24
should be
replaced by „people‟
transfer
15. Womans
Word order The
word „womans‟
should be
replaced by „women‟
Women Inter-
lingual transfer
16. Stimuluses
Word order The
word „stimuluses‟
should be
replaced by „stimuli‟
Stimuli Inter-
lingual transfer
19. Gooses
Word order The
word „gooses‟
should be
replaced by „geese‟
Geese Inter-
lingual transfer
20. Sheeps
Add a
word addition
The word
„sheeps‟ should
be replaced by
„sheep‟ Sheep
Context of
learning
23. Crisises
Word order The
word „crisises‟
should be
replaced by „crises‟
Crises Inter-
lingual transfer
24. Bacteriums
Word order The
word „bacteriums‟
should be
replaced by „bacteria‟
Bacteria Inter-
lingual transfer
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Table 4.6 Th ird Identification of the Students’ Error test-3
Test Item
Identification of Error
Classification of
Error’s Description
Explanation Correction Causes of
Error
3. Persons
Word order The
word „persons‟
should replaced by
„people‟ People
Inter- lingual
transfer
4. Deers
Add a word addition
The word
„deer‟ should
be replaced by
„deer‟ Deer
Context of learning
8. Mouses
Word order The
word „mouses‟
should be
replaced by „mice‟
Mice Inter-
lingual transfer
9. Gooses
Word order The
word goose
should be
replaced by „geese‟
Geese Inter-
lingual transfer
C. Data Analysis
In this subchapter, the writer would like to show the analysis of data from both the students‟ errors classification and their causes of errors that they made.
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Table 4.7 Classification of Students’ Error in Number and Percentage
No. Types of Error
Number of Errors
Average
1. Word order
217 of 19 items 11.4 67
2. Add
a word
addition 50 of 4 items
12.5 73.5
Total 23 items
From the table above, it can be seen that in average, there are as many as 11 errors or 67 students made for each item in word order classification since
the students do not have or lack of knowledge on the plural formation of the irregular nouns. Also, there are 12 or 13 errors or 73.5 of the students made by
each student in add-a-word classification because they add incorrect words in the plural forms of the nouns.
Table 4.8 Number of Causes of Error No.
Causes of Error Number of Errors
Average
1. Inter-lingual
transfer word-order
217 of 19 items 11.4 67.2
2. Context
of learning
addition 50 of 4 items
12.5 73.5
According to the table above, as many as 67.2 students committed the errors that are caused by the factor of inter-lingual transfer. This cause of errors
encompasses noun words that belong to the error classification of word order such as child-children, mouse-mice, person-people, stimulus-stimuli, etc..
On this factor of inter-lingual transfer, the students committed the errors in forming the plural nouns which apply the irregular patterns carelessly, especially
when they made „generalization‟ by asserting an s to those irregular noun words childs, mouses, toothes, etc.. This happened because they might be influenced by
their mother tongue, or their first language, including patterns, systems, or rules.
27
Therefore, when the students learn a foreign language, which is English here, their mother tongue might interfere it, which is caused by the inter-lingual transfer.
Also, there are 73.5 students made errors which are caused by the factor of context of learning. The noun words that belong to this factor of errors
are sheep and deer, where most students committed the errors that belong to addition classification of errors sheeps and deers. They seem do not aware that
some noun words do not change their forms in plural. The teachers or the textbooks are of the causes of this source of error.
After showing the calculation of the students‟ errors based on the classification and the causes of errors, the writer would like to demonstrate the
number of errors according to the group or areas of those irregular nouns.
Table 4.9 Frequency and Percentage of the Errors on Each Areas No
Irregular Nouns
Item Number Frequency of
Error Percentage
1. Nouns
with identical plural
and singular 14 sheep
10 20
28 deer 14
28 35 sheep
12 24
43 deer 14
28 Total
4 items 50
100 Average
50 errors 4 items = 12.5 73.5 students
2. Common
irregular nouns 2 children
6 8.4
6 mice 11
15.5 10 people
7 9.8
24 children 7
9.8 26 mice
11 15.5
29 people 10
14 42 people
9 12.6
47 mice 10
14 Total
8 items 71
100 Average
71 errors8 items = 8.8 51.7 students
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3. Umlaut Plural
11 teeth 10
10.6 13 women
9 9.5
15 men 10
10.6 25 men
10 10.6
27 teeth 9
9.5 30 women
12 12.7
34 geese 17
18 48 geese
17 18
Total 8 items
94 100
Average 94 errors8 items
= 11.75 69.1 students 4.
Irregular plural from Latin and
Greek 31 stimuli
17 34
38 crises 17
34 39 bacteria
16 32
Total 3 items
50 100
Average 50 errors3 items
= 16.6 97.6 From the first part of the table, which is the group of identical singular and
nouns, as many as 12 to 13 students or 73.5 made the errors for each number of the item. For the common irregular nouns, there are 8 or 9 students or 51.7
committed the errors for each item. On this part, the noun letters change significantly compared with other irregular ones. Many of them do not know that
the singular noun words child, person, and mouse change into children, people, and mice, respectively.
The next group of the irregular nouns is the umlaut ones, i.e. the noun words that only change their vowels to make them plural. The students still failed
in forming the nouns tooth, man, woman, and goose into their plurals correctly as in average, 11 or 12 students or 69.1 did the errors for each item.
Unfortunately, all of them failed to form the noun goose into geese that appeared
