universitas sanata dharma

AN ERROR ANALYSIS ON SMP PANGUDI LUHUR YOGYAKARTA

SEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS’ DESCRIPTIVE TEXTS

A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree

in English Language Education

By

Yustian Pristantyo

Student Number: 081214068

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION

FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA

2013

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJIPLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

i



A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree

in English Language Education

By

Yustian Pristantyo


ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION

FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA

2013


ii

A Sarjana Pendidikan Thesis on



By

Yustian Pristantyo


Approved by

Advisor

Agustinus Hardi Prasetyo, S.Pd., M.A. Date July 30th

, 2013


iii

A Sarjana Pendidikan Thesis on


SEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS’ DESCRIPTIVE WRITING

By

Yustian Pristantyo


Defended before the Board of Examiners

on August 15th

, 2013

and Declared Acceptable

Board of Examiners

Chairperson : Caecilia Tutyandari, S.Pd., M.Pd. ____________

Secretary : Drs. Barli Bram, M.Ed., Ph.D. ____________

Member : Agustinus Hardi Prasetyo, S.Pd., M.A. ____________

Member : Drs. Pius Nurwidasa Prihatin, M.Ed., Ed.D.____________

Member : Caecilia Tutyandari, S.Pd., M.Pd. ____________

Yogyakarta, August 15th

, 2013

Faculty of Teachers Training and Education

Sanata Dharma University

Dean,

Rohandi, Ph.D.


http://usd.ac.id/profile_detail.php?id=00229





iv

STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY

I honestly declare that this thesis, which I have written, does not contain the work

or parts of the work of other people, except those cited in the quotations and the

references, as a scientific paper should.

Yogyakarta, August 15th

, 2013

The Writer

Yustian Pristantyo

081214068


v

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN

PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS

Yang bertandatangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma:

Nama : Yustian Pristantyo

Nomor Mahasiswa : 081214068

Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan

Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:

An Error Analysis on SMP Pangudi Luhur Yogyakarta Seventh Grade

Students’ Descriptive Texts

beserta alat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan

kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan,

mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan

data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di Internet atau

media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya

maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya

sebagai penulis.

Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya.

Dibuat di Yogyakarta

Pada tanggal: 15 Agustus 2013

Yang menyatakan

Yustian Pristantyo


vi

ABSTRACT

Pristantyo, Yustian. 2013. An Error Analysis on SMP Pangudi Luhur Yogyakarta

Seventh Grade Students’ Descriptive Texts. Yogyakarta: English Language

Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma University.

Student’s writing ability is very important to sustain student’s achievement

in English subject. Meanwhile, the students certainly make errors in their texts.

The research utilized descriptive text to investigate students’ errors. This research

also focused on the students’ errors in descriptive texts.

This study discussed two problem formulations. The first one is SMP

Pangudi Luhur seventh grade students’ errors in descriptive texts. The second one

is possible causes of errors of SMP Pangudi Luhur seventh grade students. The

researcher employed worksheets to gather the necessary data. The research

instruments were 55 students’ worksheets.

This research was an error analysis. To answer the first question, all

students’ worksheets were examined in order to find sentences and words that

contained errors. Afterward, the researcher classified the errors found in the

students’ sentences to three main categories: syntax errors, morphological errors,

and other findings. Each main category was also divided into some subcategories.

The error categorization was based on Linguistic Category Taxonomy by Politzer

and Ramirez as cited by Dulay, Burt, and Krashen (1982). To answer the second

question, the researcher finished examining and categorizing students’ errors and

afterward, the researcher concluded the possible causes of errors from the result of

students’ worksheets examination. There were five possible causes of errors based

on Norrish’s (1983).

Based on the result of this research, some conclusions were drawn. From

the discussion on the first question, the researcher concluded that syntax errors are

the students’ area of difficulty. Syntax errors (63.18%) had the highest percentage

compared to morphological errors (19.81%) and other findings (17 %). Most of

the found errors dealt with omission and addition. The possible causes of

students’ errors were basic grammar understanding of the students,

overgeneralization, students’ carelessness, incomplete application of rules, and

first language interference. The suggestions for the teacher are to employ various

techniques of teaching and to provide more exposure to grammar and English

texts. The suggestions for the students are to grow students’ motivation and

interest of English subject, to be aware of their English errors and to increases

exposure of English texts.

Keywords: errors, descriptive texts, error analysis, Linguistic Category

Taxonomy.


vii

ABSTRAK

Pristantyo, Yustian. 2013. An Error Analysis on SMP Pangudi Luhur Yogyakarta

Seventh Grade Students’ Descriptive Texts. Yogyakarta: Pendidikan Bahasa

Inggris, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Keahlian menulis siswa sangatlah penting dalam mempertahankan

prestasi siswa dalam mata pelajaran bahasa Inggris. Sementara itu, para siswa

pastilah membuat kekeliruan dalam karangan mereka. Penelitian ini terpusat

pada kekeliruan-kekeliruan siswa dalam karangan deskriptif.

Penelitian ini membahas dua rumusan masalah. Rumusan masalah yang

pertama adalah kekeliruan siswa kelas tujuh SMP Pangudi Luhur Yogyakarta

dalam teks deskriptif. Rumusan masalah yang kedua adalah penyebab-penyebab

dari kekeliruan siswa yang mungkin. Peneliti menggunakan kertas kerja siswa.

Instrumen penelitian yang digunakan berjumlah 55 kertas kerja siswa.

Penelitian ini adalah analisa kekeliruan. Untuk menjawab rumusan

masalah pertama, kertas kerja siswa yang terkumpul diperiksa untuk mencari

kalimat-kalimat dan kata-kata yang keliru. Setelah itu, peneliti mengelompokkan

kekeliruan yang ditemukan dalam tiga kategori utama: kekeliruan sintaks,

kekeliruan morfologis, dan temuan lain. Pengelompokan kekeliruan ini berdasar

dari Linguistic Category Taxonomy oleh Dulay, Burt dan Krashen (1982). Untuk

menjawab rumusan masalah kedua, peneliti menyelesaikan pemeriksaan dan

pengelompokan kekeliruan siswa dan setelah itu, peneliti menyimpulkan

penyebab-penyebab kekeliruan dari pemeriksaan pekerjaan siswa. Terdapat lima

penyebab kekeliruan siswa yang didasarkan pada pernyataan John Norrish

(1983).

Berdasarkan hasil dari penelitian ini, peneliti membuat beberapa

kesimpulan. Dari pembahasan rumusan masalah pertama, peneliti menyimpulkan

bahwa kekeliruan sintaks merupakan kesulitan utama siswa. Kekeliruan sintaks

(61,6%) mempunyai persentase tertinggi dibandingkan dengan kekeliruan

morfologis (20,7%) dan temuan lain (16,3%). Mayoritas kekeliruan yang ada

berhubungan dengan penambahan dan pengurangan. Penyebab kekeliruan siswa

yang mungkin adalah pemahaman dasar siswa akan tata bahasa, generalisasi

berlebihan, kelalaian siswa, penerapan tidak lengkap dari aturan yang ada, dan

pengaruh bahasa ibu. Saran untuk guru yaitu untuk menggunakan beragam teknik

pengajaran dan memberikan paparan yang lebih banyak akan tata bahasa dan

teks-teks bahasa Inggris. Saran untuk siswa yaitu untuk menumbuhkan minat

terhadap pelajaran bahasa Inggris, sadar akan kekeliruan yang dilakukan dan

meningkatkan pemaparan akan teks-teks bahasa Inggris.

Kata Kunci: kekeliruan , teks deskriptif, analisa kekeliruan, Linguistic Category

Taxonomy.


viii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to acknowledge the enormous help given in finishing this

research. I would like to thank Jesus Christ for His unconditional love and mercy

that brought me into this big step of mine. I would not be able to finish this thesis

without His blessings surrounding me every single day. The completion of this

thesis was definitely because of the support and encouragement from advisor,

lecturers, family and friends.

I would like to deliver my sincere and deepest gratitude to my research

advisor, Agustinus Hardi Prasetyo, S.Pd., M.A. for his great patience in my

‘come back’, guidance, constructive feedbacks, suggestions, encouragement,

motivation and support for me in finishing this thesis. My gratitude also goes to

all PBI lecturers of Sanata Dharma University who have given me great

knowledge to support me in future life.

I also would like to thank the headmaster SMP Pangudi Luhur

Yogyakarta, Bruder Valentinus Naryo FIC, M.Pd., for his warm welcome,

approval and support to me in conducting this research and the English teacher of

SMP Pangudi Luhur, Bondan Rachmat Subagya, S.Pd., who has given me

chances and great help in conducting this research. I also would like to thank Bu

Priscillia Linawati, S.Pd., M.Pd., Maria Ivona Purwa Susanti, S.Pd.,

Margareta Okta Paulina, S.Pd., and Realino Oscar Artana, S.Pd., for

providing me helpful information of SMP Pangudi Luhur Yogyakarta and

supporting me to conduct this research.


ix

My special gratitude goes to My Father (Late) Toesmono who has guided

and inspired me from heaven since I entered college and my Mother Endang

Setyowati for the great compassion and everlasting love given to me during my

college life. I would like to thank my sister, Adisti Herliningtyas, S.S., for

supporting and encouraging me in finishing this thesis. I also dedicate this thesis

to my budhe, (Late) Toesnindarti, who could not see my graduation and had

great patience supporting me from heaven.

My special thanks go to Caroline Niken Hapsari, who has accompanied

me through difficult times in finishing this thesis with her great love and patience.

I thank her for supporting and reminding me to finish this thesis. I also would like

to thank ‘Wuluh Squad’ (Ahsan, Brian, Dimas, Novianto and Dodi) and

‘Tutul Squad’ (Ahsan, Dendot, Didin, Monjali, Galih, Deni) for giving me

great help and support to finish this thesis. My gratitude also goes to Christian,

Sebastian, Mari, Bruder Makus, Sekar and Leo as my ‘Brothers and Sister in

Arms’ of thesis struggle for sharing togetherness and help.

The last is I would like to give thanks to all my friends of English

Language Education Study Program (especially Class A,B and C of PBI Batch

2008), Rendezvous team, Bright Company ( Ratna, Ika, Tania, Yosua), Micro

Teaching Lab Assistants (Seto, Boni, Nico, Paskalis, Adit, Andri), FKIP Dean

officers (Mas Antok, mas Agus, Mbak Agnes, Endarto and Dhea), and ‘Power

Rangers’ (Beni, Adhi Vrater, Yosua, Adam and Sherly) for the friendship,

laughter and care.

Yustian Pristantyo


x

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

TITLE PAGE ............................................................................................................ i

PAGE OF APPROVAL ......................................................................................... ii

PAGE OF ACCEPTANCE ................................................................................... iii

STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY ...................................................... iv

PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI ......................................................... v

ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................ vi

ABSTRAK .............................................................................................................. vii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................ viii

TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................ x

LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................ ..xii

LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................... xiii

LIST OF APPENDICES ....................................................................................... xiv

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................. 1

A. Research Background .................................................................. 1

B. Research Problems ...................................................................... 4

C. Problem Limitation ...................................................................... 4

D. Research Objectives .................................................................... 5

E. Research Benefits ........................................................................ 5

F. Definition of Terms ..................................................................... 7

CHAPTER II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE .................................... 12

A. Theoretical Description .................................................................. 12

1. Error Analysis ...................................................................... 12

2. Error and Mistakes ............................................................... 16

3. Sources of Error ................................................................... 18

4. Causes of Errors ................................................................... 19

5. Types of Errors .................................................................... 24


xi

6. Error Taxonomy (Linguistic Category Taxonomy) ............. 28

7. Descriptive Texts ...................................................................... 29

B. Theoretical Framework ................................................................. 30

CHAPTER III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ................................................ 33

A. Research Method ............................................................................. 33

B. Research Setting .............................................................................. 34

C. Research Participant ........................................................................ 34

D. Research Instrument ........................................................................ 37

E. Data Gathering Technique ............................................................. 38

F. Data Analysis Technique................................................................ 38

G. Research Procedure ......................................................................... 40

CHAPTER IV. RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS ........................... 43

A. Errors Made on Descriptive Texts by Seventh Grade Students of

SMP Pangudi Luhur Yogyakarta ................................................. 43

B. Possible Causes of Errors Made on Descriptive Texts by

Seventh Grade Students of SMP Pangudi Luhur Yogyakarta .. 72

CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS ........................................ 75

A. Conclusions ...................................................................................... 75

B. Suggestions ...................................................................................... 77

REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 79

APPENDICES ....................................................................................................... 82


xii

LIST OF TABLES

Figures Page

3.1 A Weighted Descriptive Texts Rubric adapted from Brown (2007) ............... 35

3.2. The Error Classification Table ........................................................................ 39

4.1. Syntax Errors and Frequency .......................................................................... 45

4.2. Morphological Errors and Frequency ............................................................. 46

4.3. Other Findings and Frequency ........................................................................ 46

4.4. Number of Errors in Use of Determiners ....................................................... 48

4.5. Number of Errors in Use of Prepositions ....................................................... 53

4.6. Number of Errors in Use of Pronouns ........................................................... 54

4.7. Number of Errors in Use of Verbs ................................................................. 57

4.8. Number of Errors in Subject-Verb Agreement .............................................. 60

4.9. Number of Errors in Use of Lexical Categories ............................................ 62

4.10. Number of Errors in Possessive Case .......................................................... 67

4.11. Number of Errors in Noun (Singular and Plural) .......................................... 68

4.12. Number of Errors in Use of Suffix .............................................................. 70

4.13. The Examples of Ortographic Errors ............................................................ 71

4.14. The Examples of Lexico-Semantic Errors .................................................... 71


xiii

LIST OF APPENDICES

APPENDIX A

Examples of Students’ Errors ................................................................................ 82

APPENDIX B

Students’ Exercise of Descriptive Text and a Brief Summary of

Descriptive text ..................................................................................................... .91

APPENDIX C

Examples of Students’ Descriptive Text ................................................................ 97

APPENDIX D

Letter of Permission ............................................................................................. 109


1

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, the researcher will introduce the field and the background

of his research. There are six parts in which the researcher presents the basic

information of the research. Those are the research background, problem

formulation, problem limitation, research objectives, research benefits and

definition of terms used in the research.

A. Research Background

Students‟ writing ability is very important toward the students‟ progress.

Students‟ writing ability is also very important for the students themselves in their

upcoming years. As the students learn writing, there must be an outcome of that

process. The outcome could be students‟ improved writing skill, students‟ writing

scores and also students‟ writing errors. Brooks (1960) as cited by Hendrickson

(1981: 1) stated that errors have relationship with learning: “Like sin, error is to be

avoided and its influence overcome, but its presence is to be expected”. Based on

Brooks‟ statement (1960), it is known errors are things that normally happen in

every part of learning. Errors are also beneficial in learning process as supported

by Corder (1973: 265) as cited by Hendrickson (1981: 3) as follows.

