77 “Iya kadang-kadang suka... ya dibanding-bandingin sama yang kalimat-
kalimat misalnya Present Tense sama present perfect ya pokoknya gitu lah, suka kadang ketuker-tuker gitu, bikin bingung sendiri, soalnya
dasarnya sendiri juga kurang ngeh kan...,tapi ya coba untuk mbeda- bedain tiap kalimatnya.” R 11, interview result
I sometimes like to make a comparison between the sentence using simple Present Tense and the sentence using present perfect tense. It sometimes
makes me so confused that I misuse the use of the tense. It can happen because the basic knowledge about it is not well understood well.
Nevertheless, I try to differentiate every sentence.
It was obvious that almost all respondents did this analogy, the learners rationalizing a deviant usage from his previous experience of English. Then, they
applied the analogy to the context that it should not be applied when they wrote an English sentence. Consequently, making subject-verb agreement errors was
unvoidable.
c. Incomplete Application of Rules
It would be significant for readers if they could follow the discussion in this part. Therefore, the researcher, first, tried to present the brief explanation of
what incomplete application of rules is. Richards 1971b mentions that incomplete application of rules involves a failure to fully develop a structure as
cited in Ellis, 1994, p. 59. In addition, incomplete application of rules may also be caused by a failure to learn more complex types of structure. According to
Richards 1974, it is because the learner thinks that he can achieve effective communication by using relatively simple rules as cited in Ellis, 1985, p. 53.
After analyzing the information obtained from the interview, the researcher found that before facing their Progress Test II, most of the respondents
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78 decided not either to reread or to restudy the basic theories of writing, involving
the theory of subject verb agreement, that might be needed to face their Progress Test II. It was because they thought that they had already understood and
mastered the theory of subject-verb agreement, which they believed as basic and simple concept, as what some interviewees said.
“Bener, soalnya, kadang kita menganggap, ah udah, udah, kemaren pasti masih ingetlah, dan mungkin ah bikin yang gampang-gampang aja, gak
usah susah-susah...” R 17, interview result That is right. We sometimes surely think that we have already understood
the previous materials and we probably just decide to write a simple sentence not the complicated one.
“Iya sih bener, aku memang gak belajar, gak belajar lagi, habisnya bingung juga tu mau belajar yang mana, tu kan udah diawal banget ya,
udah basic banget ya, dan sekarang materinya udah complicated, jadinya yang materi-materi basic gitu udah nggak ada, jadi mengulanginya masih
bingung...” R 12, interview result The fact that I do not restudy the theory about subject-verb agreement is
true since I am confused about which one I should study. It had been learnt in the very beginning time. Besides, it is very basic theory and now the
material has been complicated. Therefore, now, it is not learnt anymore, so I come into a confusion when I have to review it.
In addition, there were a lot of essential rules of subject-verb agreement which should be mastered by respondents because the rules were not actually as
simple as they thought. They did still need to restudy the rules of subject-verb agreement thoroughly before they wrote an English sentence and faced their
Progress Test II. It aimed to minimize them to make subject-verb agreement
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79 errors when they wrote an English sentence. It was in line with was conveyed by
an interviewee.
“Iya seperti itu Mas, terkadang ya itu tadi misalnya kita udah, eh besok taunya materinya tentang ini, ternyata ah ini sudah menguasai ah udah ah
ga usah belajar toh sudah menguasai, e tau tau besok keluarnya materinya sama cuma penerapannya dalam kalimat itu berbeda. Nah itu woh...kok
bisa jadi kaya gini? waduh kemaren kenapa ga belajar...padahal ada di terapkan. Seperti itu.” R 5, interview result
It is in line with what you have questioned. We sometimes confidentially think that we have already understood the material which will be used in
the next meeting or in the Progress Test, so I do not need to restudy it. Unpredictably, the material is actually the same as what I had predicted
before. However, in fact, the material has different implementation when it is applied in a sentence. How does it come? I should have studied it
yesterday if I knew that it is required to be implemented now. From the information obtained from the interview, it was obvious that
most of the respondents thought that they confidently would be able to write an English sentence whose subject-verb agreement was correct without either reread
or restudied the rules of subject-verb agreement which possibly were required to apply when they wrote that sentence. Furthermore, after conducting the interview,
the researcher could find the fact that actually most of the respondents did need to apply the theory of subject-verb agreement, which they did not restudy and which
they considered basic and simple concept, when they wrote their English sentences. Consequently, they could make the subject-verb agreement errors when
writing the sentences.
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80
d. False Concepts Hypothesized
