Background of the Research

E. Significance of the research

This research was conducted to analyze the grammatical error types produced by the students on preposition towards their language learning. The contributions of the study are conveyed to: 1. Students The findings of the present study may encourage the students to produce preposition correctly and enhance their English proficiency; they are also expected to be able to identify their error and to avoid the error or mistake in the future. 2. Teacher It is expected to be useful information for the teacher so that they will know how far the students comprehend the preposition and the errors made. It also enables the teacher to do some evaluation to improve their teaching techniques, and to develop teaching materials effectively. 3. Further Researcher It can be used as basic information for further studies preposition in English. 4. Researcher particularly and readers broadly who are concerned with this paper It is as one of the resources which can enhance their perception and knowledge in studying preposition. 5

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

A. The Gener al Concept of Er r or Analysis

In acquiring the foreign language, the learners may do some errors or mistakes as Dulay and Burt on Richards’ book, Error Analysis: Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition, stated, “You can’t learn without goofing”. 1 They view the error as a natural product of the process of second language learning. It means that the students as the learners may produce many forms which would not be produced by a native speaker of the standard form of the target language. Erdogan has also the same thought with Dulay and Burt about error. He said, “It is inevitable that learners makes mistake in the process of foreign language learning.” 2 And Erdogan explains in the 60’s, some linguists claimed errors were caused by the interference of mother tongue. It means the treatment of errors at the time, contrastive analysis in this case, only suspect that the persistence of mother tongue as the cause. As Erdogan continues, with the view of error analysis, it was not only the interference of mother tongue as the cause of errors, but also the learning strategies of the target language. Error analysis has proved what contrastive analysis did not predict by mentioning the target language may also be the cause of errors. Furthermore, Dulay, Burt, and Krashen stated, “Errors are flawed side of learner speech or writing. They are those parts of conversation or composition that deviate from some selected norm of mature of language performance”. 3 Still in the view of foreign language learning, linguist experts give various definitions of error analysis such as Brown defined, “Errors can be observed, analyzed, and classified to reveal something of the system operating within the 1 Jack C. Richards, Error Analysis: Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition, London: Longman,1974, p. 95. 2 Vacide Erdogan, Contribution of Error Analysis to Foreign Language Teaching, Mersin University Journal of the Faculty of Education , 12, 2005, pp. 261—270. 3 Heidi Dulay, et al.,Language Two, New York: Oxford University Press, 1982, p. 138. learner, led to a surge of study of learners’ error” 4 . In other words, the study of error is a part of investigation of the process of language learning. Corder also assumed that error analysis, branch of applied linguist activity, has two functions, theoretical and practical aspect. Theoretically, it is used to investigate the language learning process. However, practically, it is used to guide the remedial action. 5 Moreover, Richards stated, “the field of error analysis may be defined as dealing with the differences between the way people learning a language speak and the way adult native speakers of the language use the language”. 6 In other words, it is about the differences of how the native and non-native speaker use or deliver the messages in which its differences should be analyzed to overcome learners’ errors. From those opinions, the researcher concludes that error analysis is the deviation or unwanted form made by the learners because they do not understand the rules of the target language, and the error analysis is defined as the study of learners’ error. In addition, the researcher considers the errors as a language system reflecting the learners’ knowledge, and realizes that by learning the errors the learners will improve their own ability in acquiring the language, because the error actually is a part of learning and learners’ strategies used to learn the foreign language. In other words, it is a language learning process providing the learners a valuable insight in it.

1. The Definition of Er r or

In order to analyze learner’s language in a proper perspective, it is important to distinct between mistakes and errors. Errors and mistakes are the two synonyms, that a little bit have same meaning, but in learning language, these words have different in meaning. There are various definitions of errors and 4 Douglas Brown, Principles of Language Learning and Teaching, 5 th ed ., United States: San Francisco State University, 2007, p. 259. 5 S. P. Corder, Error Analysis and Interlanguage, Great Britain: Oxford University Press, 1981, p. 45. 6 Jack C. Richards, Error Analysis and Second Language Strategies, language Science, 17, 1971, p. 3.