which were not included in the eight categories
suggested by Fountain and Abisamra. After they were categorized, the researcher
calculated the percentages of each category of error from the total errors.
To come to the result of the following calculation, the researcher did some
series of activities. First, the researcher categorized the grammatical errors made
by the participants into the checklist table which can be seen in Appendix 4. It
was done by my self. Then, the researcher calculated the number of errors made
by each participant and put them in Table 1. The next step was to consult what the
researcher had done to the thesis sponsor. In the consultation, there was some
discussion in which the researcher found that she had made some
miscategorizations of the errors. After having the discussion, the researcher came
to the reliable result. It was reliable since the data analysis was a clear cut process
in which it involved objective rubric instead of the subjective one. Besides, it
came to reliability because the steps of data analysis were quite easily followed.
After having the discussion with the thesis sponsor, the researcher came to the
result of the table. Table 4.1 presents the frequency distribution of the error types
