THE USE OF PERSONAL PRONOUNS BY STUDENTS IN WRITING NARRATIVE TEXT AT SMAN 1 SUNGAI BEREMAS, PASAMAN BARAT
Oleh:
Ayu Rizki Septari *)
**) Siska dan **) Edwar Kemal Staff Pengajar Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Ingris STKIP PGRI Sumatera Barat
ABSTRAK
Personal Pronoun adalah kata ganti untuk orang atau benda secara spesifik dalam suatu komunikasi baik lisan maupun tulisan. Berdasarkan fungsinya dalam kalimat, personal pronouns terbagi dalam 5 tipe, yakni subject pronoun, object pronoun, possessive adjective pronoun, possessive pronoun dan reflexive pronoun. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk melihat bagaimana penggunaan personal pronouns oleh siswa kelas dua belas SMAN 1 Sungai Beremas, Pasaman Barat tahun pelajaran 2014/2015 dalam menulis narrative text. Sumber data dalam penelitian ini adalah 38 lembar hasil tulisan narrative text siswa kelas dua belas IPA yang telah diambil secara acak dari 50% total keseluruhan tulisan siswa. Data diambil melalui tulisan narrative text siswa dimana peneliti mendeskripsikan ketepatan penggunaan personal pronouns berdasarkan fungsinya dalam kalimat. Dari hasil penelitian, peneliti menemukan bahwa kebanyakan siswa telah menggunakan subject pronoun dengan benar dalam narrative text (correct= 61, 1%, incorrect= 38, 9%), sedangkan pada penggunaan object dan possessive adjective pronouns masih terdapat kesalahan (object pronoun, correct= 32, 2%;
incorrect= 66, 8% and possessive adjective pronoun, correct= 49, 7%; incorrect= 50, 3%).
Penggunaan possessive pronouns (correct and incorrect= 0 %) dan reflexive pronouns (correct and incorrect= 100%) masih jarang ditemukan dalam narrative text siswa. Secara umum, siswa kelas XII dari SMAN 1 Sungai Beremas Pasaman Barat masih melakukan kesalahan dalam menggunakan personal pronouns. Hanya beberapa siswa yang mampu menggunakan personal pronouns berdasarkan fungsinya dengan benar. Jadi, dapat disimpulkan bahwa pengetahuan siswa tentang penggunaan personal pronouns yang benar berdasarkan fungsinya dalam kalimat masih kurang baik.
Keywords: Personal Pronouns, Narrative Text
*) Penulis
**) Pembimbing
INTRODUCTION
Writing is one of the most important skills which should be achieved by students in learning English. Generally, there are some kinds of text that need to be mastered by students in learning writing. One kind of the text is narrative text. Narrative text is a text that tells the reader about a story that happen in the past. Students should have good comprehension in exploring their ideas in order to make the written information in the narrative text being well delivered for the reader.
However, the process for having a good writing product is not as easy as it seems. As argues by Wijayanto (2012: 1), there are some aspects that students should notice in writing.
The aspects are word choice, coherent and correlation, and grammar. Students should use good words to express the meaning; students had to make the information, main idea, and the argumentation become continuously- arranged in each paragraph. Grammar also plays important role in writing which has some elements. Indeed, the use of personal pronouns is a part of that element.
Personal pronoun is a pronoun in a sentence or phrase that refers to a specific person or object. In a writing process, personal pronouns might be seemed as a simple thing, but an incorrect use of personal pronouns can give bad effects in the writing product. For example, if a writer did not use the personal pronouns precisely with the people or thing that is substituted based on the previous sentence, the information that was served would be confusing for the reader.
Generally, there were some students’
problems in using personal pronouns. The students sometimes ignored about the fact of personal pronouns as a link between sentences.
When they were starting to write, they only focus towards the topic of the text and less attention about the correct use of personal pronouns as vital communication in the text. It made their writing being confuse to be read.
They sometimes faced difficulties in connecting the personal pronouns with the intended meaning based on the explanation from the previous sentence. For example, they did not use clear reference to which things the pronouns was used in the written text.
