Avoidance Sources of Errors

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4. Misleading Source of Language Learning

Another source of errors in constructing interrogative word questions based on the theory is misleading source of the language learning. It covers unclear teacher’s explanation, inappropriate or very few examples, and insufficient sources of materials. Unfortunately, since the researcher did not conduct any interview, therefore there were no follow up data to prove that this source of errors affected the error makings in this research. Besides, the researcher did not intend to analyze the content of the module and the workbook and also the teaching learning process. Thus, this source of errors was determined having lack influence to the errors made by students of PMat 2010.

5. Avoidance

The last source of errors in constructing English interrogative word questions based on the theory is avoidance. According to Touchie 1986, avoidance refers to condition when the language learners prefer to use simpler structures or even create new structures to avoid producing difficult structures. It was very surprising that students of PMat 2010 made such errors which were considered the result of avoidance. The example is “How much this bicycle” That interrogative word question shows that some samples of research preferred to use simpler structures to avoid producing difficult structures. In interrogative word question, “How much this bicycle” the error makers tended to omit the auxiliary “did”, the subject “you”, the verb “buy” and the question mark ?. The error makers preferred to use simpler structure which is 75 mostly use in informal transaction, for examples, “How much this book?” and “How much this food?” Those two informal interrogative word questions are used in the informal transaction to ask the price of such things. However, according to the patterns of formal interrogative word question, the question “How much this b icycle” cannot be considered a formal and correct interrogative word question. From the discussion presented in Chapter IV, it is clear that the two research questions have been answered. The answer to the first research question regarding the errors showed that there were 1120 errors found in the interrogative word questions constructed by the samples of research, which were students of PMat 2010. The errors had been classified based on Surface Strategy Taxonomy. The findings related to the answer of the first research question are shown in part A in which the discussion about the error classification is presented. Furthermore, the answer to the second research question related to the sources of errors showed that the errors in the interrogative word question constructions made by the samples of research were caused by four factors. The whole explanation of the sources of errors is presented in part B where the discussion about the sources of errors including the proof is provided. 76

CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

In this chapter, the researcher draws conclusions of the study based on the data gathered and data analysis. The conclusions cover the answers to two research questions that have been stated before dealing with errors in interrogative word question constructions. Besides, in this chapter the researcher also makes some suggestions for particular parties which probably have specific interest in and relation to the topic discussed in this study.

A. Conclusions

In order to answer the first research question about the errors made by students of PMat 2010 in interrogative word question constructions, the researcher then analyzed the data gathered. Based on the data analysis, there were found 1120 errors made by the samples of research. Those numbers of errors were classified into the 4 categories of errors based on Surface Strategy Taxonomy. To be specific, the results of the analysis showed that the most frequent errors belonged to misformation category. They were about 33.57, and then they were followed subsequently by misordering category with 21.95, omission category with 21.27, and addition category with 9.63. The rests of errors belonged to misspelling 5.10, partial mistranslation 5.53, total mistranslation 1.25, informal translation 1.07, incomplete answer 0.45, and no answer 0.18.