national curriculum in Indonesia. So, it is a must for the students to be able to write a descriptive text.
In the process of writing English paragraph, students often do some errors especially with grammar, some students think that it is boring subject and when
they learn English they try to avoid the grammar because it is such confusing rules and hard so it‟s inflected into applying grammar rules learning language. In the
other words, writing English language is completely different from writing Indonesian In Indonesian, there are no tenses; a verb appears in the same form in
all the times. In fact, there were many students who still made many errors in writing English paragraph and found difficulties in applying tenses, structure,
syntax, semantic, lexical meaning, and phonology into sentences. Here are some examples of error in using tenses that often occurs in students‟ writing, “My uncle
drink coffee last night.” Actually, this incorrect sentence was to be understood
well, but it was exactly wrong in the form of English grammar. This sentence talked about the past event, so it should use simple past tense. The simple past
indicates that an activity or situation began and ended at a particular time in the past. The verb of this sentence should use past form verb 2. The correct sentence
is “My uncle drank coffee last night.” This error occured because the students
translated Indonesian into English directly without paying attention on using Standard English. They made this error also because they did not understand the
grammar well and mother tongue interference was still interfered their minds. Therefore, error analysis has an important role to help the teacher to reveal
what kind of error that mostly the students do in writing and the causes of the error they make. By knowing the errors, the teacher could improve their method in
teaching and would avoid the errors by giving the extensive materials about the errors in writing. The students also would have better understanding of what they
were learning and would be able to write correctly and awarded with their previous error.
T hose were the reasons why the writer was interested in analyzing students‟
descriptive writing by the ti tle “An Analysis on Students‟ Grammatical Errors in
Descriptive Texts Writing ” A Descriptive Study in the Second Year Students of
MTs Negeri Satu Atap Balaraja.
B. Limitation of the Problem
The writer focuses on the Second Year Students of MTs Negeri Satu Atap- Balaraja. To make this research deeper and easier, the problem is limited on
analyzing the students ‟ error on descriptive paragraph writing by using Betty S.
Azar ‟s errors clasification; singular-plural, word form, word choice, verb tense,
addition, omission, word order, incomplete sentence, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, article, meaning not clear, and run on sentence.
5
C. Formulation of the problem
Based on the background presented above, the writer plans to do an error analysis on students‟ descriptive writing at the Second Year Students of MTs
Negeri Satu Atap-Balaraja. The formulation of the problem in this study as follows:
1.
What are the most often errors made by students in writing descriptive text?
2. What are the causes of errors made by the students in writing descriptive
text?
D. Objective of the Study
The objective of study in this “skripsi” is to find out the grammatical errors in
their descriptive writing text which are commonly made by the second year students‟ of MTs Negeri Satu Atap Balaraja and to find out the causes of errors
that they made in descriptive text.
E. Method of the Research
The method of this research is Descriptive Analysis Research. The research strategy used here is a case study. The process of this research was only four. First
of all, the writer observed the process of teaching and learning in the classroom.
5
Betty S. Azar, Understanding and Using English Grammar, 2nd Edition, New Jersey: Prentice Hall Regents, 1989, pp. A29
—A30.
Then, she collected t he students‟ test that they did in the classroom and analyzed
them through classifying their error on using the classification of errors by Azar. The last, she interpreted the data about what kind of error that mostly students
made and the reason why they made those errors.
F. Significance of the Study
Significance of this study is expected to be useful for the student, especially for the Second Year Students of MTs Negeri Satu Atap-Balaraja. This result is
also expected to be useful for the teacher of English Language so they know their students‟ ability and proficiency in descriptive texts writing.
In addition, hopefully, the result of the study would anticipate the readers of making errors in their writing, can motivate them to make a good writing, and also
will give some inputs for the writer, she can identify which part of the language structure are found difficult in writing, so that she could improve her methods and
techniques in teaching English.
7
CHAPTER II THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK
In this chapter, the writer will explains some theories that still relate to the topic. First, the writer explains the definition of error analysis that consists of the
definition of error analysis, goal of error analysis, types of error, sources of error, and differences between error and mistake. Second, she explains definition of
writing, goal of writing, kinds of writing, and forms of writing.
A. Error Analysis
It is impossible that learners never make any errors in language learning process. Students can make errors when they write or speak and it is natural. The
errors that they make are even potentially important for the understanding of language and it is as a part of learning process. Actually what is error? What kind
of error that they made? Why they made errors?
1. Definition of Error Analysis
Learning a target language English is different from learning one‟s mother
tongue. There are some opinions about error analysis. Brown in his book said that “Errors can be observed, analyzed, and classified to reveal something of the
system operating wi thin the learner, led to a surge of study of learners‟ errors,
called error analysis”.
1
It seems this concept is the same as the one proposed by Crystal Error Analysis is a technique for identifying, classifying, and
systematically interpreting the unacceptable forms produced by someone learning a foreign language, using any of the principles and procedures provided by
linguistics From the two definitions above it clarifies that error analysis is an activity to
identify, classify, and interpreted or describe the errors made by someone in speaking or in writing and it is carried out to obtain information on common
difficulties faced by someone in speaking or in writing English sentences.
1
H. Douglas Brown, Principles of Language Learning and Teaching, New Jersey: Prentice Hall Inc., 1987, p. 259.
2. Goal of Error Analysis
The most typical use of the error analysis is the teachers. It is designing pedagogical material and strategies. Error analysis is as a tool for investigating
how learners acquire a second language and to provide the feedback value for the teacher.
2
Dullay stated that studying students‟ errors serves two major purposes:
3
a. It provides data from which inferences about the nature of the language
learning process can be made. b.
It indicates to teachers and curriculum developers which part of the target language students have most difficulty producing correctly and which
error types detract most from learner ‟s ability to communicate effectively.
3. Types of Error
Each student has different types in making errors when they write
paragraphs. According to Azar in his book, types of errors fall into fourteen
categories; singular-plural, word form, word choice, verb tense, addition, omission, word order, incomplete sentence, spelling, punctuation, capitalization,
article, meaning not clear, and run-on sentence.
4
Table 2.1 Guide for Correcting Errors
No. Types of Error
Example of Error Error Correction
1. Singular-Plural
He have been here for six month.
He has been here for six months.
2. Word Form
I saw a beauty picture. I saw a beautiful
picture. 3.
Word Choice She got on the taxi.
She got into the taxi. 4.
Verb Tense He is here since June.
He has been here since June.
5. Addition
I want go to the zoo. I want to go to the zoo.
6. Omission
She entered to the university.
She entered the university.
7. Word Order
I saw five times that I saw that movie five
2
Rod Ellis, The Study of Second Language Acquisition, Second Edition, New York: Oxford University Press, 2008, p. 45.
3
Heidi Dulay, Marina Burt, and Stephen Krashen, Language Two, New York: Oxford University Press Press, 1982, p. 138.
4
Betty S. Azar, Understanding and Using English Grammar, 2nd Edition, New Jersey: Prentice Hall Regents, 1989, pp. A29
—A30.