Concerning to the background of the problems, the correct used of personal pronouns were needed to be attended by the students in writing. The personal pronouns can be grouped based on the subjective, objective, possessive, and reflexive functions in sentence. Students should acquire the types correctly in writing a text. If the students can use the personal pronouns correctly, their writing will be well delivered to the reader.
Therefore, the researcher wanted to analyze the personal pronouns used by students in writing, especially narrative text at twelfth grade students of SMAN 1 Sungai Beremas, Pasaman Barat.
REVIEW OF THE RELATED
LITERATURE Definition of Writing
Writing is an action in the form of written work that people can compose words into meaningful sentences which can be produced as important information in the form of written text. According to Nunan (2003:
88), writing is the mental work of inventing ideas, thinking about how to express them and organizing them into statements and paragraphs that will be clear to a reader.
Writing is an activity in which people use their mind to produce and explore any idea then deliver it in the form of written opinion or statement which consist of additional information for the reader.
Definition of Personal Pronouns
Personal pronouns as a part of pronouns, are used to replace the person or thing by using a word that takes place of a noun (the name of a person, thing or place) in order to avoid the repetition which can make vagueness in human communication even in the spoken or written language. It is supported by Khodijah (2006: 26) that personal pronouns are part of pronouns that are words that replace a noun or noun phrase which commonly refer to person or thing.
In addition, Kemper, Verne, John and Pat (2012: 208) argue that personal pronouns
being spoken to, or is being spoken about.
Personal pronouns points out the intended person or thing in a conversation or sentence which take place by a noun. Personal pronouns can be made as an alternative way for speaker or writer to explain about the things that they are talking about
Characteristic of Personal Pronouns Basically, the personal pronouns have its own character which can make the learners being easier to differentiate the way in using it in sentences. Smith (2004: 1) explains that the personal pronouns have four characteristics.
They consist of number (singular and plural), person (first person, second person and third person), cases (subjective, objective and nominative cases), and gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter).
Types of Personal Pronouns Based on the Functions in sentences
The personal pronouns have its own types which are appropriated with the functions in sentence. As describe by Khodijah (2006: 26), the personal pronouns have five functions in the sentences; they explained as follow:
1) As subject pronoun the personal pronouns can be used in two ways:
a) As the subject of a verb
Examples: He is my brother (He is the subject of the verb is)
b) 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).
2) Object pronoun appears after verbs or after preposition with a certain type of verb preposition combination, an object pronoun appears between the verb and preposition, like “calls him up”. Object pronoun or non-subject group (me, him, her, us, them, you) can be used in four ways:
a) As direct object of verb:
E.g.: They invited me (me is the direct object of verb invited).
b) As indirect object of verb
E.g.: They gave her a book (her is the indirect object of the verb gave. It comes before a direct object).
c) As object of preposition
E.g.: They taught it to him (him is the object of preposition)
d) As subject of infinitive
E.g.: They asked her to move (her is the subject of infinitive).
3) Possessive adjective are followed immediately by a 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 the types of possessive adjective.
Example: This is my hat (“my” is the possessive adjective of the possessor hat).
4) Possessive pronoun are not followed immediately by a noun, they stand-alone.
It also shows possession the same as in possessive adjective. Mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs are called pronoun and there is no pronoun its.
Example: This book is mine (mine is the possessive pronoun that shows possession)
5) Reflexive pronoun is combination of -self with one of the personal pronoun or with the impersonal pronoun -one, generally 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. For example, you must not blame yourself for that mistake. (The subject you and the object yourself have the same identity)
Table 1. Types of Personal Pronouns
subject object Possessive adjective
Possessive pronouns
Reflexive pronouns I
You He She It
Me You Him Her It
My Your His Her Its
Mine Yours His Hers
Myself Yourself Himself Herself Itself We
You They
Us You Them
Our Your Their
Ours Yours Theirs
Ourselves Yourselves Themselves
The Use of Personal Pronouns in Sentence 1) The Correct Use of Personal
Pronouns
The personal pronouns are correctly used if the writer can put them as suitable as with the functions in sentence. Hitter (2011:1), described about the correct used of the personal pronouns based on the functions in sentence. First, a subject pronoun is correct to use when it correctly act as the subject of the sentence. For example, in the sentence I went to the store after work, the use of the subject pronoun I was correct because it is directly act as the subject pronoun. Another example is the boy said that he was tired, in this example; the identity of the pronoun is made clear by the antecedent. The subject pronoun “he” is referring back to the noun (antecedent) “boy.”
