ERROR ANALYSIS IN THE USE OF POSSESSIVE PRONOUN AND POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVE IN DESCRIPTIVE TEXT.

ERROR ANALYSIS IN THE USE OF POSSESSIVE PRONOUN
AND POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVE IN DESCRIPTIVE TEXT

A THESIS

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the
Degree of Sarjana Pendidikan

By :

EVA LESTARI
Registration Number : 2113321011

ENGLISH EDUCATION AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN
2015

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

All praise to Allah SWT who always gives her blessing, power, strength

and love in her entire life and in terms of her study, especially in completing this
thesis entitled “ The Effect of Engage, Study, Activate Technique on Students’
Achievement in Writing Narrative Text” as one of the requirements for the degree
of Sarjana Pendidikan (S1) at English Department, Faculty of Language and Arts,
State University of Medan.
During the process of conducting the research, the researcher had been
assisted and supported by many people. This thesis could have not been
accomplished without guidance, suggestion, and comment from them, for which
the researcher would like to express her sincere appreciation which directed to :
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Prof. Dr. Syawal Gultom., the Rector of State University of Medan.
Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum., the Dean of Languages and Arts.
Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd., the Head of English and Literature
Department who took the role of being his Reviewer and Examiner.
Dra. Meisuri, M.A., the Secretary of English Department.
Nora Ronita Dewi, S.Pd, S.S, M. Hum., the Head of English Education
Program.
Maya Oktora, S.Pd., M.Hum, his Academic Advisor, who has supported
his throughout the academic years.
Dr. Anni Holila Pulungan, M.Hum., her Thesis Consultant.
Neni Afrida Sari Harahap, S.Pd., M.Hum., her Thesis Consultant.
Dra. Masitowarni Siregar, M.Ed., Drs. Johan Sinulingga, M.Pd., her
Thesis Reviewers.
Euis Sri Wahyuningsih, M.Pd., the Academic Staff and Administrative

Staff.
Sir Pantes., the Staff.
Syurya Darma, M.Pd., the Headmaster of SMPN 3 Air Putih.
Lisken Sianipar, S.Pd.,the English Teacher of SMPN 3 Air Putih.
Her beloved parents., Mulkanuddin and Asiah.
Her beloved brother and sisters., Ilham Fauzi Napitupulu, Maya Novita
Sari, Juliatika Am.Keb, Sari Dayanti and Fatimah Jahroh.
Her beloved friends, the students of English Department, Rina, Widya,
Tari, Vania, Hosin, Yuni, Endang, Yeni, Desi and also the other students
in Extension A,B,C 2011 for always be there when she needed their

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support and motivation; her friends in PPLT SMP Negeri 3 Air Putih for
many experiencies and togetherness.
Her big family in the Islamic Association of University Student (HMI
Komisariat FBS UNIMED) especially the management 2014-2015 period

for the togetherness.

Overall, the writer hopes she can give a bit contribution to language
education, especially major of English.

Medan, Agustus 2015
The Writer

Eva Lestari
Reg. No. 2113321011

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ABSTRACT
Lestari, Eva. Registration Number: 2113321011. Error Analysis in the Use of
Possessive Pronoun and Possessive Adjective in Descriptive Text. A Thesis.
English Educational Program, State University of Medan, 2015
This study focused on error analysis in the use possessive pronoun and possessive
adjective in descriptive text. The method of the study was descriptive research.
The population of this study was grade students of SMP Negeri 3 Air Putih Batu

Bara to 90 students and 30 students were chosen randomly as the sample. The
instruments used for collecting data were completion test which consist of 40
questions. The data were analyzed by identifying the types of errors, causes of
errors and implication of error. The result of the analysis shows that: the errors
analysis in the use of possessive pronoun and possessive adjective in descriptive
text made by the eighth grade students of SMP Negeri 3 Air Putih were 734
(100%) occurrences of all errors. The types of error were error of omission
(87/11,9%), error of addition (41 cases/5,6%), error of substitution
(604cases/81,11%) and error of mis-ordering (2 cases/0,3%). The most dominant
type of error by the students was error of substitution (604 cases/82,2%). The
causes possessive pronoun and possessive adjective error found in descriptive text
by the eleventh grade students at SMP Negeri 3 Air Putih were interlingual
transfer caused of the interference of first language and intralingual transfer
caused by false concept hypnotized.

Keywords: Error Analysis, Possessive Pronoun, Possessive Adjective

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Pages
ABSTRACT .................................................................................

i

ACKNOWLEDGMENT ............................................................

ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS............................................................

iv

LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................

vi

LIST OF APPENDICES ............................................................

vii

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION...............................................

1

A.
B.
C.
D.
E.

The Background of the Study ...........................................
The Problems of the Study ................................................
The Objectives of the Study ..............................................
The Scope of the Study .....................................................
The Significance of the Study ...........................................

1
4
5

5
5

CHAPTER II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE ......

