GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT MADE BY EIGHT-GRADE STUDENTS OF SMP NEGERI 11 MALANG

i

GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT MADE BY EIGHT-GRADE STUDENTS OF SMP NEGERI 11 MALANG

THESIS

By:

WASIS WISNU PRATAMA 201110100311192

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION UNIVERSITY OF MUHAMMADIYAH MALANG

ii

GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT MADE BY EIGHT-GRADE STUDENTS OF SMP NEGERI 11 MALANG

THESIS

This thesis is submitted to meet one of the requirements to achieve Sarjana Degree in English Education

By:

WASIS WISNU PRATAMA 201110100311192

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION UNIVERSITY OF MUHAMMADIYAH MALANG

v

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In the name of Allah, the most gracious and the most merciful, all praises given to Allah SWT for the uncountable blessing given to me during my study in English Department of UMM and especially in completing this thesis. Shalawat is also sent to Muhammad SAW who had delivered the truth to human beings generally and specifically for Muslim.

First of all, I would like to present the greatest gratitude to both of my advisors, Dr, Sudiran, M.Hum. and Santi Prastiyowati, M.pd for their great contribution, meaningful guidance, correction, suggestion, and useful feedback that have inspired me in composing this thesis.

My greatest appreciation also goes to my parents Sidik Prawito and Sri Mulyani who always give me supports, love, and financial supports as always. Big thanks also goes to my younger brother Harjuna Kris Rinaldi who always gives me support and love.

I am also thankful to all my classmates of the English Departement 2011, especially for Febry, Udin, Ichal, Ikbal, Iymank, Ulum, and Karyok who always encourage me. For the last, I would like to say thanks to my Jenggo (AE 4714 LD), my sweet transportation.

Malang, November 12, 2015

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

APPROVAL ... i

LEGALIZATION ... ii

ORIGINALITY DECLARATION ... iii

MOTTO AND DEDICATION ... iv

ABSTRACT ... v

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS ... vii

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of Study ... 1

1.2 Statement of the Problem... 4

1.3 Purpose of the Study ... 4

1.4Scope and Limitation ... 5

1.5Significance of the Study ... 5

1.6 Definition of Key Terms ... 6

CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 2.1 Errors and Mistakes ... 7

2.1.1 Definition of Error ... 7

2.1.2 Definition of Mistake... 8

2.2Error Analysis ... 9

2.3Sources of Errors ... 10

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2.3.2 Intralingual Transfer ... 11

2.3.3 Context of Learning ... 12

2.3.4 Communication Strategies ... 12

2.4Types of Error ... 13

2.4.1 Omission ... 13

2.4.2 Addition ... 14

2.4.3 Misformation ... 15

2.4.4 Misordering ... 16

2.5Grammar ... 16

2.6 Definition of Writing ... 17

2.7 Process of Writing ... 18

2.4 Descriptive Text... 20

CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHOD 3.1 Research Design ... 22

3.2 Population and Sample ... 23

3.3 Research Instrument ... 23

3.4Data Collection ... 24

3.5 Data Analysis ... 24

CHAPTER IV: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Research Findings ... 26

4.1.1 Types of Errors ... 26

4.1.1.1 Omission ... 26

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4.1.1.3 Misformation ... 29

4.1.1.4 Misordering... 30

4.1.2 Frequency of Errors ... 31

4.2 Discussion ... 32

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS 5.1 Conclusion ... 35

5.2 Suggestions ... 35 REFERENCES

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DAFTAR LAMPIRAN

1. Appendix 1 (Surat Keterangan)

2. Appendix 2 (Surat Keterangan)

3. Appendix 3 (Surat Keterangan)

4. Appendix 4 (Surat Keterangan) Tabel of Errors

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REFERENCES

Arikunto, S. 2002. Prosedur Penelitian Suatu Pendekatan Praktek. Jakarta: Rineka Cipta.

Artono, W. et al. 2008. English in Focus. Jakarta: Pusat Perbukuan Departement Pendidikan Nasional.

Ary, D et al. 2010. Introduction to Research in Education (8th Edition). Belmont: Nelson Education Ltd.

Brown, H.D. 2000. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. New York: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc.

Brown, H.D. 2007. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. New York: Pearson Education, Inc.

Dulay, H. et al. 1982. Language Two.New York: Oxford University Press.

Ellis, R. 1994. The study of Second Language Acquisition. New York: Oxford University Press.

Erdogan, V.2005.Contribution of Error Analysis to Foreign Language

Teaching.(Online) http://turkofoni.org/files/contribution_of_error_

analysisto_foreign_language_teaching-vac_deerdo_an-mers_n_un_2005. pdf Retrieved on January 27, 2015.