“Errors provide feedback, they tell the teacher something about the effectiveness of

his teaching materials and his teaching techniques, and show what parts of the

syllabus he has been following have been inadequately learned or taught and need

further attention. They enable him to decide whether he must devote more time to

the item he has been working on.”


2

This research was an Error Analysis and conducted based on one purpose.

It was to identify the errors in SMP Pangudi Luhur Yogyakarta seventh grade

students‟ descriptive texts. This research was conducted because the researcher

proposed to investigate the errors in SMP Pangudi Luhur Yogyakarta seventh

grade students‟ descriptive texts. The researcher decided to conduct this research

because students‟ errors in writing are important to be investigated. Students‟

errors are disastrous for the students if they are not immediately taken care of.

This research also helped the teacher to pinpoint parts of his teaching

which still needs more emphasis in order to overcome the students‟ errors. This

research also provided feedback in form of list of errors for the teacher as stated

previously by Corder (1973). Zydatiss (1974), Lange (1977), and Lantolf (1977)

as cited by Hendrickson (1981) stated that errors are signals that actual learning is

taking place and errors can serve as indicators of progress and success. Therefore,

this research also presented indicators of students‟ writing achievement in

descriptive texts.

In this research, the researcher had three regular seventh grade classes

consisting of 43-44 students each class for this research. The reason why the

researcher chose regular classes was that because the teacher wanted to seek out

the students‟ progress in writing, especially descriptive texts. It was because

descriptive text was taught in both semesters. In the odd semester, the students

were taught about describing person‟s appearances and characteristics. Then, in

the even semester, the students were taught about describing places. Moreover,

the teacher also wanted the students to recall what they had learned about


3

descriptive text in the odd semester by using material enrichment before they

learned about describing places.

In this research, the researcher utilized descriptive text for identifying

the occurred errors. The reason why the researcher chose descriptive text was

because the students of seventh grade junior high school were required to be able

to make a good composition of descriptive text. That statement is stated in

Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan (KTSP) syllabus. Descriptive text is also

one important kind of texts because through this kind of text, the students can use

and explore their sensory details like smells, sound, sights, feeling, tastes, and

textures to create vivid images in reader‟s mind as stated by Henry, D. J. (2008).

Descriptive texts enable the students to explore their vocabulary and senses,

especially in describing a person. The researcher provided four famous characters

and the students were required to describe one of them.

In this research, there were errors found on the students‟ descriptive texts.

One of the errors which mostly occurred in these three regular classes was that the

omission of articles. That problem was quite serious, because the students‟

understanding of using article would affect the students‟ writing result in their

upcoming time. Besides the use of article, there were found many other errors that

also were important to identify such as the use of preposition, the omission of

suffix and any other else. Those errors are important and valuable; because

identifying those errors could locate in which part the students were facing

difficulties and the teacher could take some follow-up actions toward the students‟


4

difficulties. The teacher could also make preventive actions towards those errors

for his future students.

The benefit of this research toward the teacher was that it could help the

teacher locate the students‟ weaknesses and the teacher could revise and

emphasize on which the students were facing difficulties. This research also

assisted the students with lists of students‟ errors. Therefore, the students could

know which part to be fixed in their writing. The students were expected to be

aware of their errors occurred in their descriptive texts and prevent their errors in

their upcoming time.

B. Research Problem

This research comes up with two problems. They are formulated as follows.

1. What are the errors made on descriptive texts by seventh grade students of

SMP Pangudi Luhur Yogyakarta?

2. What are the possible causes of errors made on descriptive texts by seventh

grade students of SMP Pangudi Luhur Yogyakarta?

C. Problem Limitation

This research is limited only in an Error Analysis on SMP Pangudi Luhur

Yogyakarta seventh grade students‟ descriptive texts academic year 2012/2013.

The researcher chose this type of research because errors in writing would give a

disastrous impact if these problems were not immediately taken care of. The

students needed to know their weaknesses in all part of English subject, in this


5

case, descriptive texts. They needed to know the errors they made because the

errors would show their weaknesses on a particular section. Therefore, they can

improve their writing based on the Error Analysis‟ result.

Furthermore, the researcher would examine the results of the material

enrichment (materi pengayaan) which has been given in order to elaborate what

kinds or errors and how many errors which appeared in students‟ descriptive texts.

This research would be beneficial for the teacher in order to improve students‟

skills in writing. It also could make the students be aware of their grammar ability

and through this research; they were expected to improve their writing skill and

grammar acquisition afterwards.

D. Research Objective

This research objective is to find out the answers of the questions stated in

problem formulation as follows.

1. The errors made on descriptive texts by seventh grade students of SMP

Pangudi Luhur Yogyakarta.

2. The possible causes of errors made on descriptive texts by seventh grade

students of SMP Pangudi Luhur Yogyakarta

E. Research Benefit

This research was expected to be beneficial for the teacher, the researcher,

and the students.


6

1. The teacher

This research was conducted based on students‟ errors. The problem was

about writing errors in students‟ descriptive texts. The teacher will get the benefit

of this research through the research result. The teacher can emphasize more on

some parts of descriptive texts, grammar, or writing which the students were

facing difficulties in. According to Corder (1973), errors analysis could provide

useful information about the teacher‟s technique effectiveness. Therefore, the

teachers could improve their technique in teaching, especially for writing. Using

this research‟ result, the teacher could locate the students‟ weaknesses in

descriptive texts, writing and also grammar. Corder (1981: 10) also stated the

benefit of Error Analysis as follows. “First to the teacher, in that they tell him,

if he undertakes a systematic analysis, how far towards the goal the learner

has progressed and, consequently, what remains for him to learn”.

Afterwards, the teacher could take some preventive actions toward the students‟

errors.

2. The Researcher

This research was conducted by the researcher as a thesis to obtain

Sarjana Pendidikan Degree in English Education Study Program of Sanata

Dharma University. This research was also beneficial for the researcher, because

this research enabled the researcher to elaborate more SMP Pangudi Luhur

Yogyakarta seventh grade students‟ errors through Error Analysis. The problem of

this research was errors in students‟ descriptive texts. The researcher attempted to

identify and analyze the errors found on SMP Pangudi Luhur Yogyakarta seventh


7

grade students‟ descriptive text. Corder (1981: 11) also stated the Error Analysis

benefit for the researcher as follows. “They provide to the researcher evidence

of how language is learnt or acquired, what strategies or procedures the

learner is employing in his discovery of the language”.

3. The Students

The seventh grade students of SMP Pangudi Luhur Yogyakarta were

expected to be able to improve their writing skill, in this case, descriptive text.

Corder (1981: 11) stated the Error Analysis benefit for the students as follows.

“They are indispensable to the learner himself, because we can regard the

making of errors as a device the learner uses in order to learn. It is a way the

learner has of testing his hypotheses about the nature of the language he is

learning. The making of errors then is a strategy employed both by

children acquiring their mother tongue and by those learning a second

language.”

This research also helped the students recognize their errors in their

descriptive texts. The students also can elaborate on their errors with the teacher‟s

assistance: why the errors happened in their writing, how to overcome those errors

and etc. The students could conduct peer-assessment in their classes assisted by

the teacher. Therefore, the students could correct their errors and improve their

writing skill in future time. Through this research, the students were expected to

overcome their errors and produce improved descriptive texts in the upcoming

time.

F. Definitions of Terms

In order to avoid misconception and misunderstanding, the researcher gives

the specific terms.


8

1. Writing

In this study, writing is a method of expressing ideas about any subject

content; it appears in classrooms everywhere and, therefore, must be the concern

of every teacher (Tiedt, 1989). Writing is one kind of productive skill in English

language acquisition. Maggie (2003) defined writing as both a process and a

product. In writing, there is a process to make a writing composition. The

processes are stated chronologically: imagining- organizing- drafting- editing-

reading and proofreading.

Writing has a process to follow in order to obtain the best result. Besides a

process, writing is also a product. This is called similar to that fact because

writing skill is a productive skill and as a result, writing has a result in form of a

writing composition. The researcher tended to assume that writing is a product,

because in this research, the research samples were the SMP Pangudi Luhur

Yogyakarta seventh grade students‟ descriptive texts. In this research, the

researcher only examined 55 students‟ descriptive texts in order to identify the

errors and provide feedback for the teacher.

2. Descriptive Text

In this study, the term descriptive text is understood as a kind of text that

enables SMP Pangudi Luhur Yogyakarta seventh grade to visualize a person with

all appropriate senses and describe the person‟s personality. McMurrey (1983:

239) points out that description is a way to enable the reader to visualize a person,

place or things with some appropriate senses included. In this study, descriptive


9

texts enabled the students to visualize famous characters they were interested in.

Therefore, the students were expected to be able to explore more their writing

compositions through their descriptive texts. Other definition of descriptive text

by Gerot, L. and Wignell, P. (1994) as cited by Mursyid (n.d.) is that descriptive

text is a kind of text which has a purpose to give information. The context of this

text is the description of particular thing, animal, person or others. The social

function of descriptive text is to describe particular person, place or thing.

Descriptive text also has its generic structure as stated by Hammond

(1992) as cited by Mursyid (n.d.). There are two main parts of the generic

structure: Identification and Description. In identification, the phenomenon to be

described is identified and in description, the phenomenon is described by parts,

qualities, characteristics and etc. In this research, the researcher descriptive text

about people‟s appearance and character. According to Berg (2011), descriptive

texts can indicate who is in the picture. Descriptive texts actually can provide

better face labeling in describing person. Berg (2011) also stated that descriptive

texts can indicate appearance characteristics. Descriptive texts can discover visual

attributes. Through descriptive, SMP Pangudi Luhur seventh grade students were

expected to be able describe a person in details. This describing person‟s

appearance and character material had been taught in the odd semester of

academic year 2012-2013. In the even semester, the researcher still attempted to

conduct a research related to descriptive texts and Error Analysis as the teacher

intended to check students‟ progress before going on describing places topic.


10

3. Error Analysis

In this study, Error Analysis was proposed by the researcher as a way to

investigate the errors occurred in students‟ descriptive texts of seventh grade of

SMP Pangudi Luhur Yogyakarta. Crystal (2003: 165) as cited by Abed (2012)

defined Error Analysis as “technique for identifying, classifying and

systematically interpreting the unacceptable forms produced by someone learning

a foreign language, using any of the principles and provided by linguistics”. In

addition, Keshavarz (2012: 168) as cited by Abed (2012) defined Error Analysis

as “a procedure used by both researchers and teachers which involves collecting

samples of learner language, identifying errors, classifying them according to their

nature and causes, and evaluating their seriousness”.

This research is an Error Analysis. The researcher took students‟

worksheets as the object of his research. The researcher intended to search for the

errors that occurred in the students‟ descriptive texts. Corder (1967) as cited by

Ellis (1994: 78) stated the differences between mistakes and errors. He stated

mistakes as “mistakes are akin to slips of the tongue”. He also stated errors are

systematic and likely to happen repeatedly. Norrish (1983) definederrors. An error

is when a learner has not learnt something and consistently „gets it wrong‟. Error

Analysis also has its own benefits. Norrish (1983) stated that Error Analysis can

give a picture of the type of difficulty learners are experiencing. The other

benefits of errors analysis stated by Norrish (1983) are an Error Analysis can give

useful information about a new class, an Error Analysis can indicate problems

common to all and problems common to particular groups, and the teacher can


11

assess objectively how his teaching helps the students. The researcher

implemented the steps of Error Analysis by Corder (1974) as cited by Ellis (1994)

in this research. Those steps helped the researcher conduct this research. The

researcher also added additional steps of Error Analysis by Gass and Selinker

(2001) in order to obtain a reliable research result.


12

CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURES

In this chapter, the researcher presents the related theories and literatures

that underline the research field. The related literatures are discussed here as the

basis of answering the research question. There are two parts presented in this

chapter. They are the theoretical description and the theoretical framework. In the

theoretical description, the researcher presents theories related to error analysis,

error and mistakes, sources of errors, causes of errors, error taxonomy, types of

errors, and descriptive text. In the theoretical framework, the researcher presents

the steps of conducting an error analysis on students‟ descriptive texts.

A. Theoretical Description

In this part the researcher discusses some fundamental theories of this

research.

1. Error Analysis

Crystal (2003: 165) as cited by Abed (2012) defined error analysis as

“technique for identifying, classifying and systematically interpreting the

unacceptable forms produced by someone learning a foreign language, using any

of the principles and provided by linguistics”. Keshavarz (2012: 168) as cited by

Abed (2012) defined error analysis as “a procedure used by both researchers and

teachers which involves collecting samples of learner language, identifying errors,

classifying them according to their nature and causes, and evaluating their


13

seriousness”. In error analysis, there are steps to follow. Corder(1974) as cited by

Ellis (1994) stated the steps of errors analysis. They are presented as follows.

a. Collection of a sample of learner language

Ellis (1994: 49) stated that “the starting point in EA is deciding what

samples of learner language to use for the analysis and how to collect these

samples”. Ellis (1994) also stated that there are three kinds of samples‟ size. They

are massive sample, specific sample, and incidental sample. Ellis (1994: 49) stated

the differences of three kinds of samples‟ size as follows.

“A massive sample involves collecting several samples of language use from a

large number of learners in order to compile a comprehensive list of errors,

representative of the entire population. A specific sample consists of one sample of

language use collected from a limited number of learners, while an incidental

sample involves only one sample of language use produced by a single learner.”

Besides the matter of samples‟ size, Ellis (1994) stated that the researcher

also needs to pay attention on a variety of factors that the learners make errors.The

researcher also has to decide regarding the manner in which the samples are taken.

Ellis (1994: 50) stated that “an important distinction is whether the learner

language reflects natural, spontaneous language use, or is elicited in some way.

The researcher also has to decide whether to collect the samples cross-sectionally

(one point at a time) or longitudinally (successive points over a period of time)

(Ellis, 1994). Svartvik (1973b) as cited by Ellis (1994) stated that most error

analyses use regular examination papers (composition, translations, etc.)

b. Identification of Errors

Identification of errors is carried out after all samples are taken. The first

phase in identification is to decide which variety of target language should be the

norm (Ellis, 1994). In this phase, the researcher also should consider the mother


14

tongue and the target language of the learners. In phase two, the researcher is

required to differentiate between errors and mistakes. Then, in phase three, Corder

(1971a) as cited by Ellis (1994) suggested that the researcher also has to concern

whether the errors are overt (clear deviation form) or covert (superficially well-

formed but not reflecting the learners‟ intention). In phase four, the researcher

also has to decide to investigate deviations in correctness or also deviations in

appropriateness. Those phases are the steps in identification of errors.

c. Description of errors

Ellis (1994: 54) stated that “the description of learner errors involves a

comparison of the learner‟s idiosyncratic utterances with a reconstruction of those

utterances in the target language”. Dulay, Burt, and Krashen (1982) as cited by

Ellis (1994) argue the need for descriptive taxonomies that focus only on

observable, surface features of errors, as a basis for subsequent explanation. In

description of errors, the researcher needs to use error taxonomy to describe the

learners‟ errors in detail.

