18 rather than a whole day. This use also extends to other cases where the time
segment is a part of a day, which is actually mentioned, for example on the morning of 1
st
June. According to Murphy 2001: 240, preposition of time on is used for days and dates, as seen in sentences: I have promised my grandmother to
come to her house on Friday; On 12 March 1991, my father died in a car accident; I have many presents on Christmas Day.
c. Potential Problems in Mastering Prepositions at, in, and on
Certain English prepositions potentially cause problems for Indonesian students in their process of mastering the target language. It is predicted that the
prepositions which cause problems for Indonesian students, are at, in, on, between, and under Leech Svartvik, 1972: 84. Potential problems in learning
prepositions mentioned above might be caused by several factors. One of them is multi meaning attached to some prepositions of the target language when
translated into the learners’ first language. These factors will definitely cause difficulties for the learners in selecting certain prepositions for certain contexts
and conditions. Inappropriate selection of prepositions will produce errors in utterances. Prepositions at, in, and on which cause problems for Indonesian
students are discussed as follows.
1 at, in, and on as Prepositions of Place
According to Leech and Svartvik 1972: 84-85, preposition in has possibility to invite problem for Indonesian students due to the various meaning
attached to it. As a preposition of place, for example, it has meaning di and di
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19 dalam. Additionally, the problem might arise because of the overlap between At-
type and In-type prepositions. It is explained that a large town or city is generally treated as an area, as seen in phrase in New York. Whereas at New York would
only use in context of worldwide travel as in sentence We stopped to refuel at New York on our way to Tokyo. In is also used for describing parts of city such as
in Chelsea part of London. If the learners are not familiar with the use of in and at, they will obtain problems in applying those prepositions in communication.
Preposition on might also cause difficulties because it could also be used for place, which is seen as a line or a surface. In addition, this preposition could be
used for describing an object that is ‘attached to’ something.
2 at, in, and on as Prepositions of Time
Leech and Svartvik 1972: 76 state that some prepositions of time which may cause problem are at, on, and in. These prepositions are sometimes used
incorrectly by students who are in the process of mastering the target language. The difficulties arise due to the lack of insight in using those prepositions. In
general, on is used for days, at is used for points of time, and in is used for periods larger or shorter than day. However, there are some exceptions on the use of the
three prepositions mentioned previously. Preposition at could be used for periods identified vaguely, such as at that time, at breakfast time, at night and for other
short holiday periods such as at Easter and at Christmas. Preposition on is used before morning, afternoon, evening, and night when
those periods are identified by the day of which they are a part as in on Monday evening, on the following evening, but in the evening. Inevitably, if the learners do
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20 not really understand the use of these prepositions of time, they would certainly
make many errors in using such prepositions.
2. Indonesian Prepositions di, pada, dalam, and di atas