Hancock, B. 1998. An Introduction to Qualitative Research. Notthingham: Trent Focus Group.

Harmenita et al. (2013) Teaching writing a descriptive text by using environmental

observation strategy. (Online)

http://ejournal.unp.ac.id/index.php/jelt/article/view/1167/988. Retrieved on Juli 23, 2015.

Harmer, J. 2001. The Practice of Language and Teaching. New York: Pearson Education Limited, Inc

Harmer, J. 2007. The Practice of Language and Teaching. New York: Pearson Education Limited, Inc.

Hasyim, S. 2002. Error Analysis in the Teaching of English.(Online) http://puslit.petra.ac.id.journals/letters. Retrieved on January 26, 2015. Heaton, J.B. 1988. Writing English Language Test. New York: Longman.

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Jayanti, R. 2013. Grammatical Errors In Composing Descriptive Texts Made By English Department Students Of English For Specific Purposes (Esp) Program Class A University Of Muhammadiyah Malng Academic Year

2012-2013. Universitas Muhammadiyah Malang.

Linse, C. 2005. Practical English Language Teaching: Young Learners. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Oshima, A. et al. 2007. Introduction to Academic Writing.New York: Pearson Education.

Putri, F. Y. 2013. Students’ Errors In Using Simple Present Tense In Writing

Descriptive Texts. Journal. University of Malang.

Rahmawati, R.Y. 2012. Error Analysis on the Use of Simple Present Tense in Paper Assigment of Writing Subject Made by The Fourth Semester Students of English Departement at ATAIN Salatiga in the Academic Year of 2011/ 2012.(Online)

http://eprints.stainsalatiga.ac.id/368/1/ERROR%20ANALYSIS%20-%20STAIN% 20SALATIGA.pdf.Retrieved on January 15, 2015 Wray, D. 1995. Developing English primary Skills. New York: Routledge.

1 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents some topics related to background of study, statement of problems, purpose of study, scope and limitation, significance of study and definition of key terms.

1.1Background of Study

The world always changes everyday. English has become famous among people from children to adult although English is just as a foreign language for Indonesian. If people do not want to be left behind from the changes, one of the ways is by mastering English.

Nowdays, Indonesian’s necessity in learning English has increased because

they want to follow the changes. They really want to know and learn about the

language. Indonesia’s government give a big intention in order to improve people’s

abilities in English. One of the ways is by teaching the language from the beginning level of education. English has been taught from elementary to university.

In teaching English, there are four skills that should be mastered by students such as reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Writing is considered as difficult skill to be learnt. Writing requires students to pay attention not only in generating and developing ideas into a good writing but also the language components; structure, vocabulary, and spelling. Heaton (1989: 135) explains that the writing skills are complex and sometimes difficult to teach, requiring mastery not only of grammatical and rhetorical devices but also of conceptual and judgement elements.

2

Without understanding grammar, students will never be able to convey their ideas in a good writing. Their writing will be disorganized and causes such problems, like grammatical errors in writing. According to Harmer (2001: 12), grammar is the description of the ways in which words can change their forms and can be combined into sentences in that language. It can be sure that grammar is the essential part as a writing guidance for students to compose their writing correctly and to convey the meaning properly in particular written form.

Curriculum in Indonesia requires students to be able to write texts such as descriptive text, narrative text, recount text, etc. Based on the curriculum 2013, descriptive text is taught in eight year or eighth grade of junior high school. The basic competence of the lesson is that students should be able to write short simple descriptive text either verbal or written about person, animal and thing, event by concerning on social function, text structure, and grammar contextually.

According to Artono et al (2008: 16), “A descriptive text is a text that describes the featuresof someone, something, or a certain place”. Descriptive text has generic structure that consists of introduction and description. Introduction is a part of the text which introduces particular person or thing or place. In description, the writer describes parts, qualities, characteristics of the object that he or she wants to describe.

Based on the researcher’s experience when he underwent a teaching

internship in junior high school, there were a number of students found some problems in writing descriptive text. They often got problems in generating their ideas and in applying grammar rules. It was very difficult for students to get ideas

3

in composing descriptive text. While, in term of grammar, the students could not apply the correct rules of grammar. It led students to commit errors in their writing. Based on the previous study, Putri (2013), found that there were some general errors that eight-grade of acceleration class students of SMPN 3 Malang faced in learning simple present tense in writing descriptive text such as omission errors, addition errors, misordering errors, misformation errors. The omission errors were found as the highest of occurrence, which was about 47,05%. They were omission of verb inflections (marker of –s/-es) and kind of error with omission of auxiliary verbs (be). The errors with the second highest frequency of occurrence in this study were errors of misformation. The percentage was about 45,88 %. Next, the researcher also found some addition errors with the percentage of 4,70%. The last was error of misordering which came up about 2,35 % of all errors.