One of error taxonomies is linguistic category taxonomy by Politzer and

Ramirez (1973). Politzer and Ramirez (1973) as cited by Ellis (1994) set their

taxonomy with more general categories: morphology, syntax and vocabulary. This

taxonomy allows for both a detailed description of specific errors and also for a

quantification of a corpus of errors. In description of errors, the researcher also

needs to quantify the errors that occurred. Schachter and Celce-Murcia (1977) as

cited by Ellis (1994: 57) point out “to say anything worthwhile about error


15

frequency we need to know the number of times it would be possible for learners

to have committed different errors”.

d. Explanation of Errors

Ellis (1994) stated that explanation of errors is concerned with establishing

the sources of the error. In explanation of errors, the researcher is required to seek

out the sources of students‟ errors based on the collected errors. Taylor (1986) as

cited by Ellis (1994) discovers three sources of errors. They are psycholinguistic,

sociolinguistic, epistemic and discourse. Psycholinguistic sources deal with the

nature of the L2 knowledge system and the learners‟ difficulties in using the L2

knowledge system. Sociolinguistic sources deal with learners‟ ability in adjusting

their language in accordance with the social context. Epistemic sources deal with

learners‟ of world knowledge. Discourse sources deal with problems in

organization of information into a coherent „text‟.

Richards (1971b) as cited by Ellis (1994) also provides the sources of errors.

The first one is interference errors. Interference errors occur as a result of the use

of elements from one language while speaking another. The second is intralingual

errors. Intralingual errors reflect the general characteristics of rule learning such

as faulty generalization, incomplete application of rules and failure to learn

conditions under which rules apply. The third is developmental errors.

Developmental errors occur when the learner attempts to build up hypotheses

about the target language on the basis of limited experience. Those sources of

errors are for the consideration in explaining the students‟ errors.


16

e. Evaluating Errors

Evaluating errors is the last step in error analysis. Ellis (1994: 63) stated that

“error evaluation involves a consideration of the effect that errors have on the

person(s) addressed”. Ellis (1994) also stated the design of error evaluation. Error

evaluation involves addressees, judges, errors to be judged and how to judge. The

error judgment covers semantic or lexical aspects of English, grammatical features

and spelling. In this research, the error evaluation was carried out by the teacher

based on the result of description and explanation of students‟ errors. The

researcher only assisted the teacher to identify the students‟ errors, therefore, the

teacher could take evaluate his teaching and take some precaution actions towards

the result of students‟ errors.

Other steps of error analysis were also proposed by Gass and Selinker

(2001). The steps are: (1) data need to be collected, (2) identify errors, (3) classify

errors, (4) quantify errors, (5) analysis of the source, and (6) remediation. The

steps of error analysis both by Richards (1971b) and by Gass and Selinker (2001)

share the same characteristics. In this research, the researcher primarily used

Richards‟ (1971b) steps and also considered Gass and Selinker‟s (2001) steps.

2. Error and Mistakes

The researcher considered that his research is an error analysis. Therefore,

he provided the theories related to error. Corder (1974) as cited by Ellis

(1994)stated that the researcher has to differentiate between errors and mistakes in

identification of errors. Therefore, the researcher presents the theories related to


17

error and mistakes. Norrish (1983) distinguishes between error, mistake, lapse and

careless slip as they are known as “types of error”. They are explained as follows.

a. Error

Error is when a learner has not learnt something and consistently „gets it

wrong‟. Norrish (1983) also mentions that in the same way, an ESL student makes

an error systemically, that is because the student has not learnt the correct form.

Norrish (1983) calls errors as “systematic deviations”.Corder (1967) as cited by

Ellis (1994: 51) stated that “an error takes place when the deviation arises as a

result of lack knowledge. It represents a lack of competence”. Errors occur as the

result of students‟ lack of competence. Gass and Selinker (2001: 78) state that “an

error, on the other hand, is systematic. That is, it is likely to occur repeatedly and

is not recognized by the learner as an error”. In order to differentiate between

errors and mistakes accurately, Ellis (1994)stated that frequency of occurrence is

regarded the distinctive point. Error has high frequency of occurrence. Corder

(1967) as cited by Dulay et al (1982) stated that errors are obviously systematic

deviations.

b. Mistake

Norrish (1983) stated that a mistake occurs when a learner has been taught

an English sentence pattern, and he uses the correct pattern and sometimes he uses

the incorrect pattern. If that situation happens quite inconsistently and later that

situation is called “inconsistent deviation” or “mistake”.Gass and Selinker (2001)

also define mistakes as akin to slips of the tongue. Mistakes are generally one-

time-only events. The learner who makes mistakes is able to recognize it as a


18

mistake and correct it if necessary. Corder (1967) as cited by Dulay et al (1982)

stated that performance errors are apparently mistakes.

c. Lapse

Norrish (1983) also presents lapse. Lapse happens because of the lack of

concentration, shortness of memory, fatigue and other factors. Lapse happens

when the students do not obtain a good atmosphere and situation of learning for

example due to the weather, or other particular situations. Lapse is neither an error

nor a mistake and lapse can happen to anyone at any time.

d. Careless Slip

Norrish (1983) also stated careless slip. Careless slip is caused by learner‟s

inattentiveness in class. Learner‟s inattentiveness could be triggered by many

factors. The factors are class‟ situation, learners‟ concerns and any other else.

Careless slip is considered as a minor type of „errors‟.

3. Sources of Error

In this research, the researcher also presents the theories about sources of

error. The theories are presented in order to give clear explanation for the

students‟ error in descriptive texts. Sources of errors are needed in the step of

error analysis. The step is explanation of errors by Ellis (1994).

Brown (1980) as cited by Hasyim(2002) presents the sources or errors.

Brown (1980) classifies the sources of errors into four. They are: (1) Interlingual

Transfer. This is negative influence of students‟ mother tongue. (2) Intralingual

Transfer. This is negative transfer of items in the target language. In other word,


19

this is the incorrect use of rules in the target language. (3) Context of Learning.

This is the overlapping of the interlanguage transfer and intralingual transfer. The

role of teacher and textbook is very important, because teachers and textbooks

might make wrong generalization about the language.(4) Communication

Strategies. Communication strategies are used as a conscious verbal mechanism

for communicating when linguistics forms are not available to the students for

some reasons.

Richards (1971b) as cited by Ellis (1994: 58) also presents three sources of

errors. They are (1)interference errors. „Interference errors occur as a result of

the use of elements from one language while speaking another‟. (2) Intralingual

errors. „intralingualerrors reflect the general characteristics of rule learning such

as faulty generalization, incomplete application of rules and failure to learn

conditions under which rules apply‟. (3) Developmental errors.„Developmental

errors occur when the learner attempts to build up hypotheses about the target

language on the basis of limited experience‟.

4. Causes of Errors

Norrish (1983) presents the causes of error. That is essential because those

causes could explain the error made by seventh grade students of SMP

PangudiLuhur Yogyakarta.Those causes are presented as follows.

a. Carelessness

Norrish (1983)stated that carelessness is often done due to lack of

motivation. Another reason is that the teachers‟ materials do not suit the students‟


20

capabilities. One aid to overcome those “carelessness” problems is to get the

students to check each other‟s work. This activity requires the students‟

capabilities in English and English can be used as a class language in this activity.

b. First Language Interference

Norrish (1983)stated that learning language whether it is a mother tongue

or a foreign language is a matter of habit formation. The learners‟ utterances were

elaborated to be gradually shaped towards the language they were learning.

Skinner (1957) as cited by Norrish (1983) stated a definitive statement of

behaviorist theory of language learning. It says that a language is essentially a set

of habits, and then when the learners try to learn the new habits, the former habits

will interfere with the new habits. That is called mother tongue interference. The

most appropriate way for teachers to overcome the first language interference is to

re-teach a given structure, or a piece of vocabulary, in a way which allows the

students to see the language item from as many points of view as possible. In

addition to that way, the student must have chance to use the items in an

appropriate situation.

c. Translation

Norrish (1983) also says that another popular idea why students make

errors is due to translation. The students often do word-by-word translation in

translating idiomatic expression. Errors due to translation may occur during the

discussion. It is where students have reached the stage of concentrating more on

the message (things they want to deliver) than the code they are using to express it

(the language itself). The use of conscious or unconscious translation can be


21

considered as a communication strategy. That means a learner can express himself

in the language he is learning using „interlanguage‟ as bridge between his own

language and the target language.

d. Overgeneralization

George (1972) as cited by Norrish (1983) explains an approach in study

learner‟s errors. They are Overgeneralization by Richards (1974) and Redundancy

Reduction by George (1972). The example of overgeneralization is that the

students construct a deviant structure. Norrish (1983: 31) also stated that this error

occur as “a blend of two structures in the „standard version‟ of the language” and

also as “a result of blending structures learnt in the learning sequence”. Richards

(1971b) as cited by Ellis (1994:59) says that “overgeneralization errors arise when

the learner creates a deviant structure on the basis of other structures in the target

language. Overgeneralization error generally involves the creation of one deviant

structure in place of two target language structures”. The examples of

overgeneralization are presented as follows.

e.g.: a. We are visit the zoo.

b. She must goes.

c.Yesterday I walk to the shop and I buy.

e. Incomplete Application of Rules

Richards (1974) as cited by Norrish (1983) adds another kind of errors and

that is incomplete application of rules. In this kind of error, Richards (1974) as

cited by Norrish (1983: 32) suggests two possible causes of this error. They are

(1) “the use of questions in the classroom and (2) the fact that the learner may


22

discover that the learner can communicate perfectly adequately using deviant

forms”. In this error, the students tend to use deviant forms of language. Richards

(1971b) as cited by Ellis (1994: 59) also explains that “incomplete application of

rules involves a failure to fully develop a structure.” Richards (1971b) as cited by

Ellis (1994) also says that incomplete application of rules is included in

intralingual errors. The examples of incomplete application of rules are presented

below.

e.g.: Teacher: Ask her where she lives.

Students: Where you (she) live(s)?

f. Material Induced Errors

Norrish (1983) also stated there are two reasons regarded material

induced errors. The first is a “false concept” and the second is “ignorance of rule

restrictions”.False concept occurs when the material do not use appropriate

context to explain the learners. The example of false concept is the use of present

progressive tense in descriptive texts. Richards (1971b) as cited by Ellis (1994:

59) explains that “false concepts hypothesized arise when the learner does not

fully comprehend a distinction in the target language”. Richards (1971b) as cited

by Ellis (1994: 59) also explains that “ignorance of rule restrictions involves the

application of rules to the contexts where they do not apply”.It is probably more

difficult to avoid errors from ignorance of rule restriction than it is to avoid false

conceptualization.


23

g. Error as a part of language creativity

Norrish (1983) stated that the learners who have limited capability in

English would form a hypothetical rules related to English on insufficient

evidence. The learners need to create new utterances, but with limited capability,

they may make mistakes or even errors. Language creativity is divided into two

major factors. The first factor is that the students‟ incapability to follow the target

language rules. The second factor is creative arts. It deals with some works on

literature such poems, novels or prose.

The causes of errors by Norrish (1983) have been presented by the

researcher. Those causes are essential because the origin of students can be found

out by searching through those causes. In this research, the researcher also

implements as Norrish (1983) suggested. It is to use correcting codes. The

purpose of using correcting codes is that because correcting codes can lead the

learners to work out for themselves what is wrong and to figure out some way

towards correcting it. Norrish (1983) suggested some codes to correct students‟

writing. They are T (tense), WF (word form), WO (word order), S (syntax), A

(agreement), V (vocabulary), Sp (spelling), P (punctuation), Art (article), R

(reference unclear), St (style) and many more. The researcher made correcting

codes which were adopted from Linguistic Category Taxonomy by Politzer and

Ramirez cited by Dulay et al (1982). Those codes could facilitate the teacher to

give comments in a more student-friendly way instead putting a bunch of red ink

on students‟ writing.


24

5. Types of Errors

Dulay et al (1982) explain the types of errors. These theories of error type

underline this error analysis. They are presented as follows.

a. Omission

Dulay et al (1982) stated that omission happens because of the absence of

an item that must appear in well-formed utterance. Some morphemes are potential

to be omitted in writing. They are two kinds of morpheme, content morpheme and

grammatical morpheme. The phenomenon that is often seen is the omission of the

grammatical morphemes. The grammatical morphemes are noun and verb

inflections (the s- in birds), articles (a, an, the), verb auxiliaries (is, will, can, is,

was, am, etc), and prepositions (in, on, under,etc.)

b. Additions

Dulay et al (1982) stated that addition errors are the opposite of omissions.

In this type or errors, the errors are characterized by the presence of an item which

must not appear in a well-formed utterance. This error happens because of the

result of the too faithful use of certain rules. Additions are also divided into three

different parts. They are double markings, regularizations, and simple additions.

1) Double Markings

In some cases, the students who have acquired the tensed form for

auxiliary and verb often place the marker on both. Dulay et al (1982: 156) stated

that “many addition errors are more accurately described as the failure to delete


25

certain items which are required in some linguistic constructions, but not in

others”. The examples are he doesn’t knows my name or we didn’t knew about

it.The error above is called double markings, because two items rather than one

are marked for the same feature.

2) Regularization (additions)

Dulay et al (1982) say that a rule typically applies to all linguistic items,

however, some members of a class are exception to the rule. Regularization errors

that are included in the addition category are those in which a marker that is

typically added to a linguistic item is erroneously added to exceptional items of

the given class that do not take a marker. The examples of regularization errors

are eat- eated instead of ate, beat- beatedinstead of beat, sheep-sheepsinstead of

sheep, put-putted instead of put and etc.

3) Simple Addition

Simple addition is the last category of additions. If an addition error is

neither a double marking nor a regularization error, it is called simple addition.

This error is still based on adding unnecessary morphemes to sentences, and

words. The examples of simple addition error are the train is gonnabroke it (past

tense), a this (article a), and etc.

c. Misformation

Dulay et al (1982) stated that misformation errors are characterized by the

use of wrong form of the morpheme or structure. The example of misformation

errors is the dog eated the chicken. In that error, a past tense marker was added


26

while it is not necessary. Misformation is also divided in three parts. They are

regularizations, archi-forms, and alternating forms.