7

A. Theoretical Framework .....................................................
1. Error ..............................................................................
a. Types of Error .........................................................
b. The Causes of Errors .............................................
2. Error Analysis ...............................................................
3. Part of Speech ...............................................................
4. Pronoun.........................................................................
5. Personal Pronoun ..........................................................
6. Possessive Pronoun .......................................................
a. Form of Possessive Pronoun .................................
b. Function of Possessive Pronoun ...........................
c. The Position of Possessive Pronoun ......................
7.

Possessive Adjective ..................................................
a. Forms of Possessive Adjective .............................
b. Function of Possessive Adjective ..........................
c. The Position of Possessive Adjective ....................
8. The Differences of Possessive Pronoun and Possessive
Adjective.......................................................................
9. Genre-Based Writing ....................................................
a. Descriptive Text .....................................................
B. The Relevant Studies .........................................................
C. Conceptual Framework .....................................................

iv

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7
8
10
12
13
16

17
19
20
20
21
21
21
22
22
23
24
26
29
30

CHAPTER III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ...................
A.
B.
C.
D.

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Research Design ................................................................
Population and Sample......................................................
Instrument for Collecting Data .........................................
Technique for Analyzing the Data ....................................

31
32
32
33

CHAPTER IV. THE DATA AND DATA ANALYSIS ............

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A. The Data ............................................................................
B. Data Analysis ....................................................................
C. Research Finding...............................................................

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35
50

CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS.........

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A. Conclusion ........................................................................
B. Suggestions .......................................................................

54
55

REFERENCES ............................................................................

57

APPENDIX ..................................................................................

59

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LIST OF TABLES
Pages
Table 2.1. Example of five forms personal pronoun.....................

19

Table 2.2. Forms of possessive pronoun .......................................

20

Table 2.3. Forms of possessive adjective ......................................

21

Table 2.4. The Differences of Possessive Pronoun and Possessive
Adjective.......................................................................

23

Table 3.1. Table Sample................................................................

32

Table 4.1. Percentages of Errors Types ........................................

44

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LIST OF APPENDICES
Pages
APPENDIX A. Students’ Score…….…………………………………

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APPENDIX B. Types of Students’ Error ……………………………

59

APPENDIX C. The calculation of Omission Error………………….

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APPENDIX D. The calculation of Addition Error…………………..

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APPENDIX E. The calculation of Substitution Error………………

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APPENDIX F. The calculation of Mis-ordering Error………………

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APPENDIX G. Test …………………………………………………
APPENDIX H. Key words ……………………………………… …...

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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

A. The Background of the Study
In learning English, there are four skills that should be mastered. They are
listening, speaking, reading, and writing. All of these language skills are very
important to everyone especially for students to become fluent in English.
Zawahreh (2012) explained that in order to master the English language, learners
have to be exposed to all of the four basic skills.
In learning English, most students find difficulties especially in
grammatical structures because English and Indonesian are different in
grammatical structures. It makes the students often make errors especially in
grammatical structures. Grammar as one aspect of the language is necessary to be
studied intensively in order to avoid errors. Parts of speech are one of the
grammatical components. By mastering the parts of speech the students can learn
English well. Feder (2002) states Parts of speech are the basic types of the words
that English has. The parts of speech are; noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, adverb,
preposition, conjunction, and interjection.
Pronouns as one of speech have the function to replace a noun or noun
phrase. Pronoun makes up a small class of words of very high frequency. Lester
(2008:75) states pronoun is a word that takes the place of a common noun or a
proper noun. Pronouns have seven different groups. Lester (2008:75)

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states these seven groups of pronoun are: personal pronoun, relative pronoun,
demonstrative pronoun, reflexive pronoun, reciprocal pronoun, indefinite pronoun
and interrogative pronoun. Personal pronoun as part of pronoun has five forms,
namely: subject, object, possessive adjective, possessive pronoun and reflexive
pronoun.
In learning genre, we always use pronoun especially possessive pronoun
and possessive adjective. Hartono (2005) stated genre is used to refer particular
text-types, not to traditional varieties of literature. It is a type or kind of text,
defined in terms of its social purposes also the level of context dealing with social
purpose. There are thirteen types. They are narrative, recount, descriptive, report,
explanation, analytical exposition, hortatory exposition, procedure, discussion,
review, anecdote, spoof, and news item.
Descriptive text is one of the text genres that the students learn.
Description is writing about person, animal, thing or place appear. By reading
descriptive text the reader can hear, smell, touch, taste, and see what the writer
describe. In descriptive text, we must use of structure, spelling, diction, and
punctuation which are very important to make the meaning clear. Descriptive text
must use pronoun especially Possessive pronoun and possessive adjective.
In fact, the students are not easily used possessive pronoun and possessive
adjective to make each of genre . Grammatical structures of English and Bahasa
Indonesia is certainly different on from Bahasa Indonesia as a native language