Second, the correct use of object personal pronouns acts as object of a sentence. For example, Melissa really like him, the use of
“him” was correct in that sentence because the object pronoun act as the direct object of the sentence. Then, the sentence After Colleen bought a bike, it got stolen within a week, "it"
is the object pronoun used to replace "bike."
Then, in the third types of personal pronouns, possessive pronouns have two functions as possessive adjective and possessive pronouns. Both of them use to show an ownership of something. The correct used can be seen in the example: their shoes are under the bed. The possessive adjective, their, showed the possessor of the shoes.
In addition, Kolby (2010: 509) states that a possessive personal pronoun can be used before a gerund or verb-ing that functions as noun. For example, I know that my talking to you this way is intrusive. My talking means as a noun word that have been said by I to the second person you. Fourth, the correct uses of reflexive pronouns are used to show that the subject of the sentence is receiving the action of the verb. For example, she can handle the situation herself. The reflexive pronouns herself reflect back to the subject of the sentence “she”.
2) The Incorrect Use of Personal Pronouns
On the other hand, the incorrect use of personal pronouns will confuse the reader in catching the information from the text that they read. As support by Putman (2006: 58), there are three types of unclear pronouns reference. The first is ambiguous reference; it is incorrect when a pronoun is unclear to which antecedent refers in a sentence. For example, the legal assistant retrieved a copy of the case and prepared the rough draft of the brief. When he was finished, he put it in the file. A question can be caused based on the statement, what did he put in the file-a copy of the case or the brief? The used of object pronoun it should be corrected by replace it with a clear noun and the correct one can be the legal assistant retrieved a copy of the case and prepared the rough draft of the brief.
When he was finished, he put the brief in the file.
The second is nonexistent antecedent; it means that there is no antecedent to which the pronoun is used for. As the example, the firm decided to purchase new computers. They believe that the current computers are too slow. The subject pronoun, they, refers to the attorneys and the paralegal in the firm, not the firm. Therefore, the sentence should be revised with the firm decided to purchase new computers. The attorneys and paralegal believe that the current computers are too slow.
The third is indefinite references; a pronoun should refer to a specific antecedent, but sometimes the personal pronouns such as they, it, or you, refer to antecedents that have not been specifically mentioned. Or the antecedents may be mention remotely in the text that is difficult for the reader to determine what the pronoun refers to. For example, They clearly did not anticipate the events that followed. The subject pronoun “they” are not identified earlier in the text meanwhile other actors have been mentioned before. Thus, the correct one should be the partners clearly did not anticipate the events that followed.
On the other hand, Kolby (2010: 505), explain that the personal pronouns mistakes involving subject, object and possessive agreement happen only in some usages. The
subject and object can be seen as follow: the test was administered to Frank, Billy, Joanne and I. The verb phrase “administered to”requires an object; the pronouns in this case must be me. Next, in the sentence him and I always watched the news at 7 P.M. The faulty usage is found because as the subject of the sentence, both pronouns must be in the subjective case. Him is an object pronoun and cannot function as the subject. The correct used should be he and I always watched the news at 7 P.M.
Next, the faulty usage in the sentence between you and I, I thought the ceremony lacked elegance, Kolby explain that the preposition between requires an object pronoun, the pronoun you is the right form for both subject and object pronouns, but the pronoun I should be replaced with me. Then, the mistake with the use of possessive personal pronouns is found with the use of the contraction suchyou’re, they’re, and it’s. As the example, they’re interest in grammar is not as great as yours. It is incorrect to use the contraction in the possessive pronoun because it has meaning they are in which the pronoun they is used as subject pronouns.
In addition, Zimboiant (2013: 61, 71) give explanation about the incorrect structure of the use possessive and reflexive pronouns in sentence by giving some example. In the sentence this is mine umbrella and the book is mine. Both sentence used the wrong possessive pronouns indeed. The possessive pronoun, mine, is not correct to be used before a noun; on the contrary it is used after the noun. Similarly, an incorrect possessive pronoun “my” after a noun is also used. The possessive adjective pronouns “my”should be used before the noun followed. Hence, the sentence would be correct with this is my umbrella and the book is mine.