1) Regularization Errors (misformation)

This error is caused by a regular marker used in a place if an irregular one.

The examples are run- runnedinstead of run, goose- gooses instead of geese.

Regularization errors occurred most in the verbal output of both first and second

language learners. Dulay et al (1982: 160) also stated that “the overextension of

linguistic rules to exceptional items occurs even after some facility with the

language has been acquired”.

2) Archi forms

The selection of one member of a class of forms to represent others in the

class is a common characteristic of all stages of second language acquisition. The

students‟ selected forms are called archi forms. For example, the students choose

one demonstrative adjective (that, these, those, this) to add with some words,

thatcar- that cars.Dulay et al (1982) stated that “for the learner, that is the archi-

demonstrative adjective representing the entire class of demonstrative adjectives”.

3) Alternating forms.

These forms are still students‟ selected forms. This error happens because

of the influence of the students‟ grammar-vocabulary grow. In this error, the

students may alternate between the forms. The examples are those dog, this cats,

he would have saw them, I seen her yesterday.


27

d. Misordering

Dulay et al (1982) state that misordering error is characterized by the

incorrect placement of a morpheme or group of morphemes in an

utterance.Misordering occurs systemically both in L1or L2 learners. For example,

they produce wrong type of questions such what daddy is doing? The correct form

is what is daddy doing?

e. Interlingual errors

Dulay et al (1982) stated that interlingual errors happen because the

influence of students‟ native language. The sentences or words that are made are

semantically similar or equivalent with the students‟ native language structure.

For example, Spanish students may produce the man skinny, because they are

influenced by their native language structure. That error is caused by the Spanish

adjectival phrase (el hombre flaco).

f. Ambiguous Errors

Dulay et al (1982) stated that ambiguous errors are classified both as

developmental error and interlingual error. This error reflects the students‟ native

language structure and children acquiring first language. The example for this

error is I no have car. In that example, it is shown that “no” shows two alternate

error origin, the students‟ native language structure and also children acquiring

first language.


28

6. Error Taxonomy (Linguistic Category Taxonomy)

This research is considered as an error analysis. Due to that fact, the

researcher used Linguistic Category Taxonomy by Politzer and Ramirez (1973)

asDulay et al suggest (1982). Dulay et al (1982) as cited by Ellis (1994: 54) argue

“the need for descriptive taxonomies of errors that focus only on observable,

surface features of errors, as a basis for subsequent explanation”. Ellis (1994) also

stated that the simplest type of descriptive taxonomy is based on linguistic

category.

Politzer and Ramirez (1973) as cited by Ellis (1994) begin their taxonomy

with more general categories: morphology, syntax and vocabulary and they say

that Linguistic Category Taxonomy allows for both a detailed description of

specific errors and also for a quantification of a corpus of errors.The researcher

used Linguistic Category Taxonomytoclassify the students‟ errors and using this

taxonomy, the classification was faster and easier. The researcher used Linguistic

Category Taxonomy to project the errors from general categories: syntax,

morphology and other findings. Other findings consist of two kinds of errors:

orthographic and lexico-semantic (Keshavarz, 2012as cited by Abed, 2012). After

classified into generalcategories, the errors were, then, classified into some more

specific categories such as omission, addition and etc, and it can enable the

researcher to investigate deeper on the students‟ errors. The researcher also

combined Linguistic Category Taxonomyby Politzer and Ramirez (1973) as cited

by Dulay et al (1982) with types or errors by Dulay et al (1982) in order to

classify the errors in students‟ descriptive texts.


29

7. Descriptive Texts

McMurrey (1983) defined descriptionas a term used rather loosely in

ordinary conversation and it is used to explain person, place or things with

providing sensory details. McMurrey (1983) also says that description is often

combined with other kinds of writing, especially narration. The goal of description

as stated by McMurrey (1983) is to enable the reader to visualize a person, place

or thing and the details must be provided as many as possible.Descriptive text also

has its generic structure as stated by Hammond (1992) as cited by Mursyid (n.d.).

There are two main parts of the generic structure: Identification and Description.

In identification, the phenomenon to be described is identified and in description,

the phenomenon is described by parts, qualities, characteristics and etc.

Besides generic structure, descriptive text also has its language features as

stated by Hammond (1992) as cited by Mursyid (n.d.). They are: (1)Descriptive

texts focus on a specific participant. The examples are my favorite public figure,

my beloved pet, and etc. Descriptive texts are made to describe one thing in

detail.(2)Descriptive textsuse simple present tense. Simple present is used in

descriptive texts because simple present tense explains general truth. Azar and

Hagen (2009) define the simple present tense as follows.simple present expresses

events or situations that always exist. The writer may use simple past tense if the

thing to describe does not longer exist.

(3) Descriptive textsuseverbs of being and having. The examples are:

My pet is really lovely. It has a soft beautiful white fur. Verbs of being and having

make some relational processes in the descriptive texts. Therefore, the descriptive


30

texts may be coherently composed. (4) Descriptive textsuse descriptive

adjectives. The examples of descriptive adjectives are white fur, strong legs, and

black hair. Descriptive adjectives or attributive adjectives enable the writer to

clearly describe the condition of item described. (5) Descriptive textsuse detailed

noun phrase. The examples of detailed noun phrase arevery outstanding

performance, sweet young lady, and etc. The purpose of using detailed noun

phrase is to give information about the subject.

(6)Descriptive textsuse action verbs. The purpose of using action verbs

is to explain material processes such asIt eats flesh, It runs slow.(6)Descriptive

textsuse adverbials. The purpose of using adverbials isto give additional

information about the behavior of the object of description such fast, at tree house

(7) Descriptive textsuse figurative language. Figurative language is used to

clearly describe the object of description. The kinds of figurative language are

simile, metaphor, personification and etc. Another use of figurative language is to

compare the object of description with something else. One example of figurative

language is John is white as chalk.

B. Theoretical Framework

This research wasan error analysis on SMP PangudiLuhur Yogyakarta

seventh grade students‟ descriptive texts. The researcher proposed to conduct an

error analysis to investigate students‟ errors and find the possible causesof the

students‟ errors. The researcher chose error analysis as a way to investigate errors

in descriptive text. The researcher also employed some theories which are stated


31

in Chapter 2 to conduct this research. Those theories were used as guidance in

examining students‟ errors.

The researcher implemented the steps of error analysis by Corder (1974)

as cited Ellis (1994). Those steps were carried out one step at a time. In collecting

samples, the researcher took massive samples because the samples which were

taken covered three regular classes. Then, in identification of errors, the

researcher searched all the errors and decided whether they are errors or mistakes.

The researcher also decided to choose overt or covert errors to be investigated.

After identifying the errors, the researcher described the occurred errors in

description of errors. In description of errors, the researcher explained the errors

with assistance from Linguistic Category Taxonomy by Politzer and Ramirez as

cited by Dulay et al (1982). The researcher also used types of errors by Dulay et al

(1982) such as omission, addition and etc to clearly explain the errors. In this step,

the researcher also quantified errors that occurred as suggested by Ellis (1994) and

also Gass and Selinker (2001). That process was carried out to reveal the most

errors which the students produced. Then, in explanation of errors, the researcher

revealed the sources of students‟ errors. The last step is evaluation of errors.

However, the researcher did not carry out error evaluation because error

evaluation is the teacher‟s duty. The researcher only provided feedbackin what

extent the students committed errors and understood the descriptive texts.

The researcher continued to seek out the causes of SMP PangudiLuhur

Yogyakarta seventh grade students‟ errors in descriptive texts. The theories were

completely provided and the researcher used them to find out the real causes of


32

SMP PangudiLuhur Yogyakarta seventh grade students‟ errors in descriptive

texts. The data gathering was conducted through students‟worksheets. The

students‟ worksheets were collected from material enrichment (materipengayaan).

The students‟ worksheets were taken by the teacher giving as an assignment. The

students‟ worksheets were then examined with some error analysis aspects such as

steps of error analysis, source of errors, causes of errors, and types of errors and

also with Linguistic Category Taxonomy.


33

CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, the researcher will present the research method, research

setting, research participants, instrument and data gathering technique, data

analysis technique, and research procedure.

A. Research Method

The research focused on errors which occurred in SMP Pangudi Luhur

Yogyakarta seventh grade students’ descriptive texts. The purpose of this research

was to investigate errors in descriptive texts committed by SMP Pangudi Luhur

Yogyakarta seventh grade students and provide feedback for the teacher as Corder

(1973) as cited by Hendrickson (1981) stated. This research was to showcase

kinds of students’ errors in descriptive texts and provide valuable information and

feedback for the teacher. In this research, the researcher followed the steps of

error analysis by Corder (1974) as cited by Ellis (1994). The steps are: (1)

collection of a sample learner language, (2) identification of errors, (3) description

of errors, (4) explanation of errors, and (5) evaluation of errors. The researcher

followed all of those steps in sequences in order to analyze students’ errors in

descriptive texts.

The researcher classified the errors into three main categories. They are

morphological, syntactical and other findings. This research also aimed to seek the

SMP Pangudi Luhur Yogyakarta seventh grade students’ area of difficulties. As


34

stated by Corder (1974) as cited by Hendrickson (1981) that error analysis

purpose is to provide feedback, the researcher only presented the result of this

research to the teacher as feedback. Therefore, the researcher did not spent more

time on teaching or fixing some ways of teaching, yet this research only required

students’ worksheets of descriptive texts. The data from the student was examined

and analyzed afterwards by the researcher without any intervention either from the

teacher or the students.

B. Research Setting

This research was conducted in Sekolah Menengah Pertama Pangudi

Luhur Yogyakarta in the even semester of academic year 2012/ 2013 and to be

specific, in April 20th

, 2013. This school was selected to be the field of research

because this school was proven as one of the best junior high schools in

Yogyakarta. That fact was seen from the intelligence of the students. The

researcher chose seventh grade students because seventh grade students had

descriptive text in the odd semester of academic year 2012/ 2013.

C. Research Participants

The participants of this research were fifty students from three regular

seventh grade classes of SMP Pangudi Luhur Yogyakarta Yogyakarta. The

researcher chose systematic sampling to define the objects of the research. The

total of collected students’ descriptive texts was 110 worksheets. The researcher

only took half of them using systematic sampling technique by Fraenkel and


35

Wallen (2009). The chosen students’ descriptive texts were 55 worksheets by 26

male students and 29 female students. The students’ level of competence was

novice as stated by the teacher. In order to make sure, the researcher utilized a

weighted descriptive texts rubric adapted from Brown (2007). The rubric is presented as

follows:

Table 3.1. A Weighted Descriptive texts Rubric adapted from Brown (2007)

Aspects Score Performance Description Weighting

Content

(C)

30%

-Topic

- Details

4 The topic is complete and

clear and the details are related

to the topic.

3X


clear but the details are almost

related to the topic.


clear but the details are not

related to the topic.

1 The topic is not clear and the

details are not related to the

topic.

Organization

(O)

20%

-Identification

- Description

4 Identification is complete and

descriptions are arranged with

proper connectives.

2X

3 Identification is almost

complete and descriptions are

arranged with almost proper

connectives.

2 Identification is not complete

and descriptions are arranged

with few misuses of

connectives.

1 Identification is not complete

and descriptions are arranged

with misuse of connectives

Grammar

(G)

20%

- Use present

tense

- Agreement

4 Very few grammatical or

agreement inaccuracies 2X

3 Few grammatical or agreement

inaccuracies but not affect on

meaning

2 Numerous grammatical or

agreement inaccuracies


36

1 Frequent grammatical or

agreement inaccuracies

Vocabulary

(V)

15%

4 Effective choice of words and

word forms 1.5 X

3 Few misuse of vocabularies,

word forms, but not change the

meaning

2 Limited range confusing

words and word form

1 Very poor knowledge of

words, word forms, and not

understandable

Mechanics

(M)

15%

-Spelling

-Punctuation

-Capitalization

4 It uses correct spelling,

punctuations, and

capitalization

1.5X

3 It has occasional errors of

spelling, punctuation and

capitalization.

2 It has frequent errors of

spelling, punctuation, and

capitalization

1 It is dominated by errors of

spelling, punctuation, and

capitalization.

Brown (2007) also stated the way to calculate the score from the rubric as

follows:

Score: 3 (C) + 2 (O) + 2 (G) + 1.5 (V) + 1.5 (M)

40

From the rubric above, the students’ level of competence could be

obtained and the result of assessing students’ descriptive through this rubric

helped the researcher draw final conclusions of this research. Another reason why

the researcher chose the seventh grade was that because the descriptive text was


37

taught in this grade. That fact was supported by the current Indonesia Educational

Curriculum, Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan. Seventh grade is also a

starting point for the students in junior high school. Their achievement in seventh

might affect their achievement in their upcoming years. The researcher decided to

take all the data from three regular seventh grade classes because the errors had

been seen by the teacher in three seventh grade regular classes.

D. Research Instruments

In conducting this research, the researcher only used worksheets. The

researcher applied error analysis to examine the errors found in the students’

descriptive texts. The instrument of this research was a material enrichment/

materi pengayaan for the students about descriptive texts. The researcher also

considered the students’ descriptive texts as both objects of the study and research

instruments.

The worksheets were distributed to all students of three seventh grade

regular classes. After retrieving the worksheets, the students carried out the

exercises. The researcher was also helped by the teacher in distributing the

material. This exercise was designed to make the students recall their

understanding of descriptive text. The researcher examined students’ worksheets

using error analysis theories and some supporting theories such as source of

errors, types of errors, causes of errors and Linguistic Category Taxonomy

(Politzer and Ramirez, 1973). Svartvik (1973b) as cited by Ellis (1994) stated that


38

most error analyses use examination papers such as composition and etc. In this

research, the researcher utilized students’ worksheets.

E. Data Gathering Technique

The first data collection was taken by giving a material enrichment to the

students. This material enrichment was designed by the researcher for obtaining

the primary data. This material enrichment would not affect the students’ marks.

The material enrichment also helped the students recall what they have learnt in

the previous semester. This material enrichment was also aimed by the teacher as

a pre-lesson before the students carried on learning describing places. In this task,

the students were required to write a descriptive text about people’s appearance

and character. As the final sequence of data gathering, the researcher collected all

the data: students’ worksheets. Afterwards, the researcher synthesized all the data

in order to obtain a strong hypothesis using error analysis techniques on students’

descriptive texts.

F. Data Analysis Technique

This research was based on a linguistic description. The data analysis

technique was based on linguistic category taxonomy by Politzer and Ramirez,

(1973) as cited by Dulay, et al (1982). In linguistic category taxonomy, Politzer

and Ramirez, (1973) presented two basic linguistic categories: morphology and

syntax. The researcher also found other errors that could not be included in

morphology and syntax. They are lexico-semantic errors and orthographic errors


39

by Keshavarz (2012) as cited by Abed (2012). Lexico-semantic and orthographic

errors were, then, known as other findings as they were still essential for this

study.

