In addition to students’ compositions, there are also errors that they possibly make in their sentences or clauses. Therefore, the errors that students
possibly make are included in this research. The errors are involved because errors are included to the part of students’ mastery. Corder 1967 quoted in Walz 1982:
1 says that “learning a new language requires a trial and error approach, and errors are evidence that the learners are testing hypotheses of underlying rules,
categories, and systems.” However, in this study, the errors are not the focus, but are treated as other
research result. The scopes of the errors, which can be revealed, are used to find the important information of students’ weaknesses towards the basic clause
patterns and other grammatical aspects on them.
D. Research Objectives
Considering the problems stated in the problem formulation, the objectives of the research are:
1. To find out how the basic clause patterns are distributed as well as what the
common patterns which are used by students of SMKN 2 Depok in their compositions are.
2. To know how well students’ mastery over the basic clause patterns based on
their distributions.
E. Research Benefits
Since the distributions of the basic clauses, the common patterns which are used by students, and the errors that they make are able to show students’ mastery,
this research enables the teacher to know students strengths and weaknesses over English. For further advantages, the appropriate teaching techniques in English
learning especially in grammar learning can be found to help students develop their skill and the achievement of their study. As a result, they can enrich their
knowledge and use their skill to communicate in a better way. In relation to students’ composition, students are able to understand how
the elements of a sentence or a clause work together to make grammatically correct sentences to convey their ideas. Furthermore, they can make variation in
the sentence structure correctly and, after students master each clause pattern, they are able to make good compositions by using other basic clause patterns.
F. Definition of Terms
Below are the list of the terms used and the definitions of the terms: 1.
Basic Clause Pattern A basic clause pattern is a pattern of the elements of a clause or a sentence.
This basic clause pattern is reflected in every English sentence in a form of Subject-Verb relationship. Other elements can be added to make a sentence more
interesting, but they are not essential to its formation. In this study, the basic clause pattern means the pattern of a sentence or a clause of which the subject and
the verb become the main element and their relationship becomes the determining
factor to the agreement or concord. Meanwhile, other elements of the basic clause such as the object, adverb, and or complement are complementary to the pattern.
These complementary elements become the ones which can emerge the variations of pattern of the basic clause.
2. Written Composition
Heaton 1982: 127 defines “the writing of a composition is a task which involves the student in manipulating words in grammatically correct sentences
and in linking those sentences to form a piece of continuous writing which successfully communicates the writer’s thoughts and ideas on a certain topic.” In
this study, written compositions are defined as the result of the writer’s thoughts and ideas of a certain topic which are communicated through continuous and
grammatically linked correct sentences in compositions.
3. Mastery
Hagboldt 1935: 2 as cited by Suharyono 1997: 8, defines that “someone is said to have a mastery over a language if he or she has spontaneous
comprehension by ear, effortless and affluent reading, and habitual and skillful use of words, idioms, and sentences both oral and written.” In this study, the word
mastery is suited to the meaning of students’ comprehension and skill over English which is reflected through the basic clause patterns in their compositions.
4. Descriptive Text
Kammer and Diebold 1949: 119 say that “a description is a form of writing or talking whose purpose is the creation of pictures, sounds, smells, taste,
and touch sensations in the imagination of the reader or listener.” In this study, descriptive text is referred to a kind of text of which the aim is to describe a
particular persons, places, events, or things. The generic structures of this text involve, first, identification whose purpose is to identify phenomenon to be
described. The second one is the description. It aims to describe parts, qualities, and characteristics.
5. Eleventh Grade Students of SMK NEGERI 2 Depok
The eleventh grade students are the students who are studying in the second year in SMKN 2 Depok. There are nine classes of students in SMKN 2
Depok . The classes are as follows: Teknik Gambar Bangunan TGB, Teknik
Audio Video TAV, Teknik Elektronika Industri TEI, Teknik Komputer
Jaringan TKJ, Teknik Pemesinan TP, Teknik Mekanika Otomotif TMO,
Kimia Industri KI, Analisis Kimia AI, and Geologi Pertambangan GP.
Since those eleventh grade students are still continuing studying English as one of the school subjects, thus they still learn English grammar, sentence
patterns, and the writing of compositions. Therefore, it is suitable if the researcher manages to find out their mastery over English through the basic clause patterns
that they use in the compositions.
9
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