Furthermore, the incorrect use of reflexive personal pronouns happens when there is no word in the sentence to which it refers. The reflexive personal pronouns should never be used as subject of the sentence. For the example, the man and myself saw the thief.
The structure is wrong to the use of “myself”
as a subject. The subject should be the pronoun I, so the correct structure should be, the man and I saw the thief. Next, from the sentence he sent the book to Appiah and myself, the use of myself as an object here is
wrong. The sentence informed that the book was given to Appiah and the writer. It means that myself use as an intensive pronoun, which cannot act as the object of the preposition. The appropriate object of the preposition should be me. The correct usage should be he sent the book to Appiah and me.
RESEARCH METHOD
This research was descriptive qualitative research. According to Gay and Airasian (2000: 275), a descriptive study determines and describes the way things are. The descriptive research was chosen because the researcher wanted to describe about the English personal pronouns used by students in writing narrative text at twelfth grade students of SMAN 1 Sungai Beremas, Pasaman Barat in 2014/2015 academic year.
The source of the data in this research was the documents of the students’ narrative text. The data was the personal pronouns that were used by the students in their narrative text. The researcher took the data from the students of class IPA. There were about 76 twelfth grade students and the researcher took about 50% documents of the students’ writing randomly as the data to be analyzed.
Therefore, there were 38 narrative texts which had been written by the students that were analyzed by the researcher.
RESEARCH FINDING
The answer of the research question in this research had been found after the researcher analyzed the data. However, this research purposed to describe the use of personal pronoun by students in their writing narrative text at twelfth grade students of SMAN 1 Sungai Beremas in Pasaman Barat.
Based on the result, the most correct personal pronoun used by the students was subject pronoun. The incorrect used of object pronouns and possessive adjective pronouns were almost found in the texts. Meanwhile, the possessive pronouns and reflexive pronouns were rarely used by the students in their narrative text. The result of each type could be seen in the table below:
Table 2. The Result of the Personal Pronouns used by the Students
No Types of
Personal Pronouns
Percentage Correct Incorrect
1 Subject
Pronoun
61, 1% 38, 9%
2 Object
Pronoun
32, 2% 66, 8%
3 Possessive Adjective
Pronoun
49, 7% 50, 3%
4 Possessive Pronoun
0% 0%
5 Reflexive
Pronoun
100% 100%
Entirely, most of the students still made incorrect used of personal pronouns in their narrative texts. They might think that the elementary rules of personal pronouns usage do not need to be mastered deeply. Therefore, students made their narrative text not well- formed to be written because the link did not continuously-arranged between sentences. At the end there some text which reader could not successfully get the information delivered in the text.
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION Conclusion
Personal pronouns are part of pronouns that are used to replace the name of person or thing in a written or spoken communication.
Personal pronouns are needed to be used in writing narrative text. Narrative text is a text that tells the reader about story in the past.
The Students need to use the personal pronouns in writing narrative text to help them became easier in delivering the story that they want to inform. The personal pronouns should be used correctly in students’ narrative text whether as subject pronouns, object pronouns, possessive adjective pronouns, possessive
pronouns, or reflexive pronouns in each sentence.
Based on the research finding, the students’ knowledge about the correct use of personal pronouns were still less. They still used incorrect personal pronouns in their narrative text. It showed based on the inappropriate used of the types of the personal pronouns based on the functions in sentence.
This condition made the students’ narrative text being not well delivered to the reader.
Suggestion
After analyzing the personal pronouns used by students, the researcher has some suggestions. Firstly, teachers need to consider that the uses of personal pronouns are important to be comprehended by the students in learning English. Secondly, teacher need to give more explanation and lead the students about the correct used of personal pronouns especially in writing.
Thirdly, the teacher or next researcher should find a way that can be implemented to make the students became easy in understanding the used of the personal pronouns. Fourthly, it is suggested for the students to practice more in writing. They can do it in their daily activities and try to use the personal pronouns in their written text.
Overall, this research informs us that the personal pronouns can play role as a vital communication in a written or spoken communication of English. If the personal pronouns can be used correctly, a written or spoken communication will be run well.
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