Before classifying the errors, the researcher searched all sentences that

contained errors from 55 students’ worksheets. After searching the sentences

containing errors, then, the error classification began. The sentences containing

errors from the students’ material enrichment were examined with linguistic

category taxonomy by by Politzer and Ramirez, (1973) as cited by Dulay, et al

(1982). The data was taken once. The error which was made by the students was,

then, categorized into some aspects based on the linguistic category taxonomy.

The researcher also quantified the errors found in the students’ worksheets. The

researcher needed to quantify the frequency of errors because the quantification of

errors defined the errors and mistakes as stated by Ellis (1994). The quantity of

errors also described the area of students’ difficulties. The quantified errors, then,

were classified based on linguistic category taxonomy. The researcher classified

the errors into some specific error types based on linguistic category taxonomy.

The example of the error classification table is presented below.

Table 3.2. The Error Classification Table

Error Error Category Error

Sentences # Syntax Morphology

Other

Findings Frequency

1

After classifying the errors, the researcher could analyze in which part they

were facing the problem. Linguistic category taxonomy helps the researcher


40

pinpoint the errors found on students’ descriptive texts. The researcher also

presented other findings besides morphological errors and syntax errors. Lexical

errors described all errors that occurred in words. Lexical errors were divided into

two categories. They are lexico-semantic and orthographic errors. Besides

linguistic category taxonomy, the researcher also employed types of error by

Dulay et al (1982) such as omission, addition, substitution and etc to clearly

explain the errors in students’ descriptive texts.

G. Research Procedure

In research procedure, the researcher carried out this research in three

main steps. They were research preparation, data gathering and data analysis.

1. Research Preparation

For the initial step of this research, the research came and met the

headmaster of SMP Pangudi Luhur Yogyakarta. That meeting was arranged in the

even semester of academic year 2012/2013. On that meeting, the research

permission and the detail explanation of this research were delivered to the

headmaster. The researcher continued the step of his research by getting an

official letter from PBI and FKIP. That action was carried out after getting the

headmaster’s approval. The researcher also discussed the plan of his research with

the teacher. It helped the researcher to have a proper time arrangement for

distributing worksheets. Therefore, the researcher could properly conduct his

research in the arranged time. The researcher also delivered his research proposal

and students’ worksheets to the headmaster and the teacher. The researcher


41

convinced the headmaster that this research would provide feedback for the

teacher; therefore, the teacher could overcome the students’ error and attempt to

minimize the frequency of errors.

2. Data Gathering

In data gathering, the researcher proposed to obtain the data from 55

students’ worksheets (three regular classes). The reason why the researcher

obtained the data from three regular classes was to provide feedback for the

teacher; therefore, the teacher could know what happened exactly in three regular

classes. The data gathering was carried out on April 11th

-20th

, 2013 of the even

semester academic year 2012/ 2013. This data gathering was considered as a

material enrichment of the descriptive text which had been taught in the first

semester. The researcher gave the material enrichment to the teacher and the

researcher gave the liberty for the teacher to assign this material enrichment as

home work or class assignment. After the students were done with the material

enrichment, then, the researcher compiled all the worksheets.

3. Data Analysis

In data analysis, the researcher combined all the data from students’

worksheets. The researcher compiled all of the students’ worksheets. Then, the

researcher assessed the students’ worksheets using a weighted descriptive texts

rubric adapted from Brown (2007). Besides assessing the students’ worksheets,

the researcher also searched for sentences containing errors. The students’

worksheets were examined and assessed in order to find the errors in descriptive

text. After assessing students’ worksheets and searching for error sentences, the


42

average score of students’ descriptive texts and sentences containing errors were

obtained. The researcher examined the error sentences and looked for the kind of

errors.

After all error sentences were examined, the researcher categorized the

errors based on Linguistic category taxonomy Politzer and Ramirez (1973) as

cited by Dulay, et al (1982). The errors, which were found on the worksheets,

were classified into some aspects based on linguistic category taxonomy. The

found errors were also classified based on types of errors by Dulay, et al (1982).

After classifying the errors, the researcher quantified how many errors which were

found. The researcher quantified the total errors and figured out in what part of

descriptive text or English grammar the students were facing difficulties. From the

classification of errors and the error quantification, the researcher found some

possible causes toward students’ errors in descriptive texts.


43

CHAPTER IV

RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, the researcher will present the discussion of the problem

formulations. The discussion presents the result of the error analysis.The

researcher provides some tables and detailed explanation related to error analysis

on students‟descriptive texts. In this chapter, the researcher presents types of

errors that were found on SMP PangudiLuhur Yogyakarta seventh grade students‟

descriptive texts and the possible causes of SMP PangudiLuhur Yogyakarta

seventh grade students‟ errors in descriptive texts.

A. Errors Made on Descriptive textsby Seventh Grade Students of SMP

PangudiLuhur Yogyakarta

In this part, the researcher intended to explain what he found on the

students‟ worksheet. The researcher focuses on the students‟ errors found on their

worksheets. The researcher implemented the steps of error analysis by Corder

(1974) as cited by Ellis (1994). To have a clear explanation about implementing

the steps of error analysis, the researcher presents the steps of error and also the

explanation for each step. The explanation is presented as follows:

Collection of ASample of Learner Language

In this step, the researcher took massive samples (Ellis, 1994). The

samples which were taken were 55 students‟ worksheets from total 110 collected

students‟ worksheets. The researcher chose the samples with systematic sampling


44

system (Fraenkel and Wallen, 2009). After collecting 55 students‟ worksheets, the

researcher assessed all of the students‟ worksheets with a weighted descriptive

texts rubric adapted from Brown (2007). This action was needed in order to

elaborate students‟ level of competence. The result of assessing was that the

average score of 55 students‟ worksheets was 6.63. From that result, the students‟

level of competence is not quite high. The students were considered novice

learners as stated by the teacher.

The students‟ worksheets which were collected reflected elicited language

(Ellis, 1994). They were elicited because the students elicited on how to describe

person appearance and characteristics. The data was taken cross-sectionally

because the students‟ worksheets only were taken once (Ellis, 1994). After

collecting all the students‟ worksheets, the researcher continued to identify the

errors.

Identification of Errors

In identification of errors, the researcher began searching sentences

containing errors in 55 students‟ worksheets. The researcher found approximately

428 sentences containing errors. After obtaining 428 sentences, the researcher

looked for overt errors which were clear deviant forms (Ellis, 1994). In

identification of errors, all overt errors were all quantified in order to differentiate

errors and mistakes. Some overt errors that only occurred once in the students‟

descriptive texts were eliminated because they were considered mistakes (Ellis,

1994). The researcher also investigated only on deviations in correctness, because


45

seventh grade students of SMP PangudiLuhur Yogyakarta made some incorrect

sentences, words, phrases and etc.

Description of Errors

In description of errors, the researcher used Linguistic Category

Taxonomy by Politzer and Ramirez (1973) as cited by Dulay, et al (1982). This

taxonomy enabled the researcher to classify and describe the errors in details. The

researcher classified the found errors into three main categories: syntax,

morphological and other findings. Other findings consist of lexico-semantic errors

and orthographic errors (Keshavarz, 2012). There were also types of errors that

were used. They were misformation, addition, omission and substitution.

The researcher created some abbreviations of errors in the error

classification table. They are presented as follow with frequency of each

abbreviation:

Table 4.1. Syntax Errors and Frequency

Syntax Errors

Abbreviations Errors Frequency of Errors

OA Omission of Article 118

DSVP Disagreement of Subject-Verb (Person) 82

MSO Misordering 60

OTB Omission of To Be 55

MP Misuse of Preposition 19

AA Addition of Article 16

MHN Mising Head Noun 15

OP Omission of Preposition 12

DSVN Disagreement of Subject-Verb (Number) 11

SPD Substitution of Possessive Determiner 11

AP Addition of Preposition 10

DV Double Verb 9

OCA Omission of Conjunction "And" 9

OSP Omission of Subject Pronoun 9

MAV Misuse of Auxiliary Verb 6

MA Misuse of Article 6


46

Syntax Errors

Abbreviations Abbreviations Abbreviations

SH Substitution 'his' for 'he is' 5

SI Substitution 'it's' for 'is' 5

MV Misuse of Main Verb 4

MAJ Missing Adjective 4

MD Misuse of Determiner 3

Table 4.2.Morphological Errors and Frequency Morphological Errors


MVPT Misformation of Verbs in Present Tense 64

OS Omission of suffix -s/-es (Plural Form in

the noun) 26

APC Addition of Possessive Case 21

MPT Misformation of Verbs in Past Tense 11

AED Addition of Suffix -ed 9

OPC Omission of Possessive Case 8

AS Addition of Suffix -s/-es (Singular Form

Incorrect) 6

AIN Addition of Suffix -Ing 3

Table 4.3.Other Findings and Frequency

Other Findings


OE Ortographic Errors 66

LSE Lexico-Semantic Errors 61

From the explanation above, it can be inferred that most of the students

were facing difficulties in many aspects. In description of errors, the researcher

found many errors that had low frequency. However, as stated by Ellis (1994),

errors have high frequency of occurrence and because of that, the low frequency

errors were, then, eliminated.


47

Explanation of Errors

In explanation of errors, the researcher found out the sources of students‟

error in descriptive texts. The sources of errors were interference errors and

intralingual errors as stated by Richards (1971b) as cited by Ellis (1994).

Interference errors were reflected from the other findings. Orthographic errors and

lexico-semantic errors occurred because of interference of mother language. Some

evidence of interference shows that the students were still confused to spell

English words correctly. Some students even mixed Indonesian words with

English words.

Intralingual errors were reflected from the errors that occurred because of

students‟ lack of understanding. Richards (1971b) cited by Ellis (1994) stated the

examples of intralingual errors. They are faulty generalization, incomplete

application of rules and etc. Brown (1980) as cited by Hasyim (2002) stated that

intralingual errors are the negative transfer of items in the target language. The

sources of errors were all identified. After explaining the errors, the next step is

evaluating errors. Evaluating errors was not carried out the researcher, because

that is the teacher‟s duty. The researcher presents the percentage of three main

error categories. It is presented as follows


48

Figure 4. 1. The Percentage of 3 Main Categories of Errors

1. Syntax Errors

In this part, there are four main categories of syntax errors. They are noun

phrase, verb phrase, word order, and another finding of syntax errors. Each

category has its own subcategories and sub-subcategories. The purpose of the

categorization is to ease the researcher in assessing students‟ errors. Therefore, the

researcher could analyze the students‟ errors more specifically. Syntax errors are

the highest percentage of four main categories of errors. Syntax errors hold 59.8%

of overall found errors.

a. Noun Phrase

In noun phrase, there are 4 categories. They are the use of determiners, the

use of prepositions, the use of pronouns, and the use of modifiers. In this part, the

researcher explains the specific parts of those four categories. Therefore, the

syntaxerrors could be appropriately explained. The explanations of four categories

are presented below.

1) Use of Determiners

The students‟ worksheets contain many errors of use of determiners.In this

category, there were found 155 errors and this category is also divided into 6

63.19

19.81 17

0

20

40

60

80

Syntax Errors Morphological

Errors

Other Findings

The Percentage (%)


49

subcategories. The error distribution for this category is presented below.The

explanation about the numbers of this error is presented as follows.

Table 4.4.Number of Errors in Use of Determiners

No. Types of Error Numbers of Errors

a) Omission of Articles 118

b) Addition of Articles 16

c) Substitution of Possessive

Determiners

11

d) Misuse of Articles 6

e) Misuse of Determiners 3

a) Omission of Articles

This error is the major error in syntax error. It is because this error is

counted 118 items from total 485 items of syntax errors. In this case, the students

tended to omit or even ignore the article (a, an andthe) in their sentences. The

researcher found this error almost in every sample that the researcher assessed.

The students had tendencies to ignore or omit articles because article is considered

as an unimportant part in sentences. On the contrary, articles are important in

sentences because it can define whether the subject or the object is definite or

indefinite and it is also used to show singularity of a noun. The examples of

omission of articles are presented as follows.

He has øpointed nose. (R#2)

Intended: He has a pointed nose.

He is øplayer in Real Madrid. (R#7)

Intended: He is a player in Real Madrid.


50

She isø pretty girl. (R#19)

Intended: She is apretty girl.

From the examples above, it can be inferred that omission of articles is an

important problem that needs to solve. It is because the use of articles is important

for students especially when they are required to write an English composition in

the next level of their education.

b) Addition of Articles

This error happened when the students added an article to a plural form of

a noun. This error seldom happened in the students‟ worksheets but it is

considered as an error and the researcher perceived that this error needed to

investigate. Although omission of articles covers almost all of the students‟

worksheets, addition of articles is also considered as the important problem in

students‟ writing skill that needs to be solved. This error is counted 16 items out

of 155 total items of errors in use of determiners. The examples of this error are

presented below.

He has a strong legs. (R#18)

Intended: He has strong legs.

He havea white skin. (R#21)

Intended: He has white skin.

From two examples above, the researcher concluded that this error is also

important to be solved, because the students‟ misunderstanding of using articles

could be disastrous for the students‟ in their upcoming years.


51

c) Substitution of Possessive Determiners

Substitution of possessive determiners is the error of distributing the

possessive determiners (her, his, their, etc) with another form of word. This error

happened because the students could not find the difference between the sound

and the writing. In order to have a clear explanation about this error, the

researcher presents the examples. The examples are presented as follows.

He‟s age is 28 year. (R#6)

Intended: His age is 28 years.

He‟s name is cristiano Ronaldo. (R#6)

Intended:His name is Cristiano Ronaldo.

She’s beloved pet is dog. (R#25)

Intended: Her beloved pet is a dog.

From the first two examples, the students were trying to explain the

subject‟s possession, yet, they perceived that „his‟ is the same with „he‟s‟ because

they are identically pronounced. The last example shows that the student could not

find the possessive determiner of „she‟. Therefore, the student directly used the

pronoun form (she) as the possessive determiner in the student‟s sentence. This

error is counted 11 items out of 155 items of total errors in use of determiners.

This error presently happened in a very few of the students. However, if the

teacher does not take any precaution toward this error, this error may spread in

other students‟ writing. This error is essential to be solved.


52

d) Misuse of Articles

The students often misused the articles, because few of them still could not

differentiate which article is appropriate for a particular noun. They also could not

differentiate between the definite article and indefinite article. Therefore, few of

them were confused by the use of articles. The example of this error is presented

below.

Cristiano Ronaldo is the famous soccer player. (R#46)

Intended: Cristiano Ronaldo is a famous soccer player.