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which becomes their mother tongue. Furthermore, they are frequently influenced
by Bahasa Indonesia structure when they learn English.
So, the students have many problems or difficulties in mastering English.
They have problems in structure. They are often confused to use possessive
pronoun and possessive adjective in descriptive text. The students often make
error and mistake when they use possessive pronoun and possessive adjective in
descriptive text.
Meanwhile, Brown (2000) states other perspective about error. He said
“Human learning is fundamentally a process that involves the making of
mistakes”. He believes error and mistake are something normal in language
learning process. Error should not be viewed as something undesirable or
something to be avoided. By this error, a language researcher and a language
teacher will get a feedback.
Based on the writer’s experience in teaching practice SMP Negeri 3 Air
Putih Batu Bara, many students have problems in understanding and using
possessive pronoun and possessive adjective in descriptive text. This was proved
when the teacher gave exercises to the students about the use possessive pronoun
and possessive adjective in descriptive text. She found mind of their answers were
wrong. There are many errors in using possessive pronoun and possessive
adjective made by the grade eighth of SMP Negeri 3 Air Putih Batu Bara.
From the result of analysis, it is found that the score of error in using
possessive pronoun (40%), it is found that 31,03% students get error in using
possessive adjective and the researcher found problems such as:

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“Bahasa Indonesia as a national language and English as foreign language
are different in structure, morphology and phonology. Students are often
confused to use possessive pronoun and possessive adjective in descriptive
text. Furthermore, they are frequently influenced by Bahasa Indonesia
structure when they learn English. So that, they are difficulties to write
descriptive text that use possessive pronoun and possessive adjective.
They make error of using possessive pronoun and possessive adjective in
descriptive text”.
Considering the phenomenon above, writer decides to conduct a study on
students’ error in using possessive pronoun and possessive adjective in descriptive
text. This study is expected to be able to identify the types of errors in using
possessive pronoun and possessive adjective in descriptive text and to know the
causes of the errors made by most of the students.
B. The Problems of the Study
Based on the background of the study, the problem of this study is stated
as follows:
1. What are the types of errors made by the students in using possessive
pronoun and possessive adjective in descriptive text?
2. What is the dominant type of error made by the students in using
possessive pronoun and possessive adjective in descriptive text?
3. What are the implications of errors made by the students in using
possessive pronoun and possessive adjective in descriptive text?

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C. The Objectives of the Study
Based on the research problem mentioned above, this study is aimed at
finding:
1. The types of error are made by the students in using possessive
pronoun and possessive adjective in descriptive text.
2. The dominant type of error made by the students in using possessive
pronoun and possessive adjective in descriptive text.
3. The implications of the error made by the students in using possessive
pronoun and possessive adjective in descriptive text.

D. The Scope of the Study
Pronouns are classified into several kinds, namely; personal pronoun,
relative pronoun, demonstrative pronoun, reflexive pronoun, reciprocal pronoun,
indefinite pronoun and interrogative pronoun.
Personal pronoun as part of pronoun has five forms, namely: subject,
object, possessive adjective, possessive pronoun and reflexive pronoun. Among
the various kinds of personal pronoun, the researcher focuses only on the use
possessive pronoun and possessive adjective in descriptive text.
E. The Significance of the Study
The result of this study is expected to be useful include:

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1. Theoretically
a. The result of this study can provide knowledge of researchers and readers
in analyzing learning materials.
b. The result of this study can give contribution of science in education.
c. It can also be used as a reference for other researchers who are interested
in doing a further linguistic related to possessive pronoun and possessive
adjective.
2. Practically
a. The English teacher keeps trying some methods or strategies to make
possessive pronoun and possessive adjective could be understood by the
students.
b. The students can learn from these errors in order to perform their English
correctly.
c. To help students to enrich their knowledge in structure especially
possessive pronoun and possessive adjective.

CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS

This chapter presents the conclusion of the result of the study that has been
discussed in previous chapters and suggestion for English teachers and students and
another researcher.
A. Conclusions
After presenting the data analysis in the previous chapter, the writer
wants to presents the conclusion. The conclusion consists of several points that are
related to the statements of problem, there are:
1. The types of errors in using possessive pronoun and possessive adjective
in descriptive text by eleventh grade students at SMP Negeri 3 Air Putih
were errors of omission, addition, substitution and mis-ordering.
2. The most dominant type of error made by the students in using possessive
pronoun and possessive adjective in descriptive text was substitution.
3. The causes possessive pronoun and possessive adjective error find in
descriptive text by the eleventh grade students at SMP Negeri 3 Air Putih
were interlingual transfer. Interlingual transfer which is caused of the
interference of first language and intralingual transfer caused by false
concept hypnotized.

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B. Suggestions
The following suggestions are offered to solve the problems of learning which
causes common errors, namely:
1. For the teacher
a. The teachers as the source of guidance can plan her or his remedial
teaching programs much better I the future especially on the teaching
possessive pronoun and possessive adjective in descriptive text.
b. The teacher should use an interesting method that can help students to
memorize easier and remember different between possessive pronoun
and possessive adjective. The teacher can use new method such as
talking stick or group discussion.
c. The teacher should give more exercises continuously to their students.
2. For students
a. The students, especially Indonesian student should know the use of
possessive pronoun and possessive adjective is very important in
descriptive text.
b. The students have memorizing the possessive pronoun and possessive
adjective form.
c. The students are suggested to pay more attention to their study of
English in order to improve their mastery of possessive pronoun and
possessive adjective in descriptive text.

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3. For other Researcher
Other researchers to add their information related to this study about error
analysis in the use of possessive pronoun and possessive adjective in
descriptive text.

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