Another researcher, Rahmawati (2012), found that there were some general errors that fourth semester students of English Departement at STAIN Salatiga faced in learning simple present tense such as omission errors, addition errors, misordering errors, misinformation errors. In omission errors, there were five errors that were found such as ommision of subject, omission of to be in the simple present, omission of s or es in the verb form, omission of preposition, and omission of s or es in the plural form. While in addition errors, there were four errors such as a addition of s or es in the singular form, addition of possessive marker s, addition of to be in the simple present tense, and addition of preposition. Based on her research, it was found that omission became the errors that often made by the students in Writing I class.

4

Facing the condition above, writing in English is not easy for students. They may commit errors in their writing. According to Hasyim (2002: 42), errors in foreign language teaching especially in English are the cases which are difficult enough to avoid. If this phenomenon happens continuously, the students will fail in learning the language. By understanding their errors, teacher will know the problems that they face and try to analyze their weaknesses.

Based on the background of study abovementioned, the researcher is interested in analysing the grammatical errors in writing descriptive text. This research is conducted in the eight-grade students of SMP Negeri 11 Malang. 1.2Statement Problems

Based on the background of the study, the researcher would like to formulate the problems as follows:

1. What types of grammatical errors in writing descriptive text made by eighth-grade students of SMP Negeri 11 Malang?

2. How is the frequency of grammatical errors in writing descriptive text made by eighth-grade students of SMP Negeri 11 Malang?

1.3 Purpose of Study

Based on the statement problems, the purposes of study are stated as follows:

1. To find out the types of grammatical errors in writing descriptive text made by eighth-grade students of SMP Negeri 11 Malang.

2. To find out the frequency ofgrammatical errors in writing descriptive text made by eighth-grade students of SMP Negeri 11 Malang.

5 1.4 Scope and Limitation

In order to give a clear description of this study, it is necessary to make the limitation. This study is concerned on analysing grammatical errors in writing descriptive text made by eighth-grade students of SMP Negeri 11 Malang. The grammatical rules in writing descriptive textare analyzed by using Surface Taxonomy analysis. Those errors are taken from students’ writing.

1.5 Significance of Study

It is hoped that this study will give some benefits as follows: 1. Theoritical Benefit

Theoretically,the result of this study will develop teachers’

understanding about the theory of error analysis especially in teaching writing texts.

2. Practical Benefit

Practically, the result of this study may become a very important reference for students and teachers as follows:

a. Teachers

It can be used as references to improve the teaching learning process for

the teachers by analyzing students’ errors in writing.

b. Students

It can be used as references to improve students’ understanding in writing subject especially in writing descriptive text.

6

1. Error is a deviation of grammatical rules in writing which happens because

of the result from the learner’s lack of knowledge of correct rules in writing. In this study, error refers to a deviation of grammatical rules which happens when the eighth-grade students of SMP Negeri 11 Malang write descriptive text.

2. Writing is process of generating, arranging and developing ideas into written form. In this study, writing refers to descriptive text made by eighth-grade students of SMP Negeri 11 Malang.

3. Descriptive text is a kind of English text which has a function to describe something in detail such as place, person, animal, and etc.

1 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents some topics related to background of study, statement of problems, purpose of study, scope and limitation, significance of study and definition of key terms.

1.1Background of Study

The world always changes everyday. English has become famous among people from children to adult although English is just as a foreign language for Indonesian. If people do not want to be left behind from the changes, one of the ways is by mastering English.

Nowdays, Indonesian’s necessity in learning English has increased because they want to follow the changes. They really want to know and learn about the language. Indonesia’s government give a big intention in order to improve people’s abilities in English. One of the ways is by teaching the language from the beginning level of education. English has been taught from elementary to university.

In teaching English, there are four skills that should be mastered by students such as reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Writing is considered as difficult skill to be learnt. Writing requires students to pay attention not only in generating and developing ideas into a good writing but also the language components; structure, vocabulary, and spelling. Heaton (1989: 135) explains that the writing skills are complex and sometimes difficult to teach, requiring mastery not only of grammatical and rhetorical devices but also of conceptual and judgement elements.

2

Without understanding grammar, students will never be able to convey their ideas in a good writing. Their writing will be disorganized and causes such problems, like grammatical errors in writing. According to Harmer (2001: 12), grammar is the description of the ways in which words can change their forms and can be combined into sentences in that language. It can be sure that grammar is the essential part as a writing guidance for students to compose their writing correctly and to convey the meaning properly in particular written form.