From the example above, the researcher inferred that the appropriate

article that should be used in that sentence is anindefinite article, because the

context of that sentence is common. Therefore, an indefinite article is appropriate

for that sentence.

e) Misuse of Determiners

This error is counted only 3 items from total 155 items in use of

determiners. Although there are only 3 items of this error, yet, this error still needs

to be investigated and also solved. To have a clear explanation, the researcher

presented the examples as follows.

He contributed this golden shoes for support sacrifice Israel. (R#24)

Intended: He contributed these golden shoes to support Israelis‟ sacrifice.

He has many money and øladies. (R#12)

Intended: He has much money and many ladies.

From the explanation above, it is clear that the students could not apply

appropriate determiners for the nouns. In the first example, the student could not


53

differentiate between singular and plural form of the determiner. The student

might over generalize singular and plural form as the same determiner with

similar function. While in the second example, the student could not apply the

right determiner for an uncountable noun and he also omitted a determiner before

the second object. Problems like those needs to solve, because it is important for

students‟ correctness in writing in their upcoming levels.

2) Use of Prepositions

Prepositions are also the main problem in students‟ writing, in this case,

descriptive texts. The students‟ descriptive texts also contain some errors related

to the use of prepositions. The errors in use of prepositions are counted 41

items.The explanation about the numbers of this error is presented as follows.

Table 4.5. Number of Errors in Use of Prepositions

No. Types of Errors Numbers

a) Misuse of Prepositions 19

b) Omission of Prepositions 12

c) Addition of Prepositions 10

a) Misuse of Prepositions

In this error, the students did not use prepositions properly in their

descriptive texts. Prepositions are important in sentences because their functions

are various. The students still did not apply the correct preposition for a particular

word. This error is counted 19 items out of 41 items of total errors in use of

prepositions. This error is the most found error in the use of prepositions.

Therefore, the students have tendencies to misuse prepositions. The example of

this error is presented below.


54

He is very good on free kicks and penalty kicks. (R#6)

Intended: He is very good atfree kicks and penalty kicks.

From the explanation above, it can be inferred that the student made an

error in choosing the appropriate prepositions for the words. Use of prepositions is

obviously not taught in schools. Use of prepositions is presented in texts and

writing. Therefore, the students do not know the proper use of prepositions in

their writing.

b) Omission of Prepositions

This error happened when the students did not notice or omit prepositions

that should be used. Prepositions are small parts in sentences, yet, it is important.

The example of this error is presented below.

Then Ronaldo played for MU for coupleø season. (R#9)

Intended: Then, Ronaldo played for MU for coupleof seasons.

Omissions of prepositions were often found in the students‟ descriptive

texts. The students had tendencies to omit the prepositions because most of them

literally translated their descriptive texts from Bahasa Indonesia to English and the

prepositions were also omitted.

c) Addition of Prepositions

Besides omission and misuse, prepositions were also added to some parts

of the sentence. The students often added prepositions to their sentences although

it could be added with prepositions. The example is presented below.

This famous lady love to traveling. (R#5)

Intended: This famous lady loves øtraveling. (R#5)


55

The example above tells that the student added a preposition (to) after the

verb. It is not necessary because some verbs are not followed by prepositions.

3) Use of Pronouns

Use of pronouns is considered by the researcher as an important part to

explain. There were found some errors in use of pronouns in the students‟

descriptive texts. The numbers of each type of error is presented in a table below.

Table 4.6. Number of Errors in Use of Pronouns


a) Omission of Subject Pronouns 9

b) Omission of Relative Pronoun 'That' 3

a) Omission of Subject Pronoun

This error often happened in the students‟ descriptive texts. It happened

when the students forgot or omitted the subject pronoun such as he, she, and etc.

The sentence which has omission of subject pronoun turned to be confusing

because there was no specific subject pronoun in the sentence. The examples of

this error are presented as follows.

Emotional when he played. (R#34)

Intended: He was emotional when he played. (R#34)

Now approximately 26 years old. (R#48)

Intended: He is now approximately 26 years old. (R#48)

From the explanation above, it can be inferred that the students made

errors because they did not write the subject pronoun of their sentences. This

situation could happen when the students made English sentences with Bahasa

Indonesia‟s point of view.


56

b) Omission of Relative Pronoun ‘That’

This error happened when the students omitted the relative pronoun „that‟

in their sentences. Relative pronoun „that‟ is important because it can relate one

sentence to another. The examples of this error are presented below.

Selly has blue eyesø look like Anne. (R#32)

Intended: Selly has blue eyes thatlook like Anne‟s.

Robert has brown eyes ø look like my uncle. (R#32)

Intended: Robert has brown eyes thatlook like my uncle‟s.

From the examples above, it is clear that the student omitted the relative

pronoun „that‟. This error could happen because of the influence of the mother

tongue.

4) Use of Modifiers

In this part, the researcher only used one type of error to describe the error

found in the students‟ descriptive texts. There were only 4 items in which this

error was found.

a) Missing Adjectives

This error happens when the student forgot or omittedthe adjectives to the

nouns in their sentences. This error was found only in four items and the

researcher intends to explain one of them. The example is presented below.

He is around 30 years. (R#21)

Intended: He is around 30 yearsold.


57

The example above tells that the student did not write the adjective after

the noun. For telling age, the adjective „old‟ is necessary to describe someone‟s

age.

b. Verb Phrases

In verb phrases, the researcher presents two categories. They are the use of

verbs and subject-verb agreement. Each category is divided into some

subcategories. They are as presented below.

1) Use of Verbs

In this part, the researcher intends to explain the errors or anomalies in the

use of verbs. The researcher found five types of errors. They are presented as

follows.

Table 4.7. Number of Errors in Use of Verbs


a) Omission of ‘To Be’ 55

b) Double Verbs 9


c) Misuse of Auxiliary Verbs 6

d) Misuse of Main Verbs 4

a) Omission of ‘To Be’

This error is the highest frequency error item in the use of verbs. This error

is counted 55 items out of 77 total items of errors in use of verbs. To have a clear

explanation, the researcher provides some examples of this error. They are

presented as follows.

His ageø about 20 years old. (R#4)

Intended: His age isabout 20 years old.


58

The player‟s full nameø Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro. (R#11)

Intended: The player‟s full nameis Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro.

Robert Pattinsonø born 13 May 1986 at London, England. (R#16)

Intended: Robert Pattinsonwasborn on 13 May 1986 at London, England.

From three examples above, it can be inferred that some students had

tendencies to omit to be in their sentences. It is caused by the influence of mother

tongue. The omission did not only happen in simple present tense but it also

happened in simple past tense. This error is considered as the major error because

its number is high and it is also dangerous for the students in their upcoming

writing.

b) Double Verbs

This error happens when the students wrote two verbs in one sentence.

This error is not considered as the major error but the teacher needs precaution

toward this error. To be clearer, the examples of this error are presented as

follows.

Robert Pattinsonis got black and straight hair. (R#17)

Intended: Robert Pattinsongot black and straight hair.

He is use 7 number for his jersey. (R#8)

Intended: He usesnumber 7 for his jersey.

From the explanation above, the researcher infers that the students were

still confused in using the main verbs and the auxiliary verbs. They added one

main verb and one auxiliary verb in one sentence. It might be caused by their


59

perception of English. The students might assume that a main verb is preceded by

an auxiliary verb.

c) Misuse of Auxiliary Verbs

This error is about the misuse of auxiliary verbs. Few students made errors

in auxiliary verbs. They did not use auxiliary verbs in a proper place. They used

auxiliary verbs instead of main verbs in some sentences. The examples are

presented below.

He is big body. (R#7)

Intended: He hasa big body.

He has born on 5 February 1985. (R#6)

Intended: He was born on 5 February 1985.

The first example above shows that the student used an auxiliary verb to

describe a person. The student chose „is‟ instead of „has‟. The correct verb to the

first example is „has‟. The second example shows that the student could not

differentiate between „has‟ and „was‟. The student might be confused between

simple past tense and present perfect tense.

d) Misuse of Main Verbs

This error happened when the student did not proper verbs or main verbs

in their sentences; instead, they used auxiliary verbs. The example of this error is

presented below.

He is a very outstanding performance. (R#29)

Intended: He presents/has a very outstanding performance.


60

From the example above, the student tried to describe that his subject

presents a very outstanding and the student used the auxiliary verb „is‟ rather than

the main verb „presents‟. There were only 4 items in which this error was found in

the students‟ descriptive texts.

2) Subject-Verb Agreement

In this part, the researcher explains the errors in subject-verb agreement.

This error often happened in the students‟ descriptive texts. The researcher found

four types of errors. The explanation of the numbers of the errors is presented as

follows.

Table 4.8. Numberof Errors in Subject-Verb Agreement


a) Disagreement of Subject-Verb (Person) 82

b) Disagreement of Subject-Verb (Number) 11

c) Substitution 'it's' for 'is' 5

d) Substitution 'his' for 'he’s' 5

The explanation of each type of error is presented one by one as follows.

a) Disagreement of Subject-Verb (Person)

This error happened when the students did not apply the correct pattern or

form of a verb in a particular tense. In this research, this error happened quite

frequent in simple present tense because the students made descriptive texts. This

error happened quite frequent because some students had a lack of subject-verb

agreement especially in simple present tense. To have a clear explanation, the

examples of this error are presented below.

He have almond- shaped eyes. (R#4)

Intended: He has almond- shaped eyes.


61

He have humble and hard working character. (R#17)

Intended: He has a humble and hardworking character.

The examples above show that the students did not apply the correct verbs

to the subjects. The other examples also show that the students did not add suffix

–s or –es in the verbs of their sentences.

b) Disagreement of Subject-Verb (Number)

This error is caused by the students not using right auxiliary verbs towards

the subjects. The students did not use correct auxiliary verbs for their sentences.

The examples of this error are presented below.

The lips is very thin. (R#25)

Intended: The lips are very thin.

And his lips is thin. (R#4)

Intended: And his lips are thin.

The examples above show that the students did not choose correct

auxiliary verbs for their sentence.

c) Substitution 'it's' for 'is'

This error happened when the students substituted the verbs in their

sentences with the words that were similarly pronounced. In this case, the

substitution occurred between it’s and is. Those two words are similarly

pronounced, yet, they are different to each other. To have a clear explanation of

this error, the examplesare presented below.

He‟s strong foot it’s right foot. (R#6)

Intended:His strong foot isthe right foot.


62

Ronaldo it’s so top player Real Madrid Football club. (R#1)

Intended: Ronaldo isa so top player Real Madrid Football club.

The explanation above shows the substitution of it‟s and is. This error

happened because the student did not understand well about the use of auxiliary

verbs.

d) Substitution his for he’s

This error happened when the students substitute the subject „he‟ attached

with auxiliary verb („s) with the possessive determiner„his‟. This error is only

found in 5 items in the students‟ descriptive texts. The examples are presented

below.

Now his playing for Real Madrid. (R#9)

Intended: Now he is playing for Real Madrid.

His playing for Real Madrid football club. (R#8)

Intended: He is playing for Real Madrid football club.

The examples above explain the students had misconception in

differentiating a particular subject attached with auxiliary verb and possessive

determiner.

c. Word Order

In word order, the researcher only presents one category. That is use of

lexical categories. The explanation of use of lexical category is presented below.

1) Use of Lexical Categories

In the use of Lexical Categories, the researcher provides two

subcategories. They areMissing Head Nounand Misodering.


63

In order to have clear information about the type of errors, the explanation

of the abbreviation of each type of error is presented as follows.

Table 4.9. Number of Errors in Use of Lexical Categories


a) Misodering 60

b) Missing Head Noun 15

a) Misodering

This error happened when the students did not place each lexical item in a

proper place. As a result, some of the students‟ sentences were mixed up because

they had not understood the grammar well. The example of this error is presented

below.

He has high speed and drible the ball very good.(R#6)

Intended: He has high speed and a very good ball dribble.

The example above shows that the student‟s sentence is disordered. The

student might be confused by the sentence pattern and influenced by the student‟s

mother tongue. This error is significant because this error has the highest number

of error in use of lexical categories.

b) Missing Head Noun

This error happened when the students did not write the head noun in

some sentences. This error happened quite frequent and it needs to be handled.

The example of this error is presented below.

He is a handsomeø and have strong body. (R#6)

Intended: He is a handsomeman and hasa strong body.


64

The example above shows that the student did not write his sentence

completely. The missing thing of the above sentence is the head noun „man‟ after

the attributive adjective „handsome‟. This error also occurred in various ways in

the students‟ descriptive texts.

d. Other Finding of Syntax Errors

This is the last part of syntax error. This category only consists of one

subcategory and one sub-subcategory. The subcategory is Use of Conjunctions

and the sub-subcategory is Omission of Conjunction „And‟. The researcher

presents the finding as follows.

1) Use of Conjunctions

This part only consists of one subcategory. This part only explains how the

students used conjunctions in their descriptive text. The explanation of this part is

presented in the subcategory.

a) Omission of Conjunction ‘And’

This error happens when the students omitted connective conjunction

„and‟ in their sentence. This error only was only found in 9 items in the students‟

descriptive texts. To have a clear explanation about this error, the examples of this

error are presented below.

She is hard working,ø imaginative.(R#22)

Intended: She is hard working andimaginative.

Robert is friendly, humorus, ømodest. (R#41)

Intended: Robert is friendly, humorous, and modest.


65

The examples above show that the students did not add connective

conjunctions between attributive adjectives in their sentences.

2. Morphological Errors

In this part, there are three main categories of morphological errors. They

are verb inflection, noun inflection and the use of suffix. Each category has its

own subcategories and sub-subcategories. Morphological errors are in the second

place comparing to four types of errors. Each category is presented one by one as

follows.

a. Verb Inflection

In this category, there are two categories. They are simple present tense

and simple past tense. The two above categories mean that the errors are in

relation to simple present tense and simple past tense.

1) Simple Present Tense

This category only has one subcategory. It is Misformation of Verbs in

Simple Present Tense. This category explains the students‟ errors in simple

present tense. This category plays an important role, because this category holds

the most error item in morphological errors. The numbers for this of errorare 64

items.

a) Misformation of Verbs in Simple Present Tense

This error happened when the students made error in forming words in

simple present tense. The occurrence of this error is focused on how the students‟

sentences‟ verbs were incorrect in simple present tense. To have a clear

explanation, the examples are provided by the researcher as follows.


66

She’s wear sunglasses, white gloves, and green dress. (R#5)

Intended:She wearssunglasses, white gloves, and a green dress.


Intended: He uses number 7 for his jersey.

The examples above show that the students added morphemes and one

lexical item to their sentences. Apparently, the sentences are incorrect and the

correction is directed to the sentences‟ verbs.

