56 From sentence [18b], it can be seen that there was illogical conditional
sentence. Based on the fact in the sentence [18a], it consists of the cause and the result. Therefore, sentence [18b] was not suitable with the fact. The “result
clause” of the correct conditional sentence should be “was not injured”, but in sentence [18b] the “result clause” was “wearing seatbelt.” Besides, the pattern of
the conditional sentence used was incorrect. [21] a. Question: I didn’t get a taxi because I didn’t have any money on
me. b. Student’s answer: If I had any money on me, I would have got a
taxi. P. 42 c. Intended answer: If I had had some money, I would have got a taxi.
Basically, the pattern in sentence [21b] was already correct. Although the pattern was already correct, this sentence was still considered wrong. In sentence
[21b], the student forgot the word “any”, which should be changed into some. “Any” is used for negative sentences and “some is used for positive sentences
Murphy, 1985: 168. [24] a. Question: I was able to buy the car only because Jim lent me the
money. b. Student’s answer: If Jim had not lent me the money, I would have
been able to buy the car. P. 37 c. Intended answer: If Jim hadn’t lent me the money, I wouldn’t have
been able to buy the car.
57 Sentence [24b] had already used the correct pattern. The problem was the
meaning of sentence [24b] was different from the fact given. It should be included “not” in the “result clause” after “would.”
[27] a. Question: He took the taxi, so he caught the plane. b. Student’s answer: If he had taken the taxi, he would caught the
plane. P. 46 c. Intended answer: If he hadn’t taken the taxi, he wouldn’t have
caught the plane Grammatically, sentence [27b] was incorrect. The verb followed the
auxiliary verb was incorrect. Moreover, if the conditional sentence was in positive form, the fact would be in the negative form. Therefore, sentence [27b] was
incorrect.
2. The Factors Which Cause the Students to Make Errors
The factors which cause the fifth semester students of English Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma university was obtained from collecting the data
of students’ experience. In this case, the researcher used questionnaire to collect the answers. After that the writer analyzed the students’ responses. The
presentation of the students’ responses was divided into five criteria based on the aspect of investigation. The first was the students’ perception, the second was the
students’ ability the third was the students’ motivation and effort, the fourth was the teaching-learning activities and the last was the time, class and social
influences. Each criterion consisted of six numbers. The results were presented as follow.
58
Figure 4.1: The Percentage of the Students’ Responses on the First Aspect
Figure 4.1 shows the percentage of the students’ response on the first criterion. The first criterion was aimed to know the students’ perception on the
conditional sentences generally. From the result, it can be seen that on the first item there were 49.12 of the students agreed and 50.88 of the students
strongly agreed with the given statement. It means that all of the fifth semester students of the English Language Education Study Program agreed that
conditional sentences topic was important to learn. The second item, there were four different answers, but most of the students agreed with the given statement.
There were 59.65 of the students agreed that conditional sentences were a difficult topic. Besides, there were 14.04 of the students who strongly agreed
with the given statement. Then, most of the students agreed that conditional sentences were confusing. It can be known from the third group of bars. The
10 20
30 40
50 60
70
1 2
3 4
5 6
p e
r c
e n
ta g
e o
f st
u d
e n
ts r
e p
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item number
strongly disagree disagree
agree strongly agree
59 figure shows that 64.91 of the students agreed that conditional sentences were
confusing. On the fourth item, there were 59.65 of the students who agreed that conditional sentences were complicated. Although most of the students agreed
that conditional sentences were difficult, complicated and confusing, they were still interested in learning the. It can be seen from the fourth group of bars that
there were 57.89 of the students who agreed and 17.54 of the students who strongly agreed with the given statement. The last item on this first aspect showed
that 49.12 of the students were curious to learn conditional sentences topic more because of its many types.
Figure 4.2: The Percentage of the Students’ Responses on the Second Aspect
The second criterion was students’ ability. This criterion was aimed to know the students’ ability in learning conditional sentences. Figure 4.2 shows that
10 20
30 40
50 60
70
7 8
9 10
11 12
p er
ce n
tage of
s tu
d en
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sp on
se s
item number
strongly disagree disagree
agree strongly agree
60 most of the students admitted that they have already known conditional sentences
before they entered to the university. It can be seen from the figure that 49.12 of the students agreed with the given statement. The result on the next item shows
that most of the students faced difficulty in learning conditional sentences because of the differences pattern of conditional sentences in their second language and
first language. It can be seen from the Figure 4.2 that there were 43.86 of the students who agreed with the given statement. Although they faced difficulty,
there were 49.12 of the students who agreed that they could automatically determine the types and patterns of conditional sentences by looking the question.
In fact, they were still confused in determining the types and patterns. In order to understand conditional sentences well, 50.88 of the students strongly agreed that
they need to review it again at home. From Table 4.9 it also can be seen that there were 59.65 of the students who agreed that they could easily understand the
types of conditional sentences by only studying class. Yet, there were 45.61 of the students who agreed that they could easily understand conditional sentences
by learning them at home themselves. Besides, 45.61 of the students disagreed with that statement.
The third criterion was students’ motivation and effort and it was presented in Figure 4.3. Most of the students had high motivation in learning
conditional sentences because they liked the topic. There were 50.87 of the students who agreed that they had high motivation. After that, 57.89 of the
students were challenged to learn conditional sentences because they were difficult. There were 61.40 of the students who disagreed that they had no
61 motivation in learning conditional sentences because the confusing conditional
sentences. Beside their motivation above, there were 42.11 of the students who tried to ask to the lecturer when they faced difficulties in learning conditional
sentences. Yet, some of the students still had no effort to find other literatures to help them to understand conditional sentences. It can be seen from the Figure 4.3
that there were 42.11 of the students disagreed with the given statement. The next result shows that 63.16 of the students disagreed that they were diligent in
learning conditional sentences. That was the reason why the fifth semester students of the English Language Education Study Program faced the problem
such as easy to forget and difficult to understand the conditional sentences.
Figure 4.3: The Percentage of the Students’ Responses on the Third Aspect
10 20
30 40
50 60
70
13 14
15 16
17 18
p e
rc e
n ta
g e
o f
st t
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re sp
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item ntmber
strongly disagree disagree
agree strongly agree