Curriculum in Indonesia requires students to be able to write texts such as descriptive text, narrative text, recount text, etc. Based on the curriculum 2013, descriptive text is taught in eight year or eighth grade of junior high school. The basic competence of the lesson is that students should be able to write short simple descriptive text either verbal or written about person, animal and thing, event by concerning on social function, text structure, and grammar contextually.

According to Artono et al (2008: 16), “A descriptive text is a text that describes the featuresof someone, something, or a certain place”. Descriptive text has generic structure that consists of introduction and description. Introduction is a part of the text which introduces particular person or thing or place. In description, the writer describes parts, qualities, characteristics of the object that he or she wants to describe.

Based on the researcher’s experience when he underwent a teaching internship in junior high school, there were a number of students found some problems in writing descriptive text. They often got problems in generating their ideas and in applying grammar rules. It was very difficult for students to get ideas

3

in composing descriptive text. While, in term of grammar, the students could not apply the correct rules of grammar. It led students to commit errors in their writing. Based on the previous study, Putri (2013), found that there were some general errors that eight-grade of acceleration class students of SMPN 3 Malang faced in learning simple present tense in writing descriptive text such as omission errors, addition errors, misordering errors, misformation errors. The omission errors were found as the highest of occurrence, which was about 47,05%. They were omission of verb inflections (marker of –s/-es) and kind of error with omission of auxiliary verbs (be). The errors with the second highest frequency of occurrence in this study were errors of misformation. The percentage was about 45,88 %. Next, the researcher also found some addition errors with the percentage of 4,70%. The last was error of misordering which came up about 2,35 % of all errors.

Another researcher, Rahmawati (2012), found that there were some general errors that fourth semester students of English Departement at STAIN Salatiga faced in learning simple present tense such as omission errors, addition errors, misordering errors, misinformation errors. In omission errors, there were five errors that were found such as ommision of subject, omission of to be in the simple present, omission of s or es in the verb form, omission of preposition, and omission of s or es in the plural form. While in addition errors, there were four errors such as a addition of s or es in the singular form, addition of possessive marker s, addition of to be in the simple present tense, and addition of preposition. Based on her research, it was found that omission became the errors that often made by the students in Writing I class.

4

Facing the condition above, writing in English is not easy for students. They may commit errors in their writing. According to Hasyim (2002: 42), errors in foreign language teaching especially in English are the cases which are difficult enough to avoid. If this phenomenon happens continuously, the students will fail in learning the language. By understanding their errors, teacher will know the problems that they face and try to analyze their weaknesses.

Based on the background of study abovementioned, the researcher is interested in analysing the grammatical errors in writing descriptive text. This research is conducted in the eight-grade students of SMP Negeri 11 Malang. 1.2Statement Problems

Based on the background of the study, the researcher would like to formulate the problems as follows:

1. What types of grammatical errors in writing descriptive text made by eighth-grade students of SMP Negeri 11 Malang?

2. How is the frequency of grammatical errors in writing descriptive text made by eighth-grade students of SMP Negeri 11 Malang?

1.3 Purpose of Study

Based on the statement problems, the purposes of study are stated as follows:

1. To find out the types of grammatical errors in writing descriptive text made by eighth-grade students of SMP Negeri 11 Malang.

2. To find out the frequency ofgrammatical errors in writing descriptive text made by eighth-grade students of SMP Negeri 11 Malang.

5 1.4 Scope and Limitation

In order to give a clear description of this study, it is necessary to make the limitation. This study is concerned on analysing grammatical errors in writing descriptive text made by eighth-grade students of SMP Negeri 11 Malang. The grammatical rules in writing descriptive textare analyzed by using Surface Taxonomy analysis. Those errors are taken from students’ writing.

1.5 Significance of Study

It is hoped that this study will give some benefits as follows: 1. Theoritical Benefit

Theoretically,the result of this study will develop teachers’ understanding about the theory of error analysis especially in teaching writing texts.

2. Practical Benefit

Practically, the result of this study may become a very important reference for students and teachers as follows:

a. Teachers

It can be used as references to improve the teaching learning process for the teachers by analyzing students’ errors in writing.

b. Students

It can be used as references to improve students’ understanding in writing subject especially in writing descriptive text.

6

1. Error is a deviation of grammatical rules in writing which happens because of the result from the learner’s lack of knowledge of correct rules in writing. In this study, error refers to a deviation of grammatical rules which happens when the eighth-grade students of SMP Negeri 11 Malang write descriptive text.

2. Writing is process of generating, arranging and developing ideas into written form. In this study, writing refers to descriptive text made by eighth-grade students of SMP Negeri 11 Malang.

3. Descriptive text is a kind of English text which has a function to describe something in detail such as place, person, animal, and etc.