2) Simple Past Tense

This category also has only one subcategory. It is Misformation of Verbs

in Simple Past Tense. This category is obviously similar to the previous category,

simple present tense. In this category, the researcher explains how the students‟

errors occurred in simple past tense. This category is second place after simple

present tense.

a) Misformation of Verbs in Simple Past Tense

This error occurred when the students did not apply the right pattern of

simple past tense. This error is focused on how the students made errors in their

verbs of simple past tense. The examples of this error are presented as follows.

Before he play in real Madrid, he is play in Manchester united football club.

(R#8)

Intended: Before he playedfor Real Madrid, he played for Manchester United

football club.

He is join to Portugal National footbal, and play in world cup. (R#6)


67

Intended: He joined Portugal National Football team and played in World

Cup.

The examples above show that the students did not apply the appropriate

tense for their sentence. The sentences‟ context is already past, but the students

used simple present tense context, instead.

b. Noun Inflection

This category has three subcategories. They are possessive case and noun

(singular and plural). Each of them has their subcategories. In this category, the

researcher intends to explain the phenomena in students‟ descriptive texts which

happened to the nouns.

1) Possessive Case

The researcher‟s purpose of this category is to explain the students‟ errors

of applying possessive case in their descriptive texts. The errors in possessive case

are divided into twotypes. The explanation of each type of error is presented as

follows.

Table 4.10. Number of Errors in Possessive Case

No. Types of Error Numbers

a) Addition of Possessive Case 21

b) Omission of Possessive Case 8

a) Addition of Possessive Case

In the addition of possessive case, the students unnecessarily added

possessive cases to the subject pronoun or other parts of sentence in their

descriptive texts. This error was found in 21 items in the students‟ descriptive

texts. The examples of this error are presented below.


68


Intended: She wears sunglasses, white gloves and a green dress.

He’s have white skin and short hair. (R#6)

Intended: He has white skin and short hair.

The examples above tell that the student unnecessarily added possessive

case („s) in the subject pronoun of their sentences. This error occurred because of

the students‟ grammar misunderstanding. The students perceived that their

sentences are all right.

e) Omission of Possessive Case

In this error, the students omitted or ignored possessive case in their

sentences. This error was found in8 items in students‟ descriptive texts. The

example of this error is presented below.

My aunt name is Anne. (R#32)

Intended: My aunt’s name is Anne.

The example above gives information that the student omitted possessive

case („s) of the subject pronoun. This error is considered minor, yet, it is also still

considered as a phenomena happening in the students‟ descriptive texts.

2) Noun (Singular and Plural)

In this part, the researcher shows the error occurred in the nouns of

students‟ sentences. This error explains how the students form singular or plural

nouns in their sentences. The researcher found two types of error. The

explanation of the numbers of each type of error is presented below.


69

Table 4.11. Number of Errors in Noun (Singular and Plural)

No. Types of Error Numbers

a) Omission of suffix -s/-es to Noun (Plural Form Incorrect) 26

b) Addition of Suffix -s/-es to Noun (Singular Form

Incorrect)

6

a) Omission of suffix -s/-esto Noun (Plural Form Incorrect)

This error occurred when the students omitted or ignored suffix –s/-es of

the plural nouns. This occurrence of this error is quite frequent because this error

was found in 26 items. To have a clear explanation, the researcher gives some

examples of this error. They are presented as follows.

He plays in many movie. (R#2)

Intended:He plays in many movies.

With MU he was winning a few trophy of FA and…(R#13)

Intended:With MU, he was winning a few trophies of FA…

The examples above show the omission of suffix –s/-es of the nouns. This

kind of error needs to be taken care of.

b) Addition of Suffix -s/-es to Noun (Singular Form Incorrect)

In this error, the students did the opposite way of the previous error. Some

students added suffix –s/-es to the singular nouns which obviously do not need

addition of suffix –s/-es. The example of this error is presented below.

Her hair styles is ponytail and layered. (R#22)

Her hair style is ponytail and layered.

The example above shows that the student added an unnecessary suffix –s

to a singular noun.


70

3) Use of Suffix

The researcher also discovered some anomalies of suffixes in the students‟

descriptive text. The anomalies were minor compared to other anomalies. The

researcher used type of errors to describe the minor anomalies of suffixes. In order

to make a concise explanation, the researcher explains all the type of errors in a

brief explanation. The explanation is presented as follows.

Table 4.12.Number ofErrors in Use of Suffix

No. Type of errors Numbers and Examples

a) Addition of Suffix –ed

9

E.g. His talent was showned by coach of

Manchester United… (R#13) Intended: was seen

b) Addition of Suffix –

ing

3

e.g. I will describing Cristiano Ronaldo.

(R#23)Intended: I will describe Cristiano

Ronaldo.

The examples and the explanation above quite show that there are still

found some errors in the use of suffix. Errors in use of suffix are minors, because

the errors do not dominate the error finding.

3. Other Findings

The researcher also found many lexical errors. This error was foundin

totalof 127 items. Lexical errors are only divided into two main categories. They

are ortographic errors and lexico-semantic errors. The explanation of each type of

error is presented as follows.

a. Ortographic Errors

In this error, the students did not write their words in an appropriate

spelling. This error is focused on how the students wrote the words for their

descriptive texts and spell letters in the words. Some students did not properly


71

spell words in their descriptive texts. This error is found 66 items in the students‟

descriptive texts. To have a clear explanation, the examples of ortographic errors

are presented below.

The examples presented below show how the students improperly spelled

the words. The cause for that error is that some students perceived the spelling

with their mother tongue point-of-view. As a result, some students‟ distorted

words are apparently influenced by the Bahasa Indonesia spelling.

Table. 4.13. The Examples of Ortographic Errors

No. Distorted Words Intended Words

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Energectic

Profesional

footbal

drible

spektacular

nasionality

Profesion

Arroun

Mascular

takling

Energetic

Professional

football

dribble

spectacular

nationality

Profession

Around

Muscular

tackling

b. Lexico-Semantic Errors

In this error, the researcher explains the lexico-semantic errors. This error

is focused on how the students improperly used words in their descriptive texts.

This error occurred quite frequent, because it is counted 61 items. The examples

of this error are presented below.

Table 4.11. The Examples of Lexico-Semantic Errors

No. Misused Words Intended Words

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

…she wearhighhills.

His face hair…

He has sharp nose.

He has many likes girl in word.

He‟s body is high.

…she wears high heels.

His facial hair…

He has a pointed nose.

He has many favorite girls in the world.

His body is tall.


72

The examples above show that some students properly spelled the words

they used, yet, they did not use the words in a proper way. This error needs to be

taken care of because this error is quite serious. Preliminary action toward this

error is needed in order to prevent further students‟ misunderstanding.

B. Possible Causes Of Errors Made On Descriptive texts By Seventh grade

Students Of SMP PangudiLuhur Yogyakarta

In this part, the researcher presents the causes of errors that occurred in the

students‟ descriptive texts. There are many causes of errors provided by John

Norrish (1983), yet, the researcher only chose some of them which are considered

relevant for explaining the students‟ errors in descriptive texts. The researcher

searched the causes of errors of the students‟ descriptive texts through errors

found on students‟ descriptive texts. The researcher observed the students‟

answers from the questionnaires. The researcher concluded the possible causes of

error of SMP PangudiLuhur Yogyakartaseventh grade students afterwards. The

possible causes of errors for SMP PangudiLuhur Yogyakarta are presented as

follows.

1. Basic Grammar Understanding of The Students

The students‟ basic grammar understanding is considered by the researcher

as the first cause of error. The reason for that is because almost all of the students

have problems with their basic grammar understanding. It is proved by the result

of students‟ descriptive texts. Most of the errors that occurred in the students‟

descriptive texts were caused by their basic grammar understanding. The students


73

did not have strong basic grammar understanding, therefore, the students made

errors mostly related to grammar.

2. Overgeneralization

Richards (1971b) as cited by Ellis (1994) stated that” overgeneralization

errors arise when the learner creates a deviant structure on the basis of other

structures in the target language. It generally involves of one deviant structure in

place of two target language”. Overgeneralization occurred in the students‟

descriptive texts. Most of the students dealt with the use of verbs in simple present

tense. They over generalized that every verb of simple present tense is not added

suffix –s or –es. Overgeneralization also occurred when the students formed plural

nouns. The students tended to omit suffix –s or –es.

3. Students’ Carelessness

Norrish (1983) stated that carelessness is also a cause of error. Yet, it is

not the only cause of errors. He also stated that carelessness could be happen if the

teacher‟s presentation or the text book does not suit the students. The researcher

considered carelessness as one of causes of error in the students‟ descriptive texts.

Carelessness is shown from the students‟ descriptive texts. Some errors represent

students‟ carelessness in writing. Another proof for students‟ carelessness is

misspelling. There were found some words which were misspelled.

4. Incomplete Application of Rules

Richards (1971b) as cited by Ellis (1994) stated that “incomplete

application of rules involves a failure to fully develop a structure”. In incomplete

application of rules, the students incompletely applied rules in syntax and


74

morphology. The example of incomplete application of rules is the omission of „to

be‟ (is, am, are, was and were). In the students‟ descriptive texts, omission of „to

be‟ contributed quite high frequency of errors. This kind of errors was discovered

in more than one student‟s descriptive text. Based on this kind of error, the

students were not aware of their omitting „to be. Besides omission of „to be‟, there

are still many students‟ errors in descriptive texts which reflect incomplete

application of rules.

5. First Language Interference

Skinner (1957) as cited by Norrish (1982) stated a definitive statement of

behaviorist theory of language learning. It says that a language is essentially a set

of habits, and then when the learners try to learn the new habits, the former habits

will interfere with the new habits. That is called mother tongue interference. The

Skinner‟s(1957) explanation is clear towards this cause of error. The researcher

considered first language or mother tongue interference as one of causes of error

in student‟s descriptive texts. This consideration is based on the students‟ error.

The proof for this cause of error is other findings. In this research, other

findingsaredivided into two categories. They are ortographic errors and lexico-

semantic errors. Lexico-semantic errors areone category that is very affected by

students‟ first language interference. Some students used English words in this

inappropriately. It is because some students perceived that the English words are

all similar. Therefore, the students used the words which they perceived as the

right words.


75

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

In this chapter, the researcher draws the conclusion of his research and

proposes some suggestions toward this research. The researcher also provides

some suggestions for future research of error analysis.

A. Conclusion

The researcher initiated this research because of one purpose. That was to

identify the errors in SMP Pangudi Luhur Yogyakarta seventh grade students’

descriptive texts. The error occurred in 55 students’ worksheets of three regular

classes of seventh grade students in SMP Pangudi Luhur Yogyakarta. The

researcher proposed descriptive texts as a tool to collect the errors. The researcher

had the teacher’s and also the headmaster’s approval to carry on this research for

the sake of the students. The researcher initiated this research with two main

questions. The first question was “what are the errors made on descriptive writing

by seventh grade students of Pangudi Luhur Junior High School?” This question

was addressed to seek out all kinds of students’ errors in their descriptive texts.

The second question was “what are the possible causes of errors made on

descriptive writing by seventh grade students of Pangudi Luhur Junior High

School?” This question was to facilitate the researcher in searching of possible

causes of errors. The researcher started this research by obtaining the approval

both from the teacher and the headmaster. The research instruments for this


76

research are students’ descriptive writing about people’s appearance as suggested

by the teacher and character. The researcher also provided a brief summary of

descriptive text (people’s appearance and character) to each student with the

intention that the students could recall what they have learned through the

summary. The researcher distributed worksheets, and summaries to three regular

classes: 7A, 7B and 7C. The predicted total of the participants is 131 participants.

On the contrary, the actual total instruments are 110 collected students’

worksheets. The researcher chose 55 samples from 110 students’ worksheets

through systematic sampling method (Fraenkel and Wallen, 2009).

The researcher examined 55 selected samples and found some errors. The

errors were divided into three major categories. They are syntax errors,

morphological errors and other findings. Each category is also divided into some

subcategories. The researcher also used some abbreviations to each subcategory is

order to ease the researcher in assessing students’ errors. In syntax errors, the

students mostly made errors in articles (a, an and the) and simple present tense

form. Omission and addition were also found in syntax errors. In morphological

errors, the students mostly had problems with forming right verbs for simple

present tense. Addition and omission were also found in morphological errors.

The third one is other findings. Lexical errors deal with words’ spelling and use of

words. This category is only divided into two subcategories. They are

orthographic errors and lexico-semantic errors. The students frequently made

errors of those two categories.


77

As the second question is stated, the researcher also presents possible

causes of errors in students’ descriptive texts. There are five possible causes of

errors in students’ descriptive writing. They are basic grammar understanding of

the students, overgeneralization, students’ carelessness, incomplete application of

rules and first language interference.

B. Suggestions

In this research, the researcher provides some suggestions which are relevant to

this research. The suggestions are presented as follows:

1. The teacher should make the students interested and motivated in learning

English. It is because lack of interest and motivation could directly affect

students’ score. The more motivated and interested students, the more

knowledge the students can obtain. Lack of interest and motivation could be

prevented by various techniques of teaching. The teacher can vary his

techniques of teaching with games or other techniques which can enable the

students to learn, in this case, English grammar.

2. In order to take care of students’ carelessness, the teacher can carry out

students’ peer assessment of their writing. Therefore, the students are expected

to be able to realize what their errors are. The teacher could also provide a

Trial-and-Error action in classes. This action could trigger the students to

know errors in writing or any other skills. After knowing errors, the students

are also expected to fix their errors.


78

3. In order to overcome over generalization and incomplete application of rules,

the teacher could increase the exposure to English texts, and grammar.

Therefore, the students could know the correct forms of English sentences or

words. In the future time, the students would be able to apply correct forms of

English sentences and words, and also the students could avoid

overgeneralization.

The result of this research would be meaningless if the students and the

teacher do not follow up with some follow-up actions. This research’s purpose is

to present the students’ error in writing in order to make the students realize their

errors and they can fix their errors. This research is also limited by many

circumstances. The researcher still needs further suggestions for this research. The

researcher also welcomes future researchers to have research related to error

analysis. This research is dedicated to improving teaching learning process in

seventh grade regular classes of SMP Pangudi Luhur Yogyakarta.


79

REFERENCES

Azar, B. S. & Hagen, S. A. (2009). Understanding and using English grammar

(4th

ed). New York: Pearson Education.

Abed, A. Q. (2012). Error analysis. Baghdad: Baghdad University Press.

Brook, N. (1960). Language and language learning (2nd

ed.). New York:

Harcourt, Brace and World. Inc.

Brown, H. D. (1980). Principles of language learning and teaching. Englewood

Cliffs: Prentice Hall.

__________. (1994). Principles of language learning and teaching (3rd

ed).

Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall Regents.

__________. (2007). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to

language pedagogy (3rd

ed.). White Plains: Pearson Education.

Berg, T.L. (2011). Learning from descriptive texts. New York: Stony Brook

University Press.

Corder, S.P. (1967). Significance of learner’s errors. Middlesex: Penguin

Education.

__________. (1973). Introducing applied linguistics. Harmondsworth: Penguin

Education.

__________. (1974). Error analysis and remedial teaching. Washington.D. C. :

ERIC Clearinghouse.

__________. (1981). Error analysis and interlanguage. Oxford: Oxford

University Press.

Crystal, D. (2003). A dictionary of linguistics and phonetics (5th

ed). London:

Blackwell.

Dulay, H., Burt, M., & Krashen, S. (1982). Language two. New York: Oxford

University Press.

Ellis, R. (1994). The study of second language acquisition. Oxford: Oxford

University Press.

Fraenkel, J. R. & Wallen, N. E. (2009). How to design and evaluate research in

education. New York: McGraw Hill Companies.


80

Gass, S. & Selinker, L. (2001). Second language acquisition: An introductory

course. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Gerot, L. & Wignell, P. (1995). Making sense of functional grammar. Cammeray:

Antipadean Educational Enterprises (AEE).

Hasyim, S. (2002). Error analysis in the teaching of English. Surabaya: Kristen

Petra University.

Hendrickson, J. (1981). Error analysis and error correction in language teaching.

Singapore: SEAMEO Regional Language Centre.

Hammond, J. (1992). English for social purposes. Sydney: Macquarie University

Press.

Henry, D.J. (2008). Writing for life: Paragraphs to essay. New York: Pearson

Longman.

Keshavarz, M. (2012). Contrastive analysis and error analysis (2nd

ed). Tehran:

Rahamana Press.

Lange, D. L. (1977). Report on Lange‟s keynote address: “Thoughts from Europe

about learning a second language in the classroom.” Modern Language

Journal, 265-267.

Lantolf, J. P. (1977). “Aspects of change in foreign language study.” Modern

Language Journal, 242-251.

McMurrey, D. A. (1983). Writing fundamentals. New York: Macmillian CO. Inc.

Mursyid, P.W. (n.d.). Learning descriptive texts. Retrieved August 16, 2013, from

http://mmursyidpw.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/learning-description.pdf

Norrish, J. (1983). Language learners and their errors. London: Macmillan Press.


81

Politzer, R & Ramirez, A. (1973). “An Error Analysis of the Spoken

English of Mexican-American Pupils in a Bilingual School and a

Monolingual School.” Language Learning 23 (1): 38-61.

Richards, J. C. (1971). “ A non-contrastive approach to error analysis.” Journal of

English Language Teaching, 25 (3), 204-219.

Skinner, B. F. (1957). Verbal behavior. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts

Svartvik, J. (1973). Errata: papers in error analysis. Lund: Lund University

Press.

Schachter, J. & Celce-Murcia, M. (1977). Some reservations concerning

error analysis. TESOL Quarterly, 11, 441-451.

Tiedt, I.M. (1989). Writing: From topic to evaluation. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Zydatiss, W. (1974). A „kiss of life‟ for the notion of error. International Review

of Applied Linguistics, 12, 231-237.


82

APPENDIX A

Examples of Students’

Errors


83

1. Syntactical Errors

a. Noun Phrase

1) Use of Determiners

a) Omission of Articles

He has ø pointed nose. (R#2) Intended: He has a pointed nose.

He is ø player in Real Madrid. (R#7) Intended: He is a player in

Real Madrid.

She is ø pretty girl. (R#19) Intended: She is a pretty girl.

b) Addition of Articles

He has a strong legs. (R#18) Intended: He has strong legs.

He have a white skin. (R#21) Intended: He has white skin.

c) Substitution of Possessive Determiners

He’s age is 28 year. (R#6) Intended: His age is 28 years.

He’s name is cristiano Ronaldo. (R#6) Intended: His name is

Cristiano Ronaldo.

She’s beloved pet is dog. (R#25) Intended: Her beloved pet is a

dog.

d) Misuse of Articles

Cristiano Ronaldo is the famous soccer player. (R#46) Intended:

Cristiano Ronaldo is a famous soccer player.


84

e) Misuse of Determiners

He contributed this golden shoes for support sacrifice Israel.

(R#24) Intended: He contributed these golden shoes to support

Israelis’ sacrifice.

He has many money and ø ladies. (R#12) Intended: He has much

money and many ladies.

2) Use of Prepositions

a) Misuse of Prepositions

He is very good on free kicks and penalty kicks. (R#6) Intended:

He is very good at free kicks and penalty kicks.

b) Omission of Prepositions

Then Ronaldo played for MU for couple ø season. (R#9) Intended:

Then, Ronaldo played for MU for couple of seasons.

c) Addition of Prepositions

This famous lady love to traveling. (R#5) Intended: This famous

lady loves ø traveling. (R#5)

3) Use of Pronouns

a) Omission of Subject Pronoun

Emotional when he played. (R#34) Intended: He was emotional

when he played. (R#34)

Now approximately 26 years old. (R#48) Intended: He is now

approximately 26 years old. (R#48)


85

b) Omission of Relative Pronoun ‘That’

Selly has blue eyes ø look like Anne. (R#32) Intended: Selly has

blue eyes that look like Anne’s.

Robert has brown eyes ø look like my uncle. (R#32) Intended:

Robert has brown eyes that look like my uncle’s.

4) Use of Modifiers

a) Missing Adjectives

He is around 30 years. (R#21)

Intended: He is around 30 years old.

b. Verb Phrases

1) Use of Verbs

a) Omission of ‘To Be’

His age ø about 20 years old. (R#4)

Intended: His age is about 20 years old.

The player’s full name ø Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro.

(R#11)

Intended: The player’s full name is Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos

Aveiro.

Robert Pattinson ø born 13 May 1986 at London, England. (R#16)

Intended: Robert Pattinson was born 13 May 1986 at London,

England.


86

b) Double Verbs

Robert Pattinson is got black and straight hair. (R#17)

Intended: Robert Pattinson got black and straight hair.



c) Misuse of Auxiliary Verbs

He is big body. (R#7)

Intended: He has a big body.

He has born on 5 February 1985. (R#6)

Intended: He was born on 5 February 1985.

d) Misuse of Main Verbs

He is a very outstanding performance. (R#29)

Intended: He presents/has a very outstanding performance.

2) Subject-Verb Agreement

a) Disagreement of Subject-Verb (Person)

He have almond- shaped eyes. (R#4)

Intended: He has almond- shaped eyes.

He have humble and hard working character. (R#17)

Intended: He has a humble and hard working character.

b) Disagreement of Subject-Verb (Number)

The lips is very thin. (R#25)

Intended: The lips are very thin.

And his lips is thin. (R#4)


87

Intended: And his lips are thin.

c) Substitution 'it's' for 'is'

He’s strong foot it’s right foot. (R#6)

Intended: His strong foot is the right foot.

Ronaldo it’s so top player Real Madrid Football club. (R#1)

Intended: Ronaldo is a so top player Real Madrid Football club.

d) Substitution his for he’s

Now his playing for Real Madrid. (R#9)

Intended: Now he is playing for Real Madrid.

His playing for Real Madrid football club. (R#8)

Intended: He is playing for Real Madrid football club.

c. Word Order

1) Use of Lexical Categories

a) Misordering

He has high speed and drible the ball very good. (R#6)

Intended: He has high speed and a very good ball dribble.

b) Missing Head Noun

He is a handsome ø and have strong body. (R#6)

Intended: He is a handsome man and has a strong body.

d. Other Finding of Syntactic Errors

1) Use of Conjunctions

a) Omission of Conjunction ‘And’

She is hard working, ø imaginative. (R#22)


88

Intended: She is hard working and imaginative.

Robert is friendly, humorus, ø modest. (R#41)

Intended: Robert is friendly, humorous, and modest.

2. Morphological Errors

a.Verb Inflection

1) Simple Present Tense

a) Misformation of Verbs in Simple Present Tense


Intended: She wears sunglasses, white gloves, and a green dress.



2) Simple Past Tense

a) Misformation of Verbs in Simple Past Tense

Before he play in real Madrid, he is play in Manchester united

football club. (R#8)

Intended: Before he played for Real Madrid, he played for

Manchester United football club.

He is join to Portugal National footbal, and play in world cup.

(R#6)

Intended: He joined Portugal National Football team and played in

World Cup.


89

b. Noun Inflection

1) Possessive Case

a) Addition of Possessive Case


Intended: She wears sunglasses, white gloves and a green dress.

He’s have white skin and short hair. (R#6)

Intended: He has white skin and short hair.

b) Omission of Possessive Case

My aunt name is Anne. (R#32)

Intended: My aunt’s name is Anne.

2) Noun (Singular and Plural)

a) Omission of suffix -s/-es to Noun (Plural Form Incorrect)

He plays in many movie. (R#2)

Intended: He plays in many movies.

With MU he was winning a few trophy of FA and…(R#13)

Intended: With MU, he was winning a few trophies of FA…

b) Addition of Suffix -s/-es to Noun (Singular Form Incorrect)

Her hair styles is ponytail and layered. (R#22)

Her hair style is ponytail and layered.

3) Use of Suffix

No. Types of Error Abbreviations and Examples

a) Addition of

Suffix –ed

E.g. His talent was showned by coach of

Manchester United… (R#13) Intended: was seen

b) Addition of

Suffix –ing

e.g. I will describing Cristiano Ronaldo. (R#23)

Intended: I will describe Cristiano Ronaldo.


90

3. Other Findings

a. Ortographic Errors

No. Distorted Words Intended Words

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Energectic

Profesional

footbal

drible

spektacular

nasionality

Profesion

Arroun

Mascular

takling

Energetic

Professional

football

dribble

spectacular

nationality

Profession

Around

Muscular

Tackling

b. Lexico-Semantic Errors

No. Misused Words Intended Words

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

…she wear highhills.

His face hair…

He has sharp nose.

He has many likes girl in word.

He’s body is high.

…she wears high heels.

His facial hair…

He has a pointed nose.

He has many favorite girls in the world.

His body is tall.


91

APPENDIX B

Students’ Exercise of

Descriptive Text and a

Brief Summary of

Descriptive text


92

Descriptive Text

DESCRIBING PEOPLE

(APPEARANCE AND CHARACTER)

Please write at least four (4) paragraphs of a descriptive text

related to describing people (appearance and character).

One paragraph must consist of at least three (3) sentences.

Please choose one of the figures below to describe:

Taken from:

Robert (http://robertpattinsonuk.com/?p=34589)

Anne (http://vainchic.com/anne-hathaways-wardrobe-in-the-devil-wears-prada/)

Ronaldo (http://www.justjared.com/photo-gallery/2634741/cristiano-ronaldo-poland-game-08/)

Kate (http://www.justjared.com/photo-gallery/403591/revolutionary-road-movie-kate-winslet-10/)

Please write your descriptive text (describing people’s

appearance and character) on the answer sheet

Do not forget to submit it.


http://robertpattinsonuk.com/?p=34589

http://vainchic.com/anne-hathaways-wardrobe-in-the-devil-wears-prada/

http://www.justjared.com/photo-gallery/2634741/cristiano-ronaldo-poland-game-08/

http://www.justjared.com/photo-gallery/2634741/cristiano-ronaldo-poland-game-08/

http://www.justjared.com/photo-gallery/403591/revolutionary-road-movie-kate-winslet-10/

http://www.justjared.com/photo-gallery/403591/revolutionary-road-movie-kate-winslet-10/

93

DESCRIBING PEOPLE

(APPEARANCE AND CHARACTER)

Descriptive Text Generic Structure:

1. Identification : contains the information about the thing or person

that will be described.

2. Description : contains the explanation or description about the

thing or person that will be described.

Language Feature:

Focusing on a specific person or thing

(My favorite public figure, my beloved pet, and etc)

Use of simple present tense

Use of descriptive adjectives

(White fur, strong legs)

Use of detailed noun phrase (to give information about the

subject)

(A very outstanding performance, sweet young lady, and etc.)

Describing People Appearance

In describing people appearance, there are some points to be paid

attention.

They are as provided below:

AGE young / middle-aged / elderly / old a baby/ toddler / teenager in his/her 20s / 30s …

HEIGHT 165cm tall. of average / medium height tall / very tall / rather tall. short

BUILD fat / overweight / plump /chubby


94

skinny /thin / slim / plump well-built muscular

HAIR black, straight hair

CLOTHES a hat / earrings is in black

DISTINGUISHING FEATURES

glasses / contacts / braces a tattoo / a piercing

GENERAL beautiful, pretty, handsome, sexy, cute, good-looking

FACE SHAPE square, oval, round, triangular

SKIN freckled, fair complexion, tanned, wrinkled, silky, baby-soft, glowing, dry, callused, rough, dark-skinned, olive-skinned

EYES almond-shaped, squinty

LIPS thin/full lips, pursed lips, pouting lips

HAIR TEXTURE wavy, curly, straight, spiky, buzzed, shaved, neatly-combed, cropped, thick, bushy, coarse, scraggly, limp, flat, balding, bald, bald spot.

HAIR STYLES braids, ponytail, pigtail, bun, twist, flip, layered, chopped, spiked, slicked down, permed, dyed, bleached, highlighted, weaved

FACIAL HAIR beard, goatee, mustache, sideburns, unshaven, clean-shaven, trimmed, neatly-trimmed

The example of the description:

Image Source: http://assets.cambridge.org/97805216/64356/excerpt/9780521664356_excerpt.pdf


95

Describing People Character

People Character:

ambitious

bossy

capable

caring

cheerful

close-minded

confident

(in)considerate

creative

dull

easygoing

emotional

empathetic

energetic

friendly

funny

generous

gentle

hard-working

(dis)honest

humorous

imaginative

independent

intelligent

kind

lazy

loyal

mature

mean

modest

moody

naïve

narrow-minded

naughty

nice

noisy

open-minded

optimistic

outgoing

organized

patient

pessimistic

polite

(un)reliable

(ir)responsible

rude

selfish

sensible

sensitive

serious

shy

sincere

smart

sociable

strong-minded

stubborn

stupid

sweet

sympathetic

thrifty

tolerant

Example of Describing People’s Character:

My little sister is really sweet.

My friend Maria is very responsible and polite. My mum loves her.


96

Susan is not only intelligent, but she is also a very hard-working

person.

Peter is quite shy and quiet, but he’s very friendly.


97

APPENDIX C

Examples of Students’

Descriptive Text


98


99


100


101


102


103


104


105


106


107


108


109

APPENDIX D

Letter of Permission


110


universitas sanata dharma

Documents