Background of Study INTRODUCTION

D. The Objective and Significance of Study

As it has been stated in the statement of the problem, the general objective of this study is to find out the evidences of the students’ error in learning present perfect tense and present perfect continuous tense at SMP Muhammadiyah 17 Ciputat. The objectives of the study are: 1. To find out the most frequent error made by students in using present perfect tense and present perfect continous tense. 2. To find out the reasons why the students committed the errors in using present perfect tense and present perfect continous tense. The results of this study are expected to be useful for English teachers, English learners, and further researchers. For English teachers, they are expected to know how far the students comprehend about present perfect and present perfect continuous tense and recognize not only the most type of error but also the causes of errors in using present perfect and present perfect continuous tense made by the students. For English learners, this research may help them to use present perfect and present perfect continuous tense in right pattern. This research may also be a reference for the future study related to present perfect and present perfect continuous tense. 5

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

A. Error Analysis

The study of learners’ errors and analysis are called error analysis. According to Brown , “The fact that learners do make errors and that these errors can be observed, analyzed, and classified to reveal something of the system operating within the learner, led to a surge of study of learners’ errors, called error analysis.” 1 Making errors is unavoidable for a learner because error is natural part of language learning process. Learner can’t learn a language without first systematically committing errors, and a study of learners ’ errors is part of the systematic study of the learners ’ language which can be used as an observation of the process of second language acquisition. 2 One study which analyses errors is called error analysis. According to Ellis and Barkhuizen, error analysis consists of a set of procedures for identifying, describing, and explaining learner errors. 3 Based on definitions above, the researcher assumes that error analysis is a way of looking at the errors committed by the learner of the target language. Error analysis tries to identify, to describe, and to explain the error. Moreover, analyzing errors helps the teachers to minimize the learners ’ errors in their teaching learning process. . When the students learn English, they can make a lot of errors. It seems impossible if the students have never made some errors in their language learning process, because do some errors is natural. It can be concluded that learners learning 1 H. Douglas Brown, Principles of Language Learning and Teaching, New York: Pearson Education Company, 2000, p. 218. 2 S. P. Corder, Error Analysis and interlanguage, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981, p. 1 3 Rod Ellis, Gary Barkhuizen, Analysing learner language, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005, p. 51 is basically a process that involves the making of errors. Fortunately, the learner could learn from making those errors. Based on the statements above it shows that error analysis is a way to analyze errors that students make when they are in a process of the target language learning, as information for teachers, in which they can determine what next step in preventing their students from the same errors and improving their teaching effectiveness in language class.

1. Definition of Error

Learning a language is fundamentally a process that involves making mistakes or errors. The mistakes include vocabulary items, grammatical pattern, and sound patterns as well. Errors in a foreign language teaching especially in English are the cases which are difficult to avoid. Jeremy Harmer stated, “Errors are parts of the students’ inter-lingual that is the version of the language which a student has at any one stage of development”. 4 The fact that the students make errors and these errors can be observed and classified led to a surge of the study of students’ errors can be analyzed. 5 Based on the explanation above, the writer assumes that the student may make an error when they learnt o ther language. They can’t avoid making an error. Since they think that there are many differences grammatical form and they have a lack competence in this foreign language. Hubbard states “Errors caused by lack of knowledge about the target language English or by incorrect hypotheses about it; and mistakes caused by temporary lapses of memory, confusion, slips of the tongue and so on”. 6 James differentiates between errors and mistakes. He defines errors as a systematic mistakes due to lack of language competence while mistakes refer to 4 Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of Language Teaching, London: Longman Inc, 2001, p. 100. 5 Brown, op.cit, p. 259. 6 Peter Hubbard, A Training Course for TEFL, New York: Oxford University Press, 1983,p.134.